The Equestria Diaries

by Istaran

Chapter 23: Belated Briefing

"'Player 12', or as I like to call him, the 'army guy', originally appeared in the badlands, just outside Queen 'All Heart's hive cluster," Robert began. "I don't know all the details, but his Item somehow allows him to build structures and units from a certain game from our world, or rather a series of games. These games were all about building up armies and sending them off to fight each other, so of course that allows him to build up an army and send them against, well, us."

Princess Celestia, Captain Shining Armor, Queen All Heart, and Zeke all paid careful attention, while a smattering of other guard officers and changeling leaders surrounded them, keeping an eye on each other as much as the briefing.

"The things it creates are some kind of magical construct, even those that look like humans or other living creatures. Much like Zeke's summons, they live, die, and kill according to the logic of their game, rather than acting entirely realistic. The one plus side of this is that their weapons can't incapacitate you with injuries; until they do enough damage to outright kill you, the only harm is a mounting sense of dread. On the downside, that can easily lead to your soldiers getting killed, as they push through their fear and take risks they would know not to if they had broken bones and bleeding wounds to slow them down. On the other hand, you can't really slow the enemy down with injuries, either, and it can be hard to judge how effective your attacks are being until they finish your target off."

"Sorry to interrupt," Shining Armor interrupted, "but we know all this. Can you get past the basics?"

"Sure, I just wanted to start with the groundwork. The bulk of his forces are pretty straight forward. The most common troops have projectile weapons that are unable to target anything more than a few pony-heights off the ground. This is mostly a 'game logic' thing. Anything higher than that is considered 'flying', and can only be targetted by his weapons that can target flying things. Don't get me wrong, he has plenty of those, but his basic troops aren't among them and he tends to make a lot of them."

"Why?" Zeke asked, "I doubt he's a total <noob>, so why make so many basic troops if they have such obvious weaknesses? Cost efficiency?"

"Extreme cost efficiency. I've had enough chances to scout things out over the iterations to have some idea how he works. He builds and sells buildings, constantly. That produces free basic troops as a consequence. That should be costing him money, on net, and terribly inefficient, but I'm guessing there's some quirk to how his Item works that makes it work out for him. I've also seen him stand his basic troops next to a sandbag wall and make them disappear; according to Angelica's research, that's some secret trick for selling infantry. If his item somehow makes the buildings for free, but not the units, that may be how he finances his whole operation. But unless we can actually ask him, we'll probably never know for sure."

"Any ideas on how to use that to our advantage?" Shining asked.

"If we can wipe out his Construction Yards and similar structures, his whole operation should falter; but that'd be true regardless of how his finances work. But I'm not sure how we do that without straight up overcoming his forces. If we can manage a surgical strike, though, those would be good primary targets. Anyways, let's move on. Beyond his more straightforward combat troops, he has a number of specialized forces you need to be aware of. I wish my phone was still intact so I could show you pictures, but I'll just have to try to describe as best I can. The dogs, you know all too well," he nodded to the changeling queen. "They can detect a disguised enemy nearby, and can flat out murder anyone without adequate protection. Anyone safely inside a vehicle or building, or flying is out fo their reach. But it's hard to do that without being targetted by his other troops. Disguising yourself as one of them fools the other constructs, as long as the player himself doesn't notice you and send an order. But he generally keeps his base well defended with dogs, and will make more if he suspects a threat from disguised changelings. If the dogs can be taken out from a distance or from the air, though, a stealth attack can potentially succeed."

Robert continued, "Speaking of stealth attacks, our 'army guy' has a few nasty stealth options of his own. His spies can take on the appearance of any individual they can catch sight of, allowing them to move about with the appearance of pony. They are basically just spotters, but given how his abilities work, spotters can be a big problem. They become pretty obvious if you try to interact with them, but they can go unnoticed in crowded areas where one more pony walking around quietly is easy to go unnoticed. Stealth tanks can simply make themselves invisible, and have the ability to attack fliers with their missiles. Mirage tanks can disguise themselves as trees when stationary, and can kill a pony in a single shot, two at the worst. He also has a few vehicles that can move underground, and surface unexpectedly: one armed with flamethrowers that can be devastating against clustered troops, and another that can carry groups of soldiers to release onto the battlefield. Canterlot itself should be safe from those, as they can't dig through solid rock, but the soft earth throughout most of Equestria allows them to pop up almost anywhere."

No one interrupted, so Robert went on. "In addition to the stealth options, he has a few other specialized troops you need to be especially concerned with. The bald men, also known as 'Yuri's, can take over the mind of almost anypony close enough, as long as they aren't flying. Each Yuri can only control a single pony at a time, but if you subdue the controlled pony, the Yuri can simply chose another pony to control. The strongest willed ponies, such as the Princesses, can resist easily enough, but when your allies are turning on you, the battlefield can get very chaotic very quickly. Kill them with extreme prejudice. In addition, he has soldiers known as 'Chrono Troopers' that have a very unconventional combat style, even by his standards. When moving long distances, they teleport, taking time to fade in at their destination based on the distance travelled. If you spot them fading in, kill them quickly while they are vulnerable. Once fully materialized, they can teleport away freely if they are sufficiently threatened. Their weapon freezes a target, preventing them from experiencing any time. They have to keep locked onto a target to keep them frozen, but after they've been frozen long enough, they'll vanish without a trace."

"That's what the survivors from Alamare said happened to Princess Luna," Queen All Heart volunteered. "They said a bunch of them ganged up on her."

Robert nodded, "That makes sense. Someone like Luna takes longer than normal to disappear, but they can make it faster by concentrating their fire."

"This intelligence would have been much more valuable yesterday, before the battle," Shining Armor said, frustration tinging his voice.

"I'm sorry, it was night when we arrived. Perhaps we should have awoken you, or even given Luna a private briefing on the spot."

"Thank you for taking the time now, at least we'll be better prepared to keep the rest of the royalty safe," Shining replied.

"Moving on.. the enemy has a substantial and dangerous flying contingent of their own, in addition to their ground forces. The fliers fall mainly into two categories: fast moving strike fighters which can get in quickly and deliver deadly payloads, but need to return to base to reload, and slower moving sustained-engagement aircraft, that can either reload themselves in midair or have no need to reload. For the most part, his military is much tougher and more dangerous on the ground than in the air, but I don't have to tell you how effective the added manueverability of airborn forces can be."

The pegasi in attendance, as well as the changelings, nodded their agreement.

"And finally, 'Super-weapons'. The little light show in the sky the other day was a collection of them being used against what I assume was an attempted assault by Daniel and his spiders. The most obvious threat is an array of high power attacks that can be launched directly from his base of operations against anywhere he has gotten one of his spotters. It's worth mentioning that he doesn't have to have a spotter still there to launch the attack; once one of his spies has been in Canterlot, he'll be able to drop his <nukes> right here, even if the spy has been eliminated. He has high powered energy beam weapons that strike from the sky, called 'Ion cannons', massive <nuclear> missiles capable of devastating a large area, and the Scud Storm, which fires a barrage of missiles that leave behind clouds of deadly toxins. Each of these weapons is unusable for several minutes after firing, but he has enough of them to devastate an army every few minutes. The best defense is to not be clustered. Spotters should keep an eye on the horizon to see the missiles flying up from their launchers and scatter your forces as widely as you can. At a certain altitude, the missiles will vanish, and reappear over their target, giving a very limited time to try to get out of the area of effect."

Robert swallowed, taking a moment before continuing, "Ion cannons are basically unavoidable, but don't hit as wide of an area.. they will generally be called down to hit high priority targets. If you can shield yourselves, you may have enough time to get out of the beam before it kills you. In addition, he has the Chronosphere, which can teleport a tightly clustered strike force to wherever his spotters have revealed, and the Iron Curtain, which can render a strike force temporarily invulnerable. The latter's use is identifiable by a rusty-red look enveloping the beneficiaries. Luckily, the Iron Curtain only works on vehicles, not infantry, so it can't protect some of the more troublesome enemies we already discussed."

"You've talked a lot about the enemy's strengths.. what about weaknesses? Are there any vulnerabilities we can exploit?"

Robert nodded. "Yes, though not as much as you might like. Above all, his limitation is that he has a fixed and finite bag of tricks. There are a lot of nasty tricks in that bag, but he has no way to come up with something new. Second, he is, ultimately, just one person. His forces can act on their own, but only in very limited, predictable ways, such as attacking someone who wanders into range, or pursuing an attacker. If you attack several areas at once, he will have a hard time giving orders, and you'll be able to exploit his forces' default behaviors. And at some point he has to sleep, and rely entirely on those defaults. He tends to stay up late into the night, and wake in the afternoon, though if you rely on that, he may switch his sleep schedule to counter. There's nothing he can do against you attacking around the clock though."

"We could take shifts, with solar guards harassing him in the day, and your changelings attacking at night," Celestia suggested to the Queen, receiving a nod in return.

Robert continued. "The majority of his arsenal does not function against airborne targets, and most can't keep pace with your pegasi, so you can use them for hit and run assaults, perhaps with unicorns to back them up and take out pursuing fliers. Also, if you can get on the offensive.. he has a nasty array of stationary weapons that make attacking his base very dangerous, but they rely on various 'power plant' structures. If you take out enough power plants, his entire defense network will shut off temporarily, and he'll need to take the time to unplug his buildings one by one to regain functionality. Hard to do in his sleep, and distracting even if he's awake. The power plants are among the weakest of his buildings, as well, and will crumble quickly under heavy fire. Their loss will also slow his production and disable his super weapons. But.. " Robert hesitated.

"But what?" Shining pressed.

"All this info will go a long way toward helping your odds, but well. The way I got it was by looping through time repeatedly. I've seen this war play out a lot of ways, none of them with victory on your side. Allying with the changelings is a good start, but it happens almost every time. Losing Luna so early is a major loss, and one that doesn't happen often. You need to do more. Gather more allies from surrounding nations, dig out more dangerous spells from your libraries, and take some pretty extreme risks. I don't know what will bring success, but I know being timid will lead to failure."

"Thank you, Robert. We are most grateful for your report, and your advice. We will see what we can do to even the odds. In your 'looping', did you see the enemy launch attacks on other nations? Perhaps that could be used to incentivize an alliance," Celestia inquired.

Robert nodded, looking a bit embarrassed. "There have been a number of times that I have.. decided to take a break, as it were, and fled Equestria at the start of a loop. It takes years for him to expand his operations, but he doesn't really stop. He seems to gain a lot of traction when he reaches the remains of the Crystal Empire to the north. Having an ocean between him and you serves to delay his assault, but when he does make his move, he does so decisively."

"Do you think you can stay with me, and serve as a witness to such? I will need all the help I can get to convince other nations to risk their own in what they will view as our fight," Celestia continued.

Robert sighed, "I can, but I need to ask you for your help. I had asked it of Luna, but, well, she obviously cannot help any longer. There are two more of our kind, females, that need to be located and brought here. One is a blue haired woman named Angelica, who should be in the Vanhoover area. I think it best to send Zeke to retrieve her. The other is a black haired woman named Monique who was in the Appleoosa area. If possible, she should be brought here, along with any civilians in that area."

"I will do what I can, but the Alamare was very close to Appleoosa. Given my sister's fate, I cannot risk going on the errand myself, and there are few others who can teleport such a distance. I will send word to the mayor to begin an evacuation immediately, and do her best to ensure your Monique makes it back here safely," Celestia offered. "As for Zeke, I will arrange a small stipend for him. The trains are still running, and he should be able to reach Vanhoover within the day."

"Thanks, Princess."

---

Player 12's item, the magic MCV:
Player 12's item of choice was "An MCV capable of building every structure and unit from all of the Command And Conquer games, with unlimited resources." Some minor limitations were built into it by the Text, but overall it remains gratuitously powerful.
The original MCV itself can be entered and controlled by a keyboard and mouse interface, that includes control over everything created from the MCV. A control panel allows it to be switched between the various MCV permutations from the different games, including GDI, Nod, Scrin, Allied, Soviet, Imperial, USA, PLA, and GLA variations. There is a monetary account for each of the three game series (Tiberium, Red Alert, and Generals) which all start at zero and can be filled by either harvesting appropriate resources or selling units or structures. The magic MCV itself can build structures for free, but any units cost resources, as well as buildings made from additional MCVs. As such, the biggest bottleneck is the need to perpetually build excess buildings to sell for funds to generate units. Tiberium itself is nonexistent within Equestria, and gold and gems in the necessary concentrations to harvest are hard to come by, but curiously the General's factions can be funded by collecting any form of boxes, making civilian settlements a valuable target. The translation magic that allows the game constructs to function in the real world translates any non-empty box into the generic 'supplies' used in that game's economy.

So far, no one has been able to get past Player 12's defenses to ask him his name, nor deliver a well deserved hoof to the head.

Comments

[Chaosreverent]

How much do you want to bet that the "army guy" is some 10 year old kid.

[Istaran]

As the author I can't take such a bet, but I believe the going rate on bets on my story is 5 moustaches. :P
There are definitely some context clues in the story so far, but I just went back and saw that one of them never made it from my notes to the actual story text.

[Istaran]

The clues:
He goes to sleep late at night, wakes up in the afternoon.
Player numbers are based on position from front to back of the bus: he is player 12, so he was the farthest back.
Missing clue from the story: Zeke is player 11. Though Zeke still didn't know who he was, even after Robert pointed out that he was at the very back of the bus.

[Morning Dusk]

So, there will be war?

[DarkLordCthulhu]

Saw 'players 12's' construction yard and instantly thought of Command and Conquer. That is an extremely powerful item indeed.

[Istaran]

5868416 yes. It has limitations, but not ones that are easily overcome without a 'Zerg Rush' or something truly extreme.

[APS]

Something to think about is that Author's Note: doesn't show if you download this story, = no MCV info.

[Istaran]

5912841

I did not know that, thanks for the info.

EDIT: I have retconjured the information into the body of the text, for the convenience of downloaders.

[Star Flank]

The pegasi in attendance, as well as the changelings, nodded thier agreement.

This occurs in several places throughout this chapter, it should be spelled their.

Also, you have a habit of not capitalizing the first word in a set of quotation marks.

[Istaran]

7540036
Fixed these and the others you've mentioned. There's one case left in this chapter where the lower case in the set of quotations is legit, but I fixed the ones that weren't. If there's more in other chapters, I'll fix them if they are pointed out but not hunting for them. I need to write my active story (and maybe even get back on the sequels to this!)