In the MANY HiE stories, the mane 6 and other characters' reactions to humans can vary greatly for one reason or another. But in all seriousness, how do you think the canon characters would really react to finding a human in Equestria? Bonus points if you think it would be different from the ways they most often react in stories.

This is all assuming that:

1: the human isn't a brony, or if he/she is, he/she is pretending they know nothing about Equestria, and everypony would buy the act.

2: the human isn't acting like he/she might be a possible danger to the ponies (I.e they're not yelling threats and don't have a weapon) but he/she may be yelling at the ponies to stay away out of panic, if he/she is freaking-out over being to Equestria. Especially if they're not a brony.

3: You can choose if EQG is canon or not, or just pick a pre-EQG time period.

Since not every fan looks at the characters the exact same way, it doesn't matter what I or someone else think they would react. This is how you think they would react.

Considering the kinds of monsters that exist in Equestria and what they’ve faced; probably a look of indifference. The things that make us scary are the things we create more so than the natural defenses on our body.

How the Mane 6 and other characters would react really depends on the setup, the introduction, and the humans themselves. Also, knowing who/what the ponies are can change things drastically. I'd give a lengthy explanation, but if you'd prefer, (Shameless self-plug)

Crossing the Trixie Bridge

CTTB provides 7 characters, 5 guys and 2 girls, with all different traits and personalities, meeting up with the main cast.

Chapter 1. Intro to the humans and their experience arriving in Equestria.
Chapter 2. Setups up the timeline for when the story takes place in the series (Season 6, No Second Prances. The day after.) And how the humans were brought in.
Chapter 3. First real introductions.
Chapters 4, 5, and 6. These all help establish who all understands what about either side and coming to terms that they're at least stuck for a while and the ponies have no idea how to handle the lives the humans have been survived.

Lots of jokes, a little drama, and playing with a lot of concepts... Personally, I think I did a more unique job with the introduction and how they chose to handle themselves, on both sides.

Also, keep in mind, the my approach to this story is so closely held to my view of what's canon, that concepts and content that isn't clearly expressed or understood to be known, will not be known by the pony characters (Curse words, sex, blood/gore, etc.).

7178614

(Curse words, sex, blood/gore, etc.).

Your characters don't even know what sex and blood is? So your version of the characters are much more naive to that kind of thing than they are in most stories, or something else is wrong with them I take it?

7178336
Well, for the most part? It depends on which part of the timeline they meet.

If before EqG? Indifference at worst, curiosity once the human shows sapience and they realize that they don't know what the naked primate actually is.
After EqG? It would jump straight up to curiosity as to how the heck did the human end up in their world without turning into a poneh or bypassing the mirror. They would offer transit if the human doesn't adapt to their world back through the mirror. Results may vary afterward.

So... curiosity and interest in what appears to be a new species? *Shrugs*

One of my favourite stories ever is Misunderstandings by The Rogue Wolf, in which the ponies and the human are terrified of each other and are unable to communicate. The human *does* have a weapon, and the ponies fear him; the human goes through some horrible experiences at the hooves of ponykind, which make him mistrust all ponies. The whole thing is just a masterpiece of what I'd always thought a real HiE situation might be like for everyone and everypony involved and I can't recommend it highly enough.

7178823

That's one of the most recommended stories I know about. EQG hurts (but maybe not "ruin") the possibility of a language barrier happening (Why would the humans in the EQG world be able to talk with the humanized pony characters since language isn't something you just master on the spot?) but it's still a fascinating thing to think about if it really would happen like that.

I've even thought about trying to write a HiE story with that language barrier between the human(s) and ponies, but haven't given more thought about it. Partly because I'm just not sure what to do with it, other than being unable to communicate being a big part of the story.

7178854

Why would the humans in the EQG world be able to talk with the humanized pony characters since language isn't something you just master on the spot?

... A pony turns into a bipedal human upon crossing a portal, but magically knowing the language is where you cross the line?

Partly because I'm just not sure what to do with it, other than being unable to communicate being a big part of the story.

Make that the conflict which drives the story? You got some preexisting condition, how do you tell ponies? You saw a pony in danger, ran to get help, and can't find your way back. If you could describe the place they'd find it, but how do you do so? You're at the beach with a bunch of ponies, you see the waters pull back and realize it's a tsunami. Make them understand that without thinking that your charades is you getting excited about big waves. And so on.

7178865

Make that the conflict which drives the story?

That much I know, but it's more like how to keep myself from getting stuck? I would be all right for a few chapters. but as for now, there's too good a chance I'd write myself into a corner if I try to write one now. I could counter that by just having it be a short story, but that feels oddly tougher for some reason. It's something I'll feel more comfortable handing with more writing experience.

Why would the humans in the EQG world be able to talk with the humanized pony characters since language isn't something you just master on the spot?

Oh man, I phrased that wrong bad. It was more meant to be something like this.

The humans in the EQG world are able to talk with the humanized pony characters, but what's there to keep us from being able to talk to them?

And for the record, I'm sure there are ways to explain how it might be possible for EQG humans and Equestrians to have a language they share but is different from our language, with magic somehow being the reason being the best way to explain(?) it. Save for the fact that it's a cartoon and all that.

7178870

That much I know, but it's more like how to keep myself from getting stuck? I would be all right for a while. but as for now, there's too good a chance I'd write myself into a corner if I try to write one now.

That's pretty much what outlines are there for. You don't need detailed ones if you're not that kind of writer, but you gotta have a sense of where you're heading. "Okay, first I need to explain how the character gets in Equestria. Right, next I'll need to portray how communication is completely fucked up. Maybe I'll make even charades be hard because of different social context. Now, I need to get to this main conflict, and then reach this ending, so in order to do that I'll have to..." and so on. In my opinion, an outline, the shape of the story, should be worked in your head for weeks or months. Works the kinks out, then get down and type it, then rework it, and only after a lot of that do actual writing.

It also works to help you weed out ideas you want to write and ideas you don't. If you get bored or don't want to write the story after a few weeks of mostly thinking about it and outlining it in your head, it was probably an idea you wouldn't have finished anyway.

And for the record, I'm sure there are ways to explain how it might be possible for EQG humans and Equestrians to have a language they share, but is different from our language.

Well, first of all you have magic, so it is very possible they don't share a language. A human getting to Equestria, even from the EQG universe through means other than the mirror might find himself unable to ask even for a piece of gum.

Other solutions might be: The EQG universe is actually made up by the same magic that created the mirror (a funhouse mirror so to speak); They do both speak our language... but it's Cantonese and not English; The bigbeard pony wizard guy (can't remember the name right now for some reason) wanted to explore the EQG but couldn't be arsed to learn the language so he went back in time, taught his language to the first 10 humans, and then went back. Etc, etc

I'm not much into EQG but I always thought it would be cool to show the contradiction versus a human arriving through the mirror and one who doesn't, and how that might change things and their perspective of the pony world accordingly.

7178878

For my longer stories, what you said is more or less what I already do. I've haven't given the HiE story with the language barrier too much thought, but what I have thought about just feels like a mess of a story that don't feel "right". As of now, it looks to be one of my story ideas that stays just that: an idea, but things could change.

7178685
I wouldn't go so far as to say there is something wrong with them. It's more that they've lived their whole life in a world that has sheltered them from the things that would not be allowed in the show itself. So, yes they are naive, but largely the whole world is. It's not very much unlike what is seen in the movie : Pleasantville.

The human characters arrive there and everything and every one of the characters appear to exist exactly as how they were seen in the show. With the only real difference being that they are flesh and blood creatures and not moving illustrations. The whole idea that the pony characters seem to be ignorant of so many harsh things like the stories the human characters have about losing so many friends and family members, or the fact that their bodies can be so easily injured compared to how durable a pony's body is, becomes a very big concern and causes a lot of confusion for the Equestrians. The vast differences between the two groups influence how both sides treat and react to each other. Humans do their best to "play nice" and get along but have to censor themselves and avoid certain topics altogether. Even the ponies have to do the same to avoid saying something that will potentially upset any of the humans about their past or current circumstances.

Things only get more complicated with they start to get more comfortable around each other and start asking questions about each side does or doesn't wear clothes. Or when some of the ponies start to develop crushes on their human counterparts and don't understand why a human would be opposed to dating them when interspecies relationships shouldn't be a problem. But, then at the first hint of anything becoming sexual, the pony characters realize that they only thought they knew what it was, but it's as if they somehow forgot.

The more they interact, the more complicated things seem to get for both sides. However, each side also begins to realize that there are things they have started to want from each other that they don't understand or don't understand why they even want them. Things like companionship, support, friendship, love, a purpose in life, self-worth, a sense of belonging, or even the chance to finally be a better person.

I'm not sure what all you're looking for, but I don't know how to write a simple story... It's kind of a problem.

I'm pretty sure Maud mentions tectonic plates in one episode, so... yeah, there can be earthquakes. Of course, whether Equestria or the EQG town is near a tectonic border is another matter...

Anyway, I would think they'd react... well, I'd say they'd react better the farther we go into the show's continuity. When it comes to cases like Zecora, the problem wasn't that she was not a pony; but that she wore that hooded cape and would randomly... stomp the ground, was it? They mistook it with a hostile action, which wasn't, so that was the fuel of their fear and distrust. So, as long the human shows the face and isn't doing actions that could be misinterpreted as hostile (being able to see the face would do wonders here to avoid that)... they'd try to handle the situation as best they can.

Admittedly, I don't really read much stories with the kind of situations being called out here, so... can't really bring up much on that front.

7178336
(1) There is a concept in language learning called the "false cognate" or "false friend," which is when a word in one language has a cognate in your own language but the meaning is different, as in "petit" meaning "little" instead of "petty" (the English cognate).

The same can very much apply between cultures.

What we're watching, if Equestria were real, is a translation of Equestrian language and culture into English and the modern West, and one bowdlerized for underaged girls at that. The episodes very obviously compress space and time for reasons of dramatic unity and runtimes. We don't really know what an Equestrian thinks a "Princess," or the "Guard," or "magic" are, though we have hints in the show that these are not exactly what we would think of by these terms.

Even someone quite familiar with the show version of Equestria would be dealing with an alien culture -- an alien culture created and practiced by nonhumans, at that -- and they might well be blindsided.

Just on this site I've seen versions of Equestria that are cruel or kind in ways alien to our own civilization; and I think that Equestria might well be both, in different ways. Consider the fate of the Terrible Trio at the end of The End of the End -- to be petrified, alive and conscious, for an unknown but probably long duration. Now consider the degrees to which Princess Luna, Discord and Starlight Glimmer were ultimately forgiven. Why draconian punishment in one set of cases; extreme mercy in the other? We can guess, but it's never explicitly discussed.

How does courtship work? Is it casual sex with many from an early age, with ultimate marriage to a close friend, as several versions of Equestria (notably "The Pony Planet" series) imply? Is it a rather restrained Victorian-Edwardian-Interwar Era affair, ideally serious and leading to marriage, as my stories would have it? Or is it something far stranger? We don't really know, and one might get some very strange reactions if one pursued it on the wrong model to the wrong mare.

What of the economy? Is it mostly capitalist, mostly socialist, or something very different of which Humans have never conceived and probably couldn't carry out? The show seems to depict a mixed economy, with freer enterprise and a stronger voluntary social safety net than is common in the modern West, possibly with some sort of subtle gift- or favor-exchange as an unwritten but very important component of the overall system. Personal honor seems to be vital, which is why the Flim-Flam Brothers often get into trouble.

Politics? The (ruling) Princesses seem to be autocrats, but ethical ones who themselves submit to the laws they have decreed and only change them when absolutely necessary. There is a whole bunch of advisory or deliberative or representative bodies, to which the Princesses pay attention but do not seem to be bound to obey. There is great theoretical unity, but we've seen Equestria, under stress, start to fragment into the separate Three Kinds (and in the manner predicted in Fallout: Equestria!).

Law? The Equestrians seem to have a lot of regulations, and the Princesses can apparently on the spot by their own authority sentence or pardon. Twilight Sparkle spends a lot of the early seasons freaking out that Princess Celestia will inflict strange and whimsical punishments upon her. Is she being paranoid? Or does she have some rational cause for fear?

We don't know, but we might be well-advised to know before we beard an Alicorn in her den. Let alone throne-room.

(2) Equestria is very obviously used to the existence of other sapient races, and treats members of them as "people" rather than "beasts." Unlike a visitor to our world, a visitor to Equestria would not have to first persuade the Equestrians that our strange forms did not mean that we were wild monsters or chattel property.

Having said that ...

A. If the Equestrians are unfamiliar with sapient apes in general, it might be important to behave calmly and reasonably on first contact, to emphasize that we were sapient beings best dealt with in a civilized fashion. Whether or not we were put in a zoo -- or prison -- as opposed to enjoying the hospitality of the Princesses might depend on our initial actions.

B. We know nothing about the degree to which an Equestrian would understand our languages. The show seems to imply either that even most non-Equestrian characters speak Equestrian, or that translation spells are available. It may be significant that we have seen language barriers (remember when they had to translate dviocuments from Old Ponish?) and that whatever translation spells they had (which we've never actually seen) apparently don't work on writings (no mind to contact?).

I find it very hard to believe that what the Equestrians are speaking is actually English, or indeed any other language of our world. Among other things, the Ponies would have alien vocal tracts.

(3) I doubt that the Equestria Girls world is our world. The characters have hair and skin colorations which do not appear to run in families (hence they can't be Homo sapiens sapiens), and dress in styles which do not closely approximate those of any cultures from our Earth. Thus even at a glance it doesn't look like our world.

We have less clues about culture than in Friendship Is Magic (because, ironically, despite being ostensibly aimed at an older demographic than FIM, EqG actually takes a less mature approach to both storytelling and worldbuilding), but the few we have argue for signifcant distances. There seems to be very little serious crime or social tension, and either the age of majority is a lot lower than in the modern West, or minors are mostly Free Range Children.

Seriously, look at any of the plots where the characters leave school even temporarily. Now remember that almost all the characters are 18 or under, with most probably 15-17. Now look at what they're doing on their own.

And what they're not doing. 15-18 year olds in the EqG-verse are obviously far more responsible and mature than high school kids, or for that matter, most college kids, from our world.

These aren't our subspecies, maybe not our species, and they are most definitely not from our culture.

7178977

But, what if they have studied martial arts? Because, if there was a human who is very adroit in a martial art he or she has personally studied. He or she can provoke some troubles to the ponies.

In this hypothetical situation, that won't matter: the human's not going to act aggressively because condition #2 prevents this. At worst, he/she might yell threats.

Now, if a pony tries to go on the attack for some reason, he/she may try to defend themselves and things could get out of control, but that's not the point of this post though. It's only about how the ponies would initially react, but doesn't take into account anything that happens after that. That would be something for another post.

7178985

So, as long the human shows the face and isn't doing actions that could be misinterpreted as hostile (being able to see the face would do wonders here to avoid that)... they'd try to handle the situation as best they can.

That's what I think would most likely happen, especially if it's after they met Zecora. But a number of stories just prefer to act that the ponies, even the mane 6, didn't learn their lesson in that episode, usually for drama and conflict.

7178477

... and note that Equestrians are perfectly familiar with firearms. They have cannons; what they don't seem to have is personal firearms, and that's probably because these would be of limited utility against Ponies on the battlefield.

Consider each of the Three Kinds' advantages. A Unicorn could shield, a Pegasus dodge, and an Earth Pony easily survive a single hit from a single-shot muzzle-loading weapon.

7178685

Hmm ... don't Ponies reproduce sexually, and don't they suffer injuries from time to time? Even if Equestrian culture is more ethical and less violent than our own, you'd think they'd be aware of the concepts.

7179025

I think that. The comment you replied to was responding to a comment of a user that wrote a story where the ponies apparently don't.

7179027

Yes. I probably should have linked it directly to the first comment.

7178614

Hmm ... don't Ponies reproduce sexually, and don't they suffer injuries from time to time? Even if Equestrian culture is more ethical and less violent than our own, you'd think they'd be aware of the concepts.

7179030
Out of canon material, it had been stated that they reproduce "They old fashion way," but the show itself never even comes close to referencing it. And how could they? It's a kid's show. For my story, that mentality, or blissful ignorance, is a part of their life. They should know it and act as if they do until they have to explain it. For them, it's like having a memory of a memory. The remember remembering it but can't remember what the memory was. Almost like they were made to forget.

But as for the injuries they suffer. Never has a drop of blood been dropped. Even with broken bones, like RD's broken wing, that should have taken a minimum of 6 weeks just to be usable. Her recovery time was much less than that. Then also take into consideration all the high impact crashes and blunt force strikes they've taken. Even if in the version of their world in my story has them flesh and blood, they're still all just as durable and resilient... At least until after the humans arrive and everyone is confused about how to treat even a simple bloody nose on a pony, given how there's no recollection of one ever happening. They don't even have training in it. Yet... They still know what it is?

The concept isn't supposed to make sense at face value other than, "Well, yeah. It's a cartoon." But even when you get into it and start to question "Why don't they?" They start to ask the same questions. And spoiler, yes, there is a reason. They're just going to be too distracted for a while to figure it out.

Given the sapient chimeric beings that Equestria has. They probably wouldn't be too hateful or distrusting. Humans have a similar profile to minotaurs, with the only difference being our apeoid physiology.

Just don't act dumb, don't act hateful and you'll be good. Even if there is a language barrier, a language is very easily recognized. Maybe try mathematics, or the pythagorean theorem.

It's difficult to say since the way ponies react in the show changes to fit whatever the plot demands. They freaked out about Zecora, yet didn't bat an eye at Iron Will.

7178982

And there are no earthquakes in Equestria or the EQG world, and that means no tsunamis so... everything will be okay.

A) You don't know that, and I'm pretty sure the word earthquake is said in the show, so they do know that this happens.
B) The sea pulling back in a dramatic degree is a sign of a tsunami coming. There actually was a news story where a 12 year old girl noticed this happening and knew what it meant, and thanks to her a ton of people managed to evacuate in time.

7178977

But, what if they have studied martial arts? Because, if there was a human who is very adroit in a martial art he or she has personally studied. He or she can provoke some troubles to the ponies.

No. Just... No.

I don't care how good humans are with martial arts, there's a not insignificant number of pony characters who could put them in the ground before they could blink. Also, human martial arts generally revolve around bipedal beings, and ponies are quadrupeds. Hypothetically, also, a human wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell against an alicorn of Celestia's stature; unless you think a human with anything below superhuman strength can physically outperform such an equinoid with Earth Pony strength in a straight fight, unarmed, or hell, even typical strength befitting of one of them that's 600+ lbs at least. An Earth Pony like Applejack could break every bone in their body, a Pegasus like Rainbow Dash could simply use her blistering flight speed and knock them on their ass, painfully, and a Unicorn like Rarity can inflict crippling wounds with a skillfully-levitated needle (her job entails being rather... precise in general), or she could blast them, or levitate them so they can't do anything to physically strike her, and it's easier to list the things say, Twilight couldn't do, or Starlight.

Magic/telekinetic flexibility > martial arts. Super strength > martial arts. Flight and agility/lightning strikes on demand, given a cloud > human martial arts.

Alicorns >>> human martial arts.

Humans aren't that great in the physical department, no technology, unarmed. Spike, even as the baby dragon he was for most of the show, is vastly more terrifying compared to any human that ever lived in the physical department, between tough dragon scales, sharp claws that cut through stone, very dangerous bites (chomps through gems, easy), and breathing fire.

Am I saying that it's impossible for a human to defeat an average pony? No. But it's beyond ridiculous to act like ponies would be helpless against some unarmed Bruce Lee wannabe, even if the situation at hand involves average ponies. Even if the human could take a couple of them down, they're beyond done if the ponies gang up on them, especially when spears or clubs enter the equation, with their assorted reach advantages.

They'd just land themselves in jail if they thought they were hot shit just because they had some knowledge of martial arts, or something, optimistically. They wouldn't last very long if they just jumped straight to fighting like that.

7179023

For what it's worth, Rainbow Dash did say the word "bullet" once in "May The Best Pet Win," slip-up in writing or not.

7179087

Fun fact (not saying you're entirely wrong, mind you): Zecora was shown pawing at the ground in her debut episode, which real zebras do in an effort to find water, but ponies/horses tend to do that as a sign of aggression (it was shown in the first two-parter, that being a sign of hostility, when Twilight faced off against Nightmare Moon).

7179384

Also, Equestria is a nation.

I'm sure there are plenty of Ponies an aggressive and skilled Human could beat the crap out of, because most Ponies are civilians who aren't even psychologically-oriented toward anything more serious than the occasional scuffle. But there are Royal Guards, skilled Unicorn mages and Pegasus flyers, and tough Earth Pony brawlers.

Then there are the Mane Six and other Ponies like them (Daring Do, Shining Armor, etc.) -- who are basically super-heroes. And there's no way that a normal human stands much of a chance against Rainbow Dash's speed, Rarity's precise telekinesis, or Applejack's sheer strength, to take some obvious cases.

An exceptional human -- perhaps.

But, Equestria being a nation, we should also remember that they have an army. One exceptional human would have their hands busy just trying to hide from them!

7179420

(bit of a tangent until the line, on... questionable decisions)

To clarify a little on what I'm talking/thinking about here, if you thought it was strange that I brought up an alicorn and their physical stature ala Celestia, how much they weigh, minimum, it's because I've seen a story where the human in question subdued Spike and the Mane Six... physically, little to no weapon use, without even taking a scratch, one blow each, and Twilight was too weak to get back up, after being kicked in the chest once.

Here's some of the egregious examples from the story (not naming names here, no OC name mentions):

Spike wasn't able to finish his sentence when the invader elbow striked him in the face. And Spike was sent crashing onto the floor roughly with a bruised face, and one of his teeth fell out as well from the metal pad.

(because it's definitely that easy to deal with a dragon physically superior in every way, right?

When Rainbow Dash closed the distance between herself and the invader, she swung her right hoof back and attempted to punch it in the face. The invader responded by grabbing her hoof and throwing her upwards and down onto the floor roughly making her grunt in pain.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie were infuriated when they saw the invader injuring their friend. They then charged directly towards the invader letting out some battlecries.

[REDACTED] then turned around and saw a white unicorn and pink earth pony charging towards them in an incredible speed. The white pony was the first to reach the invader. She jumped up and attempted to kick it in the face. When [REDACTED] noticed the attack, he responded with a punch to the female unicorn's chest, and the force of his punch made the female unicorn grunt and crashing into her pink friend knocking them out cold in the process.

(Pinkie does have abnormal strength and hax abilities, while we're at it, Rarity and RD aside and assorted advantages they should efficiently use aside. Pinkie's both annoying and dangerous to fight, if you get her serious.)

[one anticlimactic Applejack and Fluttershy curb-stomp via back kicks later...]

Once [REDACTED] closed his distance between himself and Princess Twilight Sparkle, he jumped up in the air and delivered an excruciating back kick to her chest. And the force of his kick sent Twilight sliding on the floor roughly with a bruised chest. [REDACTED] smiled in satisfaction after that attack. Then, he slowly approached the fragile Princess.

Twilight tried to get up again and fight but then somepony placed their hoof on her chest. Twilight looked up and saw the invader looking down at her and pinning her onto the floor. Twilight tried to force herself to get up again but it was unavailing.

(and yes, the "hoof" error was in the original text)

In context, Twilight appeared exactly as she did during the final episode (explicitly happening after it), same for the other characters, so that made some aspects of it even worse, not that it'd have been much better if it'd happened during S1 instead, in my opinion. The human had no mention of being resistant to magic, or something that could make it plausible. Maybe if it was the Master Chief from Halo that was doing it, it could be kinda believable, but... that wasn't the case. They're just some normal human military officer (with a rank of Lieutenant General, Chinese) who for some reason is doing some physical takedowns themselves, preternaturally good in hand-to-hand against ponies, for some reason, when they have an army with them.

Since all of the above also happened in front of Twilight, she could've blasted them, trapped him in a shield, telekinetically held him in place, or any number of things, while all of that happened... to say nothing of how her powerful magic... wasn't ever disabled, yet she somehow lost? Realistically, she'd have probably incapacitated them the nanosecond they attacked Spike.

But anyway, that tangent on something I found to be on the infantilizing side aside, Equestria managed to stand for a thousand years under Celestia's solo rule, and the reason we don't really have much insight in regards to military matters in Equestria is because they're not often the point of an episode; the Mane Six are, generally speaking, the heroes (and supervillains are quite... formidable per average, and said heroes beat them). The closest we've gotten in regards to "military" being a plot point I think was that alternate S5 Sombra timeline, IIRC?

...overall I'm inclined to say you're right. Not all ponies are trained fighters, lot of them probably would get their asses kicked by a human that knows what they're doing, but it wouldn't necessarily be a given, especially when numbers are factored, but Equestria is a nation, by all appearances the most powerful one in their world, and they have a lot of resources and reserves, and the dragons don't rule the world, nor does anyone else, so they must've had something going for them, right, between Celestia, its magical population, and such? It wouldn't be a breeze being on the run from them, at all.

Edited to add: What's also probably worth noting about ponies is that it's more than likely that there's a lot of magical artifacts in the world that we haven't heard of, if Trixie could buy the Alicorn Amulet the way she did. Who knows if some dragon or whoever/whatever has a lot of powerful stuff hoarded in their collection, ready to be used if obtained? Either way, we don't have a reason to assume that there's a shortage of artifacts with some semblance of power.

7179023
Yeah........no, they wouldn't. Theyd die.

7179553
Ponies have all these great abilities but regularly get defeated.....

7179553

Has that writer ever seen the show?

Spike is armored. His teeth can bite through hard metal and crunch gemstones. If you hit him in the mouth, you'd be quite likely to damage whatever you hit him with.

He's small, so you could knock him back. But doing any serious or incapacitating damage to him would require some sort of special heavy man-portable weapon -- something like "Old Bessie," the Night Watch special-purposes anti-monster heavy crossbow that I have the Sweet Apple Acres Apples in possession of in my universe, and which Big Mac wields in my AU story Before Nightfall: Barely Rescued in hunt of a large brown bear. (It would have done the job, too!).

Intercepting an attacking Rainbow Dash in flight would be essentially impossible to foolish for a Human. If you remember, in "Dragonshy" when she kicks the Dragon (Red Haze in my Dragonshyness)) she knocks the Dragon's head back. This is a full adult Dragon, essentially a kaiju. If you reached out and stopped her with your hand, your hand would be shattered, maybe pulped.

Spike's main limit is his self-restraint. Harm Twilight Sparkle, or Rarity, or really any of the Mane SIx in front of him, and he just might decide to show you what dragonfire can do.

"Some battlecries" ...?!!!

This is a stylistic rather than tactical criticism here, but Rarity and Pinkie Pie have the most distinctive speaking voices of any of the Mane Six. Rarity would say something snobbish, along the lines of "Unhand her, you ruffian!" while Pinkie Pie would say something wacky. Just what sort of wacky thing would depend on her tactic.

Rarity has explicit martial arts training coupled with powerful precision telekinesis. Pinkie Pie has the ability to teleport through some sort of other dimension, where she stores all sorts of items she finds amusingly useful, and otherwise is toward the upper end of strength and speed for a normal Earth Pony mare. Applejack is superequinely strong and extremely athletic for an Earth Pony. Fluttershy has freaking mind control powers; all she needs to do is meet one's gaze and speak and she can freeze any but the most pyschically-powerful enemy in place. As I said, Pony superheroes.

On Twilight's "fragility" ...

This is a lady who fought Nightmare Moon, Discord, swarms of Changelings, and King Sombra before she became an Alicorn. She was a canon mistress of teleportation and shield spells before her Ascension as well. Once she became an Alicorn, she became extremely powerful and difficult to seriously harm. As an Alicorn, she also gained Earth Pony strength and Pegasus speed. In addition to this, Twilight is close to fearless in combat, and has been shown to be a coldly-calculating fighter who applies her super-intelligence to find the weakness in any foe.

And yes. Twilight Sparkle has offensive magic as well. She doesn't like to maim or kill, but given that one spell we know she possesses is a telekinetic "Hold Person" (we've seen her immobilize whole villages this way), she doesn't need to. She would have held the Chinese general in place and then asked him why he was attacking them.

If I could find that original story, I'd probably Rage Review it.

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You have a single-shot flintlock musket. Or even single-shot rifle.

Earth Ponies are canonically hard to kill. If you shoot at one -- and manage to hit him -- how likely is it that you will incapacitate him with your one hit?

Pegasi fly. Even if they don't produce flightfields or their flightfields won't deflect concentrated force such as a musket ball's, how are you going to hit a flying Pegasus? Hitting an evading aerial target is not as easy as you may imagine.

Unicorns can telekinese. All the Unicorn needs to do is push up your musket barrel with his telekinesis, and you aren't hitting anything with your shot.

For these reasons, melee weapons are more practical than Pony-portable missile weapons for anti-Pony combat. Especially single-shot muzzle-loaders (which is what one starts with, technologically, on the gunpowder tech tree). Bows and crossbows are faster-loading and more accurate.

Now, for battering down defenses, cannon do make sense. Which is why Equestria developed them.

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They regularly get defeated by super-powered foes. Are you Nightmare Moon or Tirek?

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I could PM you the story link, if you wish for me to do so. In fact, I think might preemptively do so.

(those... weren't the only problems involved, either. It obviously... nailed itself in my mind, if I'm mentioning it)

I just can't wrap my mind around the adjective of "fragile" being used with Twilight Sparkle, either. It just... rubbed me the wrong way on a visceral level, having her being portrayed as so... pitiful.

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Especially since she's the heroine of the show, and in-canon extremely powerful.

I think some writers can't wrap their heads around restrained and friendly badasses. That's why they underestimate Twilight Sparkle and Spike.

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If you're talking about the story I think you're talking about, I shook my head at how the ponies went down way too easy too. It really felt like they were heavily nerfed. especially Twilight, so the battle could do the way of the humans.

I can't say too much though. I've made a couple of choices in some of my earliest stories that now make me squirm just thinking about it.

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As far as another good example of a character who's kinda underrated IMO (regarding how they're gentle, friendly, loving, yet quite powerful), you have:

...Cadance. Sure, she may be the Princess of Love, but she killed Sombra the first time, and is capable of offensive magic, and isn't afraid to use it, by any means, is not a pacifist. If you hurt those she cares about, she'll end you. There's no doubt in my mind that she'd have it in her to say, kill Chrysalis, under different circumstances (she was looking at her in the above cropped screencap). If you're taking a cue from the comics, she's actually more liable to not feel sympathy than Twilight is, even if she may be forgiving overall.

(also worth noting that she does arguably have an actual interest in magic, herself; Twilight kinda had her help her look for a spell in The Crystalling, and had Cadance proofread it, and such, aside from being enthusiastic over Star Swirl history per Three's a Crowd. For proof of her power, she'd kept Sombra out with her barrier for what, days, no food, no sleep, aside from her A Canterlot Wedding stunt that repelled an army?)

But anyway, you are absolutely right; just because a character doesn't necessarily flaunt their power at every given opportunity, and are well-mannered, does not mean that they're any less dangerous. But in this case, I think it was more centered around... wish fulfillment/railroading the plot, regarding why things happened the way it did, perhaps? Eh, might not be mutually exclusive, either way.

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If you're talking about the story I think you're talking about, I shook my head at how the ponies went down way too easy too. It really felt like they were heavily nerfed. especially Twilight, so the battle could do the way of the humans.

I'm assuming that you're thinking of the right one. It felt like they were all... braindead... yes, even the allegedly badass human (going in alone is very tactically and strategically stupid, especially if you're that high-ranking, with the associated risks of "get killed" [decapitated army], or "captured as a bargaining chip"). It's not awe-inspiring to have "fights" happen in an utterly one-note manner like that, it's just... boring. You probably don't want to give the impression of "oh hey, the ponies couldn't fight off a butterfly swarm of twenty, if their lives depended on it."

I can't say too much though. I've made a couple of choices in some of my earliest stories that now make me squirm just thinking about it.

It happens; that's a part of maturing. I think going through the possible "writing stuff with very questionable writing" phase is part of why I kind of fear writing anything. I know I've cringed when I think of some of the things I've said or done before, and opinions I've previously had, on more than one occasion.

The ability to learn from your mistakes, have self-awareness is a valuable thing (although if anything, I have the problem of being too critical of myself, perhaps).

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I'm looking at the Prologue of the story, and -- oh my.

The Chinese PLA doesn't recognize griffons when they see them, instead mistaking them for "eagles." Yeah. Just your slightly-larger-than-average six-limbed, four-legged eagles with the hindquarters of cats! Nothing odd to see here, move that column forward!

Ponies, for their part, don't realize that trucks aren't alive. This despite the fact that in canon Ponies have steam locomotives that pull carriages, and that motor-trucks are in any case modeled upon non-motorized trucks that we've actually seen in use on the Show (mostly in Manehattan).

The Ponies are shocked that the Chinese have ranged firearms. This despite the fact that they would have already used said firearms further south, and the Ponies themselves have ranged firearms (just not personal longarms, nor ones capable of semi-automatic or automatic fire).

Is the whole Equestrian armed forces just a few guys with spears?

In general, why no apparent Pony or Chinese reconaissance? No Pegasus scouts? No recon choppers or drones?

The Chinese blow down the main gates of the castle with a hand grenade. Not a "demo charge." A hand grenade.

Lest one imagine that the gates were merely blown ajar or open (ludicrously improbable with a hand grenade), they are explicitly described as having been "obliterated."

European castles had massively strong main gates, for the obvious reasons. I'm guessing Equestrian ones are made of papier-mache and fond hopes?

At this point, it occurs to General Jin to talk to the Equestrians. Who apparently speak English. Not Mandarin or Cantonese. English.

The Equestrian Guards then try to fight, but General Jin kicks the leader of the detachment in the face, putting him down with a "bleeding muzzle." The other Guards are "traumatized" (rather than "shaken") at seeing this (apparently, a race of sapient ungulates never considered the possibilities of kicking in combat, despite the fact that the Show has more than once depicted them doing exactly that).

Nevertheless they charge to the attack.

Jin then beats several Guards up with his fancy foot action. I'd complain more about this except that General Jin is obviously a major villain and the Guards are just Mooks, albiet Good Guy Mooks, so ... meh.

He apparently beats them up unarmed rather than shooting them because he wants to impress them. Or someone.

Jin then threatens to break one of the captive Guard's hooves unless he tells him where the Princess is. A little pain convinces the Guard. Then Jin breaks his hoof anyway because otherwise he might lose his membership in the Despicable Villains' Union, or something.

(I have issues with the terminology "break" applied to a hoof, but I'll let it pass for now).

Inside Twilight Sparkle's throne room, Luster Dawn was crying endlessly in front of her mentor Princess Twilight Sparkle. And she and her friends tried their best to cheer her up.

TWILIGHT SPARKLE: Oh, for the love of all that's holy, can you just stop blubbering!

(I wish she'd say that, though it would be out of character).

Everypony in the room turned around and saw a very unique bipedal being they have never seen before. It was wearing a green suit, it has dark armor on it's chest level, a dark helmet was strapped onto it's head, it's has a mask covering it mouth and it also had metal pads strapped onto him.

Okay ...

... first of all, by now they should have photographs of the invaders. Consider how long it takes to travel by train from Ponyville to Canterlot in peacetime. Now consider that the Chinese are advancing against some kind of opposition -- what, the Ponies can't spring ambushes or lay traps?

That's a lot of time for some Pegasus Guards to overfly them and take photographs. Did the Author forget that Equestria canonically has photography? Heck, there's a recurring background character who has her Cutie Mark in photography!

Secondly, why the facemask (we've seen no use of chemical weapons by either side yet), and why above all the intense focus on metal pads?

Spike was the first to react when he saw the unknown invader. He walked up to him with a spear aimed directly at it's face, but the invader showed no signs of anxiety.

SPIKE (thinking): I'll avoid using any of my formidable natural weapons, and instead menace the invader with a spear! Yeah, that'll work!

And the view got him very disorientate as well because how does the invader have a picture of him? And where was it from? Has it been spying on him and his friends without them knowing?

SPIKE (thinking): Woah! I don't remember consenting to have my picture taken! How could they even do that? I mean invading Equestria and blowing Ponies' heads off is bad enough, but spying on me? How dastardly!

Here Spike-In-Name-Only, I'll explain it. There's a traitor, or a spy sneaked in ahead of the main invasion, or some sort of interdimensional viewing device, or some more mundane magical or technological device involved. Clear now?

Oh, and murderous invaders don't always ask for consent, if that is really what's bothering you. That's part and parcel of "murderous invasion."

Spike wasn't able to finish his sentence when the invader elbow striked him in the face. And Spike was sent crashing onto the floor roughly with a bruised face, and one of his teeth fell out as well from the metal pad. And everypony in the room were shocked at the invader's exertion.

General Jin exercised his elbows until they became like unto things of IRON!!!

Did you know that General Jin can elbow-strike his way through the frontal armor of an M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank? It's true!

I said this already, but this shouldn't be possible against even Baby Dragon Spike, let alone Big Buff Heroically-Built Spike. He has armored scales and presumably the requisite tough tissues underneath required to make the armor useful.

Rainbow Dash then sent the invader a petrifying glare.

Too bad it's Fluttershy who actually has the ... well, you know. I guess Dashie just forgot to read her character sheet again.

Dashie flies at Jin who uses his Wu Xia Magic Judo (tm) to grab her and throw her to the ground. As we've discussed before, this shouldn't be possible, given the incident with Dashie and the Red Dragon from "Dragonshy." Eh, maybe she's slowing in her old(er) age?

Rarity and Pinkie Pie were infuriated when they saw the invader injuring their friend.

RARITY: Ooh, you can slap Spike around all day, and I don't give a figI! It's not like I ever liked him at all, even in the past! But hurt Rainbow Dash? It.

PINKIE PIE: Yeah, Spike's kind of a drip, but Rainbow Dash is awesome! You're a big meanie!

APPLEJACK (thinks): Hmm, should I be riled that the invader just trounced my true love? Naw, I'll just mosey along slowly into combat ...

Author, how can you miss so much about established character relationships in one short description?

The white pony was the first to reach the invader. She jumped up and attempted to kick it in the face. When Jin noticed the attack, he responded with a punch to the female unicorn's chest, and the force of his punch made the female unicorn grunt and crashing into her pink friend knocking them out cold in the process.

Several quick points:

1. This is a run-on paragraph. First subject is Rarity, then after the second sentence a new paragraph logically begins with subject Jin.

2. The final sentence is a run-on sentence. It should be two sentences, one ending with "chest" and the second being reformatted as "The force of his punch made the female unicorn grunt and go flying back into her friend, knocking both of them out cold."

3. The choreography makes no sense. Pinkie Pie is fleeter of foot than Rarity. It's not obvious why the two are lined up conveniently to allow that two-for-one punch. Rarity is a martial artist. Pinkie Pie is a combat precognitive. Pinkie Pie is physically more resilient than Rarity. Oh, and how would Jin take a while to "notice" Rarity attacking him, when she's attacking him from the front?

When Applejack and Fluttershy noticed that they were the only ones left ...

Um, no they are not "the only ones left." What about Twilight Sparkle and Luster Dawn? Did AJ and Fluttershy forget they existed?

They got into stances and charged themselves directly towards the invader. And when Jin noticed their temerarious attempt, he jumped up and delivered two back kicks at their faces which sent them flying. Fluttershy was sent crashing into the wall, and Applejack was sent flying out of the window.

FLUTTERSHY (thinks): I guess I'm going to have to attack head-on now. Oh, if only somepony was here who had some sort of mind control powers! But nopony like that exists!

[b}APPLEJACK (thinks):[/b} I wish there was somepony here who was good in a hoof-to-hoof brawl. But I don't know anypony like that!

Also, you don't "get into stances" and then charge. A "stance" is the posiure from which one executes an attack of defense. I wish there was someone here who understood how both posing and martial arts worked, but she got knocked out in a poorly-choreographed description of a fight.

Twilight looked at her fallen friends with a disquiet expression and saw that Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were rolling on the floor with so much soreness on their bodies and Lil Cheese was checking on her mother, and she doesn't knows what was happening to Applejcak since she got flung out of the window.

If they're "rolling on the floor" they are not unconscious.

When did Lil' Cheese enter this scene? And when did Luster Dawn leave it?

If we assume that the Laws of Gravity are still working, Applejack probably wound up somewhere beneath the window.

Once Jin closed his distance between himself and Princess Twilight Sparkle, he jumped up in the air and delivered an excruciating back kick to her chest. And the force of his kick sent Twilight sliding on the floor roughly with a bruised chest.

TWILIGHT (thinking): If only I was able to fly or project a magic shield or had the toughness of a large Earth Pony. But only some sort of Alicorn would have those attributes!

Jin smiled in satisfaction after that attack.

... he remembered all the fun, fun times he had back on the family farm, beating up horses ...

Then, he slowly approached the fragile Princess.

JIN (thinking): I'll have to glue some of those pieces back on her. She's so fragile!

"Ó, duìle, nín hé nín nàxiē cuìruò ér fāfēng de shēngwù bù huì shuō huò tīng bù dǒng zhōngwén. Zài zhèlǐ, ràng wǒ wèi nín fānyì yīngyǔ. (Oh right, you and your fragile and cretinous creatures of yours don't speak or understand Chinese. Here, let me translate in English for you.)" He told her.

JIN: "Moo goo gai pan Khitai walla walla bim bam, a Elbereth Gilthoniel!" (If you knew Chinese you'd be tougher and smarter, like me!"

The invader said in a deep voice which sent chills down to Twilight's spine.

TWILIGHT (thinks): It's bad enough that you just Curb Stomp Battled me and my friends, but what really scares me is your deep voice!

"I have successfully occupied our priority target Princess Twilight Sparkle."

Wow, this fic got really rapey all of a sudden!

And contact the swat team and police force on the way as well because we need their assistance to watch them while in prison and working.

A "SWAT" (Special Weapons and Tactics) team is part of a "police force." The police force of a military unit is called "Military Police." I'm not sure why ordinary soldiers couldn't be trusted to simply guard prisoners, though.

We'll be there shortly lieutenant general. Along with some ponies, yaks, those weird dragon things, bugs and many more.

"Those weird dragon things" ...?

Yeah, it's not as if Chinese people have any concept of dragons!

After that, lieutenant General Jin An Rong tucked his walkie talkie back into his belt and sent Princess Twilight Sparkle a hazardous glare.

Twilight Sparkle quickly pulled a lead shield up between them to protect herself from his hazardous glare!

And some members of the Chinese swat and police force have cuffed the ponies, dragons, yaks, bugs, eagles with bodies of a lion and lion tails.

Again, why are griffons so difficult for the Chinese to grasp? Especially since some of the Chinese, and most Griffons, can speak Equestrian?

Jin An Rong stepped on the tiny stairs near the throne chair and looked at the creatures of Equestria. He then gave them his speech in English.

Tiny stairs? No, we know from earlier in this chapter that General Jin stands about as tall as Twilight Sparkle and Spike the Dragon, so the stairs are about normal-sized for Humans (though big by Equestrian Pony standards).

"Alright! Listen up all you fragile creatures!"

"Yaks not fragile!"

Someone had to say it.

Dragons are even less fragile. Though apparently Metal Pads can knock one out with his Magic Wu Xia Elbows (tm).

"All of you are now our prisoners. And the reason for that is because all of you have provoked damages to our capital, nearly destroying it and taking away many innocent lives as well as many casualties! So now, all of you will be enslaved in your own capital and will build a city here!" Jin An Rong yelled.

Um ... what?

A nameless "yellow mare" points out that they didn't do anything like that, and General Metal Pads has her shot dead on the spot.

Alright men! All of you will bring the creatures outside and get some of them to work on building giant walls and buildings!

What, just random "giant walls and buildings" in random locations? Seriously?

General Metal Pads makes freaking Mao Tse-Tung look like a planning genius by comparison!

After that, they began to drag the cuffed up creatures of Equestria including Twilight, Luster Dawn, Twilight's friends, the grown up CMC'S and Young six outside of the castle.

Okay.

Luster Dawn has blinked back into existence. Somehow the CMC and Young Six are now here too, even though none of them were before. Maybe they were elsewhere?

Has Author stopped to think that the kind of "cuffs" Humans make wouldn't hold a Dragon (who could bite or burn through them) or Changeling (who could shift into a form that could slip out of them)?

General Jin then asks his men:

Do you guys think that you can renovate this palace as a prison?

Actually, that's the easy conversion. Renovating a prison into a palace, now, that would be hard!

Jing An Rong then turned around and faced Princess Twilight Sparkle's throne. He scrutinized it for a moment then came up with a great plan. He pulled out his pistol and aimed it at it. He then fired four shots at it.

*BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!*

The whole throne shattered into pieces when the hard bullets collided with it which made Jin smile again.

This is a throne sturdy enough for a horse-sized Pony to sit on for long periods of time. Author, do you really think that four shots from a handgun would "shatter" it? For that matter, bullets are designed to put holes through things, not blow them to bits.

And why is Jin so amused at the fact that he can destroy precious works of art? Are the Chinese all insane barbarians in this storyverse?

Wow. Just wow. Dare I read more of this?

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SPIKE (thinking): I'll avoid using any of my formidable natural weapons, and instead menace the invader with a spear! Yeah, that'll work!

Said this in a PM, but reach advantages matter... which is why it was even more ridiculous when he somehow beat Spike without him reacting. Sure, it might be rather redundant/pointless for a dragon to use a weapon like that, but reach + pointy stick (with a metallic point) isn't really a disadvantage, either, especially against an barehanded foe. Same goes for the Worfed Royal Guards.

... he remembered all the fun, fun times he had back on the family farm, beating up horses ...

(seriously, I want to know how many martial arts involve fighting strong horses like a fool, unarmed, deal with them in a straight fight. Because that's about as silly/stupid as thinking you can physically subdue Twilight, as a human, with that Celestia stature of hers... before magic is even a factor)

This is a throne sturdy enough for a horse-sized Pony to sit on for long periods of time. Author, do you really think that four shots from a handgun would "shatter" it? For that matter, bullets are designed to put holes through things, not blow them to bits.

I'm at least 95% sure the author has never shot a gun before, or seen anything on them outside of the movies, regarding their effects (they've definitely never heard of breaching charges, judging by the stupid use of a hand grenade). Can't imagine why, unless they think the throne is actually made of tempered glass or something.

A quote like this doesn't help, from the author:

"But, if the bullet hits your leg. You will fall on the ground bleeding. And without any help, you can get killed from the bleeding wound." (they haven't heard of how stubborn people can be, obviously. Adrenaline is a helluva drug.)

Wow. Just wow. Dare I read more of this?

Well, in regards to Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 (if you're counting the the Prologue as "Chapter 1"), all of Chapter 2 goes into our human hero "Charlie" (something, something, hacking), and some of Chapter 3 does as well, but in Chapter 3, well... when we get back to the ponies, well... this narration appears:

It was nighttime in Equestria, and Twilight Sparkle, Luster Dawn, Sunburst, Starlight, Spike, Lil Cheese, Pinkie Pie, Cheese Sandwich, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy were held prisoners in Twilight's castle while the others were held in the dungeons, Discord included. And the main reason why they were placed in the throne room was because there was not enough space for them in the dungeon. And the invaders have renovated Twilight's castle as a violent training facility for the invaders. And the dungeons and their cell were being guarded with heavily black colour armored invaders weilding what looks to be like round and rectangular plastic shields, black coloured sticks and what looks to be like metal weapons, almost similar to the green suited invaders ones, and the scene looked hopeless to Twilight and her friends.

Well... do I even need to point out how ludicrous it is to defeat Discord without explanation? Somehow? How about someone as both powerful and skilled at combat as Starlight? Do I even need to go over how dangerous they are to humans, especially Discord, for whom physicality is optional with magic?

Sunburst turned around and saw that the invader were gaining up on them.

"Dǎbài tāmen! (Beta them up!)" One of the invaders yelled with his right hand swung back.

But before they could come in on them, Sunburst quickly activated his horn defending his friends, wife and daughter. And the invaders stumbled backwards and fell on the floor roughly with grunt.

(also, aside from that being maybe kinda sorta being questionable for Sunburst to be doing it [it probably is, unless you're explaining/have explained why it isn't], that seemed to indicate that there was probably never anything done to bind their magic? At all? How the hell were they being held prisoner? There's no given reason as to why Twilight, Starlight, etc, couldn't blast their way out, or simply teleport.)

Going forward a few chapters, and uh... the human hero uh...

"Oh of course I'm disorientate!" Charlie said rolling on the grass. He stood up but his chin crashed onto the floor and Charlie had to drag himself backwards.

"Whoa, your an alicorn." Luster Dawn said quietly with a surprised expression.

"Ahh! My height! What happened to my height?!" Charlie panicked.

...is an alicorn, on Chapter Six, after Five happened (I didn't read either of them entirely, must admit).

"An alicorn is a very unique and powerful creature that can produce many magic and other sorts of cool stuffs. And they are rarely seen except for Princess Twilight Sparkle of course." Luster Dawn delineated.

"Wait wait wait." Charlie said with a shake of his head "So what your telling me is that I am a very rare creature that can do all sorts of unique stuffs like magic. And I am the same as your Princess or ruler?" He asked.

Great for magic to be brought up, also in Chapter Six, it's not like it can help against humans or anything, if you're anything more than braindead.

(gtg for now, think this is enough to post for the time being, at least)

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The main reason why I didn't have them teleporting out of their cell was because it would be too simple and tedious to the readers. And I also wanted to make the readers think that Twilight, Starlight and a few of her friends has been enfeebled by the Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers, as well as some riot police units, and standard police officers.

One thing I can see here.

First, when dealing with Twilight and Starlight, if you don't want them to teleport out of a cage, you MUST do something to nerf their teleportion. If you don't, readers going to roll their eyes.

Off the top of my head, one of the best ways is to get some kind of a magic suppressor ring on their horns or something else like that to negate their ability to teleport. In fact, that's a great way to nerf them period. Although you would have to come up with a way to get those rings on them.

Another option is for the cage to be an anti-magic cage so they can't teleport out or even use spells. Twilight do tend to "forget" she can teleport in the show, but she's not stupid either: put her in a cage, she will use a spell to get out, if she has her magic.

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Well a gun can shatter glass or wooden object like chairs, tables and wooden benches. The glass would shatter immediately but for the wooden objects, they can take quite a few shots before they shatter into large pieces.

Have you ever shot a tree (it was gonna be cut down regardless, anyhow)? I'm guessing... no. They don't just "shatter into large pieces" after just a few bullets (well, maybe small trees if you're using shotgun slugs, but that's not what we're talking about). I've shot wooden posts before as well with misplaced shots, they don't "shatter" that easily at all (you're much more liable to just split it in half eventually, which is hardly much of a spectacle at all). Sure, it'll possibly cause a few splinters to fly out per shot, but if you want wood to "shatter" it makes much more sense for an explosion to do it. Wood is better at staying together than you think. If you don't believe me, I can link to a video of how hard it is to bisect (cut in half) say, a telephone pole with bullets (which goes to show what I said, about it not being too much of a spectacle, where it "shatters," under most circumstances. with wood).

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Do you even know how experienced a high rank military officer is? And also, a Lieutenant General is a three-star military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a captain general. And it also take approximately three or four years years to become a Lieutenant General, which makes Jin An Rong here drastically adroit in his field, as well as in close combat and knowing how to fight multiple opponents on his own because of his past training in the military.

(emphasis mine)

Since when is it a typical qualification for "Lieutenant Generals" to be as proficient at hand-to-hand as you might expect Bruce Lee² (or Batman) to plausibly be... in the modern era? I ask that because a Lieutenant General being in the fray of combat, as portrayed here, runs the not insignificant chance of them being killed, especially in a day and age where firearms and bombs and artillery and airstrikes, and so on, are a thing. Being a "I Can Beat the Shit Outta Five People at Once Badass Motherfucker" is not a vital factor in being promoted to General, nowadays, if it ever was, on account of leadership skills mattering. I doubt, say, Ulysses Grant, or Robert E. Lee, or Douglas MacArthur, and some other examples I can list, were even a fifth as good in hand-to-hand as this Lieutenant General is portrayed as being, nor did they jump into punching and shooting at others personally in the same way, on the front lines, personally clearing a house alone, because they can.

Tell me where a military officer is required (or even expected, or encouraged) to have, say, three black belts in whatever martial arts to possess that rank (let alone against equinoids with entirely different body mechanics than humans, especially when horses are rather obsolete in warfare nowadays). I'm highly confident that no, that isn't the case. Sure, they might go through a form of basic training, befitting of an officer, but this isn't like Halo, where the Sangheili/"Elites" (and Brutes) have a rank that corresponds to how adept and seasoned of a warrior they are, or like in CoD multiplayer where you jump from Sergeant (non-commissioned rank) to Lieutenant (Lowest Commissioned Rank, quite often requires education). More on that sort of topic later.

I pose to you the following query: Do you understand what the difference between an Enlisted Rank, and a Commissioned Officer is? What their roles are? An Enlisted Rank soldier is, generally speaking, going to be the one on the front lines, doing the "dirty work" so to speak, shooting at others, that sort of thing. A Commissioned Officer's primary function is to command the troops beneath them. That's the entire point of a military hierarchy, the higher the rank you are, the more people you command, the less expendable you are, ideally, and the more you're involved with leadership (goes with commanding more people), and as a result, they are often far out of harm's way, and therefore not getting combat experience.

Am I saying it's implausible in and of itself for some military officer to be proficient at hand-to-hand? No, but a Lieutenant General's job (in the modern age) is not generally to scuffle with guards and the Mane Six.

A Lieutenant General should typically be handling strategy and tactics on the level of, say, "what should tens of thousands of our soldiers do," not "I'm gonna risk my life assaulting a castle's interior solo because 'I wanna spill pony blood hand-to-hand,'" which the way he did it, ran a high risk of him being captured or killed, which is what an officer of such a high rank should never do if it can be at all avoided, because again, that's what the people who have lower ranks are supposed to do, in addition to not doing it solo for no good reason (he wasn't even leading a fireteam of 2-4, which is ridiculous even before you consider tactics on that level aren't even close to his job).

They have people (assuming this is at least somewhat the case for China as well, the assorted numbers, who directs who) to do that for them, because unlike with alicorns, and unicorns, and pegasi, and so on regarding Ponies (or other settings that may or may not involve humans, where being a more powerful and experienced mage/sorcerer, or warrior, or whatever typically correlates to a higher status), humans aren't more powerful in their capabilities as a somewhat general rule just because of their rank, in the modern world. By risking your top leader like that (or in this case, him doing it to himself), you're endangering the chain of command, risking a Decapitated Army, in one fell swoop, because your top commander had to go be a dumbass Leeroooooy Jeeeeenkins and throw all that leadership training and experience down the drain, by being shot in the head and falling dead because he wanted to shed blood personally.

This is simply common sense. You just can't lead the battlefield in a similar way to say, the 14th Century, in the modern world, because chances are, you'll die quickly, and anyone who'd make such a foolhardy mistake would've never reached that rank, whether it be because they were relieved of command for being unfit, or because they died, and I can't see a reason for such basic common sense strategy borne of modern technology to be dumped at the drop of a hat just because they're invading Equestria.

Enlisted soldiers are doing much more up close and personal fighting than what a Commissioned Officer (which a Lieutenant General absolutely is) is expected to do. Generals, Lieutenant Generals, and such are supposed to be doing paperwork, and management, and strategies, planning, not going up and beating the shit out of their enemies; they're overqualified for it and it isn't in the typical job description.

Finally, how much training is typically warranted in the military nowadays, for say, dealing with a foe wielding a sword? Spears? While you are unarmed, and therefore dealing with quite noticeable and problematic reach disadvantages? Not much at all actually, if any. Guns revolutionized warfare, so it's kind of a fundamental absurdity to act like this Jin would automatically know how to fight someone wielding a spear while unarmed, if they were human, let alone ponies, or a dragon, let alone multiple attackers. For that matter, would military basic training possibly entail some hand-to-hand training? Yes. Would it entail fighting multiple foes? Maybe. Three? eh... maybe special forces training, perhaps? Four or five or more? Probably not. (not that I can claim to be overly knowledgeable here in hand-to-hand training and the nitty gritty details, but the point still stands regardless, because again, Commissioned Officer, and modern warfare)

I'm not gonna claim to be a military expert, but this is really basic knowledge that you could've figured out had you done your research, for like, 30 minutes, not to sound condescending. Your superficial knowledge in regards to this is quite apparent. You can claim that I'm ignorant if you want, but it just doesn't change the fact that you won't see some Lieutenant General on the modern battlefield go "rawr, step aside Sergeant, Imma go beat the shit outta this household with a family of five myself, with muh fists" on a battlefield. To act like that sounds anywhere near accurate is cartoonishly ridiculous.

TL;DR: Modern-day Lieutenant Generals don't do what you think they do, because what they primarily do (as in like 99+% minimum) is leadership, not getting their hands dirty, show me a modern military basic training regime that involves beating three or more people physically attacking you at once, unarmed, and if so, why would it be deemed appropriate skills and knowledge for a Chinese Lieutenant General to possess when that's something that their subordinates' subordinates' subordinates would have more use for, that's not what soldiers are expected to do, even if this was in their job description, which in a Lieutenant General's case, it isn't; most importantly, try not to talk down to me with "do you even know how experienced a high rank military officer is" when you plainly have little idea what you're talking about in regards to a modern military and how it would realistically function, even regarding basic guidelines of "chain of command, X person does X," it'll only lead to embarrassment. It's one thing to go Artistic License - Military, it's another thing entirely to make pretensions of knowing what you're talking about when your knowledge pool in actuality is on the inadequate side of the spectrum.

Now, all of that being said, if you can prove every last bit of what I said wrong, or even every other bit, that's fine by me, learning something new is interesting, but I'm guessing that all-in-all you fell victim to this, because you overestimated how much you understand military tactics, and you're overshadowing logic with "Rule of Cool" (which nothing inherently wrong with that, done well, most will say), and seemingly(?) not recognizing that to be the case, because Jin is, quite frankly, a Gary Stu of a villain, a Villain Stu; logic bends so that he can win against anyone, as portrayed.

Humans' greatest strengths are our intelligence, technology, and teamwork, not our abilities to be ungodly amazing at taking everyone down singlehandedly by bum-rushing them into submission. That's what I hope the takeaway is here.

7181335

Well a gun can shatter glass or wooden object like chairs, tables and wooden benches. The glass would shatter immediately but for the wooden objects, they can take quite a few shots before they shatter into large pieces.

You had people doubting you'd ever shot a real gun before or even seen a real gun shoot. Now you have people doubting you have ever seen wood.

Wood does not shatter like that. Bullets don't do this kind of damage. You're describing game assets breaking by shooting them in video games.

7181349

Do you even know how experienced a high rank military officer is? And also, a Lieutenant General is a three-star military rank used in many countries

No. NO! This is NOT how the military works, this is NOT how military officers work, this is COMPLETELY stupid! A high rank military officer is NOT trained, beyond a very basic course, in that kind of stuff at all. Heck, they might not ever even take a gun out of its holster in their entire career, and even if they do they will almost certainly be a way more lousy shot than 99% of the basic infantry.

And the excuse that he wants to meet Twilight Sparkle is laughable. That's not how it's done! If you're going to capture someone, you don't go and capture them yourself when being the general! If you even could! You sent your men, they capture the target, you talk to them. Jesus!

Well spears are more uncomplicated to deal with because, when the enemy attempts to stab you with it, you can just grab the tip of it and yank it away from them. Then, your enemy has successfully been disarmed.

FUCK NO! A guy with a spear will fuck you up worse than a guy with a sword. The spear is by far the superior weapon in a one vs one fight, especially against an unarmed man, and it's even better in a war formation. Bruce Lee himself would choose to run away, and that's a thing he had actually said. Jesus Christ, man, do you have the slightest idea how weapons, armies, and fighting works, or are all your impressions from video games where soldiers with spears are presented as the lower level mooks?

a sharp blade that can definitely be able to cut you in half

What kind of swords with monomolecular edges are you imagining? What is this madness?

EDIT:
Also, this?

I wanted them to only know about the ponies potentiality and strength, and they'll study the other creatures in a laboratory in Twilight's renovated castle.

It would take a special kind of dumbass general to consider making a research facility inside or so near enemy territory.

7181488

Just some normal razor-sharp swords in medieval ages, and modern ones used in many militaries.

You do realize that using a heavy executioner axe it would take more than one strokes to cut a man's head at one of his thinnest points (the neck), right?

Um... my impressions were from a Chinese action drama Here and I got a little bit of details about close fighting from it.

That's not better, man!

7181462

But, he left his platoon commanded by the Colone

Not helping your case here.

because I wanted him to meet Twilight Sparkle face to face since he is the commanding officer of the platoon, and Twilight Sparkle is the Princess of the land.

It's okay to have him meet the Princess at some point, but as it makes far more sense to have his men capture her themselves, bring her to him, or have them secure the area upon the process of capturing her being complete, then he goes to her, as opposed to him showing off, especially considering that Equestria canonically has both crossbows, and bows, and pegasi, that can plausibly use that stuff in the air. Arrows and crossbow bolts do not create pleasant/superficial wounds, and no amount of "martial arts" can stop a crossbow bolt broadhead or arrow from impaling your body at an inopportune moment; they're too fast, whether it's impacting on the limbs or not (on account of him wearing noticeable armor, which doesn't mean he's fully covered at all), realistically, if the author wasn't shielding them from being subjected to plausible consequences because they wanted their OC villain to look cool.

Well spears are more uncomplicated to deal with because, when the enemy attempts to stab you with it, you can just grab the tip of it and yank it away from them. Then, your enemy has successfully been disarmed.

Oh woe is me, if only there were some sorts of techniques that could deal with that... there actually are. Not to mention that going by the show, most pony Royal Guards are pegasi and unicorns, as opposed to earth ponies (who again, are typically disproportionately strong to varying degrees). The former could perform an aerial attack, the latter can wield a spear with magic, aside from the simple concept of shooting magic bolts from their horn (which Unicorn Royal Guards can apparently do, judging by The Ending of the End, even if it didn't work on a foe as strong as Alicorn Cozy, hardly just some human). This is before you get into how Gallus, a Griffon, is a Royal Guard past the timeskip, as of The Last Problem, and therefore the Royal Guard may therefore be more diverse than just ponies for the most part overall, but I digress.

Also, even if you do grab the spear, and successfully begin dealing with it (it's not a given), that takes up valuable time that other opponents can exploit, use against you, if they're not being specifically written as braindead, giving him more things to react to, putting pressure on him, putting him on the backfoot, or just skewering him if he can't deal with all of it (most plausible outcome, in the absence of mitigating factors).

And in any case...

Then, he was met with five armoured ponies. Three were wielding spears, and two were unarmed. Then one of the ponies aimed his spear at him.

"Give it up invader! You are outnumbered!" The guard told him.

Jin smiled and unholstered his pistol. Then, he began to communicate with the ponies in English.

"That may be true, but you are out matched."

The five guards were shocked when they heard the invader speaking Equestrian. They didn't even know what the hay he is or where he came from. One of the guards shook his head and glared at the creature.

"Fine then, have it your way! And you'll pay for the blood you and your kind shed in Ponyville." The guard growled, he then turned around and looked at his men. "Men! Make this creature pay for what he has done!"

"Yes sir!"

Then the leader of the guards charged up towards the invader with his spear pointed at it's chest area. But then, he was met with a front kick to the face, and the force of it's kick sent the guard flying halfway across the hallway and landing on the floor roughly with a bleeding muzzle.

The four remaining guards were traumatized when they saw their fallen captain. Then they starred at the invader with scandalized expression.

"Attack it!"

Then the four remaining guards charged towards the invader letting out some battlecries. The two armed guards aimed their spear directly at the invader's face.

When Jin noticed the ponies impulsive attempt, he jumped up in the air and sent two strong back kicks directly at their muzzles and they were direct kicks.

...There was exactly nothing in the "fight scene" about disarming them of spears, dodging spear attacks, or even deflecting the spears (similar thing happened to Spike), we're supposed to believe that he's just that much better at closing in, without being superhuman, we're just told that he just hit them before they could do anything, and he could just beat them in one hit.

And again, it'd be out of place if a Corporal was doing this solo (they'd have command over a fireteam), let alone a very high Commissioned Officer rank like Lieutenant General, as both I and Crimmar have said.

And there's no reason other than to narratively jerk him off as to why he didn't just shoot the guards when he could've (that reminds me, why would he need a guard to tell him "hey, look in the throne room"). Sure, him being that good at shooting when he's a Lieutenant General stretches into being quite atypical, because nothing about that job involves needing to "shoot at bad guys, do training drills where you shoot at multiple moving targets," but it's still better than "hey Imma punch and kick for no reason." And even then, bullets don't instantly kill or incapacitate a lot of the time, and you're generally trained to hit center of mass, because going for the head might result in a miss. I've seen multiple real world police videos where people take more than 3 bullets to go down, and this is something that actually happened (related note also: people do miss in gunfights, most of the time, actually). A possible way to add tension is, say, if he manages to kill two-three guards and wound the other two-three, but they manage to knock the gun out of his hands, forcing him to use a knife or something against them to win, doubling as a showcase of how he's not invincible (which here, he is, considering Jin didn't take a single scratch from the ponies, it was such a curb-stomp), yet is determined, or something along those lines. All of which becomes much less to nonexistent of an issue if he, again, isn't doing it alone, and isn't a high-ranking officer that would hurt the chain of command if he died.

But for a sword, it would be more difficult and hazardous because, you will be dealing with a deranged enemy wielding a sharp blade that can definitely be able to cut you in half, as welling as being detrimental to it's opponent. So I agree with you on that sword part.

I most certainly agree with 7181480 on this one. This is ludicrous unless you're using a lightsaber, or something monomolecular. For evidence of this, this was actually a real technique, used with real swords (and no, European swords weren't comparatively dull to Asian ones, that's a misconception). And no, don't expect grabbing a sword or spear to be overly easy either. Swords are quite nimble in use, because most of their weight's in the hilt. Spears can often outperform swords rather easily in fights due to their reach, which wouldn't be overly easy if they didn't have the trait of being rather nimble in use. Not to mention the inherent leverage a two-handed/hooved (ponies can grip things normally, seem to have tactile telekinesis) grip can afford you, which again, see above, with the fact that there's techniques to get around someone grabbing your polearm.

7181495

You do realize that using a heavy executioner axe it would take more than one strokes to cut a man's head at one of his thinnest points (the neck), right?

In fact, that was kinda why the guillotine was invented, was it not?

Decapitation in an actual swordfight is just overkill, and difficult to pull off, because again, executioner axes have trouble doing it.

(And I sincerely thank you, for backing me up on "hey, militaries don't work that way," more succinctly than I did, lol. I'm not the best at being laconic)

7179653
No they get defeated all the time. In the comics and on the show.