The Black Knight of Equestria
In a plane outside of human comprehension, there exists a structure that serves as a meeting place for deities and individuals who are of singularly cruel and sadistic mindsets. It takes the appearance of a large gazebo-like structure, fifty feet across, with tall, Gothic pillars of white stone arching up to form Romanesque arches as they meet the ceiling dome, a hundred feet above the floor. Past the pillars, one can see just some of the infinite realities out there, with the view shown in each gap changing at the whim of those within. The floor is made of white marble, and the ceiling is emblazoned with images of suffering and cruelty: mementos of some of the favorite past acts of those monsters that frequent this place. This place is not the only one of its kind: the nature of the multiverse, an infinite set of infinite realities, both parallel and otherwise, means that for whatever place, event, object, or person you could think of, an infinite number of variations on it exist somewhere, scattered across other dimensions. This particular meeting place differed in that the air there was very relaxed, almost casual. One might even say that this refuge, that existed outside of even the boundaries of the infinite dimensions of the multiverse, was like a clubhouse for all the trolls and pranksters of the multiverse.
Sitting at a round, wooden table in the center of the Clubhouse right now were some of those individuals. There was a tall male human, or at least something wearing the shape of a human male, wearing a red uniform trimmed with black shoulders and trim. Clipped to the right side of his chest was a pin, with a gold oval on its side, and a silver crescent with its convex side pointed up.
Sitting next to him was a being with the body of a dragon, a goat’s head with antlers from a deer and an ibex, a lion’s front leg and a giant bird claw for arms, a reptilian leg, two bat wings that were different shades of blue, and a horse’s leg. His eyes were yellow with red pupils, and his fur went from light-grey to brown to dark red scales as it went down the length of his body to his tail.
Opposite him was a humanoid with bird-like talons for feet, huge crow wings on its back, and a bird’s head at the end of its long serpentine neck. It was covered head to toe in indigo feathers, although the color and texture seemed to flicker and change as one watched. It wore an off white tunic, and was adorned with many pieces of golden jewelry about its wrist, waist, and neck. Again, the jewelry’s exact shape seemed to change from moment to moment. In one hand, the creature held a long staff, which was topped with a golden symbol resembling a twisted flame.
The final one present at the table was another apparent human male: the only hint that he was something more were his unnaturally blood red eyes. His hair was silver and trimmed neatly to his head, the same as his beard. He wore a short black cloak over a black suit lined with white, and in his white-gloved hands he held a walking stick. His face was lined with age, but the unholy mischief and sadistic humor glinting in his eyes made him look slightly younger.
As might be expected of a gathering that consisted of a member of a sufficiently advanced alien race, a spirit of chaos, a god of sorcery and change, and an immortal wizard prankster, the conversation had turned to the suffering of other dimensions.
“No, I hold that the would-be sorcerer is more hilarious than the Skulltaker, did you say it was called?” The old man, commonly known as Zeltrech Schweinorg, Magician of the Second Magic, more commonly known as ‘that damn Zeltrech,’ argued with the personification of Chaos.
“Well, of course you would say that, Zel ol’ chum. You are somewhat biased towards spellcasters,” Discord replied easily as he sipped on a glass that he hadn’t had a moment earlier.
“Just as you are biased towards anything to do with Chaos, my serpentine friend,” quipped the humanoid sitting next to him. Strangely, his voice was virtually identical to Discord’s.
Across the table, Tzeentch contemptuously spat a drop of pure corruption to one side. “Please, don’t tell me you think that one of the Skull Lord’s ilk, even just a human bound into the form of one, is in any way a worthy representative of Chaos. Now, that Invention character on the other hand…”
Q laughed. “Just his backstory alone is fascinating, I’ll give him that.” A note of mocking crept into his smile and tone. “Although, should you really be making claims about who exactly is the best representative of chaos? In such a gathering as this, that could only end badly.”
Discord leaned in towards the table, grinning madly. “Especially since there’s only one chaos god at this table who’s been banished from their home dimension.”
The Architect of Fate growled in response. “At least my comeuppance was more dignified than a rainbow powered by diabetes-inducing sentiments.”
Pink clouds gathered around Discord, rumbling with rasberry-flavored lightning in response to his mood. “I fell in combat to an eldritch artifact of Harmony, powered by no less than six living incarnations of Harmony: living saints of harmony, one might even say. You lost a game of chess to a human with a nicotine habit and an outrageous coat.”
Tzeentch snarled as bolts of sorcery shot out from his eyes, turning Discord into a tiny garter snake with an indignant hiss. “For the last time, there was nothing normal about that human! I have looked back in time to that game a thousand times, and there is no way that pawn should have been able to get there! There is no logical way it could have gotten there, nor is there any sorcery that could have delivered it there! It was not possible, even if he had been a Chaos god himself, for him to have possibly gotten that damn pawn to that spot!”
Zeltrech’s grin widened as Q chuckled, and Discord grumpily turned back to normal. Well, what passed for normal for him. “So, you might say that it was just that he was a tactical gen-”
“Don’t. Test. My. Patience. Wizard Marshall.” The very air around Tzeentch was warping and roiling from the sheer rage the Eldritch Abomination was feeling. Q cleared his throat, as the others turned to see that he was somehow suddenly dressed as a Buddhist monk.
“Peace, my brethren, peace.” Snapping his fingers, Q was no once more clothed in his purloined Starfleet uniform, this time holding a cup of tea (Earl Grey, Hot) in one hand as he gestured with the other towards the dimensional windows around them. “Getting back to the conversation at hand, I believe that we were debating which human turned villain and set loose in Equestria was the most entertaining.”
“Ah, yes. Speaking of that, I have an idea.” Zeltrech smiled, and a million voices cried out in fear at what that portended. “I think it is time we set our hand to conducting one of these scenarios, don’t you?”
The magician’s smile spread to the other three members of the meeting. “Grant a human power beyond reason, and place them in Equestria? I am always up for a good bit of chaos, especially when it could cause a Celestia a headache, but isn't it somewhat overdone by this point?” The one native Equestrian among them asked.
“I am aware of that, which is why I’ve had this thought. Tell me, my dear draconequus, what is it that lunar princess of your’s always says?”
Discord chuckled. “You’ll have to be more specific. She says, or rather shouts, plenty of amusing things.” His eyes, and then his grin, widened as he caught Zeltrech’s meaning. “Perchance you are referring to her statement about ‘Doubling the Fun?’”
Q raised an eyebrow. “Sending two villains to Equestria? We want to have fun at their expense, not destroy them.”
“In any case, I have already found the first of our new emissaries.” Tzeentch pointed his staff at one of the dimensional windows, causing it to ripple as it changed to show a white human male, most likely English or American, slaving over a humungous suit of blue and gold replica armor.
Discord raised an eyebrow. “An amusing choice, although I suspect you’re just trying to avoid being shown up by the Skull Lord.”
“The possibilities are impressive, though. It seems to me that you are simply trying to gain a foothold in Equestria by sending one of your pseudo-followers there, but then that is where the second will come in,” Zeltrech mused as he swirled a glass of crimson liquid in one hand, eyeing it critically.
Q frowned. “How would sending another anti-brony to act as a villain make this scenario any different from the others that already exist? You must admit, even taking the infinity that is the multi-verse into account, there are a lot of ‘human villains in Equestria’ worlds out there.”
Zeltrech’s trademark smile reappeared on his face. “Who said the second would be another anti-brony?”
Discord munched on a candy cloud thoughtfully. “You’ll send a hero to help the poor, defenseless ponies, and save them from the villain?”
“I suppose it could be fun,” Tzeentch mused, already planning to give his future minion a significant power boost to help deal with whatever Zeltrech was planning.
He was interrupted momentarily from his plotting by Zeltrech’s cackle. “Why would I make things that easy on them? I’ll send them a hero, certainly, but that won’t be how they’ll see him: rather, he will be another monster, but one that fights the other monsters.” With that, the Old Man of the Jewels drew sword with a short blade made of crystal from his cloak. Gesturing to two of the windows behind him with the strange blade, which momentarily pulsed with all the colors of the rainbow as he channeled its strange sorceries, the two windows changed, displaying the object of Zeltrech’s plan to the others.
The first window showed a rather ordinary looking Caucasian human male, whistling happily as he pieced together a suit of armor out of black plastic, carefully cutting the pieces to match the reference pictures hanging just above his workplace. The armor, even half finished as it was, bore cruel looking spikes on the shoulders, elbows, and knees, as well as talon-like gauntlets.
The other window showed something much more ominous: a black mass of shadows, bound into a vaguely human form, in the depths of which could be seen the glimmer of steel plate armor and a single red slit for the eyes of the mad being within. The scenes flickered quickly, showing the beast of steel and shadows fighting with animalistic savagery, but undeniable skill. A golden king, a steely king with an invisible blade, an enthusiastic conqueror riding a chariot wreathed in lightning, a mad sorcerer, a knight with two spears, and a shadow that wore a hundred faces all fought against it with unearthly powers and ability, yet the mad beast took them all on with a defiant roar. The images paused on the black knight in the midst of his struggles, allowing the onlookers to see his armor clearly, and its resemblance to the replica suit being constructed in the other window.
Tzeentch shook his head and sighed. “A Berserker. Of course. Because should one of my followers ever be in a situation where there won’t be an overly muscled brute to kick their teeth in, the multiverse would surely collapse from shock.”
“Yet you don’t argue against it,” Q pointed out, “and you have already selected your champion. You have no say in who else we choose to send.”
Tzeentch smiled, showing a shocking amount of teeth for something that was currently holding the shape of an avian. “Yet how do you know that this isn’t the hero I would choose? It could be that I’ve been counting on Zeltrech making this suggestion all along, which would mean that this has gone just. As. Plan-”
Zeltrech cut in by handing the god of schemes and sorceries a red and white sphere with a single round button set in between the red and white hemispheres. Tzeentch only had the time to blink once before the sphere popped open along its equator and sucked him into it with an anguished scream and a flare of light. The sphere closed itself with a clack, and fell down into the recently vacated seat. The silence that followed was deafening.
“Denied,” chorused Discord and Zeltrech in the silence that followed. They reached out and bro-fisted across the table, as Q joined them in uproarious laughter. When they all stopped laughing, a solemn silence settled over the meeting. Iit wouldn’t do to be anything less than completely focused for what they were about to do: there was, after all, a certain art involved in trolling other dimensions, that demanded that they be nothing but serious for the duration of the endeavor. Well, at least until they were done setting it up. Then they would just laugh uproariously at the mayhem that would follow.
“Well then, gentlemen,” Discord enquired, “shall we?”
Cog Archival presents,
a MLP:FiM, Fate/Zero, and Warhammer 40k fanfiction,
EQUESTRIA’S BLACK KNIGHT
I looked into the mirror, and a mad beast gazed back at me, with a glowing crimson slit for eyes, set in the center of a medieval knight’s helm, with a single long purple plume attached to the back. Damn, I was good.
I reached up to the neck of my suit of armor with a bare hand, and flicked the hidden switch that controlled the small LED’s set into the eye slit. Instantly, the helm I was wearing started to look more like the plastic replica that it was rather than the badass armor that I wanted it to be. Who says dramatic lighting doesn’t do anything?
“Alright, so the eye lighting is a go. Now, I should probably check if I can work the switch for it with the gloves on.” With that, I turned to the workbench where I had left the two pieces of the suit that I wasn’t wearing.
“Yard by yard, stitching it together, assembling the gauntlets, hammering them together bit by bit…”
I continued my heavily improvised and horrendously off-key rendition of “Art of the Dress” as I finished fastening my gauntlets on. Turning towards the mirror, I was met with the angry visage of the Berserker from Fate/Zero.
My current project was the Berserker from the anime and visual novel Fate/Zero, the prequel to the anime and visual novel Fate/Stay Night. The basic plot was that seven modern day magi competed in an all out battle royale set in the Japanese city of Fuyuki, with the prize being the Holy Grail, an omnipotent wish granting device so powerful that it might as well be the actual, legitimate Grail of biblical lore. In order to accomplish this, each magus summoned a being known as a Servant, a copy of the spirit of a person who accomplished such deeds in life that they were immortalised through the songs and stories of their feats. Each Servant is powered by the magus who summoned them as well as by the weight and strength of their legends. They are also sorted into seven classes, to hide their identities and thus keep the war from being won right off the bat by any chucklehead with a decent knowledge of mythology and ready access to certain magical substances and a sniper rifle, for instance. The seven classes are Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Assassin, Caster, and Berserker, with each one representing what each hero was famous for in life.
The Servant Berserker who appeared in Fate/Zero was the spirit of Lancelot of the Lake, mightiest of the knights of the Round Table, who fell into madness and despair after his betrayal of Arthur led to Camelot’s ultimate fall. Insane and given to constant brooding he may have been, the guy had some crazy awesome abilities, and that pitch black armor of his was totally badass. I could only hope that I had captured something of that with my work on this replica suit.
Well, I guess I’ll find out when I bring this thing to the convention next week! Nodding at the decision that I had made, I reached up and flicked the switch to turn on the visor light, and a blood red glow immediately shone out from my helmet’s eye slit. Wow, I don’t remember that looking that impressive before. I especially don’t remember there being an almost physical feeling of hate and rage coming from the eye lights, either. It was then that I noticed a swirling, galaxy-like clump of spinning, multicolored lights behind me in the mirror. Yeah, I don’t remember that being there either.
I spun around quickly to face the thing, but just as I did so, it swept forward, widening as it did to form a black void that engulfed me before I even had the chance to swear at it. I turned my head to try to see back out of the empty space I found myself in, but was rewarded only with more nothingness. I like to think that, having apparently been eaten by the universe, I reacted pretty well.
“HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK BULLSHIT IS THIS?!”
I’d like to think that I reacted well, and kept it together, and remained calm, cool, and in control of myself and the situation.
“NO! I REFUSE! THIS NONSENSICAL BULLSHIT MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER, AND I REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SOMETHING SO LUDICROUS IS HAPPENING!”
Oh, who am I kidding, I flipped my shit. Well, I’d like to see you do any better.
“Oh, this is, this is just great, this is nice, right here. Where the hell am I, anyway? There’s still some unresolved issues here, God, or alien space bat, or Azathoth, or whoever’s in charge of this industrial grade fuck up. How do I get home? What am I supposed to eat? How am I supposed to breath? I’m inside this, like… big, black, ball. Is this all in my mind, or something? What was that vortex thing of despair and doom, anyway? Am I even real? Aw, hell, I hope I’m not some figment of my own imagination. Or someone else’s.”
In another dimension, a brony typing on a laptop suddenly sneezed, blew his nose, and went back to work.
“Are there any buses that run through here, or something? I mean, I’d like to go home now, but, uh… where’s home? Is this how you run the universe? Is this where we go from here? Okay, so maybe I’m… damnit. Just…. god damnit. The movie had better make up for this, because I am stuck. In fucking nowhere land. You ran out of ink too, didn’t you, you bastards.” I paused. “Yeah, you know you’ve hit a low point when you’re quoting Shinji Ikari.” Oh well. Since I seemed to be in a zero gravity zone, wherever the hell I was, I decided to do what I’d always wanted to do if I ever got into zero gravity: I tucked my legs and head into my chest, and did my best to spin myself into a barrel roll.
I was just realizing that this wouldn’t work unless I could find something to push off against, when suddenly a tiny bright light appeared in front of me. Figuring that I might as well head towards it, since it was something to do, I tired to do so. I promptly ran into the same problem of not having anything to push off against, and thus being unable to move through the void. Stupid laws of action and reaction. It’s a shame, too. That light seemed to be getting bigger, so clearly something interesting was happening over there.
It was about the time that I considered taking my helmet off and throwing it to move myself that I realized that the light wasn’t getting bigger: it was getting closer, and it was doing so at high speed!
“Somehow, I have this unshakable certainty that this is going to hurt like a bi-”
I just had time to utter that invective before the light was upon me. I just had time to take in the sight of a blue, sunny sky dotted with a couple of fluffy clouds before I realized that apparently that light had been some form of portal, like the sort that first brought me into the void. I reached this conclusion because I noticed that I was now somehow suspended in mid air.
“Can my life get any- OHHH SHI-”
You know those old Looney Tunes cartoons with Wile E. Coyote? Remember how whenever the roadrunner tricked him into stepping off a cliff, he would always stay suspended in midair for however long it took him to become horribly, painfully aware of just how much trouble he was in, and then he would fall? Yeah, it was exactly like that. Except nowhere near as hilarious.
“AAAAAAAAAAA-”
As I fell to the ground, I idly wondered if my life should be flashing before my eyes now. Or did that only happen at the actual moment where you died? Well, I’d probably have a good long while before I hit the ground to figure it-
CRASH
Or I could flop into a tree back first. That works too. I guess I wasn’t as high up as I thought, I only fell for a second or two. Thanks to my armor, though, I barely even noticed the initial impact when I hit the tree or the countless smaller ones as I slid through the branches, the smaller ones breaking from my weight while the thicker ones bent as they funneled me down my slow and inexorable way towards the ground. The cacophony of twigs breaking and wood scraping against steel faded away as I slipped out of the bottom of the tree’s canopy, and bellyflopped onto the ground. I lay there for a moment, and then started to pick myself up. I absently noted a couple of apples lying on the ground next to me as I rubbed my head in exhaustion.
“Okay, as certain as I am that it’s impossible to be eaten by the universe and then spat out again over a forest, I know that it is just as impossible to suffer a fall like that and not have at least a concussion and- wait. Steel armor.” Why was I thinking that my armor was steel? It was just sheet plastic molded, cut and formed into the shape of steel.
Except, I realized as I stared at my hands, that it wasn’t anymore. The gauntlet that I was now staring at as I kneeled before the tree was made of black steel with a faint indigo tint to it, with every single edge and ridge tapering to form talons and spikes along every single surface. Even more worrying than that, however, was the fine mist of shadows that was even now leaking out of the joints, slowly accumulating around my digits and along the planes of the armor plates. What was even more disturbing than seeing the shadows leaking out was that I could feel them leaking out, as if something deep within myself was being pulled out and molded into this… this… this could not be.
It was just an anime series! Just a fictional animation, this sort of stuff doesn’t happen in real life, it shouldn’t be able to happen in real life. But no matter how much I tried to deny it, the unmistakable truth was that as the shadows overlayed my armor, obscuring the details and making the steel appear darker than the pitch hue that it already was, a name, no, a concept, entered my mind, something that I instinctively recognised meant that the technique had finished activating.
For Someone’s Glory. One of Berserker’s Noble Phantasms, the abilities and weapons born out of Lancelot’s legend, it concealed his identity beneath a black fog that made it impossible to truly distinguish his physical outline. It was also impossible that I could be using it! I was not Lancelot, I wasn’t a heroic spirit, hell, I wasn’t even dead! Or at least I hoped that I wasn’t-
I screamed as a sudden surge of pain rippled through my body and RAGE ANGER KILL my thoughts were becoming painful it hurt to think why HURT MAIM HACK SLASH did it hurt to think? I couldn’t think, it was KILL becoming more PAINful, to piece together thoughts, my body was being racked with painful tremors, something was flapping in my face, what was it, I grabbed it with one CLAW hand REND and saw that it was the plume from my helmet, although now it looked more black than purple because of the mist and the pain was getting worse and then
SNAP
The plume split into five separate ribbons and I felt my mind SHATTER
Kill
KILL
MAIM HURT REND SLASH HACK TEAR RIP BURN
KILL!
*** --- *-* -*-* * *-* -*-- *** --- *-* -*-* * *-* -*-- *** --- *-* -*-* * *-* -*-- *** --- *-* -*-* * *-* -*-- *** --- *-* -*-* * *-* -*--
Meanwhile, in another part of Equestria, inside an entirely forest, inside a ruined castle, another portal opened up to disgorge another armored figure. Unlike the first one, however, this figure only dropped a foot or so, and the impact was easily absorbed by the armor it wore. The first thing that would strike anyone who saw the armor would be its sheer size: it was seven and a half feet from top to bottom, and almost six from one side to the other. It consisted of heavy plates of a ceramic-like material, completely enclosing its wearer head to toe, although there were many metallic pieces as well, such as the gold-plated helmet, that was decorated with four massive horns that extended out to the sides and up, framing the Greek hoplite style combined eye and nose slit on the face of the helmet. The shoulder guards were almost comically huge, even compared to the rest of the armor, where the hands and head where the only parts that were remotely close to normal human proportions. There were tanks that didn't incorporate as much armor as this single suit did. Over it all, the person wore deep red robes, with grimoires and charms hanging from a chain around his waist.
The predominant color was deep blue, with trim and arcane symbols picked out in gold. In one hand he held a long staff made of silver and bone, bound with gold, with a large arrowhead at one end and an eye symbol with two horns and an eight pointed star protruding from it at the other end. In the other hand he held a deceptively small pistol, lined with gold and set with a single red gem. In the eye slit of the helmet, two blue lights suddenly came into glowing life as the man within the armor opened his eyes.
Silence fell over the empty hall, broken only by the faint humming rumble of the mechanisms hidden within the suit of powered armor.
“What the… where am I?” The helmet swiveled, surveying the hall, before the armored behemoth strode forward with immense strides that shook the hall and left cracked footprints in the floor.
“I swear, if this is Jack’s doing, I’ll shove his head someplace that neither he nor the laws of man and nature want it to go.” He paused. “And why is my voice so much deeper? I actually sound like a space marine now, not that I’m complaining. The new helmet is also pretty nice, too,” the sorcerer mused as his gaze panned towards the shadowed wall, a barely perceptible whir coming from the helmet as optic sensors zoomed in, clarifying and magnifying the incoming images, allowing the sorcerer to clearly see the tapestry hanging on the wall. And what he saw made him stop dead, before he slowly stomped over towards the wall, the barest hint of rage visible in the way he carried himself.
He stopped in front of a tapestry depicting the two royal alicorn sisters of Equestria raising and lowering their respective celestial orbs. He slowly held up his staff to inspect it more closely, before looking down at himself as much as the armor would allow.
A moment passed. Then the figure slammed his staff hand into the wall as hard as he could, and watched with a sort of grim satisfaction as a sizeable hole was pounded into the stone. A couple trails of lightning crackled around the head of the staff as he did so, the very air seeming to growl in sympathy with the sorcerer’s emotions.
“Well, this is just frakking great.”
*** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-**
Applejack sighed happily as she looked out over the expanse of trees that was Sweet Apple Acres. It was a good thing she had called in the rest of the Apple family to help with this applebuck season: if it had just been her, Big Mac, and Applebloom on the fields, they might not have been able to get everything harvested and prepared for tomorrow. With all the extra help on hoof, though, they’d definitely have everything ready to go, and as close to perfect as possible, which was important. It wasn’t everyday that Princess Celestia chose your hometown as the setting for the official Summer Sun Celebration, after all.
“Sis! Big Sis!” Applejack blinked as she was shaken out of her prideful musings by the panicked sound of her little sister shouting like all the monsters in Tartarus were on her tail. She looked to the right to see Applebloom and several members of her extended family running along one of the paths that led back to the barn, looking nervously over their shoulders as they ran.
“Applebloom? What in tarnation happened?” Applejack galloped over to her sister and grabbed her, worriedly checking her over for any signs of injury.
“Applejack… there’s… in tha’ orchard…” Applebloom and all of the other ponies who had come with her were panting with exhaustion from their sprint. Applebloom wasn’t even trying to shake off her sister, which set off even more alarm bells in the older mare’s mind: for something to have spooked her so bad that she wasn’t even trying to shake off her sister.
It was then that Caramel Apple got enough of her breath back to say the one word that was guaranteed to send chills down the spine of any sentient being that valued its continued existence, whether human or pony: “M- m- monster!”
Kra-thunk. Kra-thunk. Kra-thunk. Kra-thunk.
It was then that Applejack heard all of the other Apple family members in the clearing gasp in shock and fear. Turning to look back over her shoulder at what had them so scared, she saw that they were all staring with open mouths at something behind her, back on the path Applebloom and the others had come along. That was when she noticed the sound of steel footsteps on the orchard path, getting louder and louder with each step.
KRA-THUNK. KRA-THUNK. KRA-THUNK. KRA-THUNK.
Turning her head to where the sound was coming from, Applejack saw the monster. At least, she tried to see it: no matter how much she squinted, or focused her gaze on the… thing… in front of her, she couldn’t quite see it clearly. This was partly because of the hazy black cloud that seemed to wrap around the figure like a nightmarish cloak, but also because… she just couldn’t look at it. Every time she tried, her gaze would seem to slip off of it, as though her eyes were trying to tell her that what she was looking at was just to the side of the thing, even though she rationally knew that she had been staring right at it, and now she was just looking at an apple tree instead of the monster. It was just impossible to look right at it, or even to really distinguish its outline. From the glimpses that she managed to get, and from what she saw out of the corner of her eye, though, she got an impression of a diamond dog-like silhouette and black metal, shaped into armor that was like a horrible perversion of the armor she had seen a visiting member of the royal guard wearing: all jagged edges and spikes, with a horizontal slit in the helmet that glowed from within with an unholy red light which also appeared on the figures torso, almost hidden beneath the black fog that billowed and swept around the figure. Just the couple of glances Applejack had managed of that glow coming from within the armor had made her feel sick, as a something deep and primal within her started screaming at her to run, that this thing was here to kill her, her family, her friends, tear down everything that she had ever known and loved… and then go and do the exact same thing to somepony else, all for no reason other than that it wanted to make everything suffer. Dimly, she took note of the five streamers that flapped out from where they were attached at the back of the helmet.
Nothing and no one moved for a long moment. Applejack reached forward and pulled Applebloom behind her, the shivering filly complying without complaint or hesitation, and the moment of stillness was broken.
The monster crouched, hunching forward as it clenched its talons into the ground, before letting out a roar of pure hatred and agony as it leaped forward towards the crowd of stunned ponies, most of whom broke and ran as the thing came towards them with terrifying speed.
“RAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGH!”
Thus it was that Berserker, known as the Black Knight and the Mad Dog, came to Equestria, and changed its fate forever.
*** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-** *** - * * *-**
BERSERKER’S STATS
BASIC PHYSICAL STATS
Class: Berserker
Identity: Lancelot of the Lake/UNKNOWN
Master: None
Alignment: Lawful Mad/Neutral Good
Strength: A (B base)
Agility: A+ (A base)
Luck: B
Endurance: A (B base)
Mana: E (C base)
Noble Phantasm: A
SKILLS
Mad Enhancement (C): Raises Strength, Agility, and Endurance one rank each, but at the cost of removing all capacity for rational thought or speech, as well as drastically increasing the rate of mana consumption. At this level, a Berserker becomes little more than a mad beast, capable only of flailing madly at anything that moves without any degree of skill, restraint, or mercy.
Eternal Arms Mastership (A+): Allows Berserker to use any weapon as though it were a favorite weapon that he has trained with his entire life, regardless of mental state.
Magic Resistance (E): Slightly reduces the effect of spells directed at Berserker. This skill stems from a magical ring Lancelot owned in life and its true rank is A. However, while under the effect of Mad Enhancement, this skill is lowered to E rank.
Independant Action (A+): Allows Berserker to remain in this world indefinitely without a Master to supply him with power and mana. Servants such as Berserker are beings of spiritual energy, and thus require a constant influx of energy to sustain their form, unless they have this skill. This is not normally a skill that Berserker would have, and it can only be assumed that this skill came from either the human who has assumed Berserker's skills and identity, or from the unusual origin of his existence in Equestria. Berserker can sustain his own existence in the world, but his maximum store of energy (Mana) is not as large as it could be if he were attached to a master, and prolonged use of his Noble Phantasms will consume what energy he has at a prodigious rate.
NOBLE PHANTASMS
Knight of Honor: A Knight Does Not Die With Empty Hands. Anti-unit type, rank A++. Berserker can flood any object he grasps with his hands with his prana (basically mana, or magical energy), turning said item into a D-ranked magical weapon. This ability does have limits: if it is physically impossible to wield something as even a makeshift weapon, then this ability will not work on it. Berserker must be able to recognize on some level how an object could be used as a weapon. Originates from the story of Lancelot defeating another knight with a tree branch after being disarmed.
For Another’s Honor: Not For One’s Own Glory. Anti-unit type, rank B. Conceals Berserker’s identity beneath a black fog that constantly shift, making his true outline impossible to distinguish. Also blocks any spellcraft that is intended to be used to identify Berserker. The true purpose of this Noble Phantasm is to assume the appearance of a different Heroic Spirit known for military accomplishments, but use of that function would require that Mad Enhancement not be activated. Originates from Lancelot’s habit of competing in and winning tournaments either anonymously, or disguised as another knight.
Arondight: The Unfading Light of the Lake. Anti-unit type, rank A++. A sword forged by the fairies, that can be hit by any attack and not take any damage whatsoever. Was once holy, but was corrupted into demonic status by Lancelot’s use of it to kill several other knights while rescuing Guinevere. Once drawn, For Another’s Honor and Knight of Honor are sealed and cannot be used for as long as Berserker wields Arondight. Once drawn, all of Berserker’s physical stats increase by one rank. According to legend, Lancelot once slew a dragon, and thus, Arondight deals extra damage against dragons and those with the attributes of a dragon.
Stats
Page generated in 0.043 seconds
Total duration
1,081 users online
207,290 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I LIKE YOUR SENSE OF HUMOUR. YOU HAVE A PURTY MOUTH.
Hmm... my guy made a comment about wanting to cosplay as Lancelot Berserker instead of John Egbert, then, minutes after I publish my chapter, this appears...
I kid! I'm going to check this out...
I only followed this because I'm a sucker for Nasuverse.
Nasunerd mode, activate!
No, the average human has parameters at a value of 1 (and even the strongest human in real life would still have a strength of 1, maybe close to 1.1). Rank E has a value of 10. This doesn't scale linearly, either—while it was stated that "being ranked at 1 under the system identifies the ability of a normal human, so the E Rank, classified as 10, indicates someone ten times above normal human ability," this isn't actually accurate given the feats—E rank strength isn't merely ten times stronger than a human, it's exponentially stronger. If a strong human can unleash 1000 joules of energy in a powerful attack, a Servant with E rank strength can unleash billions of times more than that in a powerful attack. Rank A strength should be comparable to a few megatons of TNT going off, confined to a very very very small area. It may sound ridiculous, but it actually matches up with their feats in Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night.
Additionally, A+++ isn't the highest rank. Technically, EX is the highest, since it means something along the lines of "EXceptional". Even then, it's not always used to represent something too large to be measured on the conventional scale, as it can be used to represent anything that cannot be measured in the "conventional sense" (like Unlimited Blade Works).
Yeah, you'd have to SEVERELY nerf him in order to prevent him from outright slaughtering everypony around him before they could even realize what was killing them. If you haven't figured out by now, Heroic Spirits are extremely superhuman—for example, ordinary bullets, even high speed rifle bullets, are laughably slow to them (Berserker is much much MUCH faster than Rainbow Dash, to the point that it's actually kind of sad comparing them). I know, you're probably going to say something like "but then how did Emiya Shirou"—maybe that is why everybody in the story treated him like he was some kind of freak anomaly for being able to fight Servants, hmmm?
Yeah, I can back this shit up. Just drop me a PM and we'll discuss.
Poor, poor Tzeentch. Never really got into all that Chaos magic thing. Anyways, I have a feeling I know who the second guy is cosplaying as. Also, great first chapter if I say so myself and I like how in involved my character in it, even if he was just mention.
Nice start, please more!
i like it
Please go on
omfg Lanceleot... wall321.com/thumbnails/detail/20120608/night%20moon%20weapons%20berserker%20armor%20fatezero%20swords%20berserker%20fatezero%20fate%20series%20lancelot%20fate_www.wall321.com_23.jpg
Take my fave.
Im faving this
As a fellow LoHAV member I congratulate you on creating something a bit different than the standard. Bravo, sir, bravo. You have my favorite, like and I'll be reading the next chapters as soon as I see the notice in my e-mail.
If that other guy is Ahzek Ahriman, then it's already been done.
then again, he doesn't have a psyker cowl...
anyways, i'll fave this for now and wait for the next chapter.
That was humorous.
That cover photo looks similar to the Neo-Shadow heartless from the Kingdom Hearts series!
4099261
...Your Nasu nerdcred trumps my own. I think I need to go brush up.
4106953
Well, you could always join the TYPE-MOON fan group I just made.
Since I'm in it and all, you could ask me questions and stuff.
4107018
Huzzah fangroups! I generally find online resources can answer questions faster than forums, but what the hell, I'll lurk and keep an eye on things. I'd at least like to know of any other crossover-type-things that happen.
4106953
I'd like to point out that you are not really obligated to follow canon Nasuverse in regards to combat. Because, frankly, if Servants were actually that fast and strong, their battles would've looked differently. Some people prefer to brush aside this bullshit about supersonic movement and treat Servants like extremely skilled humans. Nasuverse humans, of course, meaning they're still capable of pretty insane feats, but not some terminators that can take a rocket in their face and shrug it off like nothing.
There are some facts that hint at many Nasu descriptions in fights being blatant exaggerations:
In F/SN UBW route Shirou doesn't die in 5 seconds in his battle against Archer and even wins, and said Archer fights with real Heroes of the past like Cu Chulain successfully, meaning modern mage using reinforcement can be at least close in speed to Servants. Also, if we don't suppose that Heroic Spirits and Counter Guardians get some sort of boost from Alaya (and why would it waste energy when it can pick the best heroes from all times to achieve it's goals?), then Archer himself is an example of modern day human capable of fighting Servants.
In F/Z Maiya were capable of following Servants battle. If they were supersonic, she would be completely useless, as well as Kiritsugu's guns - if Lancer was capable of seeing bullet mid-way to Kayneth (and then moving in it's way to block it), Kiritsugu wouldn't consider idea of assassinating him.
In F/Z final battle Kiritsugu fought Kirei evenly with something like 4x acceleration using his family magecraft, Kirei being stated to be capable of fighting on level close to Servants.
And I'm not even touching how these super strength and speed will be mostly useless because people simply cannot run faster than sport cars lest they lose cohesion with surface. And if you jump, you're effectively defenceless in mid-air, unless you can change your trajectory with something like Invisible Air.
So when Nasu starts to spout something about three strikes made literally at the same time without using magic, making them absolutely unavoidable, then Saber avoiding unavoidable attack because intuition, I tune it out as Nasu trying to convey how awesome his characters are and choosing poor method of doing that. If you want Nasuverse combat to make sense, relying blindly on canon descriptions is the worst thing you can do. Taking key components and then reconstructing it into something logical and consistent is the way to get result, though it will not necessarily be similar to popular fanon (and fan-wank).
Also, most importantly, you as author have to understand your characters' capabilities to be able to write good story without breaking reader's suspension of disbelief. Choose what they can and can't do at the start, have some sort of explanation why in your head, and don't change that midway. If there are worlds where Servants are supersonic, why there can't be worlds where they're just several times faster than trained human? Prankster Club are not idiots, they won't send someone who will simply kill everyone he meets effortlessly into Equestria because it will be boring.
That said, I agree with Permanent Temporary on one thing: Berserker will totally slaughter Apples. They're civilians, not elite guards or high level mages, furthermore, they're equestian civilians, meaning they aren't even vaguely familiar with war and concept of killing others. They're too slow to run away (they can run in different directions, but probably too frightened to consciously consider such tactic) and they can do absolutely nothing in fight against Servant (who, more importantly than his physical parameters, is a person who literally spent his entire life either killing people or training to do so more efficiently). Unless Berserker becomes sane or Twilight shows up, like, right now, using magic to shield everyone, there will be some dead bodies in second chapter. And by some I mean quite a lot.
4109948
...I appreciate most of what you say, but I think you responded to the wrong person on accident.
That aside, I think that a lot of what they are referring to as a Servant's speed in Fate is more referring to acceleration-- I remember mentally substituting it when I played through Stay Night, and finding it worked significantly better.
Never watched Fate/Zero nor played Warhammer, but I look forward to reading this story as the concept of a good guy in an evil suit really peaks my interests in both literature and anime. Similar in Accel World, how Haru was infected by Chrome Disaster and tried to brutally rend and maim Noumi. And in a different anime, Tenchi Muyo War on Geminar. How Kenshi turned into the black Seikijin and ripped Dagmeyr's seikijin making his cry and piss his damn pants and traumatized him.
Anyway, I like those types of anime series. If you know one that is pretty decent and has this category, send it to me. But please make sure it isn't any of these:
Bleach
Naruto
One Piece
Inuyasha
Fairy tale
Death Note
Soul Eater
Ao no Exorcist
Deadman Wonderland
Darker than Black
Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom
07 ghost
4111615
Ah yes, thought you were Cog Archival for some reason. -_- Too used to spacebattles with authors responding to readers a lot.
Well, it's been a week since I was last on Fimfiction. Thankfully, the school musical is now over, so I have time to go check on my story-
*spits out drink* HOLY SHI- 91 FAVORITES? In one week? I seriously wasn't expecting this to get that popular this quickly.
4099261 4109948
I'm sorry, I knew about E being 10 times a normal human's level, but in my defense, I was writing that up at midnight, and was confused from reading a different fic recently where that was how the measurement system worked. That said, the both of you make a very valid point about how overpowered Berserker is compared to the Apples, and even the rest of Equestria. However, I hold that ponies aren't on the same level as humans, so they do have a few things in their favor. First, all ponies seem to be much more durable than humans are. I know that that is partly because of cartoon physics and the Rule of Funny, but think about it: we have seen Twilight get hit in the head with multiple flower pots, several wooden crates, and a grand piano, within the space of a few seconds, and only have some bruises and bandages to show for it. And that's not even counting all the times we've seen Rainbow introduce herself to immovable objects with her face at high velocity. Pony physiology, at the very least, is more forgiving to blunt impact trauma, and Berserker doesn't have any bladed weapons (yet). Second, there's the Prana issue. My understanding of the Berserker class as a whole (and I'll freely admit that I am nowhere near being a Nasuverse expert) is that they have the potential to be even more powerful than a Saber, but have two drawbacks; they're difficult to control, and they run through prana like a hummer goes through gasoline. Fate/Zero Berserker was scary, yes, because of how his abilities worked, but he wasn't the walking terror factory Fate/Stay Night Berserker was, because his master couldn't provide enough prana to turn Lancelot into an unstoppable murder machine. Berserker doesn't have a master right now, so he doesn't have as much mana on hand to work with as he normally would. Using his Noble Phantasms and running around punching Apples in the face is going to burn up what he does have enough that he won't be as big of a threat if the ponies manage to wear him out, especially if they force him to use up more energy on defending himself. Gee, if only there were some pony on hand who we know can produce magical artillery on demand...
4101071
Thank you, I wanted to try to break the mold just a little, so the confirmation that I succeeded is very reassuring to me.
4121048
I would argue that most if not all of those are entirely "gag feats" akin to Looney Toons, but you've already at least partially understood that it's very much a cartoon with cartoony lack of defined physics, so I'll just move on from that. Let's see... the biggest blunt trauma feats we have are the Rainbow Dash high speed faceplants and probably something like Twilight getting hit with a piano (even though that last one was a totally 100% undeniable gag feat that even emulated an old Looney Toons gag feat down to the letter). I'm not sure if it was a grand piano or some other kind of upright piano (there are different kinds!) but sure, why not, let's call it a grand piano. But Rainbow Dash comes first.
Okay, so Rainbow Dash is probably like 50 kg (110 lbs) and I'm going to be generous and say she's moving at Mach 2 (even though she only needs to be Mach 1 to fulfill the known requirements for a Sonic Rainboom—no, forget what you've heard about her being Mach 5 or Mach 10 or some bullshit like that, she's Mach 1+ in canon, deal with it okay?), so her total kinetic energy is 11.5 megajoules. That's equivalent to almost 2.8 kg (6 lbs 3 oz) of TNT, enough to pulverize a few large trees before stopping. Okay, so now we come to Twilight's "grand piano", which I'm going to say is about 300 kg (660 lbs) falling at 50 m/s (112 mph), which is a total kinetic energy of 375 kilojoules, or about 9 g (0.3 oz) of TNT, which is... more than you can produce, that's for sure.
Meanwhile, we have Fate/Zero's Berserker, who is 81 kg (179 lbs) without armor. A human arm makes up about 5–6% of the body's weight, or about 4.5 kg (10 lbs) in this case. Berserker can punch things at a speed of somewhere around Mach 20 (...no, I'm not kidding, I'm completely serious, it's that fucking fast, which is ridiculous), which means canon Berserker's freaking jabs (his jabs, not even full force punches) should produce over 104 megajoules, or almost equal to 25 kg (55 lbs) of TNT, which is enough to level your average small house, all while completely unarmed, unarmored, and without using any added force from muscles or magic.
———Yeah, my gut tells me that a single punch to the face from Berserker would brutally insta-gib about anypony. It's just a hunch though, I can't seem to explain why...
4109948
...Okay, I swear what I just read was "I don't rely on the text that is attempting to explain the events of the story to explain to me what is going on in the story, and instead prefer to just ignore it and substitute my own version because I don't like the original, you should do the same thing and ignore the actual story."
4121303
Exactly. Nasuverse combat contradicts everything else in Nasuverse severely. If you want consistency, you are going to disregard one or the other. Obviously I choose to disregard one where Nasu wanks about his awesome Servants without thinking how being that awesome will actually affect combat.
4121048
Only explanation of ponies being more durable than in real life is magic. There is a lot of it in their bodies, not big stretch to assume it passively makes them more robust. However, it doesn't matter for Berserker. He is a trained killer. The moment he sees the skull of first pony he punched not shattering in pieces, he will change tactics. Next pony's neck will be twisted with enough strength to make sure it snapped. Or he will hold their head and beat it with his knee until there's nothing but bloody pulp. There are many ways to ensure your opponent is dead, and Lancelot knows them, he dealt with enemies stronger than they appear in life.
You need to either hand Berserker idiot ball of epic scale, or make ponies unbelievably durable (to the point of making Heracles seem fragile) for Apples to survive him without immediate help from Twilight. He is a killing machine and he dealt with magic in life, sentient magic ponies are not an Out of Context Problem for him, merely something a bit out of ordinary.
4122146
In short: you didn't actually read the story fully.
K'.
4122703
Is falling to insults your basic discussion mode with anyone who disagrees with you? Both your comments directed at me were like that, without even trying to reason.
4125569
I've never directly insulted you. If you're insulted by what I've written, that's a problem with you, not me.
You've decided to ignore the elements of the story that explain things to you simply because you dislike them. I have no sympathy for such an ignorant attitude.
4122146 4121209
Again, valid points. You've definitely given me a lot to think about for my next chapter (which I already have an outline for, huzzah), and I'm going to try to take all of that into account. I do have a few rebuttals, however, that I would like to make now.
1: Berserker's self restraint. Yes, I know that's an oxymoron. However, in canon, we see that even when Mad Enhancement is active, a Berserker's actions are influenced by their base personality. Lancelot goes chasing after Saber every chance he gets because of how his guilt and shame over betraying her has been twisted into an intense hatred of her, and Hercules looks after Ilya as though she were his daughter, not just his master (or at least, that's my interpretation of their relationship. Opposing views are welcome.). So Berserkers are influenced by what decisions they might make when able to think rationally. In this case, that is not going to be enough to completely prevent Berserker from destroying everything. It might, however, be just enough that he will hold back his punches just enough to not murder things instantly. Hospitalize, yes, brutalize, yes, maim, possibly, but the brony trapped inside the suit isn't going to want to kill anypony. Flandre, while you are correct that Berserker knows how to deal with stronger/magical opponents, this isn't technically Berserker. He's not a trained killing machine who has slaughtered entire castles of armed knights, he's a relatively ordinary otaku/brony who has Berseker's skills and weapons, and who has probably only killed flies and the occasional other kind of bug up to this point. He has the skill to kill someone 27 different ways with just a stick and his bare hands, but he doesn't have the killer instinct needed to use those skills on another sentient being, let alone one who he is a fan of. However, mad enhancement, so we'll see.
2: Human/Pony comparisons. A fairly common theme running through the Fate series is the idea that humans used to be a lot tougher and more dangerous than they are today, due to the fact that magic and stuff like that was more widespread during the Age of the Gods. However, Equestria is still very much in the middle of its own Age of the Goddesses. Part of this shows up in the inherent magic that all ponies possess (telekinesis, weather manipulation, growing plants), but it also shows up in a few other ways. Twilight casts spells on a whim (turning frogs into oranges, turning a some leaves and a rock into a suit and top hat, smashing a hole the size of my damn room in the sides of the crystal caverns) that I doubt any Nasuverse magi could cast without a lot of preparation,and set up, except for some of the Magicians (I'm looking at you, Zeltrech). What's more, Dash can break the sound barrier, and perform sharp 90 degree turns while still moving past the speed of sound. I just pulled up this which assures me that this means that Rainbow Dash is capable of surviving 1,670 g. As she was also carrying Rarity, and seeing as how Unicorns are usually depicted (in fanon, at least) as the most physically frail of pony races, I think it is safe to conclude that its not just pegasi that have this crazy immunity to g-force. For comparision, the record for human g-force tolerance was set by a guy named John Stapp on a rocket sled in 1954, when he underwent a peak g-force of 46.2 g. He survived, and lived to the age of 89, actually, but his vision was permanently damaged. My conclusion is that ponies, either biologically or through the inherent magic that they possess, are much more durable than humans. That is not to say that there won't be blood, though. Not to spoil anything, but at least one pony has gotten impaled in the course of the next chapter's outline so far. There just won't be gallons of it.
4125738
Actually, by that point, she was only traveling at little more than twice as fast as the ponies falling due to gravity, so more like a fraction of the speed of sound (check the scene out, I am not making this up)... unless we're assuming that the ponies were falling at nearly half the speed of sound for irrational reasons. Now, while it is possible to reach Mach speeds in freefall, this requires one fall from a truly massive height—far far FAR above the two to three kilometers altitude of Cumulus-genus type clouds seen in these scenes. From that altitude, the ponies' terminal velocity should be 120–140 km/h (75–87 mph) at best, so Rainbow would only be traveling at 270–315 km/h (169–196 mph), which is Mach 0.22–0.26—certainly nowhere near supersonic speed.
The best thing about this evidence is that it's not really logically refutable, since she's quite clearly shown to be only flying 2–2.5 times faster than the ponies falling in those scenes, and arguing that the ponies must have been falling at Mach 0.5 is simply ludicrous, I'm sure we can both agree. So, at this point in her flying career Rainbow is apparently not able to maintain this speed for more than a fraction of a second—a Sonic Rainboom seems more like a very brief burst of speed to get her closer to her target than sustained supersonic flight. Which makes some sense seeing as how she hasn't mastered the ability whatsoever and pretty much pulled it off out of desperation.
4125611
Well, let's assume we're having civil discussion. To the point:
I say Nasu often starts to spout complete and utter bullshit during his fight scenes in attempts to make characters seem more awesome. Said bullshit contradicts others things Nasu says, physical laws and simple logic. Trying to invent excuses for it to be a part of Nasuverse makes things unnecessarily difficult, while dismissing it loses nothing.
Main example of said bullshit is supersonic Servants, which means they react and move dozens of times faster than normal humans, while their strength and durability is beyond any realistic measure.
Let's assume Servants are supersonic.
1. We know magi under reinforcement are fast enough to react to Servant attacking them and keep track of their fights. (Possibly even not under reinforcement, though I don't think I can find quotes of that immediately.) That means they're at least in the same ballpark, even if somewhat slower.
2. When you're several times faster than someone, 99% of times that means they're not a threat to you. They move in slow motion to you, you can evade easily, as well as take your time to make your attack perfectly.
3. Which means everything that is a threat to magi is supersonic too with few rare exceptions. Dead Apostles are explicitly said to be supersonic as well afaik.
4. If everything supernatural is supersonic and moves at roughly same speeds, then what's the point to make them supersonic in the first place? It's not like normals were a threat to Servants or DAs to begin with, right? (Unless Medea uses reinforcement on them.)
When you're obscenely strong, fast and durable, surroundings interact with you differently. When jumping somewhere you have to calculate carefully to not plow right through your landing. When running somewhere you have to account for cohesion with surface to avoid sliding like these cars in F1 in sharp turns. When hitting someone you have to do it without flying away from them.
Making Servants supersonic serves no purpose aside from overcomplicating things. Treating them like humans (which in Nasuverse includes people like Bazett, Kirei, both Shiki, Aoko) is much more logical and simple. Most of them were humans originally after all, and if we don't involve Alaya overpowering them many times for unclear reasons, they should stay about as powerful as they were in life.
4125738
It's your call about personality of Brony vs personality of Lancelot. If you only give Brony skills and muscle memory of the latter but not much else, then sure, him being rather tame even under Mad Enhancement is possible. Just please don't forget to emphasize than ponies don't die not because he's incapable of killing them but because he does his best to restrain his impulses and because he doesn't have a habit of ensuring everything he attacks dies and stays dead.
4125910
And this here is why I said you didn't actually read the story, and don't know the actual lore.
It seems that until you actually research these things in depth instead of just dismissing them, arguing with you about them would be as entertaining as pulling teeth, so... yeah fuck that I have more important things to do.
4125924
I say Nasu contradicts himself, provide examples (none of which you refuted), provide my reasoning. You say Nasu doesn't contradict himself and it's All There in the Manual, I'm just not attentive enough. It's entirely possible, sure, but your argument is not very convincing.
If you don't want to discuss this, just say so without implying in every comment that I'm incompetent. If you don't want to waste time finding relevant quotes, you can tell your reasoning in simple words and tell where you think I can find these quotes myself. Maybe I'll research this more thoroughly later and you turn out to be right.
4125822
Good point about the timing of the fall, I hadn't really thought about that. I will concede that it's likely Dash only went supersonic momentarily to catch up with the others, so I'll retract my point about the 1,670 g turn.
4131240
Yeah, it's funny what happens when you apply to math without properly applying logic first. For example, that guy's ridiculous acceleration calculation.
Also, there is this, which assumes a pony length of 2 meters.
i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb209/valhallen-7/Mathboom3.gif
Using this logic, in order to for Rainbow Dash to be moving at ~340 meters per second in any of these scenes, she would need to be at least 8.4 meters (27 feet 7 inches) long snout to tail, which is about the same as the length of a London Routemaster bus.
knowledgeoflondon.com/images/routemaster.jpg
———I think we can both agree this is just a little bit absurd an assumption to make.
So, using the 60 meters per second estimate as her speed during the turn resulted in a g-force of 52.6 instead of the original 1667.2; which, while is still superhuman, is 31.7 times less than the initial assumption. It's also only 14% higher than the peak g-force "record" of 46.2 you mentioned earlier. However, the highest g-forces survived by humans are actually around 100, suffered in high-speed (~100 km/h, ~65 mph) automobile crashes. The actual highest recorded g-force ever survived was 214, while 46.2 is the maximum acceleration a human has survived on a rocket sled. Hell, a parachutist routinely experiences g-forces of around 33 during the opening of his or her parachute. Physical damage in humans (and other large animals), like broken capillaries, occurs at g-forces higher than 18, but the damage would be relatively minor; serious injury or death in humans is likely to occur at g-forces higher than 50, but as I stated humans can survive such acceleration. So in this scenario, Rainbow Dash would only be slightly superhuman, since she'd only have accelerated that much over a short time period of less than a second.
4133591
I never claimed that ponies had durability on the same scale as Servants, but, as you yourself stated, I think we can all agree that they are "slightly superhuman."
I'm going to choose to concede defeat here, as I don't want any more math thrown into my face today.
4145581
i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww118/AAKRON/logicbane-1.jpg
4145598 img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130815163421/mlp/images/9/9e/FANMADE_Screw_Logic!.gif
4145687
4145581
By the way, feel free to call on me if you have questions related to Nausverse or physics stuff.
Well, the dragonborn is fucked if they get into a fight with the Berserker
4217647
Pretty much. i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/107/awesome-face.png
4219918 You sneaky little bastard
4219924
How so?
4219940 that picture is funny as hell. Seriously though, you're a genius for this fic
4098813
It's ironic that you say that, because the original title of this fic was "Equestria's Black Knight," until about a week before I published it when I saw another "costumed human in Equestria" fic called "The Black Knight." Darn you, Zaralann. That one is also a Fate crossover, so apparently there's some kind of jinx on Fate/MLP crossovers. That, or there's also that saying about great minds thinking alike.
4153394
Alright, here's one for you: what exactly does a Servant's mana rating mean? My interpretation of it, based on the short snippet on the wiki, is that it shows roughly how much prana a Servant has to use for themselves before they have to start drawing on their master's prana, but I've also heard that it relates to how much prana their master is providing them with, or is it something else?
4325420
As far as I can tell, it's a basic capacity rating. It seems to be influenced by a variety of factors, including the magical strength of the Heroic Spirit (how magically-inclined they were in life and legends), the magic potential of the Master, compatibility with the Master, whether or not they have divine blood (demigods with strong divine heritage may have higher MGI), etc. The approximate formula for determining the value in Servants is "30×MGI = prana count".
• "E" is ~300 units
• "D" is ~600 units
• "C" is ~900 units
• "B" is ~1200 units
• "A" is ~1500 units
• "A+" is up to ~3000 units
• "A++" is up to ~4500 units
Weird line break is actually Morse code. It's all just a bunch of sorcery, if you ask me.