Equestria is dead. Using massive weapons of utter destruction, the Caribou have killed all but a handful of ponies, including Princess Twilight. But leaving the Princess of Magic alive was folly. After all, love conquers all. Even death.
Page generated in 0.046 seconds
Total duration
660 users online
833,752 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
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.®
4928103 Well put, all the way around, my dear.
As to the last bit of the third one, though, something just tells me that when the time is right, the Caribou are gonna seriously wish that, out of all the countries and races that they've attacked, they'd just left Equestria and her ponies alone.
Well alone.
As in, avoided the country com-pletely!
Hmm... Lyra a CHangeling? I like it! Will we get more backstory on this? How she deposed Chrysalis? Also, dem feelz, brah...
Love powered necromancy, and creatures that feed on love... How can this possibly go wrong?
Wow. All I can say about this chapter is...just...wow. Did not see that one comin'!
So the Changelings have suffered under the Caribou Occupation of Equestria, too, huh? Can't really say that that surprises me much. I guess that those cervine dirtbags were equal-opportunity conquerers, huh?
And it may have been another brief one, but it was lovely, tugged at my heartstrings (pardon the pun, given Lyra's last name), and had me in literal tears at the end. Another good one. Well done, my dear. Well done, indeed.
This, however:
Not sure what to think of it. It sounds very ominous, indeed, and makes me wonder just who, indeed that these "dark eyes" belong to. The Caribou High Priest? King Sombra? Or some other unknown entity that Twilight, her friends and her ponies haven't encountered yet?
4928594 The real question is how something incorporeal can scowl.
Just to be clear, Twilight is having to use magic constantly to keep her ponies in the land of the living & each in one piece, right?
Can she keep it up? I hope so, especially if anyone else figures out she might be the weak point & focus their attacks on her.
4928634 Hmmm, this is true.
I guess that we'll just have to wait and see, though, huh?
Him being thrown into the mix would be about all poor Twilight would need, though.
4928641 That's a very good point.
But if it is Ol' Smoke-puss, I'm sure that if anypony could find a way do that, he could.
Another chapter? This soon?!
(Authors are like changelings--they need love to live (and to write).)
I figured out it was the changelings once Twilight began thinking about Bon Bon, but I didn't expect to see her as queen at all! (Lyra being a changeling at all is a bit of a surprise, really. Of the two, I've only ever seen Bon Bon as one of 'em). Also, I like that Bon Bon had a billhook, and not just a generic spear. As a gamer and a fan of ancient weapons, that makes me happy.
And if that pulse of love was strong enough to reach (Sombra? I can't imagine he'd willingly put up with the Caribou's arrogance, so is he a lone agent, temporarily allied with the Crystal Empire against a mutual enemy, or possibly even in charge of a group of enslaved Caribou?) way up in the north, then that's gotta be enough to fill every changeling in that hive full to bursting. I don't think the changelings would have much problem with her unliving (certainly not like that Purity)--they can actually feel the love animating them.
Hugging ponies. Hugging changelings. Oh my god, so many happy feels.
Lyra a changeling?
And well, we've got Empress Twilight, silencing the Equestria Province of the Caribou Empire, Princess Trixie leading some three thousand ponies on a mad dash for the possible safety of the Crystal Empire, the Gryphon still resisting against the Caribou, and the Caribou and their WMDs.
It's great that Twilight is making ponies shed previous rules of engagement, but I don't see the retake of Equestria, and the eventual rescue of the Princesses and the Elements, as having having future unless Equestria develops their own WMDs and decide to raze the Caribou Nation to the ground.
I'd just like to point out that to the people who think that it is Sombra at the end. Didn't say the eyes were to the SOUTH, and wouldn't Sombra be to the NORTH? I'm not completely shooting you guys down, I'm just saying, being as it is to the south there is a good probability that it is, in fact, not Sombra. I'm personally hoping it's a vengeful Chrysalis.
It hasn't been mentioned yet, but has Twilight started working on making Equestria capable of supporting agriculture again? I know she needs soldiers, but there's one problem I've noticed... Equestria's been ravaged by magical fallout. Once the ponies are brought back to full life with the Elements, how are they going to get enough food to feed all of Equestria? At least some of the ponies needs to stay behind and work on that (some would need to stay behind and watch the children anyways).
Speaking of children, what happened to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?
Queen Chrysalis die? Did she die for other reasons, or was she a casualty in the war, too? Or is this another hive entirely? I'm glad Lyra's taking care of the ponies in addition to her hive. Although... thinking about it, how would the ponies get food in a tower in a siege? I suppose the Changelings might raise fungi or have some sort of underground farm or something, but... hm... I don't have the episode on hand so I can't actually remember if it is canon or the result of too much fanfic, but Queen Chrysalis intended to wrap the ponies up in cocoons to drain them of love (or something along those means). So whatever is in the cocoon has to be nutritious for them to not just starve to death in a week or two. I suppose the Changelings could produce that for the ponies to eat, or wrap them in the cocoons as a form of life support...
4928709 The ability to make unkillable soldiers, to bring back those dead who actually do fall, Changeling infiltrators, and her ability to stop the WMD mentioned back in chapter one give them one hell of a chance. The Caribou are already only a skeleton force compared to what they had been, and that still almost lost. Now, with the Equestrian armies soon to be at near-equal numbers to what Equestria had in the war and haven taken the Caribou's most recent advanced weaponry (along with whatever Twilight thought of during her long, boring imprisonment), the Gryphons involved in their own war against the Caribou and the resources they've been wasting at the Crystal Empire...
No, pulling out their own magic-nukes isn't really necessary. Not unless the Caribou figure out how to nullify love magic.
Lyra is the new Changeling Queen? How'd that happen? Glad to see that she and Bon Bon are together again. Who was that at the end?
OMG could it really be
SPIKE!?! th07.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2013/196/3/4/indestructible___corruption_v_3_by_onyxprince-d6dlzjx.jpg
or maybe our beloved king of chaos might want revenge for Fluttershy and Celestia and Luna thats right im talking about Discord
4928634 Actually, Nightmare Moon had the ability to take shape of a starry mist. And since the entity seemed to come from the south, (most likely in the Everfree Forest) perhaps it originated in the old Castle of the Two Sisters? And if I recall the story correctly, the castle is said to be inhabited by the Pony of Shadows, a portion of Nightmare Moon's dark magic taken form. Perhaps the entity is Nightmare or the Pony of Shadows?
4928962
knowing Twilight, she probably already has Earth Ponies and Unicorns working out an agricultural plan, as well as getting Equestria's Munitions and Vehicle Plants back online; because there is only so much food, Weapons, Vehicles and Ammunition they can salvage from the dead Caribou Soldiers. but having Lyra's Hive as an Ally gives Twilight an EXTREMELY USEFUL tool to learn Caribou Troop and Supply movements to raid at least until they can get Equestria's Farmlands and Industrial plants to a more or less functional state.
4929608
I figured that Twilight might have something going on behind the scenes, but with the present number of unliving ponies (which, unless they've had some more raids off-screen, currently amount to Canterlot and Ponyville) I don't know if there has been a large enough force to spare some for preparing Equestria. You've got a point with the Changelings, specially considering how Twilight has so far not let a single Caribou she's encountered survive.
The Changelings hiding as Caribou seems like a smart way to survive their ethnic cleansing, but an entire Hive doing so? That's a huge number, and whether the made new personas (well, ponysonas) (the lack of each Caribou have a history) or replaced some of them (in which case that's a few thousand dead bodies), there would be a lot of tells that something was up, and the Caribou haven't got to their level of success by being stupid. But now, there are an awful lot of Caribou that the Empire has no reason to think are dead. I'm sure there are already at least a few Changelings hidden away in with their enemies, but this provides an opportunity for a believable en-mass insertion.
There are other reasons for why the Changelings might not have hidden their Hive away amongst the Caribou (if they pick up ambient emotions, then the sheer amount of hate in the Caribou lands would make moving the whole Hive there impossible, for instance, or they might have been forced up in their tower before they had a chance for any significant amount of Changelings to get out, or considering that Lyra is in charge it might be due to moral objection to what they would have to do to others to survive as Caribou), but most of them keep the opportunity for Changeling spies beautifully open to be filled.
All I can say is
A little repetitious, maybe use "shine" instead.
This felt a little too fast. If Lyra is a queen, how was she controlled by Chrysalis?
It's usually Bon Bon who's a changeling. I like the change of Lyra being the one.
4928962
In chapter 4 or 5 it is mentioned that the "full might" of the Caribou Army is two million strong. Known Equestria is down to four digits, even counting Trixie's band, and are down to captured infantry weapons. In short, they are down to a nuisance. They need a massive equalizer, and need it yesterday!
4931835
They *had* 2 million Caribou. The majority are now dead.
Besides which, It doesn't take much to make an army when you use a form of necromancy. Every single pony soldier from the war can come back as the unliving--the same army that in only small numbers still tore apart the massive army of the Caribou. And by "small numbers", I mean one unit of tanks, pushing back an army of 2,000,000 after one battle. Not the whole Equestrian army. The whole, unkillable Equestrian army that is now coming to bear onto the Caribou with the active support of a civilian population that have suddenly gained a very, very good, very personal reasons to participate in all military endeavors. Almost no nation has every citizen contribute to their wars, and almost no nation includes nearly its entire population as volunteer soldiers. (well, there are the Swiss, but that doesn't really have anything to do here). The Caribou also seem to have a strong misogynistic streak--although it might be aimed solely at the "lesser" races, if it encompasses their own females then that's a significant portion of the Caribou nation that will not be permitted to engage in combat.
The reason the Caribou resorted to WMD in the first place is because they were losing. Badly. Equestria's technology and magic were more advanced than the Caribou, and they had cut off the Caribou's advance at sea, in the sky, and on the ground. The only reason Equestria fell is because of the thermo-magical bombs, which Twilight can counter.
The Equestrians also have captured battlewagons, and the first chapters pointed out that the Caribou pretty much just abandoned their damaged vehicles where they lay. Further, they didn't try to steal Equestrian science--the designs for the the Equestrian war machines still exist, and when you use unicorns things like tank production is a relatively short process.
4932276
Nope. It doesn't say that anywhere. It says that they were being pushed back, and suffered great losses.
Besides: that was twenty years ago. Twenty years is plenty of time to breed a new generation of soldiers and to rebuild their war machines.
Furthermore: Do we wish to bet that Twilight can raise every pony ever dead? So far she has been removing mummified corpses off of pikes and animating them, but those are well-preserved, bleeded-out mummies. Will she be able to walk into a cemetery and do something useful with entombed skeletons? Or masses of disintegrated bodies left to rot inside ditches? Or with ash from nuked cities and battlefields?
Finally, Caribous seem to be beyond-Spartan in their dismissal of weakness, social ego and cultural obsession with warfare. I suspect that they don´t even understand the concept of family, being born in breeding camps and growing up in barracks.
4932276
well, the way you've explained things, it looks like the Caribou nation had the numbers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Mindset of Nazi Germany, and has a tech level that varies from late 19th century, to the mid 20th century.
4933699
Generally speaking, armies don't get pushed back without suffering heavy losses. Considering how easily the ponies ripped them apart and the Caribou arrogance and aggressiveness, it isn't unreasonable to expect that more than half their number were killed. And while 20 years is enough time to rebuild their forces to an extent, there are a number of issues there.
You need 2 people per 1 child born; breeding slaves are likely not given good health care and so are more likely to die during labor (which, in addition to no longer being able to able to produce more kids, may also kill the child); pregnancy can take a long time to happen even in optimal conditions; stress can cause stillbirth; their most recent influx of slaves (as it is said they're still warring against the Gryphons) are ponies, which they cannot actually breed with; if they are indeed as Spartan as you say then they're likely going to have their kids killing or maiming each other (which was actually encouraged in Sparta). They could, conceivably, work their numbers to somewhere close to their previous numbers, but I very much doubt they could match the size of their army back then (although they may have picked up the use of slave-soldiers as cannon fodder, which would increase the size).
Even then, though, they would only have their numbers at the same amount that got them trounced in the first place. As to the pony's numbers, I wasn't suggesting that Twilight raise all the dead in pony history (there's a few reasons why I think she shouldn't, but they are mostly nit-picky), just those of the war. And considering that the love necromancy heals wounds and, if there isn't enough body left, actually creates working limbs, then I do think she could bring back mostly-decomposed or mummified corpses. And creating undead spirits is a long-standing tradition in necromancy--if she doesn't have enough body to heal then I think it entirely possible for her to create an entire functioning love-necromancy body.
Of course, she may not need to. Trixie can use living material to create body parts that are completely functional. If Trixie recreates the ponies' corpses from dead Caribou at the same time Twilight summons their spirit and grants unlife via her love necromancy, they could give the pony an actual body (I'm not certain Trixie could accurately reproduce the body without knowing what the pony looked like, which is why it would occur while Twilight is doing her animation--she could produce the shape from the reemerging memories of the soul).
This said, I'd be surprised if the Caribou hadn't produced something over the last twenty years that would make Equestria's victory more difficult or more costly (not necessarily the same thing with soldiers that have already died). A completely one-sided war doesn't provide the same sense of conflict, urgency and driving need that a difficult one does (unless the main character is on the losing side. Although in this case, the MC was on the losing side).
(I would also note that the unliving don't seem to constantly drain on Twilight's power--if they did, you'd think the constant pull of thousands of them would be mentioned. It looks like it is a one-time exertion to animate them, so the danger of being unable to sustain vast numbers of them may not exist. If she had used normal old necromancy, she might have risked losing control over her undead, but she isn't actually controlling anyone with her love necromancy. With this and the knowledge that love necromancy doesn't corrupt the soul, the three biggest dangers often associated with necromancy are nullified).
4933847
Just about, yeah. Although they're closer to the Mongols, as the author said in the comments a few chapters back.. The Caribou have a pretty big "massacre, violate, steal, despoil" attitude, rather than the Nazi's desire for conquest (the Nazis didn't go out of their way to murder civilians (unless they were "undesirable elements", of course. The Nazi's were awful, but not in the same way as the Mongols)).
Anything that they couldn't take, they ruined--salting the earth behind them, burning cities... Baghdad once had one of the greatest libraries in antiquity until the Mongols came and destroyed every last book they could find.
4938071
Sorry, but I am about to trounce you.
And that would still be the Caribou having an army numbering into seven digits, or at the worst high six digits. Equestria entire population numbers into four digits, and that's not bouncing that the two contingents of Equestrians don't know of each other. Regardless of how you put the numbers, but that is still like the Red Army or the US Army vs the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. If SP&M declared war against either, either country would spit-take, then would send a single bomb-run and go back to bed.
Wanna know a humiliating fact of the Second World War? Do you know that the Dominican Republic declared war against Germany early into the war? Do you know that Hitler couldn't even place the country when he received the declaration, and once he was given the country's profile, simply ordered the island to be erased from his maps and for him to never be bothered with the subject again?
So, in numbers' game, Equestria remains beyond fucked at the moment. They need an equalizer.
Nope.
You need a male and a female to conceive a child. However, the male can continue on and impregnate another female. Theoretically, there is no limit to the number of females that a male mammal is capable of impregnating, and historically, human harems have numbered into the high thousands.
Nope.
Spartans where encouraged to do full contact sparring and while they accepted that accidents happen, they also taught their children to love each others beyond anything, as the real enemies were others. And this was underlined not only by Hellenic misogynism (where women were incomplete men and men were encouraged to love other complete men), but also by military doctrine of each man in a formation defending the two men beside him, and expecting to be defended by them.
On the subject of Sparta: remember that Sparta, at its apex, numbered up to one hundred slaves per citizen? Spartan teens were pressed into two years of service in a police tasked with assassinating lippy slaves.
And entering into the subject of slaves and females: we have yet to see any reference to Caribou females, yet we have heard of several Caribou referencing breeding camps, Trixie saying that Caribou normally rotated their regiments through breeding camps, and that they employed the breeding camps to assimilate deer wood-magic into the Caribou gene pool. This possibly points at the Caribou society being exclusively two tiered: soldiers and slaves, with anybody not a soldier being pressed into slavery, starting by their entire female population possibly being labourers and farmers by day, whores by night.
Remember "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley? Remember how, rather than families, babies were industrially bred in factories, then raised in nurseries? Like it or not, but 1970's human economy and technology already allows the whole process of industrial child-rearing, except for external pregnancies.
So far, Twilight's magic can fill holes on a pony's body. Up to making energy skin or energy limbs, but we have yet to see something more extensive than that. Furthermore, the bodies she has been working on are well-bleed, dehydrated mummies, which in modern palaeontology are second on preservative quality only to bog mummies and frozen mummies. The worst, other than incineration, are ditches and massive shallow graves: the entirety of the soft tissues will be progressively eaten by predators, then high-quality scavengers (such as vultures), then low-quality scavengers (such as hyenas, rats and other botulism-resistant vermin), then insect maggots and the body's own gut flora, then the bones will be disintegrated for their fat and mineral content by fungi.
Patching holes on punctured tyre is not the same as stitching patches together to make a tyre.
Your speculation on how you can combine Twilight's necromancy with Trixie's blood magic is interesting, but I once again remind you that they don't even know of each other.
And your example about the Mongols is spot on.
4940312
...wow. You're actually spot on about Caribou socieity. Congratulations!
Now, on the subject of Equestria... I've thought long and hard about this, and I don't want the war to consume the entirity of the plot. Equestria needs to be rebuilt, and when Twilight takes the ponies to war, she's not going to be conquering. She's going to be slashing and burning till she gets the Elements and the Princesses back, along with any camps she can find.
The majority of the plot is going to be the reconstruction, and how ponies live with what they are, and what they have to do now.
4940312
Millions or hundreds of thousands. Twilight just hasn't resurrected them yet. Yeah, its a touch premature to include them, but I doubt Twilight would take offensive action against the entire Caribou Empire without having raised most, if not all, of the population of Equestria pre-bombing--or at least the military and industry parts of it. And while I concede the point about the Caribou's numbers, it only puts them at the same disadvantage they had when they were trounced the first time--they've got some new tech built over the last 20 years, but the ponies can't die.
Yes--and a part of that training involved effectively tossing them out the door and onto the streets (not entirely, but close enough), where agela groups formed what were basically gangs. Gang warfare happened and was encouraged, and sometimes kids died (so I correct my earlier statement--they indirectly supported the children killing each other). This conflict promoted group bonding for when they properly joined the army (and homosexual behavior was encouraged to make that stronger--but judging from how they're treating the mares, I don't think that's a part of Caribou culture).
Not yet, but the author confirmed that they're going to meet up. We can't focus on nothing but Equestria's resources at this moment because Twilight has barely begun; she's targeted two towns and resurrected the population of Canterlot and Ponyville. There's a lot more cities and a lot more dead ponies out there--we aren't going to be stuck with a few thousand ponies for the entire story (or likely for more than two chapters).
Making a limb is much more than just slapping a patch on something. It has to remake the bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, blood, veins, arteries, nerves, skin, and synovial fluid (there's a lot more, obviously, but that's all I can list off the top of my head). It does so--and if any wingless pegasi are flying, then it must have recreated the muscle memory, too. For the magical leg to work, it has to interpret the chemical and electrical signals that would make a flesh leg move. As we haven't heard of love necromancy failing to bring someone back, we can reasonably assume that it also heals brain damage--and if it was just using the surrounding material to make a patch, there's no way it could perfectly reproduce the exact position, number, and size of the neurons. It even fixes things that were messed up before the pony died (Derpy's eyes)! Perhaps love necromancy is combined with some sort of divination effect, or perhaps it recreates the body according the memories of the soul. I don't know, but it is significantly more advanced than just fixing a wound.
If a body has been stripped down to the bone, then all the magic has to do is do the same thing it did with the limbs on a larger scale--except this time, there is an actual physical framework for it to work off of, not completely severed limbs. I am admittedly not certain that the dead without bodies left behind can still be revived, but considering the complexity of what love necromancy does I think it is capable of something on that scale. And considering that Twilight has stated she intends to bring back all of Equestria and is a good deal smarter than me, I would assume that she either has a solution for desiccated and decomposing bodies, and perhaps even for the bodiless dead. Although the desiccation and decomposition aren't going to be a problem:
Except for those intentionally disintegrated (and perhaps for those within a very short distance of the exploding thermo-magical bombs (even nukes leave pieces behind... but not much, so it goes in the same category as disintegrated)), almost every dead pony in Equestria is perfectly preserved. Not dehydrated or mummified--fresh corpses, with fresh blood.
And thanks about the Mongol thing. History classes do come in handy sometimes.
I put this one off way too long! I read all the current chapters in an hour or so and now I need moar!
I have to say, I wasn't expecting such a positive take on necromancy. I was expecting more of a Twilight loses her mind type fic. Those are great but this was a very refreshing breath of fresh air.
4940887
…
…
Like it or not, at the current state of affairs, Twilight will need to go Rome Vs Carthage, and until Carthage has burnt, Twilight will need to devote all of the Equestrian culture to serve the war. After all, the psichosociology of a warrior society, and especially one raised on overblown nationalism, will dictate that they can never accept defeat.
It would be like Mexico hadn't grudgingly accepted that our Northern Territories are no longer part of us. If we hadn't accepted that, we would have gleefully marched north in 1941, rather than be allies with the States.
So, if you really want to have the ponies rebuilding their civilization, try to retroactively change the starting numbers on the Caribou Army to, I don't know, five digits or barely six digits. Given seven digits, the Caribou can just push a vacationing legion into urgent service.
Given the type of reputation (and content) the Caribou based stories have on this site, I normally wouldn't touch one of these with a ten feet pole, but after being prodded about this story specifically I decided to give it a try.
I must say I am glad I did.
The whole concept of a Love based necromancy is a refreshing novelty, and I am very much looking towards where you take it. To take something typically associated with corruption and darkness and power-hunger and other unsavory things and giving it such a twist is pretty ingenious, and opens the door for all sorts of fascinating questions and quandaries - assuming you will take the time to explore them (which I hope will be the case), rather than simply focusing on the war.
I mean, Twilight was probably right when surmised that the psychological damage will be high - not only because of what the ponies are now, but also what they experienced just before death. Most of them suffered excessively cruel and torturous ends, many after being forced to watch their families and loved ones endure the same, so to say that Twilight has a traumatized populace on her hooves is an understatement. Add to that the fact that all the ponies are essentially living dead (unless the Elements can indeed fix it - I suppose they do have the scale to pull this off, considering how far-spanning the Rainbow Power was in season 4 finale, but who knows ..) and the healing process will be long and arduous, if it can be fully achieved at all.
And then you have all sorts of other very interesting things which will come in to question if the Eelements can't fix the restored populace - we know that Twilight's necromancy does an incredible job at simulating the living condition, to the point where her ponies even have the need to eat (stripping the Caribou of their rations was mentioned), which brings the next question - can they reproduce?
And if they can, what about the kids? Would those be normal, or also Twilight's necromancy fueled creations that imitate life, no matter how good? Can a resurrected pony and a "normal" one have a foal between them? If yes, how would that one turn out? A normal, a necro, or a mix of the two with who knows what traits?
Do they age, despite being unable to die, or are they pretty much stasis-locked in to whatever form Twilight revived them in? Obviously they shouldn't be able to die from old age as the magic sustains the biological functions of their bodies well past the point of catastrophic failure, but obviously some sort of a metabolism is going on if they need food, meaning they aren't entirely magic-powered.
Hell, depending on how that goes, you could end up with Equestria with a dual sort of society of sorts, with potential friction between the two sides once the war is settled and over with - the still living ponies and their offsprings, and the undead portion of the country, which would be the vast majority of it. All sorts of juicy politics material there.
And then you have foreign relations, and how other countries would view Equestria and it's mostly-undead population. Given the sort of fanaticism even some of the surviving ponies displayed in face of Twilight's horde, despite her essentially saving their own race, I imagine some sufficiently fanatical neighbors could be cause for tense diplomatic relations (though obviously no one would want to go to war with an army you can't kill, heh).
Moving back from more global issues, I say it was a good move on Twilight's part to abolish the old government system and establish the Empire with herself on top. She is going to face lots and lots of issues while trying to bring the Equestria back to life (figuratively) as a country, all the while attempting to put and end to the Caribou, and she absolutely can't afford to be bogged down in politics while doing so. Swift decision making and ability to carry it all out without interruption will be the key to any success, and any obstacles to that are, frankly, a threat to Equestrian society and reconstruction effort at this point. If Equestria is to survive, it can't afford to play political games with stuck up traditionalists and zealots - one way or another, they need to step aside if Equestria is to reemerge and reestablish itself as a country.
That aside, I wonder how Twilight plans to bring about the end of the Caribou - given that this is their modus operandi, I imagine the absolute destruction of their country and social structure is the only way to go, given that several species have already been all but exterminated at their feet - I'm almost surprised that other nations hadn't banded together to wipe them out before. Either way, nuking them back certainly seems to be an option - considering that Twilight can recreate the magical nukes, blowing up the country to kingdom come seems like a fairly prudent choice - and a grimly ironic end, I would say.
She might want to leave the capital intact, seeing as how she wants to retrieve the Elements, but other than that I imagine there is no real reason for her to try and conquer all of their country and it would be a waste of time to try and do so, even if success might be inevitable with her undead soldiers - Equestria has much more pressing matters to concern themselves with that being dragged in to a drawn-out war that would put a strain on their already looted and destroyed industry. Though I guess we will see.
I must say I am somewhat surprised about the romance tag though - I wouldn't imagine the story having the time to focus on it much, though I'm willing to see where it goes and to whom it applies to (so long as it doesn't devolve in to one of those "everyone is a lesbian" fantasies that are so prevalent around here, and probably one of the fastest ways to make a story look like silly wish fulfillment).
All in all though, a rather captivating start, and I can't wait to see where you take it further.
4941112
Try again.
The first time was two industrial nations: the Caribou Nation versus the Pony Nation. Today it is the Caribou Nation versus just ponies, who only have as resources the stuff that the Caribou felt beneath salvage value.
There is no good story about the undead where the undead are truly invincible. Sometimes their weaknesses are obvious, like starvation or thirst. Some are provoked by the type of undead: terminal rabies patients die of thirst due to developing hydrophobia; traditional Haitian zombies supposedly have to be micromanaged, or else they either die for real or regain their life and escape; vampires need a diet fresh blood and fall under sunlight. Some a silly, like a lich needing to protect its phylactery as much as its own body.
You are forgetting here of the tiers of Hellenic misogynism: all Greek male citizens would be expected to marry, if for nothing more than having someone do the cooking, raise the kids and administer the household's slaves. Thus Greek male citizens would spend their day in the Agora, in "schola" (leisure spent in betterment of the self), then go home at night and try to have a few more boys.
As such, sexual orientation was irrelevant to procreation.
When put on the Caribou case, I would imagine that most Caribous would see their rotations through the breeding camps as leisure duty, while the few homosexuals among them would see it as plain duty.
Yes, but each of them had twenty years to formulate their respective forbidden magics. After meeting up, it may take them just as long to mix the magics purposefully. Or it may take them a week. Only the author knows.
My problem isn't fact, but extension.
How do I explain it?
In different organisms, regeneration has different limitations. Flat worms can regenerate up to 75% of their body (a head a can regenerate a whole body, or the body can regenerate the head). On the opposite end of the spectrum are bumblebees, who can't even heal mildly torn muscles. Mammals in general have piss-poor regeneration, with us not even being able to properly regenerate dermis. Thing is, as babies we can actually regenerate a finger.
So here I am not so worried for the complexities of the process, but the maximum extension of reanimated damage. Also the possible minimal requirements, such as probably having both a head and a torso, even if severed from one another.
"Muscle Memory" is a misnomer. Reflex arcs actually depend on the spinal cord, which sends a localized response to stimulus even before the brain has registered it. More complex reflexes depend successively on the medulla oblongata, on the lower brain or on the upper brain.
How dose this story manage to be so incredibly dark, yet still be filled with love and emotion that makes me jump out of my seat and yell "THAT'S AWESOME"?
I didn't think I would like this but dame it I'm hooked.
5010474
From the darkest times come the brightest moments and heroes in all of history.
These chills. The chilly chills. They are frequent and amazingly amazing.
Why can't I like this 40x a chapter?
5553552
MAKE MOAR ACCOUNTS!!!1!!!1!