Chapter Fifteen
Panic
The crates survived the transit in better condition than I'd expected. They slumped and crumbled a bit but were still recognizable when they arrived on the floor of the cornucopia building.
"Let me do this, Twilight," Jigsaw spoke up, "I know the way these crates are put together."
I stood back and watched as she gently brushed away the decayed wood and iron top of the first box, revealing a thin sheet of lead. She probed carefully with her magic and then peeled away the soft metal like she was pulling an old quilt off of a bed.
Books.
The crate had been tightly packed with scores of books. Okay, I admit it—I squealed like a school-filly. Jigsaw grinned and gave me a look. "Weren't you hoping for a priceless golden idol or the dreaded Eye of Argon?"
"Oh, please!" I snorted. "I'd trade the legendary treasure of Queen Majesty for another crate like that one!"
Jigsaw's grin got even wider. "Okay then..."
She went to work on the second crate and soon revealed another trove of books, then a third. "Breathe, Twilight," she admonished me as she continued working on the boxes, carefully peeling away the sides. "Oh by the way, that's one Queen's Hoard you owe me."
I started to reach out with my magic but had to take a moment to stop the field from wavering. I gently touched a volume that had been in the first crate and was surprised to find it in pretty good condition. "Sharphoof's group must have done some conservation work on these before they packed them up," I guessed.
Jigsaw nodded. "That's pretty much standard procedure for delicate items, and it looks like the lead was good protection." She lifted a thin black book out of the pile she was working on and flipped it open. "Hey! I think we're in luck!"
"Yes?"
"Yep! Standard procedure also calls for making a catalog of items sealed up for transport." She waved the little book at me. "And this appears to be it."
"It's like Hearth's Warming, my birthday, and my coronation all wrapped up together!"
Jigsaw laughed and floated the catalog over to me. "Happy birthday, Princess!"
It got even better.
According to the catalog, the books were mostly on Magical Engineering and specifically about the particulars of the infrastructure of the city. There were scores on crystal growth, management, and charging; more than a hundred on practical and theoretical application spells; at least a dozen on autonomic control schemes for dissimilar magic devices; a few that had puzzling titles; and exactly one on "Military Applications."
Thanks to the excellent organization of the boxes, I was able to locate that last book in a matter of moments. I opened the book and my throat tightened as I read the title page:
Military Applications
of the
Great Crystal Engine
by Lord Commander Sombra
"Twilight? Are you alright?"
I shook my head. "I just discovered where an old enemy learned his craft, that's all. A bit of a shock."
"Are we going to have to worry about this enemy showing up? 'Cause, what with the changelings and all, our dance cards are getting kinda full..."
"Oh, no," I assured her. "Cadance burned his rotten soul away, back when the Empire returned."
Jigsaw's grin turned a bit sickly. "Uh... the Alicorn of Love did what, now?"
I shook myself out of my reverie. "Oh, no! It wasn't exactly on purpose... more of a side effect of replacing the Crystal Heart. She's really a very sweet pony!"
"More crystals..." Jigsaw said, thoughtfully. "I'm beginning to think that messing around with crystals leads to a short life-expectancy."
"More like dark and light magic not playing well together," I said, just vocalizing some half-formed thoughts of my own. "Engines and batteries of incompatible types..."
"You seem to be able to do both pretty well," Jigsaw observed.
"Mmn." I really didn't know what to say to that. As far as I knew, Celestia, Luna, and I were the only ponies in the modern age to be able to work with both forms. Dark Magic wasn't exactly evil, it was just unconstrained, which made it very difficult to control.
Thinking about magical control led me to the bronze device around the base of the "Great Crystal Engine." One of the books must have information about it. I almost put aside Sombra's book before something my brother had once told me popped into my head.
= = =
One snowy evening during Winter Break from the Guard Academy, Shining Armor had badly trounced me in a pillow fight by making my toys and books dance around the room, distracting me from his fluffy missiles. At that point, my magic was very well-developed, stronger than his, and I could have easily taken him in an honest feather-filled slugfest.
"It's all about threat-assessment, Twily!" He grinned at me as I spit out clumps of goose down. "Take care of the spear... uh... pillow that's headed your way before looking anywhere else!"
"Thanks for the advice, Shiny," I said sourly.
"No problem, Sis!" He grinned smugly.
"Oh, hey!" I said, turning to my bedroom window. "Is that Cadance? She said she'd drop by sometime this week!"
"Really? Where?" Shining Armor rushed to the window to look down at the street.
I walloped him solidly in the back of the head with my favorite pillow.
I always was a quick study.
= = =
"I think I should start with this one," I told Jigsaw. "Why don't you go through the others and see what you can find? The sun is setting and we only have until a couple of hours after dawn to read undisturbed."
"Sounds good to me!" She didn't quite have the same relationship with books that I did, but she sounded pretty eager to pull an all-nighter anyway.
I turned to my own book and pretty soon I was having a hard time keeping my temper. I'd disliked Sombra just for what he'd put the poor crystal ponies through. After reading his own words, and having it shoved in my face how bigoted, arrogant, and down-right callous he was, I thoroughly loathed him.
And that was just the foreword.
In the body of the book, Sombra advocated for more unicorn-only settlements, laying out a plan for settling or conquering crystal-rich areas and building more of the dark crystal engines, until all of the "pathetically misguided" lands were under unicorn control. He named Equestria specifically, noting that it would be wise to surround the kingdom with crystal outposts before attacking it directly.
Suddenly, a unicorn king of an earth-pony empire made a lot more sense.
The text began to go into details and I steeled myself to plow through a lot of unpleasantness. The first paragraph in the tactics section made my head swim. I couldn't take it in. I had to re-read it, and pause for the full horror of the words to sink in.
Of course, once we are able to get her within range, we can easily dispose of our greatest enemy by removing the safety restraints on the cornucopia and commanding, May I have the heart of Princess Celestia, please?
I dropped the book, turned my head, and vomited out everything in my stomach.
"Twilight?" Jigsaw dropped her own book and stood up. "Twi, are you all right?"
I couldn't reply. I was still dry-heaving and sobbing and shaking and nearly paralyzed by the sheer evil of it. That the crystal below us could have so violated the constrains of pure magic as to—to—No! Not could have—but still could! The device that constrained it, so that a careless or angry pony couldn't get it to do something damaging, was nearly corroded away. Anypony—or anything with the knowledge, could go down to the cavern and kick it apart—and—and—
Jigsaw approached me slowly and tried to put a leg around my shoulders. "It's okay, Twilight. Tell me what's—"
"No!" I shoved her away from me. "No, you don't understand! It's evil! It's not just wrong... not just theft! The whole city is evil!" I swung a hoof around in a wild, dramatic gesture, "They were all bad ponies!"
Jigsaw backed away and stepped on the corner of Sombra's book. She glanced down and then raised it up, no doubt wanting to read what had sent me off into such a fit of temper. I wrenched the book out of her grasp and then stared around me at the piles of books.
Magical Engineering.
Mana Control Systems.
Crystal Growth.
With those books, any half-way competent team of unicorns could create another dark crystal engine. With Sombra's tactic, they could wield the most terrible weapon known to ponykind. Facing an avenging army? "May I have ten thousand pegasus heads, please?" I nearly vomited again.
I turned to Jigsaw. "What did you read?" My voice sounded desperate and strained, even to my own ears. "What was it?"
"W—water magic." She flinched back from me. "Hydraulic spells to pull water up from deep below the desert, if I understood it right." She backed away a couple of steps. "Twilight, please calm down! Just breathe, okay? Deep breaths..."
I did breathe deeply, then. She hadn't seen anything important—no clues as to how the core structure of dark magic worked or how crystals were created. But I didn't calm down much.
"Threat assessment!" I nodded. "Yes! Shining was right, I have to eliminate the threat!" I wrapped all the books in my magic and lifted them up, gathered them close to me.
"Twilight!"
"No! I have to do this, Jigsaw!" I don't know if she understood my words fully, because I was half-choking on my own sobs. "I have to save her!"
"Please, Twilight! Just tell me—"
I teleported away.
= = =
As I watched the books burn among the ruins, I couldn't help the near-instinctive urges that jolted through me like electricity. My horn blazed to life several times by pure reflex, and I had to fight to damp it down again. I desperately wanted to save the books, even though I knew they were the key to a monstrous evil. The bonfire threw blood red light up across the sculpture of two unicorn stallions, fighting to the death. I was violating my dearest beliefs to keep safe my dearest—
"Twilight!" came a voice from the darkness behind me. "Twilight! Where are you?"
I groaned. How was I going to justify what I'd done to Jigsaw? "Over..."
I broke off and coughed until my throat was free of smoke. "Over here, Jigsaw!"
She'd probably seen the light of the fire. Maybe she'd spotted some of the burning pages as the updraft had taken them into the sky. She was a very smart mare, after all.
She was also a good friend. She didn't say anything when she saw the bonfire, she just stared at it for what seemed to me to be a very long while. Then she walked over to me and sat down close beside me. I leaned against her.
I didn't cry. There were no sobs. It was just my eyes—they wouldn't stop leaking all over everything.
When the fire began to burn down, Jigsaw used her magic to mound it up, pushing half-charred books into the center to make sure they were all completely consumed. She didn't even know what was going on—she was just helping. Much later, she stirred the ashes, getting air to the last bits of glowing paper and canvas. Then she turned to me and wiped my face with a clean cloth she'd pulled from her saddlebags. "Back to the library, now. I'll make you some chamomile tea and then tuck you in."
"I can't sleep."
"I'll sit with you until you can."
"I had to do it."
"Okay."
I started to protest, to tell her she had to understand. But, of course, that's the one thing I didn't want her to do. Nopony could understand. Nopony could know. And nopony would know, because the knowledge was gone. All that remained—
"The crystal!" My head shot up in alarm.
"Shh!" Jigsaw tried to soothe me. "The crystal will still be there in the morning, Twilight. You need to rest."
"That's the problem! The crystal! We've got to destroy it!"
"How?"
That was like a kick to my gut. I had no idea how to destroy it. I couldn't just drop another meteorite on it. The amount of dark energy bound up in that gigantic crystal would do incredible harm if released all at once. Yes, we were in a nearly-uninhabited desert, but uncontrolled dark magic could do worse things than kill living beings. A few scattered ounces of Discord's "seeds" had made the whole Everfree Forest into a malignant entity with the power to capture the two most powerful ponies in Equestria. What horrors could hundreds of megathaums of undirected, maleficent magic do? How much magic was bound up in that crystal, anyway? I just couldn't do the math in my head. I needed to sketch out an amplituhedron, but I couldn't remember where I'd put my notebook and quill.
"Twilight," Jigsaw said softly.
I jerked my head around to stare at her. "What?"
"Is it urgent? Does it have to be done right now? Are we in danger?"
No," I said. "Well... no. Maybe." I shook my head, which gave me a brief dizzy spell. "No... I guess not. Not right now."
She nudged me in the direction of the library. I took a step and then stopped. She shoved me until I began walking. "Tea, then bed," she insisted.
"But, I—"
"Tea," she said, quietly, but firmly. "Then bed."
The tea was good. I don't remember falling asleep.
= = =
=
Wow....just wow...
Sombra really is pure evil.
Huh, well that was an interesting update with some very interesting information.
Though that still leaves some other questions unanswered.
1. Did those Unicorns establish any more outposts/towns/cities with their own crystal engines?
2. What happened to the Unicorns of that town.......and are they and their philosophy truly gone? (Sombra did manage to come back after all)
Though it would be funny to imagine the look on Twilight's face if she told Celestia this only to find out Sombra's attempt was a complete failure for X-reason.
haha! I just love this story. badass Twi indeed, my only problem would have to be chapter length, it's too bit-sized for my tastes. The quick updates keep me at peace though.
Everything else though is simply fantastic, and I deeply enjoy both the overall arc of the story and the character deveopmet and interaction. A 5/5 for sure.
3658149 Thank you very much!
continuing to enjoy the story, original cover was more mysterious and I think aligned better with the adventure mystery story you are building.
3662134 Yes... I'll probably change it back when I get home. Still wanting for something with more impact, though.
I just devowered this story in one sitting. It was completely unputdownable. Fantastic work sir.
3666261 Thank you very much! And may I say, I love your user name!
Well. That escalated quickly.
Damn. That was DARK.
Nice explanation of Sombra, though.
Fantastic representation of Sombra, your writing leaves the reader with lots of questions but when you answer them... wow. Onto the next chapter!
3700506 yeah. Ikr. (Btw ikr = I know right)
Good god, those books are a fantastic find. I'm with Twilight and her reaction.
And there's Sombra! With the title of that book, I'm thinking that the guesses that the cornucopia and the weapon were the same thing seem fairly likely.
Bwhahahahaha!
Same for that Twilight and Shining flashback, so hilarious.
Holy crap, so that was the plan with the weapon!
Welp, that explains the story opening.
Well now, that was clever of you. Starts off seeming to be innocently able to conjure food and such, then it turns out that it actually STEALS the items...and now the reveal of just how devastating that power can REALLY be...I mean holy crap that is some dark twisting of a possible good. Imagine how useful that sort of thing can be when needing to transport foods over large distances. You could practically teleport things while still very fresh...but using it to kill by requesting someone's heart...that is some twisted evil.
Chapter 15: Evil magic to the EXTREME!!
>>>"Of course, once we are able to get her within range, we can easily dispose of our greatest enemy by removing the safety restraints on the cornucopia and commanding, 'May I have the heart of Princess Celestia, please?'">>>
This is what we call the "Deus Ex Nuke": The maximally most horrible and ruthlessly cunning use of a super magical device/weapon, which no even remotely kind-hearted individual would ever think of. Consider how physics research by the pacifist Einstein was applied to construct nuclear weapons. (eye-narrows at author) You think as I do... you may be too dangerous to my plans...
3994918 Think for a moment how deadly simple telekinesis can be.
Just squeeze a person's carotid arteries for a minute. Pop the middle cerebral artery. Tear open the left ventricle. Or just go for the gusto and lift only their head. There are countless methods when you get creative.
Add teleportation to that... a magic-less enemy army would be helpless facing a handful of well-trained magical fighters with only telekinesis and teleportation.
I like to point to Nightcrawler's introductory battle scene in "X-Men 2" as a brilliant example how effective teleportation is for guerilla warfare.
As for telekinesis, at the very highest levels one could strip matter apart to atoms.
Yes, magic is devastatingly powerful and deadly in sinister hands... or hooves.
I really like this part of the story. It is extremely well written. Especially with the slight creepiness to the wording in the books. It reminded me of the 'Would you kindly' from the first Bioshock. Bravo.
This story is utterly fantastic :OOOO
Just thought I'd let you know :3
I knew Sombra was a part of this, but I didn't know the extent. This is truly evil.
We already knew this crystal was some kind of super weapon; why does everyone seem horrified at the specifics. Seriously; has Twilight never heard of anyone who wanted to take over the world before?
4037263
Umm... I've thought of stuff like this; and worse
So if I if my city was under attack by 10,000 enemies, and I sent out my army of 10,000 and win the battle with 3,000 casualties on my side, that makes me a hero. But if I have an efficient weapon that I can defend my city with and suffer no casualties, (and no pain to the enemies I kill) that makes me evil?
Eye of Argon?"
Oh god no. Please dont even talk about that.
The heart of--
OH DEAR GOD!!
damnit iisaw, thx to u im neber gonna get a solid night's sleep. i allow myself a half hour or so to read before bed but can never stop w 1 or 2 chapters. you have created the Lays chips of fimfiction.
also, second para: "I'm know the way"
4282066 Well. it all exists within how you use it. If you use it to save people, thats "good" if you use it to assassinate a benevolent monarch, thats "bad".
Considering "good" and "bad" don't actually exist, sombra could have thought what he was doing was "good", finally conquering their last enemy who was a great danger to unicorn superiority.
I've read almost 1500 stories on fimfiction now, and that one line is the first I've seen to establish Sombra as paramount creepy
Screw you Sombra!!! You are the biggest screwhead ever!!
you win the "I didnt see that coming award of the year" i still cant believe i didnt see it coming, that was BRILLIANT
Sweet Celestia, this is amazing! It's actually way more dark than I expected, and that makes me love it more.
One mistake (I think):
Capital letter after a comma, not a period.
Ahh, I wasn't expecting deep, show canon worldbuilding. Pleasant surprise, that!
So, Sombra was a unicorn supremacist and it was all an attempt to take back what they thought had been stolen from them. Who knows if it would have worked, especially with the element of surprise?
My advice? Somehow get a remote in that can deliver the key phrase: "Can I have a teaspoon full of the core of the sun, please?" There would be nothing but vapour for half a mile in every direction.
I'm surprised no one was mad at Twilight for her actions in this chapter. She destroyed a wealth of knowledge because of the potential evil that it could be used for; completely ignoring the good. A pony lost in the woods? "Can I have my child, please?" Villain on the run? "Can I have my parent's murderer, please?" Heck, with some tinkering, maybe even cancer. "May I have the tumor in my brain, please?"
Then their is all the knowledge she destroyed that wasn't even meant to be dangerous, like getting water out of the desert or simply making crystal engines, not even dark ones necessarily, that could have been used as clean energy sources for all sorts of gadgets. Really, Twilight acted more like a tyrant here than a wise ruler. Everything can be used for evil, like someone pointed out with Einsteins knowledge being used to make nuclear weapons. Yes, most people can probably agree that the world would be better off without nukes, but nuclear power plants would also be nonexistent without his work. Heck, if we ever create a fusion reactor, it will have been made possible do to Einstein's research, so can we really say what he discovered was bad?
Basically, Twilight took away the potential for major advancements for her people out of fear of what could have happened without consulting anyone but her own paranoia on the matter. Not only was this wrong, but it also shows how little faith she has in her own subjects. Equestria has been shown to be a relatively peaceful place, and that, ignoring the few bullies, ponies are responsible enough to handle their own lives and decisions without an asocial, panicky princess making wild assumptions.
5350165 There are some things that are better left alone and unknown.
5350165 If you could go back in time and prevent the technology that allowed the nuclear bomb to exist, would you? Probably not, but you can at least understand her reasoning.
░█▀░░░░░░░░░░░▀▀███████░░░░
░░█▌░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▀██████░░░
░█▌░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░███████▌░░
░█░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░████████░░
▐▌░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▀██████▌░░
░▌▄███▌░░░░▀████▄░░░░▀████▌░░
▐▀▀▄█▄░▌░░░▄██▄▄▄▀░░░░████▄▄░
▐░▀░░═▐░░░░░░══░░▀░░░░▐▀░▄▀▌▌
▐░░░░░▌░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▀░▀░░▌▌
▐░░░▄▀░░░▀░▌░░░░░░░░░░░░▌█░▌▌
░▌░░▀▀▄▄▀▀▄▌▌░░░░░░░░░░▐░▀▐▐░
░▌░░▌░▄▄▄▄░░░▌░░░░░░░░▐░░▀▐░░
░█░▐▄██████▄░▐░░░░░░░░█▀▄▄▀░░
░▐░▌▌░░░░░░▀▀▄▐░░░░░░█▌░░░░░░
░░█░░▄▀▀▀▀▄░▄═╝▄░░░▄▀░▌░░░░░░
░░░▌▐░░░░░░▌░▀▀░░▄▀░░▐░░░░░░░
░░░▀▄░░░░░░░░░▄▀▀░░░░█░░░░░░░
░░░▄█▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▀▀░░░░░░░▌▌░░░░░░
░░▄▀▌▀▌░░░░░░░░░░░░░▄▀▀▄░░░░░
▄▀░░▌░▀▄░░░░░░░░░░▄▀░░▌░▀▄░░░
░░░░▌█▄▄▀▄░░░░░░▄▀░░░░▌░░░▌▄▄
░░░▄▐██████▄▄░▄▀░░▄▄▄▄▌░░░░▄░
░░▄▌████████▄▄▄███████▌░░░░░▄
░▄▀░██████████████████▌▀▄░░░░
▀░░░█████▀▀░░░▀███████░░░▀▄░░
░░░░▐█▀░░░▐░░░░░▀████▌░░░░▀▄░
░░░░░░▌░░░▐░░░░▐░░▀▀█░░░░░░░▀
░░░░░░▐░░░░▌░░░▐░░░░░▌░░░░░░░
░╔╗║░╔═╗░═╦═░░░░░╔╗░░╔═╗░╦═╗░
░║║║░║░║░░║░░░░░░╠╩╗░╠═╣░║░║░
░║╚╝░╚═╝░░║░░░░░░╚═╝░║░║░╩
5350165
To use your analogy, Twilight didn't burn the knowledge of nuclear reactions, she burned the knowledge of nuclear weapons. Additionally I feel I should address several key points in your argument:
A) in cannon the only known method of producing the crystals needed for Sombra's plans is filled with dag-nasty evil magic
B) Twilight (nor anyone else) has not exactly shown a history of making clear decisions and seeing the long view when in emotional distress
C)Removing part of your brain, even a tumor, is a terrible idea.
D) You are forgetting the MASSIVE amount of power needed to grab a thing from an unspecified distance and move it to another place (as Twilight mentioned earlier). The reason that the Cornucopia works is that it has power core made out of condensed evil and the tears of orphans (I exagerate).
E)I cannot blame her. I would have done the same and so would a good many people. There is a point where you have to contemplate how mature your race is, and then weight it against the evil that even one bad seed could do with such a technology, and then you throw it all out the window because a moments temptation is all it takes to cause massive harm and that's too much of a risk to take (especially in the hugs and warm fuzzies world of Equis)
Addendum: Malicious intent might not even be a factor. Given how little we know about pony language, we could very well be getting a Tolkein style translation of what they are actually saying. A simple mispronunciation might change it from "bring my favorite coffee mug" to "bring my neighbors jewlery". And that's a relatively benign example. Not to mention that the spell itself requires focused intent. WHat if you were asking for the juice from the fridge but all you were thinking about was how good it would go with your neighbor's freshly baked pie. Poof, you have a pie, or a pie and a drink, or some ungodly amalgamation of the two as the spell tries to answer both demands.
led
Twilight's efforts here are undermined pretty hard by the fact that the core technology of the Cornucopia - teleport-based retrieval of items matching a description - has survived and is in active use. Twilight has used it repeatedly, at extreme range, just to retrieve sandwiches. In fact, her range may actually be superior to that of the Cornucopia, as the distance of her sandwich retrievals is pretty close to the distance the Cornucopia would need to reach across to steal Celestia's heart, and Sombra seemed to think Celestia was out of range.
Sure, that's Twilight, a magical expert and magical powerhouse with plenty of other destructive options at her disposal, like meteor strikes and the buzzsaw shield. Still, she demonstrates that the knowledge has survived. It doesn't seem to be classified information, as she's happy to use it in front of witnesses and explain technical details, so Celestia never told her to keep quiet about it. Since the power requirements scale exponentially with distance, a disgruntled Canterlot University grad student could probably put together a small-scale one-shot device from stolen lab supplies and try to swipe Celestia's brain from a distance of blocks. At that range, a lab-grade power supply would probably be enough.
Thus, it's not clear what Twilight could hope to destroy. If she's trying to eradicate the idea of using teleportation in such a way, that might work, but it seems liable to be reinvented. If she's trying to eradicate the knowledge of how to build the power supply, that might work, but you could always use a different power supply. It doesn't need to supply an entire city and last a thousand years to be a useful weapon. (There's the possibility that only a dark magic power supply would be able to steal body parts, but it seems unlikely. Light magic doesn't seem to have any built-in anti-murder constraints, if the buzzsaw shield and the meteor strike are any indication.) If she's trying to eradicate all the engineering work that went into turning an expert-level spell into a high-capacity military installation a small child could use, that might work, but it still wouldn't stop experts from casting the spell.
She's definitely acting on emotion here. She reacted similarly to the tyrant Celestia picture, although there, her response wasn't so drastic as to burn the book and all books nearby that might be any degree of related to it. I just hope that once she calms down, she thinks hard about independent rediscovery of the Cornucopia's concept. Specifically, whether it's happened, and what preparations might be necessary for when it does happen. If it's actually a workable, efficient means of murder, she might need to push the state of the art in anti-teleport warding. It seems like it might not work or might not be better than other options, since no one has snagged Celestia's organs.
Other notes: that retrieval spell sure would have come in handy any of the times Twilight wanted to get the Elements of Harmony and knew what they looked like, or when Twilight and Sombra both wanted the Crystal Heart. Also, Twilight kind of flip-flops on whether dark magic is evil, first thinking "Dark Magic wasn't exactly evil, it was just unconstrained", and then thinking about what "dozens of tons of undirected, maleficent magic" would do when hit by a meteor.
Sombra is Kano, obviously.
I understand Twilight's fear, but some of these books could've very well been harmless. She should've skimmed through them first.
Cya
Raziel-chan
Way late, but you missed a start quote, iisaw.
7226609
Welp, no cookie for me.
I still think the changelings were somehow created here, though.
5266003 i read a similar story where some evil ponies had created magic wands that could open tiny portals into the sun, thus shooting beams of plasma at a target. it's called "the quest" also by iisaw!
You, sir, are pure evil for mentioning that.
This chapter was a doozy but I can't help but think that something bad is about to happen.
… welp
Celestia's hea- OH YEAH BABY! YOU GO SOMBRA!
Ever since the beginning I've expected that Twilight's reason for burning books must have been profound, rational and well thought out considering it's her and it's books, but instead it's an irrational knee-jerk reaction made in a spur of fear.
It makes sense with her character, but it's very disappointing. The exact knowledge she would need to disable or dismantle the crystal might have been in those very books she burned. At this point i hope this action comes back to bite her, hard, at some future date, and that she comes to regret it and learn from it.
5350165
8274111
I cannot but agree with you here and do not have much more to add. Twilight is shortsighted fool she did not even study the tomes fully and now that she has burned them she goes. "Oh how do i destroy this massive nuke like thing? Ehheheh maybe i should have read the tomes which tell me how it works!" It is just so stupid that it is evil, no other way to say it. Twilight should be kept away from any and all roles as a leader after what she has wrought here. Anyone who can make this kind of decision as a knee-jerk is not to be trusted with any real power.