Summations and Uncontrolled Variables
Keeping her mouth mindfully closed, Cadence watched as the last of the curious ponies and reporters took their leave of the conference room. Taking a sip of her lavender tea, she waited until the door finally clicked shut before looking up at the only other occupants remaining in the room.
Occupants who seemed to swap outward appearances. Twilight, who was no longer under the intense stare of Equestria’s proper, took to openly fidgeting in her chair, and Zachery, who looked a lot less painfully enthusiastic about life, replaced his fake timid smile with a truer frown.
Twilight, what did you get yourself into this time?
Placing her cup down she prepared herself for the newest terror that her sister-in-law had manage to uncover, and spoke, “Twilight, I want you to tell me the truth about-” But before she could finish, Twilight cut her off, diving in head first with her explanation.
“Celestia got possessed by the spirit of her father!” Twilight blurted out, her wide eyes comparable to the stress of a dam at its breaking point. “Her father who, by the way, is quite evil, bloodthirsty, and can possess her body.” With flourish Twilight flipped back her bangs and revealed a dark blue bruise above her temple, “That’s how I got this bruise. Thankfully her father lost control before he could kill us. Luna was able to contain Celestia, with her permission, but it takes all her energy to keep that barrier up. That’s why Luna isn’t here and why Celestia hasn’t made any public appearances in months. There is no Alicorn Sickness, that’s a lie and I’m sorry for spreading it.”
Twilight gasped, her hooves vaguely miming her next words in the air, “I need you to sit on the throne for a few days while I go back to Ponyville to get the necessary runes to make a more permanent containment spell. After that’s done and Luna is able to talk to us we can make a plan to separate Celestia from her father without killing her, or having her father kill us or any other creature.”
Left blinking in the aftermath of Twilight’s explanation, Cadence reached for her teacup and drained it. Twilight’s words and the image of that very ugly bruise took hold in her mind as she poured herself another cup. Draining that too, she looked at Zachery who, during this explanation, showed nothing more than vague interest. “And what do you have to do with all this? What is your story?”
“Before or after I was brought to Equestria?” Zachery answered, his tone holding nothing of his earlier apprehension to being directly addressed.
Like always her intuition concerning others emotions had been right. Just once she wished it wasn’t so perfect. Was Zachery out of his comfort zone, lost in a new and unfamiliar world? Yes. Was he completely helpless and openly trusting of any creature with a kind face?
It was impossible for anyone who lived in that Tartarus cursed place he described to be so naive.
Breathing in deeply she prepared for what would come from his mouth, “Both.” She answered boldly, “The full truth, leave nothing out.”
“I stumbled into a clearing, Twilight saw me, chased me, and then beat me bloody. I got away met Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie, then became friends with them. Twilight found out; tricked them, tricked me, poisoned me, and almost killed me with these chains that she made.” In a quick motion he unraveled one of the bandages on his arm and…
The porcelain teacup clashed loudly against its saucer as it fell from her hooves. There was a dark band of burned skin around his wrists. Raised skin spread from those burns not as dark but no less vicious up his arms toward his shoulders, before disappearing under his shirt. Those burns had no earthly right on a innocent being.
“Fluttershy saved me, with the help of Pinkie Pie and Rarity." Zachery said, wrapping his arm back up, “I was too weak to stay in my home. So we came to Equestria. Talked to Luna. I went to sleep. Twilight woke me, we went on a walk, and then the Sun Princess tried to kill us. Then she tried to kill me. Then I fought her, then Luna fought her, then I fought her again, and we contained her.” Zachery flashed a bright, cocky smile, “And here we are.”
Voice catching in her throat Cadence questioned, “Twilight tried to kill you?” She couldn’t take her eyes off the human as he shrugged so nonchalantly.
“The chains/shackles she made were supposed to separate me from my magic, but it almost killed me. I don't think it was supposed to be lethal.” Zachery said, his voice trailing in a bit of a mumble.
“You.” Her voice warbled, “You’re okay with what she did?”
“Hell no. I hate what she did and dislike her very much.” Zachery said, smiling, his voice more charming than such a subject under these circumstances should ever allow, “I can’t wait for the day that I am certain that I will never see her again.”
During this, Twilight’s posture had lowered, almost taking her under the table, and in the wake of the empty confused quietness left in the place of Zachery’s words, she tried to get her attention, “Cadence I…”
“Did you do this, Twilight?” She asked sharply, the brunt of her glare turned on Twilight who replied with a nod, not meeting her eyes, “Why, how could you do something so horrible?”
Twilight’s gaze shifted down at the uneaten food she had piled absentmindedly on her plate and whispered, “I thought it was the right thing to do. I thought it was the only way to protect Equestria. I was wrong and I’m so, so sorry.”
“Twilight, this is something that a simple apology can’t fix.” She said, her voice straining, “Chasing an innocent creature with the intent to cause harm, assaulting an innocent creature with magic, casting body altering spells without consent, causing grievous bodily harm- Twilight, these are serious crimes.” She said sadly, biting back tears, “Twilight, as a princess of Equestria I cannot let this go unchecked. How could our subjects ever trust us if we don't hold ourselves to our own laws. Luna and I will deal with Celestia. You will be held here until the time of your trial.”
“No.” Zachery said.
Taken aback by the sudden, bold statement, she retorted, “She injured you permanently.” And here, Cadence tried not to focus on the burnt flesh within her sight. It looked like it had been boiled from the inside. “You will be scarred for life.”
“I know that.” Zachery answered, “Still, no.”
She couldn’t understand it. It gripped her heart to treat Twilight in this way, but it was her duty to bring criminals no matter who they were, to justice. She was a princess and any creature or pony that was harmed by another pony had a right to a fair trial. Anycreature would want a fair trial if they were subjected to such things. Unless, “Then your race doesn’t have punishments for offences like this?” She asked, “It’s admirable that you don’t have these types of crimes, but we do. Please allow me to find a way to make amends.”
“Oh no.” Zachery laughed a sound likened to silk and honey, “Laying a trap before an agreed peaceful meeting would mean death. If she was a human, she would be dead. Most likely killed by whoever heard of her betrayal and got to her first.” Zachery sobered, “I need her here and alive. It’s better this way.”
Recovering from the continued juxtaposition of his words, Cadence focused on the meaning he was trying to convey, or rather the lack of sense behind it. “You want to fight alongside her?” She couldn’t understand that. Unless he thought that he had to fight alongside Twilight. He couldn’t know that there were other ponies that were more than qualified for this. Why else would anycreature work with someone that tried to kill them? “Twilight may be powerful in her own right, but a fight should fall on the capable backs of ponies trained for these types of threats.”
Zachery blinked at her, eyes squinting as he turned her words over in his head. “I don’t think I said that right.” Zachery said, “I need her where I can see her and not in a jail. Celestia’s father’s followers were able to free her without Luna knowing. Luna is strong, right? If those followers could get past her they probably could get to Twilight if she was alone, which would be bad.”
She ran through those words, a frown tugging at her face, “Why would they want to get to Twilight? Don’t they want Celestia?”
“Before I refused them, Celestia’s father, he was nice to me. That and he didn’t kill me when he gave me this bruise while he easily could have.” Twilight clarified as her hoof stroked the bangs over her eye, “For whatever reason that we don’t know, I think he wanted me to join him.”
“Right.” Zachery answered nodding his head to Twilight’s reasoning, “They want her which means it’ll be bad for me and everyone else if they get her.”
“You’re assuming he wants her because he was nice to her.” She said, still a little thrown with how calm Zachary’s demeanor was. Then again, if what he said about the lands he came from was true, working with things that tried to kill you might be normal, “It could have been a coincidence. It could be that hurting Twilight wasn’t at the top of his list.”
Zachery clicked his tongue seemingly thinking it over, “Probably,” he said, “but I don’t want to take that chance.”
Letting silence blanket them, she thought over Zachary’s words, “You said that Celestia’s father, King Conquering Wind-” She paused. Cadence expected Twilight’s intense stare. She was the princess of love and to be completely honest with herself the issues of ancient genealogy rarely overlapped with the relationship problems of the everyday pony. Twilight taking interest in her somewhat unnecessary knowledge of the far, far past wasn’t unexpected. What was unexpected was Zachery’s reaction. If one could call it that. She barely saw it out of the corner of her eyes. So quick that she almost missed it; his pupils contracted, and shifted back before she could finished the last syllable of the long dead king’s name. “That he used Celestia to attack you.” She continued looking at Twilight and looking for a repeat of Zachery’s actions and finding none. “You said that you fought him off, why don’t you believe that you can do that again?”
“You haven’t seen the damage done to the Western Wing of the castle.” Twilight whispered taking a moment to herself to glance westward.
Cadence eyes flickered to the path of Twilight’s gaze. She didn’t notice it before but the path they took to the conference rooms had been somewhat long winded. Something that could have been avoided if they had just took a direct route, “What happened to the Western Wing?”
“It was demolished.” Twilight said her ears pinned to the sides of her head, “Most of the areas in the Wing are structurally unsound. Just being in there is a hazard with the broken glass and wilting ceiling.” Twilight mumbled, “Not to mention the amount of smoke.”
Her eyes narrowed in confusion at the nature of Twilight’s explanation, “You’re saying that King Conquering Wind did that?” That couldn’t be right. “In all the texts about him, he is described as a feeble stallion who was slow to anger.”
“Texts?” Twilight perked up, her eyes taking on a manic sheen as her nostrils flared, “You have texts on Conquering Wind? How? Luna said all such ancient texts were placed deep in their families crypt for safekeeping.”
Slightly pulling back from Twilight’s intensity she said, “We got them as wedding gifts. A private Canterlot library believed that learning about the rulers of the past will better help us guide our ponies.” She said unease spreading to her voice, “At least that was what the note said, but they weren’t ancient. They were worn but not nearly old enough to be from a time before Celestia and Luna.”
“Cadence, you need to get rid of those books.” Twilight said, a strange look crossing her face, and was that a twitch? “I don’t care how you do it. Burn them if you have to, just get rid of them.”
Burn a book? “Twilight, breathe. What’s wrong?” She asked with her hoof raised as to calm the mane raising, chittering panic that Twilight was slowly building up to.
“That book is a trap.” Twilight said hooves tapping against the table in a frenzy. “They’re trying to bring you to their side.” Her wings started flinching, “What’s in the books, what did they say, how many of them do you have?” Twilight asked, her mind tangled somewhere between screaming and unleashing sparking magic in her horn.
In that moment of tension she did not want to answer Twilight. The strangeness of the collection had brought her pause when they had first acquired it, but since nothing came from it, they simply ignored it for the most part. Now, looking at the way Twilight had reanimated back to life she wished she had gave it more of a thought. Twilight’s response was unnerving her. She had all the passion that usually came from finding a new discovery, yet her breaths indicated that she was seconds away from dry heaving.
“It said that King Conquering Wind was an explorer who was betrayed.” Cadence said trying to recall the words from the strange book she had skimmed. “It said that he hired creatures to help the tribes and that those creatures then attacked them unprovoked. It said that Conquering Wind tried to negotiate a peaceful solution, one that would benefit them all, but the creatures refused, choosing violence instead. After the resulting battle, Conquering Wind was too weak to keep the pony tribes from separating and he died in misery and regret.”
Her ears perked up to the sound of clattering silverware. She looked over just in time to see Zachery’s head ducking under the table.
“Don’t mind me.” Zachery’s cheerful disembodied voice said. “Just dropped my fork.”
She pursed her lips. She would have commented on the abrupt way the human had made himself scarce if it wasn’t for the apparent horror on Twilight’s face. “I’m going to assume,” She said as Twilight had yet to close her mouth, “that what I read was wrong?” It was apparent that she was more uninformed than she had originally thought she was. Even after the info dump she had received earlier.
An info dump that, if it was even a little bit true, was now a thousand times more concerning than the thousand it had started on.
“While words can’t describe how disappointed I am in you for your actions in Zachery’s homeland.” She started, bringing Twilight a little closer to stable ground. If this was as big as those mass produced books implied it was… Start from what you know and work your way down. Something that Celestia had told her many years before. “Twilight, I still would trust your word on history over what a strange book can tell me. I need you to tell me everything you know about Conquering Wind and his followers.”
Maybe than I will know why his followers want me on their side. Being targeted by a sinister hidden group was not a notion that sat well with her.
Twilight shifted higher in her seat and with a little hesitation to gather her thoughts, she spoke, “We don’t know much about their motives. All we really know for sure is that he wants to take over Equestria.” Twilight answered, and Cadence tried not to pay attention to how she wrung her hooves, “He made it clear that he doesn’t like Equestria’s current ideals, and attempts to be peaceful mediators. Not that we are great at that.” She finished bitterly.
Cadence frowned, “That explains why he tried to attack you.” She took care not to look to hard at the bruise on Twilight’s face. That looked like it still hurt, “Why did he attack Zachery?”
Twilight froze. Her mouth gaped at intervals words ending half formed on her tongue. “Zachery?” She said calling the human’s name. The human that was still under the table. Cadence fought the urge to peek at what he was doing. “I need you to go back to your room.”
Zachery peaked over the rim of the table his head just turned to Twilight. A frown passed between them and for a moment Zachery looked like he was going to protest. The human sighed and fully removed himself from the table raising his arms above his head he stretched as he made to leave, “I’ll be in my room then.”
Twilight’s lips pursed, “I thought you were lost?”
Zachery shot her back a grin that didn’t at all reach his eyes, “Don’t worry about me, I’m great at finding my way.”
Cadence held her tongue until the human left, “What was that about?”
“I’m hiding some things from Zachery, and he knows it.” Twilight said, her eyes flicked towards the door Zachery exited from, “I think he’s hiding some things from me too.”
“Like?” Cadence urged, wondering what kind of secrets an injured nomad with a proficiency for concealing his emotions could hide.
“I don’t know. I didn’t get this feeling until after we were attacked by that king, that thing controlling Celestia.” Twilight said her ears drooping, “For all I know these feelings might not be real it might be-”
“Conquering Wind’s influence doing to you what it did to Celestia?” Cadence said, pushing her to talk. It was hard not copying Twilight’s uneasy twitches when talking about the power they were against. She had her own reservations against magic whose purpose was to effect the mind.
Twilight winched, “I don't know. I need to properly seal Celestia to make sure and even then the influence could be coming from somewhere else. All we know about Conquering Wind's plans is that he can take hold of Celestia, wants to take over Equestria, and has followers listening to his every command.”
“And that he hates humans.” Cadence pressed, “Why does he hate humans, Twilight?”
Patiently she waited for Twilight to go through the self calming motions that she taught her. Then blankly almost dead-like, Twilight answered her.
“I've never told you what I found in that book.” Twilight said dryly actively trying to kept emotion out of her voice, “I’ve never told you what we found out about the humans.”
“No,” Cadence said remembering the confusing mess of fifth-hoof type of knowledge that had trickled down to the Crystal Empire, “you did not.”
Taking a steadying breath Twilight spoke, “Before I tell you anything you must promise me never to tell Zachery. He doesn't know any of this. He doesn't know why I lost myself trying to get to humans, or why he is being targeted. I know that's a terrible thing to hide from him, but if he knew why all this happened, things might get worse.”
Cadence frowned, “What do you think you need to hide from him?”
“Not until you promise me.”
She held Twilight’s fierce stare and the way her wings puffed in agitation, and relented. “You wouldn't tell me unless I agree, would you?” She said, “Alright I promise not to tell Zachery.” Twilight held her in her stare until she finished the motions of a Pinkie Promise.
Twilight collapsed into her seat, wings sagging with her and the waning tension beginning to fade, “Good, good. He can't know. I-It would be bad.” Breathing in slowly for a moment Twilight broke the silence of the room. “I need to start at the beginning. Before Celestia and Luna, before Equestria. At the start, or as close to it as anypony knows.” Sitting up, eyes tired and hooves shaking, Twilight began calmly, coldly, “Ponies, we weren’t the first creatures to live here.”
Zachery kept his pace, light and quick as he walked through the castle halls. He did what he wanted to do and he had no reason to lag around. He could’ve pressed his ear against the conference room door and found out exactly what Twilight and Cadence were talking about, but that came with a risk he didn’t want to take. To be more precise he didn’t want to catch a tail. He knew he angered a lot of the King’s ponies with his latest stunt and it would be bad for him to encounter any of them now.
Violently protecting himself and in turn changing the headlines before they could print just wouldn’t do.
He passed countless doors barely paying attention as he counted corners and various chips in the walls to guide him back.
Stopping in the middle of the hall he allowed his head to tilt to the sound of screaming coming from a path just off of his planned route. It really didn’t sound that far from him probably would take only a minute to check.
It was also none of his business. At best he would be borrowing trouble.
So leave, and plan your next step. Which is to sit in your room, tally your resources, and do nothing.
Down the hall the screaming grew louder and he could almost make out the words being said.
“...human...we got recruits...plans wasted…”
And now, it was probably his problem.
Inching down the hall as to not make a sound, he reached the ponies arguing in the adjacent room. Not being noticed as he peered into the room was easy. Not reacting to the sight in the room was considerably harder.
Huffing, face redder than his already red coat, Big Macintosh glared down at his sister. In the time he took to find her and this room he had discarded his get up, allowing him free movement as he paced, “Do you have anything to say to me, anything at all?”
“No, Big Mac I don’t.” Came Applejack’s tentative reply.
Big Macintosh stopped his pacing presenting an impressive figure standing at full height as he glared down at his sister. Applejack, on the other hand, looked as if she wanted to merge into the ground.
“That’s not good enough, Applejack! We pulled Applebloom out of school because we were so worried that something could have happened to her. All the kids in her class were pulled out. Do you have any idea how much schooling she missed, how much they all did? Cheerilee had to take another job because they won’t pay her to teach an empty classroom!”
“I didn’t know that would happen.”
“You should have, Applejack!”
Pulling from the door frame he took a few steps away from the very one sided screaming match. Well now he knew that it had nothing to do with him. Well it did, but not in a way that he would be caring about anytime soon.
He let the screams wash over him just listening to deep seated rage not at all lessening at plaintively offered apologies.
Was it sick that he couldn’t keep the smile from his face?
“They’re really going at it.”
His nails bit into castle wall and his teeth into his tongue to keep the shout from leaving his mouth. He was able to hide the shock enough to look at the pony, that sneaked up on him, without setting off sparks.
The stallion regarded him with a certain emotionless expression. The fringes of his curly gold mane barely touched his green eyes. His coat a dark golden brown and his mark was covered by a dark grey jacket. In his eyes flashed an emotion that changed so fast Zachery wasn’t able to place it in the brief moment it showed.
Smiling as the screams beside him escalated, he spoke, “Hello, I don’t think I’ve seen you before?”
The pony stayed silent, staring into his eyes for a moment before looking at the cracked open door to the room, “Ponyville is a great town filled with strong good ponies who wouldn’t hesitate to fight against a threat.”
“Ponyville, huh? I heard of that town in passing mostly.” Zachery said, bouncing on his heels releasing the curl of tension the settled in his body, “It does sound nice. It must have wonderful scenery, does it?”
The stallion did not look at him. He stood as cold and calculated as ever, the profile of his eyes narrowed in a blank stare at the growing discord in the room, “The Apple family runs ponyville, though they’ll never admit it.” The stallion said shifting on his hooves just so a sliver of a sword's sheath peaked out of his coat, “If they tried to gain their rightful control no one would stop them. Losing the biggest source of income would not bode well for that town.”
Zachery offered the stallion a slow blink and a confused smile, “‘Income’? I’m sorry I don’t know that word.”
“But you, an isolated nomad, can understand the concept of rightful ownership of a town.” The stallion addressed, looking into his eyes.
“Honestly,” Zachery said, “I don’t understand a lot of the things here.” A smile that perfectly mimicked open kindness, “Mostly, I just pretend to understand. Ah, do you promise not to tell anycreature that? It’s kind of embarrassing.”
The stallion gave Zachery one last look. “I see. Ignorance can be embarrassing.” The stallion turned around and left, exposing his back as he entered the main hall.
Humming Zachery followed him at a distance, just close enough that the stallion knew he was being followed, “Wait a bit.” He said stopping just at the lip of the larger hall, “I didn’t introduced myself yet.” Hand opened he gestured at himself, “Hello, my name is Zachery, but I think you already know that, right?”
Emotion once again flashed through the stallion's eyes, this time staying just long enough for Zachery to recognize it. The emotion left and the stallion answered, “My name is Golden Leaf.”
Quickly Golden Leaf disappeared down a bend in the hall but Zachery made no movement to follow; instead he breathed out, releasing harmless sparks, building magic, and the urge to follow the stallion and strangle him.
Disgust, it was disgust on that stallion’s face. Nothing less and nothing more but pure disgust had been in the stallion's eyes.
One of the demon king's followers of course. He had to be. Of the ponies he met today he was the only one that felt dangerous. That made him want to physically defend himself or attack. This could mean that he, Golden Leaf, was the only dangerous pony on the king’s side.
Or that they kept their actual soldiers hidden.
The shouting from the occupied room lessened as the occupants grew tired and still. He, not wanting to interact directly with anymore ponies, turned around and continued on the path that would bring him back to his room. The opposite direction that Golden Leaf went in.
Following after the stallion would bring him nothing, nevermind that he wasn’t in the state to fight against whatever unknown strengths that the stallion had. For all he knew there was a group of the king's followers hidden a few strides forward ready to ambush him.
As he walked he kept his smile soft and plaintive nodding briefly to the odd gobsmacked maid or butler that he happened to walk passed.
It was too early to start a fight. No matter how eager those reporters were to be the first to tell their story it still takes time to write, print, and distribute a paper. Print media was a slow process.
His thoughts paused fumbling the pacing of his stride.
Human print media was considered slow. The constantly moving machinery and the required monotone robotic efficacy of print workers notwithstanding. How much longer did it take for ponies media cycles to work?
Fast enough. It will work fast enough. He was working on a belief at best and a weak assumption at worst, but he had to act as if it would go through. If it didn’t…
He hid a grimace in another passing smile to a maid whose resulting shock brought her to an unfortunate meeting with a stray housekeeping trolley. Giving the mess behind him a sympathetic glance he continued on his way.
...He would ignite those bridges when he came to them.
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Looking forward to the next chapter.
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Kinda weird how Candence don't notice that the king's name 'Conquering Winds' does not match up with his supposed charateristics, written in the books.
I mean, 'Conquering Winds'.
You know shit just got real when Twilight tells you to burn a book.
Well this chapter took forever. Lol
Glad it still updating!
Wow, to think nearly three hundred people enjoy reading your story mate. That warms my heart.
7922061 yeah it's a dead giveaway, Like Sunshine Raindrops it's dead giveaway of a villain
media.tenor.co/images/96563b7dbe1025194610c2b0da86e4a2/tenor.gif
I know it's been pointed out before, but it seems as if the author has a habit of throwing out numbers without understanding what they really mean. Take the number of 2.1 (IRC) billion ponies. It's been shown other species (the griffons and yaks) have their own nations, so Twilight's statement that they are all over the world makes no scene.
In addition, ponies simply to not have the ability to produce enough food for a population of that amount. Consider the following facts: Applejack's farm is not mechanized, it's in no danger of being out-competed by other farms, and it produces food that is consumed by middle and lower class households, not the luxury food that would be eaten by upper class and the nobility. This demonstrates that the techniques her family uses are the rule, not the exception. Therefor the 2.1 billion figure simply cannot be true.
7958054
I still thoroughly enjoy the fic, but I agree with you. I once pointed out how easily it would be for the humans to destroy the pony population (the author went out of his way to have discord explain the uniformity of pony biology within the 3 kinds ), and how a simple mix of biological and/or chemical agents would cripple them. Lack of diversity in structure leaves open for plenty of manipulation and abuse on a large scale. The humans are shown to be at least as advanced as we are (the author explained how the common foe united humanity, and how they entered into a technological storm of innovation and progress, the likes of which we've never seen. Also confirmed nuclear weaponry (which is technically different than just atomic weaponry), and the image of their computers puts them at the very least in a state comparable to our late 1990s).
My main point is that we have long since mastered the art of biochemical warfare, which considering how primitive the ponies believe humans to be, would be easy to implement covertly (Who would expect cave people to be capable of developing highly volatile/contagious germs and chemicals in a relatively short period of time? Are we really supposed to believe that the humans haven't been working on something that with a little bit of study of pony biology would not be easily adapted into a deadly virus/toxin?). However, I also think applying that idea (especially so soon in the fic) would ruin the story ("and one month later, all of the unicorns lost the use of their magic, the wings on all the pegasi have shriveled, and all the earth ponies are now invalids. Guess the humans already won. Thanks for reading, bye!").
In cases like this, I try to employ suspension of disbelief (of course, I do have my limits). Do the numbers the author use particularly make sense in his universe? Let's be honest, not really. But for the sake of the story it still works, and so we can still perfectly enjoy things.
7976951 I can definitely see where you're coming from. For me the character interactions are kind of grey area - on one hand their actions seem OCC, but on the other they are essentially dealing with a situation that they have never dealt with before. Probably the two biggest headdesk inducing moments were Applejack sending the letter that started all the panic in Equestria, and Twilight's boneheaded attempt at reconciling with Zachary after they arrive in Canterlot. Honestly, by now she really should have learned the friendship isn't something you can force.
7961634 I'm not so sure I agree about the feasibility of using bio-warfare. If you want to come up with an disease that would target a pony subrace, then you need biological samples of what you want to infect, an existing organism that can be easily modified, and time. Even today most, if not all, agents that would be used in germ warfare haven't been genetically modified. In this case, they would probably be better off with a low tech approach - say dumping large amounts of e. coli into the water supply to hamstring the water infrastructure.
The thing about the numbers is that the author could have easily rectified it by giving the ponies a population of 700 million or so, then giving the humans a population of 200 million. Limited space to expand, and all that.
Dude you need to update more
7980290 Well in the case of the chapter I commented upon (I hadn't gotten that far in) it was like the author had taken a single aspect of their canon personalities and cranked it up to 11. For example, Rarity going full PTSD from the swamp filth, yeah she's a whiny drama queen and all, but the complete mental break there? That's a bit much.
Same with Pinkie, yeah she's silly and naïve at times and doesn't always realise when something may be serious, but her complete nonsensical silly oblivious reaction to Rarity's obvious broiling rage is, again, a bit much. She's not outright stupid. Usually.
Now Fluttershy with the hydra incident is a little more iffy, on one hand you have a creature dying what would be an extremely painful and gruesome (and graphic) death, on the other hand Flutters works with all sorts of predatory animals and should be at least somewhat accustomed to death. That one's more a grey area so I let it slide, but the first two examples I can definitely say are too exaggerated.
8004114 "We"?
This story still updating?
Hey! thought you should know the big news! recently I decided to choose the top 25 stories from my fav list. my list was over 370 stories.....O_O.....damn. well it was a painful experience, being so many awesome stories I've come to love not able to make the top 25. but in the end I was able to pick my top 25. So it brings me great joy to tell you this story made my Top 25!
congratulations! ^_^
8124526 Just takes a while sometimes, but totally worth it!
Is this going to be continued?
Here's hoping for a new chapter soon
Considering this story hasn’t updated in nearly a year I’m forced to assume it is over and I get to make up an ending. Zac’s ploys work and he ends up living out his life as a curosity and a living warning of over reaction. Celestia is eventually exorcied successfully and the King is banished for good. Everyone traces his influence to the fallen 3 and they get to be forgiven a bit sooner.
Zac makes contact with the infiltrators and they get to destroy the king’s minons and then go home to ever so slowly open diplomatic channels. Given human propaganda, Zac either doesn’t live to see it or he’s old when it happens. And maybe that messed up magic the dudes have will be corrected as a gesture of goodwill by purple smart. The ponies try for a culture victory but humanity gets to space first and wins a tech victory, the end.
So... What was supposed to happen next in this story?