Long ago the nations of the world faced a deadly threat from a powerful conqueror. Divided by their differences the peoples of the world nearly fell alone, one by one. But champions arose who exemplified the virtues of their cultures, and learned to work together to fight for the good of all. Inspired by these champions the varied races of the world cast aside their distrust of one another and defeated the evil that sought to grind the world under its rule. Though centuries have passed since that time the example of the champions was not forgotten, and to this day is honored by a special contest, held every hundred years: The Contest of Champions. Here, members of all races are chosen to represent their people and land in a series of games and challenges, for the sake of promoting understanding and harmony between the vast varied races of the world and demonstrate what each can be when at their best.
The call for champions has gone out, and Trixie Lulamoon and her friends, freshly dubbed Knights of the Realm and Bearers of the Elements of Harmony have been chosen to represent Equestria. It is an honor some of them are elated to bear, while others among the friends question if they can take on such a lofty responsibility. However they may feel about it the six mares from Ponyville shall travel to the Isle of the Fallen where they will face the greatest champions the races of the world have to offer; from veteran griffin soldiers and enigmatic zebra martial artists to mighty cervid warrior skalds and a kirin royal heir obsessed with obtaining victory by any means. On top of that, Corona herself has designs upon the Contest, and others attending the event may have plans that have nothing to do with promoting harmony and understanding.
Based on RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse, this story is canon and part of Season 2, taking place in the spring-arc.
Is this in canon with the rest of the Lunaverse? And shouldn't you say in the synopsis that this is a Lunaverse story?
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Technically I still have to wait for the folk in the Lunaverse to decide if its canon or not. Soon as I know for sure I'll add that to the synopsis.
Yay!
(I love the cover art, by the by)
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4124747 Wait...we didn't already discuss this story?
I really need to remember to check the Quorum forum now that we don't get notifications for new threads!
I'm so glad to see my favorite Lunaverse author back with a new fic...
...and so far so it's pretty much everything I could have been hoping for!
Trixie, Cheerilee and Raindrops are all still written just as well as back in Oaton, while both Carrot Top and Lyra seem in good form as well. Can't really say about Ditzy yet, given her minimal role in this chapter, but I have no real reason to doubt she'll be just as good. Dinky seems just a little off, but maybe that's just because there are a couple instance of her calling Ditzy "mom", even though generally in the Lunaverse she's supposed to address her as "mamma", unless we want to decide that she's somehow growing out of that.
As for the new characters; I really, REALLY like Gwen. She's exactly the right mixture of rebellious attitude mixed with a genuine patriotism, and I love the idea of her leading a reckless band that is almost as much street gang as it is an actually military unit. She just fits so well with my own idea's of what young griffins are like.
Oh, and I'm also rather interested to see what happens with Tendaji, especially after I relized he was the zebra from Oaton. I'd actually almost forgotten there even was a Zebra in that fic. The presence of his wife should also only make things all the more interesting, doubly so perhaps as she seems to have some personal familiarity with Zeccora.
Conversely any concerns I have at this time are really just minor nit picks at best.
Personally I prefer my Kirin with singular horns, the same as a unicorn, though I'm fine if the design of said horn is otherwise "exotic", including being basically two horns spiraling together as one. Still that's a matter of personal preference, so if RDD is okay with this particular concept of Kirin, I'll raise no further fuss.
Also, I'm still not entirely sold on the existence of Tengu as of yet, but again if RDD wants them in the Lunaverse that's his call to make. That said, the character of Kenkuro is highly entertaining, however, that has absolutely nothing to do with his race.
Lastly, while it's only briefly mentioned in passing here, the "Equestrian Games" is conceptually an equivalent to the Olympics and as such should probably likewise only be held every four years, not annually. Besides, with how big a deal is being made of it in the show I'd think we'd have heard of it sooner than the tail end of S3 if it were any more common an occurrence, not to mention there'd have been less pressure for Rainbow Dash too qualify if they could all just try again in only one more year.
All that aside though, please keep up the good work.
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I like kirin with two horns. Dunno why, probably just 'cause that's how I see them in my head.
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I know I said I wouldn't fuss, and that's not really my intent, but at the risk of doing so I would like to briefly explain my reasoning. In any other context I might agree with the number of horns, as a traditional Kirin is indeed depicted as such. In MLP, where Kirin are ostensibly some kind of draconicly influenced unicorns though, it makes more sense to me for them to have unicorn-like horns. The two horns version to me just feels more like a deer or goat rather than a type of pony. Furthermore, the design of a typical MLP dragon doesn't usually have the twin horns either and so I don't really feel like it would be a quality of their influence. Of course maybe all of that is me just being too litteral minded.
Anyway, having now explained all that, consider my peace spoken, and that if this is the vision of Kirin you prefer then it is simply something I will accept. The number/style of horns is really such a trivial detail, that even if I felt more strongly, it still wouldn't be worth debating at length.
This was so great. I loved the wonderful glances into the other countries and competitors. Fantastic world building. Sorry for all the gushing but I just loved HoO so much and this is shaping up to be just as good.
Looking forward to this, I love worldbuilding.
This is looking really promising. You set the scene quite well. Introduced a tone of new characters without it feeling like an exposition dump and you managed to give the ponyville characters sometime to shine as well so that was really awesome.
My person favourite was the bit with Pokey and Trixie. I always love those two in a scene and you nailed it
In terms of new characters, my favourite is going to be a toss up of Sigurd or Gwendolyn. So far we've seen more of Gwendolyn and have a better idea of her personality but there is something about Sigurd's gunho readiness to duel with Ditzy that tells me that he has the potential to be a fun character.
Simply put, I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this.
Well, I'm hoping this is full-canon. It's great all-around. Excuse me, though. *Shoots Sigurd between the eyes* Don't mess with Ditzy, hear?
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I'm pretty happy how the cover art turned out, even though it's just a few vectors stamped onto a background. Mostly it just took me forever to find a background that worked! I could find plenty of pictures with a fortress in the background, but didn't have a good spot to put the vectors, or had a good spot for the vectors, but didn't have the right look to the fortress or surrounding area.
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I love Gwen too. Fun fact, Gwendolyn was a character I originally came up with to be part of a much earlier possible Lunaverse story that'd focus on an incident between her patrol unit and a group of Equestrian border guard. While I never wrote that story, it is referenced in this chapter in Gwendolyn's dialogue with her mother.
Ah, yes, the kirin. It probably was easy to overlook, but there is a mention in Dao Ming's section of the chapter that points out the "lesser kirin" guards outside her room as having just one horn. One of the main reasons I put this chapter up in the Workshop before publishing is I wanted to make sure any hang ups people might have with the specifics of the races and cultures I was detailing here wouldn't ruffle too many feathers. In this case my idea was that normal kirin have single horns, not at all different from their unicorn counterparts; but kirin of rare bloodlines have two, and these kirin, even if they are not a part of the Imperial bloodline are adopted into the royal family...
...and by context you might now understand part of Dao Ming's "mother" issues, but I'll not spoil things further than that.
Ah, I'd totally forgotten, actually, that Dinky tends towards saying "mamma". Hm, I'd be willing to change it back, though a part of me kind of likes the idea that she might be trying to move away from that in an attempt to appear more "grown-up", since this story does take place in the later half of Season 2 and Dinky has been shown to be making efforts to take on more responsibilities and challenges, like with the whole wanting to go out of town to a special school, or learning more magic from Trixie.
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Thanks! Hoping I can keep it up.
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Thank you, I'm certainly trying to do some good world building here, and give some of the other races and cultures of the Lunaverse a solid impression from which other stories can draw inspiration from.
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I love writing Pokey and Trixie. They're just a fun pair to bounce dialogue off each other.
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Yup, its full canon now, and hopefully I can keep it that way. Ah, yes, fortunately for Ditzy she's got her friends to help deal with the irate cervid in question.
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And maybe I should be more involved there, but between my participation in brainstorming where ideas are first formulated and the quorum where idea are finalized, well... I just sort of feel like there needs to be a place in between where I take a step back and let things develop more organically. Plus I'm kind of lazy and would usually just prefer to read the "finished" version before giving my feedback (unless of course an author specifically asks me to).
Anyway, like I said, I'm not entirely opposed too multi horned kirin, and more to the point if RDD like it that way it's certainly nothing so troubling as for me to make a fuss over it. That said, in my own mind at least the twin-horned kirin still need to be wholly distinct from deer and goats. As such I'm probably always going imagine both horns in a line parallel to the length of their face -- sort of like certain kinds of rhino, only on their forehead instead of nose. I hope that's not offensive or anything.
Anyway, on a far more positive note, like RDD I do very much like the lay out of the cover art. It's very suitably epic. That said, there is a rather harsh mat line around Cheerilee's vector (guessing you put this together in MSpaint or something), and it is another example of that one overused Raindrops vector. The former is really only noticeable on zoom though, and the latter is at least in part do to a limited number of vectors to work with in the first place.
I don't want to sound presumptuous, but if I took the same resources and put together a more polished copy (like I once did for RDD with the group banner), would you be interests? Or maybe depending on the software you have available I might be able to teach you a useful trick or two, so you could do better on future covers.
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) but I still wish I'd had more to work with. Part of it though was how I was putting together the group in a limited space in the background pick, where really that admittedly overused laying-down-meh-face Raindrops vector was the only one that really fit.
*nod nod* You're correct, it was MSpaint, and I freely admit that with Cheerilee's vector I got a tad lazy there. Nothing more boring than going, dot by dot, trying to get rid of all those irritating little white bits. And man are you right about Raindrops vectors! I know she's a very minor background pony in the show, so its not like I can expect to get a wealth of vectors like with Trixie or Ditzy (though I had to use 'Depy' in my vector search to get more results
If you wanted to polish up the cover some I suppose I wouldn't object. I mean, that's you taking time out of your day so the cover looks better, so I can't think of a single reason I'd have to say no to such an offer, after all. So, yeah, feel free man.
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"Momma," actually, with an O. I suppose I can imagine Dinky growing out of the habit, but on the other hand I think it'd be kind of endearing if she always referred to Ditzy as "momma."
I can sort of imagine it as a "I'm a big girl now and big girls don't call their mothers 'momma'" sentiment, one she might grow out of later in life. Like with pokemon.
Hmm...incidentally, seeing as this is taking place during the World Tour arc, it might be worth noting that by now, Dinky has her cutie mark. She's going to get it at the end of Treasure Hunt. Her special talent is making friends
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Alright, I might just do that, though if you could provide a link to the source for that backdrop, it would greatly help. I can probably find all the vectors on my own (or already have copies on my hard drive), especially the Raindrops one...
Though in the interest of a very quick tip, for any future covers you might try to put together yourself... if you have MSword (or a similar word processor, providing it has any ability to insert art resources), well, crazy as this might sound, that's actually the program I've used to make most of my cover arts. It handles scaling and blending much more fluidly than MSpaint does, plus you can even adjust each element independently to further refine the look along the way. Then once you're all done just take a screen capture to paste the finished result into something like MSpaint and save.
...and that is Emeral Bookwise's #1 secret to making talentless cover art, as well as avatars and other assorted stuff.
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MSword? Huh. Never would've thought of that. Like ever. Thanks for the tip, I'll keep it in mind.
Anyway, here's the page I got the background from.
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Alrighty then... I was right about having some of those vectors already, as in addition to Raindrops I also had Trixie and Lyra. Carrot Top was easy to find, Ditzy only took a little bit longer, and best of all, while searching I found a bunch of other cool vectors to add to my resource collection. Cheerilee was a real pain to track down, kind of funny since that was my same problem when doing the banner for RDD. This time, however, I did finally manage to find her. Used an overlay of your original to match position and scale as closely as possible (which briefly posed an extra challenge before I figured out you'd tweaked the aspect ratio on Lyra and Cheerillee), and then did the same with the text font as well, which required additional tweaking to get the character width and spacing correct. Oh, and if it sounds like any of this was problem, please don't be concerned, as I really enjoy this kind of work.
Anyway, I also added a shaping effect to the backdrop to give it a more cartoony look, though if you don't like it I can easily scale it back or just remove the effect entirely (BTW, clever trick on you own part using Trixie and Lyra to cover up the pre-existing character in the frame). In addition I also made a variation with an energetic Raindrops and nervous Ditzy. Feel free to use whichever version you prefer, or if you like, I've still got the raw file and so I can easily tweak and or mix and match anything else you might want altered.
-- Version #1 -- Version #2 --
About that; I've found that with a color pallet swap, Rainbow Dash vectors can work pretty well for Raindrops (Derpy's would work even better, but realigning the eyes can be a challenge). Of course I understand not everyone cares for the work involved switching so many colors, however, I do and so if you ever find something you want adjusted like that, please always feel free to ask. I actually did three such when making the cover for G&C's Foalish Misadventures.
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Hmm... I guess I could see a post-mark Dinky deciding that she's getting too old to call Ditzy "Momma" anymore. Since she's not really supposed to be a character that's overly concerned with growing up though, I think I do mostly prefer the more endearing angle. Then again ~maybe~ she might just use other ostensibly more mature terms when speaking to other ponies, so there's lots of variation to potentially play with.
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Decided to use the second version, and thanks for making these, I really appreciate it.
Well, this should be interesting. I'm interested to see all zebras don't speak in rhyme. I wonder if others do or if it's just Zecora for some reason.
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DUDE! This ... This is awesome!
Gwen is like to cool red blooded maverick who will defend her people and Damn the Consequences Sir!
plus I'm hoping she is some kind of cousin to Gilda so that she will have a familial reason to beat some sense into her.
And Sigurd! Talk about rough and ready! He can cut you, gore you or stomp you into the ground. Those water deer might be the smallest of the 4 cervid tribes but i'll bet they're scrappy bastards!
plus i love the bone handled sword, considering how many knives are made with deer antler handles in RL it makes me wonder where he got all those bones
From the writer of Hero of Oaton, comes another epic Lunaverse tale... with a Tournament arc!?
Damn, how come I haven't noticed this earlier? I fricking love Tournament stories, they're such a splendid way to introduce new characters in a badass way. The Moonstone Cup is one of my favorites from fimfics, tho this appears to be a tad more grounded and interesting. And with the first chapter already building up multiple sideplots and introducing cool characters, I can hardly wait for more!
Eye of the Hurricane AND Contest of Champions, updating in the same day?
THIS PLEASES RAINBOWDOUBLEDASH!
Anyway.
I like the armor. Like I said in the PM, I think it's okay for the Elements to start "moving forward" a little bit into their roles. Though I find it a little weird that every other pony's banner incorporates their cutie mark except Ditzy - there's no mention of bubbles.
And I think Wodan and Cedrick will be a lot of fun...
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Excellent point. Just give a me sec... and with the power of editing magic... done!
No one will be the wiser.
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Same here!
Damn the moose are fun. It seems that somepony taking a jab at Trixie's drinking habits is as much a running gag as her windows getting destroyed. Adorkable is not a word you say Tiwlight? TV Tropes disagrees. I swear sometimes Lyra can be like a toned down Pinkie Pie. I like!
I think you did a good job with the Deer (& Moose). You'd think Carrot Top would no better than to bring large wildlife into Ponyville though.
Are Wodans Runes magic based or glorified tattoos?
I also get the Impression that their is more to ' Purgatory' than Luna saying...
Really looking forward to more!
Lucky in Ponyville! Nice work Vex!
This was quite a read but really interesting! Magical armor! woot!
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This is truely excellent.
One big thing though:
Raindrop's little brother is named SNAILS not Snips.
Snips is Snails' best friend.
Otherwise great job.
Oh and you are going to explain how a World Conquering Flying Castle from Far East Shouma ended up crash landing twenty miles off the Equestrian Coast right?
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Presumably, it flew there.
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To clarify: how a World Conquering Flying Castle from Far East Shouma, that at the time was trying to unify/crush Shouma which is presumabley thousands of miles away from Equestria, ended up crash landing twenty miles off the Equestrian Coast right?
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I'll be gradually, bit by bit, be revealing things about the Warlord and her attempt at conquest, though the part you're curious about is a simple enough answer and not really a spoiler. She'd started with conquering Shouma, then when that was done, she moved on to the western continent. The crash landing off the south coast of Equestria is how that war ended, after the Warlord's forces were mostly defeated, and all she had left was her fortress, which she was in the process of trying to get away to the south before getting stopped by the armies of the allied western nations (and a certain pair of alicorn sisters).
Oh, and thanks for the spot with Snips/Snails. I rather derped on that one, but got it fixed now.
4497054 : Snips is Raindrops' emergency backup brother. When Snails has been grounded, Raindrops calls on him for brother-related duties. :-)
Phew... now that was one heck of a read and pretty much pleasing in every way I could imagine. Which is to say there were a few nits to be picked that stood out to me, but none that I can still recall at length, so they probably weren't anything worth fussing over.
The deerfolk were pretty much the obvious stand outs this chapter, and I think you managed to brew up a colorful bunch who are both simple enough to grasp with only this brief introduction, but with some nice little inkling of a deeper history that makes them feel all the more real.
The second highlight would of course be the presentation of the armor, but I'm not really sure there's much I could actually say about it. Like Ditzy said, it's a uniform to go with the job, though that's not to diminish the significance of the job it goes with. Really though, it's the banners that are more impressive; nice work in creating a set of imagery that encompasses the characters --however-- since they are the Knights of Harmony, I might have expected there respective elements to be reflected as well. I can sort of see aspects Generosity and Magic in Carrot Top's and Trixie's, as well as maybe some aspects of Kindness in in Ditzy's. I'm not really seeing any thing reminiscent of Honesty, Laughter, or Loyalty in the other three though, but maybe that's just my own ineptness.
...
Oh, and thanks again for the brief aside with Clover, even if by my own intended account she'd have been living in Ponyville longer than Twilight, but hey, that's arguably what I get for being slow.
In more serious regards to that scene though (and I guess dredging up a nit for picking after all), I'm not sure it makes sense for Twilight to have ever been in any serious contention (slim or otherwise) for being a champion, seeing as that despite her prodigious talent at spell craft she really is just a scholar. It would however still make sense for her to have read about the contest since I'd wager her brother as a member of the royal guard and an exceptional abjurer would probably have been under consideration at some point.
Yay, Viking deer! Interesting that the prince was noted to be sowing his wild oats with mares, is that just a general term for females or does he prefer to date outside of his species?
Go Carrot Top Wyvern rider as well as mistress of alchemy, also Fluttershy Wyvern tamer, you never know when that will come in useful, she might just want to settle the score with some school bullies. "Go on call me Kluttershy! I dare you!"
I wasn't expecting to see Lucky, just cameoing? or likely to pop up later?
And what is Trixie's special spell?
So the contestants are allowed to bring in magical artefacts, that's a bit worrying if Semi-goddess constructed mithril armour is considered a sensible protection.
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Better than vikings,
They're Scottish, Celtic, Nordic Vikings! They are ALL the northmen rolled into one!
I think the prince is a Lothario character, he will compliment and smile at any female he finds the slightest bit attractive, and yes, if they respond and he has the time he will likely try to talk his way into thier bed. And in his mind it is probably a risk free way to "sow his oats" since (as far as i know) ponies and elk are not inter-fertile.
Ha! I can't wait until he tries to hit on Gwendolyn
I like Trixie's priorities
But I loved the armors and banners
i.imgflip.com/9fxqx.jpg
Fantastic
Great
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W00T! I've been waiting for The Tendaji X Rainbow Dash battle for ages. Glad to see it happen at last. Now all we need is Cheers to land herself a good mare and my life will be 65% complete. 80% if when we finally get closure on the ScootalooXDeets sub-ship that's been sailing for countless fics since season 1.
Also! Oh! My! Luna! I know I'm going to be shocked when I see how Ditzy accidentally challenged an Elk.
though
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Lol, the ultimate dare. Trixie gets a special somepony, and Luna will try an Orange and Tartar sauce smoothie. Between this and Title match, it'd be funny if Trixie ended up with Twilight. Although she'd probably still be to awkward to be anything more than a Pansexual [more into sensuality, or closeness than sexual activity. It'd probably take several seasons for her to ever get over that probably]. Then Luna would have to try that drink ... that'd be adorable.
Although I don't see a Trixie ship happening anytime soon.
Also those deer tribes were awesome. Thanks for making such amazing characters. Seriously some of the most fleshed out, non-Mary / Gary-Sue, interesting OC's I've read. I can't wait for chapter 3.
Loved the chapter. Fascinating stuff! Looking forward to seeing the opening of the tournament, and of course the awakening of whomever the Big Bad is.
Few notes:
Viscount's a pretty low rank, so if he's one of the two highest ranked nobles, that would imply there really aren't any others in the 'traveling by ship' category. Which doesn't mean others aren't there, of course (I can see Puissance taking her personal zeppelin).
Although Bluey's presence is making me hopeful that we'll see Pinkie going as his date. After all, a big competition is a great excuse for a bunch of parties, right?
I thought Wallflower was on another ship?
Heh. Yes, they certainly can. If evil shows up, Max will be there to punch it in the face, no matter how ludicrously overpowered it is!
(I can just see Max showing up for this thing, and while everyone else is fraternizing in the champion's rest village, Max tries to scale the northern cliffs and falls into some ancient monastic tomb or something.)
Interesting that Trixie thinks of Raindrops and co. telling her about Max and not Greengrass, who also helped them. Of course, in the train station fight Greengrass was acting in self-defense, but I wonder what they thought about him helping in the garden battle against the mob. (Actually, at the end of that story Greenie did say that Snails could come by on occasion and help him manage his garden bugs as a sort of occasional weekend job... granted, that was mostly to tweak Raindrops,.)
Hmm. Now I'm wondering if Greenie's around. As of JULP (canonical version), he's still got his seat on the Court, so I could see him coming by in his capacity as Duke to see another cool Game. (Or just to check out the flora.)
(And on that note, I wonder if Luna will get teased by the other rulers about the whole martial-law-while-she-was-out thing.)
***
I like that the relationship between Shining and Cadance is developing. They make a neat couple. And it strikes me that he might be around as one of Luna's bodyguards or something... here's hoping for some genuine wife-tossing action at the games!
***
Still enjoying the antics of the Shouma delegation, especially Dao and Kenkuro. The Empress does not seem like a very nice person. I hope Dao manages to either impress her or convince herself that she's good enough and, if the Empress can't see it, that's her problem. Dao really works well as a powerful character who nonetheless has some personality issues. And I like the implications of intrigue with her younger sister.
Side note: is Kenkuro a reference to Kenichiro in Dangan Ronpa?
***
Dinky and Snails continue to steal the show. I predict Dinky being adorable whenever Ditzy competes. (Also, I predict Dinky being abducted by the big bad. We gotta keep up the record of two abductions per season, and she's only been abducted once so far in S2, by the pirates in 'Ponies on the High Seas').
***
The Shouma magic was pretty epic. Looking forward to seeing more of that.
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The griffin strike team isn't as interesting to me as the Shouma team, but I'm still enjoying them as well. Gwen really works well as a character, and I like seeing her fake race with the other guy, who seems irreverent enough to be really fun.
***
The interplay between Dao and Raindrops was great, as was Dao's confusion over these misfits being the Elements. I see she's making the same mistake Fisher did in assuming that they need to be professional soldiers to have beaten the Sun. Looking forward to seeing how that plays out.
On that note, it's probably a good thing I had Fisher get sacked in JULP. Otherwise he'd probably try to do something stupid like say, "Hey, as the Minister of War, I move that we take this massive superweapon, turn it back on, and have it fight the Sun, so we don't need to rely on those Element losers anymore. I'm sure nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan." Of course, after that fic he either became imprisoned (if he turned himself in after being charged with corruption) or a fugitive (if he didn't), and the former case would make it tough for him to do anything. I suppose in the latter case he might still want to show up and do something stupid.
Fisher: "I'll just turn on the superweapon, fly it to Corona, and blast her. What could possibly go wrong?"
Volk: "Well, um, the strongest creatures from all over the world, all of whom are currently on this island and prepared for battle, could forcibly stop you."
Fisher: "Oh, please. Most of them aren't even ponies! And the ones that are ponies are the Elements, and we all know they suck. How strong could they possibly be together?"
Volk: "... well, sir, it's been an honor serving you, but I just realized I have an appointment on the other side of the world. Bye."
...yeah, probably a good thing he's sacked.
Ooh, Trixie and Dao Ming together. Two ponies who desperately want their maternal figures to give them love and respect, and whom have had bumpy roads along those lines. Can't wait to see how this plays out.
When I get around to writing Cadance's birthday episode, I'm definitely going to be touching on this. Mostly Luna somewhat-playfully noting that Cadance is stealing a Captain of the Guard from Luna and now she has to get a replacement. How inconsiderate.
I'm reminded of when Dutch and Portuguese sailors would arrive in China in their 300-ton caravels in the 1400s and 1500s and find them utterly dwarfed by the Chinese's own 1500-ton junks.
Heh. Junk.
I can't stop myself, I give people D&D stats at the drop of a hat and am beginning to assemble Dao Ming in my head even as I read. Right now from the scroll-casting description I'm thinking a Shugenja (cleric oriented around the four Classical elements of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air) or a Wu Jen (wizard oriented around the five Chinese elements of Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth), from Oriental Adventures. Probably Shugenja since they cast from their ofudas. No idea which Elemental focus for Dao Ming yet, but we're getting there.
First, Kenkuro is voiced by Mako in my head. Second, I sense that many a cup of sake has fallen before these two, and I'm now eagerly awaiting them meeting the Elkheimer.
You didn't describe it as such, but in my mind, since it used to be a flying fortress but then it crashed, I'm imagining it tilting at a notable angle. It makes it all the more eerie.
I'm certain that, in fact, the fortress is suitably kickass, but I can't help but think about my own thoughts concerning the Death Star. Someone crunched the numbers on the original (90 km radius) one and determined that with the same amount of material and money you could have built something like one million Imperial-II-class Star Destroyers. Way, way, way more cost effective, and substantially less likely to be blown up by teenagers and their Aluminum Falcons.
Ooh, burn.
I love the culture clashes going on here, incidentally. Actually, I think the huge amount of worldbuilding you're doing with each one of these chapters is my favorite part of this story.
Wait, she questions the metal ship, but not the one made of jade? I.e., rock?
Actually, one other thing occurred to me...
Someone else might know that Luna gave up control of the sun. A certain someone who's usually with her when she raises the sun/moon, at least in Canterlot. And who got her job largely when she reflected a deep understanding of Luna in a certain musical performance of hers, and who might well have noticed that she's faking raising the sun (or just isn't doing it) based on that understanding.
I don't know where I'm going with this, but it strikes me as plausible.
Fantastic
I think I like this guy! Gotta love how Trixie is hamming it up and enjoying every second. She is a showmare. At least she is trying to prevent her ego from getting her in trouble.
4752325
Well to be honest I wasn't sure how many nobles I was planning to have hanging around in the background. Blueblood is there because I did kind of want to do a little cameo for him and Pinkie, and Wallflower is there to represent the higher echelon of the Night Court. Any number of random in-between nobles might flit in and out of screen time while events go on. I could see Puissance there if only because her love of rare things would compel her to want to see what kind of special skills or artifacts other nation's champions display. But she'd already be on the island before this point, as I imagine she might be the one organizing a lot of the Equestrian end of the festival.
Traveling, yes, but that scene was before everypony had boarded their ships, so she was just chatting with the Princess before embarking. You know Wallflower. She can't keep her mouth shut.
Well, Trixie tries very hard not to think about Greengrass. Still, like many of the Night Court, he might be flitting around the background of the Contest. It'd certainly be something he might be interested in seeing, and I could see him also going to keep an eye on Max in case the rambunctious Baron got into any trouble.
Nah, though I do like that anime. Kenkuro is just a name I thought worked for a tengu swordsmand, Ken = sword, and kuro = black.
4752594
Oh, she's definitely based upon the Shugenja from Legend of the Five Rings (basically what DnD Oriental Adventures is based upon). The major difference between Dao Ming and the Shugenja from L5R is that there's no stigma against her also possessing sword skills. If you do stat her out, she's basically got a 2/3-1/3 split between Shugenja levels and fighter levels (not samurai, because she's more a wushu style sword fighter than a iajutsu style).
I actually kind of wish I'd thought of that.
Much of what Rengoku is was inspired by the Death Star, actually. That, and the Mana Fortress from Secret of Mana.
Well, the Shouma ship isn't made out of actual jade, it's just wood that's been colored that way.
4752660
Glad you liked it.
4752918
Oh, its quite plausible. Might even come up. After all, only half of the Contest is the compeitiion between champoins. The other half is the festival of shared culture; and while Lyra might be the designated champion, there might be another mare suited to showcase certain aspects of Equestrian's musical culture.
4753555
Thank you.
4754049
Trixie has mostly learned her lesson about letting her ego get away from her, but she will ever remain Trixie.
4756602 : Hah! I can just see Max there.
Posey: "What do you want to do first? We can go to the contestant's village, meet the foreign competitors, say hi to Luna, relax on the beach..."
Max: "I want to climb the northern cliffs above the monastery! That nice elk fellow challenged me to a race! Loser buys the mead!"
Posey: "...this sounds mildly unsafe."
Max: "Don't worry, I made him agree that we don't drink the mead until after we get to the top."
Oooh! Are Trixie and Dao Ming descendants of the original Champions?! But shouldn't there be 11 more of these guys??
The Lunaverse has a lot of sleeping super weapon and ancient beings...but then again there was a ton of those walking around in the old days... Maybe the L!6 should become 'Golem Hunters' and start specializing in fighting them? :p
4752918
You need to write that as a webisode set after Tambelon!! 
4756602 The ship could also be covered in jade scales! Or at least partially so, just for the look of it. I bet the figurehead is solid jade though!
Either Blueblood just received the most ridiculous series of promotions ever, or that's a typo.