Chapter Six
Unity
Chapter Six
With the language barrier finally removed, human and pony both agreed that they should retire someplace comfortable to conduct the first round of actual communications. A royal guard pegasus was dispatched to retrieve both the Mayor and the remaining bearers. Once they arrived, Twilight used the translation spell on them, and then Sheriff Tucker led both groups to the school, and it's spacious and comfortable senior's lounge.
As she trotted through the door, Twilight asked "So you just say 'everyone,' not 'everyhuman?' But what about your planet's other sapient species?"
"As far as Earth and sapients go, you're looking at it." Bert said.
Roger said "Well, maybe. Atlantic Dolphins are highly intelligent, analysis of the sounds they make shows all the relevant properties of being an actual structured language rather than just animal sounds. But they don't build things and we've never cracked their language, if that's what it is, to talk to them. So we can't be sure."
"Interesting." Twilight said. "Eqqus is home to a number of intelligent species; Beyond ponies there are Zebras, Gryphons, Minotaurs, Dragons-"
"Dragons!?" The entire group of humans exclaimed at once."
"Um, yeah... You've heard of Dragons then?"
Florence suggested "This might be a good place to start John."
Tucker nodded. "Yeah... Look, Back on Earth, we have creatures that we call 'ponies' and 'zebras.' But they're just animals, not people, and not very bright even as animals go. There also aren't unicorn or pegasus versions of either."
"But we do have ancient myths and legends about unicorns and pegasai." Bethany added. "And also legends about dragons and gryphons and minotaurs, but the actual thing never really existed on Earth, smart or otherwise."
"Weird." Rainbow said.
"Double weird." Twilight said, "Most ponies don't know them, but the very oldest Equestrian records contain mention of humans as well. But, like you said with dragons and such, there's no evidence that humans ever really lived on our world."
“This is too detailed to be coincidence though.” Bert said. “Our ancestors and yours have to have met each other at some point.”
Listening in from the sidelines, Apple Bloom asked “Could they have met here? Like, maybe those storms happened before a long time ago and bought some folks here, then sent them home later on?”
“Now that's a thought.” Applejack agreed with her sister.
“Maybe...” Twilight agreed.
Roger said “Well here's the test on that... Do your myths talk about big creatures without eyes?”
“No.” Twilight replied. “It was a thought though Apple Bloom. Getting back on topic though...”
“Yeah. So, are dragons really huge? Do they really breathe fire?” Florence asked.
“Yes to the second question.” Rarity said, “Though they have control over when they do it.”
Twilight added “And while dragons can get really, really big they aren't all giants. Actually, my assistant is a small dragon named Spike. You'll get to meet him soon.”
“So there's more than just ponies in your town?”
“Oh, just Spike.” Fluttershy whispered.
“What about you guys?” Rainbow Dash asked. “All we've seen are Earth Humans. Don't you have Unicorn or Pegasus Humans?”
“Nope, no horns or wings for us.” Tucker said. “And... I assume an 'Earth' Pony would be one without horns or wings?”
“Yep. That's us.” Applejack said.
“Are there other types of ponies?” Bethany asked.
“Well there are Thestrals.” Twilight said. “Think Pegasai with good night vision and bat-like wings instead of feathery wings. There aren't very many of them though... And then there are the Alicorns...”
“Wait, 'Alicorns'? That's a term I don't remember from our myths.” Roger said.
"Not surprising darling, since there are only the three." Rarity said.
Nodding, Twilight said "That's right. The Princesses, Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, are the only Alicorns. They're bigger than other ponies, as tall as you actually, and have both a horn and wings, plus the strength of Earth Ponies. They are immortal as well, and control the movement of our sun and moon."
"Oh I get it." Roger said, "You're talking about your deities."
"What? No, not at all." Twilight said.
"Alicorns are powerful, but they're not gods." Applejack said.
"Okay, so I'm not getting the details right. Sorry. But I mean, Immortal? Controlling the sun and moon? That's gotta be something to do with your religion..." Roger insisted.
"No! No, okay, look... I think we're not seeing eye to eye here."
Roger started to push the point, but Tucker cut him off. "I hope Rog hasn't offended you. But, from our point of view what you are describing does sound religious..."
"Can you explain a different way?" Bert asked.
"Hmmm... I can try." Twilight said. "What part of this is most confusing to you?"
"Immortality." Roger said. "And controlling heavenly bodies. Stuff in the sky only seems to move because the planet rotates."
"Hey! Isn't that kind of what you were talking about earlier Twilight?" Rainbow asked.
Applejack said "Yeah, you said Eqqus was unique that way."
Twilight's eyes opened wide with understanding. "Okay! I think I can explain a couple of things at once here!" To her friends and the Crusaders she said "Moons orbit planets and planets orbit suns. Ordinarily, planets spin on a rotation axis; when the part of the planet you are standing on is facing the sun it's day, and facing away, night. Eqqus used to be the same way, and when it was day and night happened automatically without any need for control."
"Wow. What happened to change it?"
"Discord." Twilight said. "It was his final action as the Princesses were sealing him away. He robbed Eqqus of it's angular momentum, stopping it's natural rotation."
"Hang on, this is sounding mythological to me now too." Tucker said. " I mean, I don't want to question your beliefs, but..."
"Well it sure sounds like you are!" Rainbow exclaimed. "How can you tell us what we've seen with our own eyes isn't real?!"
"Yes, it's quite troubling." Rarity agreed.
"And I'm sorry, I don't mean it that way! but..."
The meeting started to degenerate into a shouting match. Luckily, Bert still had the air horn he had used at the town meeting days earlier handy. One long blast shut everyone up. "Let's be calm here." He said.
Roger nodded. "Yeah... Yeah you're right."
"Okay then. Sorry." Rainbow said.
Florence said "Let's start over, from the beginning, okay?"
Twilight nodded her agreement. "Okay. And, I think I have a better starting place. Bethany, you asked about magic... And it's been clear to us from day one that you guys don't really understand how unicorn magic works... Let me ask you a question: Do you know about the five fundamental forces of physics?"
"We... Know about four fundamental forces." Roger said. "Gravity, electromagnetism, and the two nuclear forces. You're saying there's a fifth?"
"Yes! The fifth force is called the Thaumic Field. If you really can't use what we call magic, then it's not surprising that you've missed it's existence. After all, unlike the other forces, the Thaumic Field only shows itself by temporarily modifying the other laws of physics. So if nothing on your world uses it, you'd never have a chance to notice anything!" Twilight clapped her forehooves together in the joy of figuring out a mystery.
"I'm still lost... Are you saying that this force is somehow connected to living beings?" Tucker asked.
"Kind of... The field exists regardless, but conscious mind is what can interact with it. Strange, really, that mind on your planet can't..." Twilight mused. "There must be an extra ingredient, something ubiqitous on Eqqus that we've never noticed because of it's ubiquity and absent on your planet." She pulled out a notebook and began writing down equations.
"Oh dear... We've lost Twilight for a while." Rarity said. "To continue what she was saying though, our distant ancestors called this power magic, because they didn't know the science behind it. And we've kept the term, even knowing better, because, well... ...Because why not, I suppose. It works."
"Sort of like how we still say 'sunrise' and 'sunset' even though we know better." Bethany said. "But, Twilight said your planet doesn't spin on it's own? How can that be?"
"Magic can do a lot of things." Applejack said. "You've already seen how unicorns can focus the magic in their horns and cast 'spells' with it. And we Earth Ponies get a boost to our natural strength out of it, along with the ability to make near anything green grow faster and healthier than it'd be otherwise."
"And us pegasai too!" Rainbow said. "I mean, take a look. Cool as these wings are, I'd never get off the ground with just them!"
"I had been meaning to ask about that..." Roger chuckled. "I just figured it was like the old bumblebee thing, but you tap into this power to fly?"
"Oh yeah, it kind of makes us lighter weight when we're in the air. And, we also use it for weather control." Rainbow grinned. "Wanna see?" She zoomed out of the room, flying, and returned moments later with a small wisp of cloud.
"That's..." Roger swished a hand through the cloud. "Why isn't it dissipating?"
"Because Rainbow is making it stay coherent." Fluttershy said. "It'll disperse normally once there aren't any pegasai around to control it."
"Or I can get rid of it like this." Rainbow jumped atop the cloud, bouncing up and down until it suddenly released a brief burst of rain, soaking the floor.
"Dash!" Twilight exclaimed, looking up from her now sopping wet notebook.
"Oops. Sorry."
"This is all very impressive." Tucker said, "But let's move on shall we?"
"Lets." The Mayor agreed.
"But hold on, Twi still didn't finish explaining the angry mammoth thing!"
Twilight snorted in laughter. "That's angular momentum Dash. To finish off so we can go on though: Discord was a being with magic nearly equal to the princesses. Over a thousand years ago, he tried to conquer our whole planet. Celestia and Luna defeated him, and sealed him in stone. His last act, as he was being sealed, was to stop our planet from rotating on it's own."
"I can see how that would be a problem." Bert said. "Half the planet would be under endless day, baking to death. The other half would freeze out in eternal night..."
"And even the border between night and day wouldn't work as a place to live. There's be constant storms more severe than anything that happens normally." Rainbow said. Every other pony in the room stared at her in shock until she figured out why and said "I'm on the weather team. You have to know these things."
"Right..." Twilight said, "...Egghead."
"HEY!!"
"Anyway, the princesses figured out what Discord had did and tried to set the planet rotating on it's own again. But, it turned out that he didn't just stop the planet's spin; He had also stripped away it's ability to hold onto angular momentum. No matter what they did, no matter how much spin was put in, Eqqus would spin down again and stop every twelve hours."
"But what about Celestia controlling the Sun and Luna the Moon!?" Scootaloo insisted.
"Not entirely true Scoots. Eqqus' moon is stuck in a gravitational stability point. It's always located with the planet directly between it and the sun."
"A Lagrange point!" Roger said. "Yeah, we know about those, there are several of them for any two massive objects in space."
Twilight smiled. "Yes. And that's the story: Our planet is always directly between our sun and our moon. So, sun rises, moon sets. Sun sets, moon rises. Either Celestia or Luna can do it alone, but it's easier on them to split the difference. From Canterlot, Celestia's turn raised the sun and Luna's turn raised the moon, so early pre-science ponies thought that's actually what they were doing, and the idea has stuck to this day."
"Wow. I never knew..." Applejack said.
"Most ponies don't." Twilight said, "Though it's hardly a deeply hidden secret, just something that doesn't come up... Anyway, now that that's out of the way, what's next on our agenda?"
"Cooperation." Bert said. "We're making plans to build a defensive wall around town. It won't be much, we've not got the materials for anything elaborate, but with all the dangerous creatures out there it seems prudent. My question is, what about you? Can you do something similar?"
"Not really... We're kinda short on supplies." Applejack said.
Rainbow said "We could build cloud walls I suppose... But even with pegasus magic they wouldn't be as strong as stuff that's actually solid."
"What about...?" Florence started to make a suggestion, but fell silent.
"Go on Flo, if you got an idea let's hear it!"
"Well, I know that it would be difficult, for humans and ponies both, but, if we really need each other's support and it seems like we do... Why not move everyone together? Then we'd just have a single settlement to defend."
"Fears aside, that's not a bad idea." Rarity said.
"We could move easily enough!" Pinkie said. "Most pony buildings are built to be moveable after all."
"We'd have to leave the Town Hall behind." The Mayor said.
"And probably my library." Twilight agreed, "Though I could maybe find a way to transplant it with enough magic... I'll need to do some research..."
"But it still leaves the question of ponies and humans being scared of each other." Fluttershy whispered.
"Yeah, but we've got other far worse things to fear." Bert said.
The Crusaders quivered at the memory of the beasts in the forest. "You can say that again!" Apple Bloom said.
"Why don't we do this then?" Tucker said, "We'll each take the idea to our own, and if both sides agree we'll proceed. And we can still work together regardless."
"That's good." Roger said. "So, the next question is, what do we have to offer each other?"
"Well, we can both grow foodstuffs." Applejack said. "In fact, I imagine Earth Pony magic could help your crops grow faster too, so we can be sure of having enough to go around."
"That Pegasus weather control'd be useful as well." Bert said.
"And on our side, well... We seem to have a bit more advanced technology." Bethany suggested.
"A lot more, from what I've seen." Twilight said.
"I've wondered about that." said Fluttershy. "It sounds like we have about the same knowledge base, but humans have done some more with it than we have."
"Necessity." Roger answered. "We have a saying that it's the mother of invention. You haven't needed as much technology, since you have magic to do things with. We don't."
"Makes sense." Applejack said. "In any case, some of your machines could come in real handy for all of us."
"Except for one tiny little problem." Bert said. "Nearly everything we build runs off of electricity. We'll be running out of fuel for the generators in a couple of weeks."
Tucker and Roger swore. Bethany asked "What about what Twilight did with the defibrillator?"
"Not a long term solution." Twilight answered. "Converting magic to electricity... Easier said than done."
"Still, there are possibilites aren't there?" Rarity asked.
"Oh sure. If we could build wind turbines for example, pegasus weather control could keep the air flowing through them all the time."
"Assuming we're stuck here for a long time," Roger said, "We could convert some automobile engines to run off of ethanol or biodiesel as well. We wouldn't be able to run all that many of course, but we wouldn't need more than a handful of them anyway."
"Mostly, we need to keep public places powered." Tucker said. "Homes, well, I'd like to keep the lights on at least..."
"We could trade you magic-powered lanterns." Applejack said.
"Good, good, I'm sure some people will take you up on that." Bert replied.
"But what about all the other things we need power for?" Bethany asked. "I mean, okay, we can live without a lot of it. Television, computers, iPods, they're out the door. Fair enough. But, what about power for cooking food? For radios, if nothing else we should keep a news channel going."
"Girl's got a point John." Bert said to the Sheriff. "And beyond that, and I say this to all of us because I get the feeling Ponyville used to be in a climate not that different from what Fallow Meadows knew... We're in the mountains now. The winters are likely to be brutal compared to what we're used to. How are we gonna stay warm?"
Rainbow rubbed the back of a forehoof through her mane. "Technically my weather team should be able to keep warm air around. But it's not a permanent fix, you mess up the seasons you pay a price sooner or later."
"Even in Indiana the winters get cold, our buildings are well insulated." Florence said. "They're just not usually built for indoor fires."
"We might have to start making some modifications." Bert agreed. "At least the sporting goods stores are stocked full of winter clothing."
"Then hopefully you should be covered." Rarity said. "As for us, I guess my priority at the boutique needs to be pushing out lots of thermal scarves and hoof-warmers."
"Boutique?" Bethany asked, "You make clothes?"
"Oh yes dear, it's my special talent."
"But... None of you are wearing anything."
"Naked!?" Roger exclaimed, spitting out a mouthful of coffee as he realized what had been in front of him the whole time.
"For ponies, clothing is mostly decorative." Twilight said. "For special occasions, and also, as Rarity was saying, for staying warmer in cold weather."
"Which raises the question, why do y'all wear them all the time?" Applejack asked.
The humans all exchanged looks, unsure of how to respond. It was Bert who finally said "Two reasons. First, you've seen that we don't have fur coats over our whole bodies. We get cold way easier than most things do."
"Makes sense. And the other reason?"
Bert eyes the three fillies in the room, wondering how to broach the subject. Finally he said "Do Ponies know what modesty means?"
"Oh of course!" The Mayor replied. "Any stallion or mare that went around exposing... that... would be arrested."
Twilight added "But of course they'd have to be intentionally trying, after all everything's hidden by our coats and our tails... and our, um... Our... ...OH!"
"Yep. You've got it." Bert chuckled.
"Got what?" Sweetie Belle innocently asked.
"I'll tell you when you're forty." Rarity answered.
Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped into the middle of the group. "I get the next question! I get the next question! Me Me Me!!!"
"Go ahead Pinks." Twilight said.
"How many chucks would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck norris?"
"Um..."
"Er..."
"Okaaaay..."
"I think this is a good stopping point then." Tucker said, eying the pink pony warily.
"Right." Twilight agreed. "Come on everypony..."
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Wait what? No! Pinkie asked a very serious and legitimate question. It must be answered for the sake of sanity!
But that out of the way, a good chapter showing smooth cooperation and bartering.
I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up cannibalizing most of the cars for scrap metal and parts. Certainly the sedans, though I can see them keeping around trucks (trucks are usually what run off diesel anyway).
Interesting idea of them actually merging their towns together. I gotta wonder about culture infusion over time. For example, cutie marks are a distinctly pony thing, I wonder if humans would end up adopting their own cutie mark images to have sown into their clothing for instance. In a society where marks are a definite form of identification, I can see it catching on like that. Especially since humans would look really similar to each other to the ponies (and several donkeys that lived in Ponyville)
Is it just me, or is Bert and Fluttershy equivalents to each other? In terms of living at the edge of the towns by themselves.
What? When? HOW?
5699473
Well if Big Mac can pull one it is a possibility.
Now, what's happening with our Blue Blood, but more importantly, Trixie, we need more Trixie X3
5700588
More Trixie and Blueblood in the next chapter. As for moving buildings, well, even we can manage to move really big structures when we need to. I would imagine unicorn levitation magic (and the slightly smaller average size of pony buildings) would make it even easier.
5696979 Well, it depends. Are we talking metric chucks or Crystal Imperial chucks?
5702709 metric chucks, crystal imperial is too out dated and finicky.
All of them!
i.ytimg.com/vi/It5tdWr8Rs8/hqdefault.jpg
Bad things happen when a crew serviced weapon misfires.
Good example.
Yeah, not a fan of this chapter. Such is the danger of headcanon. C'est la vie and all that.
*raises hand* B-But, B-But, the unicorns had to move the sun and moon before Discord.
PLOTHOLE:
Problem with blaming Discord:
The unicorns were controlling the Sun and Moon LONG BEFORE Discord's reign.
Two: the sun and moon have moved INDEPENDENTLY under Celestia and Luna's command
Three:, moving the planet would be incredibly destructive. The earth spins at several hundreds of miles an hour. The first time she stopped or started the sunrise, everything on the surface would be yanked westward at hundreds of miles an hour. hurricane force winds worldwide. Mass destruction. Extinction level event. even with gradual speeding up and slowing down (and we've seen some damnfast sunrises on the show) it would be a mess, with wind and ocean currents and tectonics churned into a mess, the entire planet agitating like a slow-motion washing machine...
Four: The sky has been split, at least once, into half day, half night... something we do not see IRL when the sun and moon are both in the sky. We just see the moon up during the day. This means the sun has to be both small, and close, for the penumbra to be that narrow. (a small close spotlight vs a distant, large spotlight)
CONCLUSION: Equus must have a VERY SMALL sun and moon that orbit at extreme low orbital altitude.
5940124
I agree. The earth spins at around 1037 of miles an hour(1668 km/h). It would be disastrous for evrything on the surface of the planet.
It's easier and much safer to move the sun around than trying to move or rotate the planet. In case of Celestia it's even easier because her power and talent is connected to sun. The same goes for Luna.
5696979 If a woodchuck could do a Chuck Norris, I think nobody would survive it.
As great as this story has been so far, I really didn't like this chapter. Sadly enough, I kind of figured I'd end up making a review like this after seeing the head canon warning.
This story (and stories like it, crossover or otherwise) seems utterly determined to take away the feeling of magic from their, well, magic, and cram in as many excuses as possible to explain it away "Oh, it's not magic, it's just that no one knew any better!"
I think the reasons I've always disliked head canon being forced into a story is due to it never really being needed, and to how nonsensical it almost always is (especially when trying to make it less magical as this story does). The entire discussion with the sun and the moon makes no sense. Not only was it done that way before Discord, and in fact before Celestia and Luna, but there's no natural explanation for how it is done. There have already been comments mentioning the split day and night, and other times where both the moon and sun were being flung all over the sky in certain episodes. I really hate to say it, but the head canon here just doesn't work at all.
I'll try to keep reading, but the exposition from this chapter is definitely going to make it hard to continue. Something I almost always notice is that when head canon starts getting introduced, it pretty much always just keeps building up. Considering how non-canon the exposition already is, I'm almost afraid to see what else gets mentioned. Which is a shame because everything else (characterization, descriptions and details, spelling and grammar, etc.) has been fantastic
. Sometimes though, even a single problem can build up enough to take away enjoyment. 
Boom!
Wait, wait.
If the planet used to spin on its own, and Discord stopped it, then the easiest fix (by many orders of magnitude) would be to spin it back up. Moving the sun would take much, much more power. And if Celestia actually got Equus to rotate again, then why does she still need to do anything? Once it's spinning, it keeps going on its own...
Okay, never mind. It's crazy, but it's consistent.
*cough* if Thermodynamics really do apply here, then don't the pegasi have to expend at least as much effort powering the turbines as the unicorns would by generating electricity from magic directly?
5998895
It depends on whether the pegasi have to hover over the windmill, flapping their wings to move its blades directly (in which case the pegasi might as well be pedaling away on a stationary bicycle connected to a generator) or whether the pegasi have the ability to direct existing winds in such a manner that they flow more efficiently through the windmill. It depends, in other words, upon details not yet established of how magic works.
It occurs to me that there are other potential problems in a smallish town suddenly cut off from the rest of the world, Island in the Sea of Time style, or in a tiny enclave surviving after the End of the World as We Know It.
Without electrical power, is there going to be refrigeration? In Lucifer's Hammer, the Stronghold had a nuclear power plant. These guys, not so much.
Without vast--VAST energy inputs, out of all proportion to what you get out the other end, by the way, ethanol and biodiesel are non-starters. Maybe magic can help with that. According to a guy named Pimentel at Cornell, manufacturing ethanol for fuel is always a net loss of energy:
gets kind of mathy
the tl;dr version is, you can't run a farm's tractors on the ethanol it puts out. It takes more energy, whether in the form of diesel or in the form of ethanol, to run the tractors and distill the fermented corn than you get ethanol out, by something like six to one. You can't cheat the Second Law of Thermodynamics and on this one it's not even close, but maybe pony magic can help here. Maybe by using magic and Earth Pony labor and burning lots of lumber to heat the still, you can get out some ethanol, but even as a chemical storage mechanism for energy, it's not great.
Biodiesel is a tiny, miniscule byproduct of soap manufacture--or, more accurately, it's one of the things you get if you try to make soap from animal fat and/or vegetable oil (in America we mostly use old deep fryer grease for the consumer-grade soaps and shampoos) and you do it wrong. It takes vastly more old deep fryer grease than a town of eight thousand is likely to generate to make enough biodiesel for even a handful of emergency generators that will be run under only the direst of circumstances. For that matter, once people use up the soap they have in their homes, and the stock in the stores runs out, there's going to be a serious soap shortage. Just making soap is energy-intensive and requires many hours of labor and lots of other inputs, like lots of rock salt to make crude "lye soap" that will be solid at room temperature. There's a reason soap manufacturers made so much money so fast in the late 19th Century--making soap at home, especially if you're making a big enough batch to last a family all year, and not just doing hobbyist-level homemade perfumed soap with a recipe from the Internet, is a brutal all-day job stirring a kettle full of boiling, flesh-melting toxic chemicals over a fire, and frontier housewives were only too eager to buy soap and candles already made and ready to use. Better quality soap than homemade "lye soap" that was as likely as not to burn your skin when you bathed or eat holes in the laundry was a bonus. ...and every drop of "biodiesel" made means that much less soap for the people. Who's going to make that decision?
Maybe if they spend a few years clearing forest land, with Earth Ponies pulling plows and doing their magic voodoo with the plants, and planting soybeans just to be crushed for soybean oil to be refined into "biodiesel," but... I think I mentioned that petroleum is very hard to beat, when it comes to chemical energy storage, and breaking down vegetable oil to make a very rough and approximate substitute for diesel is a hell of a trick and a very energy-intensive one. Can unicorns cast spells to turn soybean oil into biodiesel directly? You're still going to need soybean oil--tons and tons and tons of it. What's going to be the power source for the presses? Will the Earth Ponies be content to be asked to help haul wagons full of soybeans back and forth and turn the big wheel that crushes them into oil and pomace?
Perhaps the town was connected to a city's municipal water supply previously. If so they're going to need to dig wells. Lots and lots of wells. Can magic help with this?
Are there people in town who have diabetes, or heart disease, or other medical conditions that make them dependent upon a steady supply of some kind of medication that comes in from outside the town? What happens when there's no more?
I get the impression that everybody in both towns, barring very quick rescue, is going to spend the next several years at brutally hard labor every day just to survive. After that, once the wells are dug, the walls are constructed, a few years worth of soybean oil-derived biodiesel is in storage (and everyone in both species is thoroughly sick of soybean pomace tofu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner) then maybe they'll be able to diversify and grow other vegetables--which raises additional possible problems. Most of the pre-packaged garden seed out there on the market these days is hybrids--meaning the seeds carefully saved and planted the second year are largely going to revert to the varieties crossed to create the hybrid cultivar. Meaning corn and carrots and tomatoes and green beans and potatoes and soybeans that won't produce so much, or won't be as disease resistant, or both. And so on. And that's going to matter a lot, in a tiny settlement that's cut off from the world where synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides and fresh supplies of hybrid seeds are things you can buy at the farm supply store, rather than stories told to disbelieving grandchildren. If there are "heritage" non-hybrid vegetable seeds in either town, they're going to be worth as much as life itself--man cannot live by soybeans alone. It's still going to be very hard work for everyone, maybe for a generation or longer.
And if they're going to survive in the long term--they're going to need to grow and spread out. They're going to need to find resources beyond just arable land. They'll need iron, coal, copper, other metals, petroleum. On a world inhabited by large smart aggressive predators that have no instinctive fear of the human scent, they're going to need to make every bullet count--and sooner or later they're going to have to learn to make new guns and new ammunition too. They're going to need steel mills eventually, mines for iron ore and coal, unless they're all going to go back to living in caves when the last old tool breaks.
Ohhh Pinkie, you goob 8D
heeheehee, nicely done, nicely done!
Error...
What about the cows? Matilda? The donkey?
At the very least the donkeys are another species, that even goes to parties since Cranky met his love on the grand galloping gala.
Besides, I just noticed that Zecora wasn't taken... Or was she? She'd be coming out the forest to ponyville to see what's going on and then is all:
"What the hell happened her? Where are all my friendly pony peer?"
This sentences is structured falsely. You make it sound here as if Cadance, is included with the immortality business (a minor issue since it could just be because of lack of knowledge on Twilight's side), as well as including her in the control of celestial bodies, which she clearly doesn't do.
Hence, it should be worded like this:
"Nodding, Twilight said "That's right. The Princesses, Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, are the only Alicorns. They're bigger than other ponies, as tall as you actually, except Cadance, and have both a horn and wings, plus the strength of Earth Ponies. Celestia and Luna are immortal as well, and control the movement of our sun and moon. Cadance is known as the princess of love and her magic is focused on this force."
Nope!
First of all Discord wasn't a being with magic nearly equal to the princesses. He was the spirit of chaos and disharmony, it's avatar so to speak. In that regard he was much more powerful then one alicorn, Luna and Celestia both together could barely take him on and finally needed the elements of harmony to defeat him, practically the source power opposite to his own magic, which was free magic, wild magic, chaotic magic.
So the sentence should be: "Discord was a being with magic that the princesses could barely compete with." Or "Discord, a being that was the manifestation of of chaotic magic in our world, was powerful enough to hold both princesses at bay without much effort." Lastly this would have worked, "Discord was a being with magic that could trump the princesses, as he was even more powerful."
Then moving on:
Of course this could be again due to lack of information o Twilights side.
Discord, wasn't a ruler, a was a mischievous spirit spreading chaos where he could to his liking, he would have one seat in Equestria, in the series they were always only talking about Equestria. He'd stomp out tyrants threatening equestria, then 'walk' somewhere else and incite a rebellion, other places he just turned into his personal theme parks and playgrounds.
But he wasn't a ruler, nor did he desire to rule.
The next sentence should also be more like: "Eventually, with the aid of magical artifacts called The Elements of Harmony, the princesses defeated the chaotic spirit, encasing him in stone.
In addition: I wind Twilight's knowledge about the true state of the word questionable. The possibility that Luna and Celestia actually move the planet, instead of the other 2 celestial bodies, is sound and logical, but only of the stars are similar in size as to earth. In addition, this would not be public knowledge as it would tarnish the position in society that Celestia and Luna represent. It would not do well to their reputation. It sets Celestia, who twilight admired for "raising the sun" as a child, also put in a different light for her, since she was practically 'tricked' as a child.
It also doesn't really fit their Cutie marks then. The both should have had cutie marks depicting the earthen planet and it's gravitational force itself, yet their marks were sun and moon despite, them actually having nothing to do with those.
I find it more plausible that the Sun is more like a second moon, much smaller then the earthen sun. Discord did mess up the gravitational relation between those stars, but Celestia is controlling a much smaller sun, more equal to Luna's moon, who might be even equally dwarfed in size compared to earth, with Equus also being smaller then earth.
They may also connect with their respective celestial bodies, and tug or pull on their gravitational relation, that was once Silenced, to move the earth, point being their actually Strength to perform the tasks a deep and mysterious connection to both Celestial bodies.
>>>>And now for something completely different>>>>
That made me chuckle hard, remembering how Big Mac actually 'pulled' a house, and it slid over the ground!
Overprotective sister much?
I'm gonna go out on a guess and say she meant 14.
Alas, it does make for a good joke.
Your headcanon=false
Unicorns are said to have raised the Sun and Moon before Equestria even began
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Alas, perhaps not. I believe the Princesses control a dust cloud that envelopes the planet, blocking all light
There can only be one Chuck Norris! Unless he does so!
"How many chucks would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck norris?" Best one liner I have readLOL
I like the way you explained magic, as well as Celestia and Luna, it's kinda how I see it too. Although I don't consider Celestia, Luna, or Cadence to be immortal, that's the only difference I can think of. I like where this story is going.
Wise man.
To answer Pinky's Question. All of it.
6204306 Author's head canon might have ponies' lives longer than humans', therefore forty could be the proper age of consent. Or ponies are overprotective as fuck, like you said.
6529310 A woodchuck would chuck what a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck norris!
Answer: All of them...
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I disagree. None!
Because he is Chuck Norris, he'll roundhouse kick the woodchuck.
I love that this is actually canon in this story.
Big Mac dragging a house without it caving in makes more sense in this context.
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My mom used to say things like that when I was growing up, half-serious, half-jokingly.
And if a woodchuck could pull a Chuck Norris, none would be safe!
(I'm amused that both Chuck and Norris autocorrect to capitalized on my phone, regardless of whether they're used together.)
You know? i like that head canon
And probably in g5 discord gave it back
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I think both
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Perhaps Discord did it long ago as well?
Who knows?