Chapter 31: A Parley Before Battle
Zecora's bold challenge rang through the main square of Sunney Towne.
All eyes -- wraith, thrall and living -- were fixed on her tall, proud alien figure, wielding her mystic staff and flanked by the smaller but equally-determined figures of Apple Bloom and Ermine Lightning. Apple Bloom hefted a green-glowing potion at the ready; Ermine had a hunting knife drawn, the blade of which shimmered strangely. All three were clearly prepared to fight the undead.
Gittershell's attention was drawn to them like everypony else's; the only reason she realized what was happening was that her concern for Snips led her to immediately glance in his direction, to make sure that he was okay.
Snips was doing much better than okay. He had somehow slipped his bonds and was racing, his strong stubby legs pumping as fast as Glittershell had ever seen them move, propelling his plump powerful form rapidly past the thralls. He was making as directly as possible for Glittershell.
"Snipsy!" Glittershell cried out happily, then instantly realized her mistake, as her exclamation drew the attention of the surrounding Skeletal Guards. "Sorry," she gasped, half-expecting to see her best friend taken down before her horrified eyes.
"I'm a-comin," panted Snips in response, as the Guards turned and reached for him.
Whatever illusion Grey Hoof -- or the Curse -- had cast gave the Guards the semblance of life, but not the actual speed of the living. Their motions were still lurching and slow. The nimble young blue stallion easily dodged their clumsy swipes, and made his way to stand right before Glittershell.
Who was, of course, still tied onto the back of Sergeant Bravesword. The Guard leader drew his shortsword, obviously ready to use it. Glittershell noticed with dismay that Bravesword was neither slow nor clumsy; his motions were deadly and economical. He must have been terribly fast, in life.
"Sergeant Bravesword," Glittershell begged. "Please don't hurt him! He's my best pal!"
"Sorry, Miss," replied Bravesword, keeping his sword up, and his eyes fixed on Snips. "I have my duty." But he did not press the attack, instead remaining in guard and awaiting Snips' next move.
Snips also halted, clearly deterred by the menace implicit in the sergeant's bright, sharp blade.
They stood poised like that, neither side willing to open the attack. But the stalemate was uneven; Bravesword had the advantage of time, for the other Guards were now closing in on him. In a moment, Glittershell saw, Snips would be taken.
"How darest thou tell me what I shall or shall not do in MINE OWN TOWN?" demanded Grey Hoof. His voice was far louder than that of any natural Earth Pony, unaided by magic. It hurt Glittershell's ears, and was like a foul wind whipping through all their manes. Where that wind passed, reality rippled: the illusion was blown away; the denizens of Sunney Towne stood revealed in all their gruesome glory as a throng of the shambling undead.
"I stand as the servant of the Tree," answered Zecora, "I speak in the name of Harmony. I tell you this, and tell it true: their lives do not belong to you!"
Grey Hoof hissed in defiance.
Glittershell felt a brief, strange pang of regret at Bravesword's return to his original, and no doubt true present appearance. She had liked Bravesword, as he had looked alive: she felt a certainty that, had she known him living, they could have been friends. He was a hero, not a monster, then.
Then, a thought came to her.
Maybe he still is a hero, inside. Just like I'm a mare, inside. Maybe he just needs to be reminded.
"Bravesword," she said softly. "if they keep us, we'll die. I'll die. Would you have let that happen -- when you were alive?"
The horrific skull-face swivelled round to gaze at her. Was it Glittershell's imagination, or was that pain in his glowing eyes?
"Can't ... free you ..." Bravesword groaned. "Must ... orderrss ..." His voice was once again clotted by putrid undeath, but Glittershell could hear something else in him; some sort of struggle.
Bravesword was not letting her go, though. Gladstone's hold over the sergeant was plainly too strong.
But he was not keeping his eyes on Snips, either.
Snips clearly saw his chance. The short stocky stallion leaped past Bravesword's guard, swarming up the sergeant's side. For a moment his dark expressive eyes, under their bushy orange eyebrows, gazed directly into Glittershell's own.
Briefly, Glittershell wondered what her friend planned to do. He can't cut my ropes without a knife, she thought, and I don't see one ...
Snips' horn flared.
For a moment, Glittershell was dazzled by the light-purplish radiance; her own horn thrummed in resonance, a curiously intimate sensation. Glittershell was no expert on magic, beyond the telekinesis common to all Unicorns; but her horn felt the energies focusing.
The target was not Glittershell herself, but the ropes binding her. There was a sound rather like a great scissors snipping shut. Energy flared, and a force field sheared through the tough hempen fibers, as if the task were no more difficult than cutting a cord for a crafts project back at Cheerilee's school.
The ropes parted. Glittershell started to slide off, but before that could happen, Snips wrapped one foreleg around Glittershell and pulled her loose as he vaulted Sergeant Braveheart with his other three legs. They both went off the far side of the sergeant, Snips planting Glittershell hooves first on the ground.
They landed reasonably well. Pins and needles shot up Glittershell's hind legs and along her spine, but she was overjoyed to realize that everything still worked properly. Nothing was broken, as far as she could tell. Glittershell was not even slightly crippled.
"All right, Snipsy!" Glittershell cried in joy, as they sprang away from Sergeant Bravesword, making a beeline for Zecora, whose elegant tall form towered above those of the other Ponies, both living and undead.
As Glittershell ran, she spared a look back at Bravesword, who was waving his sword and shouting orders she could not quite make out. He seemed the very model of an undead sergeant, utterly loyal in the service of his Wraith, and yet -- he had all but let her go. She felt sure that Bravesword had on purpose held back against Snips, to give her friend the chance to free her. Her own romantic imagination thrilled to the thought that, across the lines of allegiance and even life, she had found a friend.
She hoped. She had no way of knowing for sure.
Nor could she spare the time to think about it, for the other Skeletal Guards -- who were most certainly not her friends -- were closing in, lurching toward and lunging for them, trying to keep them from reaching the relative safety of Zecora and her two companions. Snips darted under and past the groping half-skeletal forelegs; Glittershell danced nimbly past them, dodging and weaving away from the touch of the thralls.
"From the thralls, you must flee!" cried Zecora. "Come, young stallions, come to me!"
At the last, two Guards managed to stand together closely enough to block their path: Snips and Glittershell skidded to a stop, trying to find the best way through. Behind them, their fellow Guards advanced, Sergeant Bravesword in the center of the line. For a moment, it seemed as if they would be taken again, right in front of their would-be rescuers.
"Stay here, my dears," Zecora said to Apple Bloom and Ermine; then she leaped forward, her staff humming and trailing blue light as it cut through the air. Whack! Whack! The knobby, rune-carved head struck each Guard once on the neck, and from each strike came a small soundless blue-white explosion of light. The two Guards collapsed, their eye-lights fading to mere glimmers.
"Invaders!" roared Grey Hoof. "My writ runs here, not yours!" He reared full upright, hooves kicking at the empty air, mane flowing in a wind that suddenly whipped through the square. For a moment, Glittershell fancied she saw dead stars in that ebon flood of hair -- or were they winking, hateful yellow eyes?
The town gates slammed shut.
Trapping them all inside, with the undead.
The four living Ponies exchanged horrified looks.
Grey Hoof laughed uproariously.
"What," he asked, "do ye mean to leave so soon? Ye must not be so hasty: I have here my feast all laid out for ye. Would ye scorn my hosting?"
Snips and Glittershell, now amongst friends, instinctively formed a semi-circular line, Zecora taking point in the center, and the flanks curled against the pallisade of Sunney Towne: Snips and Glittershell to the left, and Ermine and Apple Bloom to the right.
"Dear friends, you must not dismay," Zecora said softly. "Still more help is on the way."
That relieved some of Glittershell's fear. When Zecora had first appeared at Ponyville, some five years ago -- soon after Luna's return -- she and Snips had found her to be mysterious and frightening. But Glittershell, along with most of the town, soon saw that Zecora was good; some sort of guardian protecting both the Everfree, and the Ponies around it from what dangers might lie within.
It suddenly occurred to Glittershell that one of those dangers against which Zecora had been protecting them were the denizens of Sunney Towne.
"We shouldn't have moved your charms," Glittershell blurted to Zecora. "We let them come out."
Zecora flashed her a briefly annoyed look.
"'Twas folly true, do think you?" she asked sarcastically.
Glittershell cringed.
Zecora's expression softened.
"Though to do so was a shame," she said more gently, "You were not the one to blame."
"Yeah," said Snips encouragingly. "It was more like, destiny."
Zecora glared at the stocky stallion.
"'Twas you who brought this harm," Zecora told Snips. "'Twas you who broke my charm."
"Ulp!" said Snips. "Um, sorry?"
"Apology, I accept. Do nothing else inept."
"Yes, Ma'am!" replied Snips. "I won't let you down!"
Zecora looked at him a bit dubiously, but was silent. Instead, she reached into a sidebag, and pulled out two necklaces. They looke vaguely like the charms Snips and Glittershell had seen hung on the Sunney Towne road sign.
"Wear these potent charms," Zecora said, giving each of them one of the necklaces, "and you'll be at much less risk of harm."
Glittershell donned the necklace, noticing at she did so that Apple Bloom and Ermine Lightning already wore similar necklaces. As she put on the necklace, she felt a strange sensation, and her view of her undead foes seemed somehow sharpened.
"We're more real to each other now," explained Apple Bloom, "but they could already hurt us. Now, we can hurt them back."
Glittershell only half-understood, but she nodded. Bloomie and Zecora were both really smart. If they thought the necklaces were a good idea, so did she herself.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Bravesword was shaking his Guards out into a line opposing them, out of striking reach of Zecora's staff. Two of his Ponies had already pulled back the two Zecora had downed. As Glittershell watched, Three Leaf drifted forward toward the fallen.
"This fight, true folly be!" Zecora cried out to Three Leaf. "Tell your love to set us free!"
The green Wraith looked at Zecora nervously.
"I am but a healer," she replied. "I do not lead."
"If his love be true," Zecora pointed out, "he will pay heed to you."
Three Leaf drifted slightly forward of her line.
Apple Bloom and Ermine tensed.
"Nah," said Glittershell reassuringly. "She's a good Pony. She won't hurt us." She felt very sure of this.
Zecora stepped forward slightly. She held her staff at ease, but none who had seen her wield it before could doubt her speed and prowess. The threat was clear.
Three Leaf looked at Zecora intently. "Not when he be like this," she said in a very low tone -- Glittershell had to strain to make out her words, they were almost a whisper on the wind. "It is as if he turns into a whole other Pony. Or something not a Pony -- and I mean not a Wraith, but something far feller." Three Leaf looked frightened. "He becomes cruel."
Zecora leaned in. "You say he's different in his soul?" she asked. "That something else has gained control?"
Three Leaf nodded. "It has been such since the night of the Party, the night we died," she said. "He will for a long time be his old self -- but when we must do hard things, he may waver in his intentions, contemplate kindness -- and then, he does change, and become completely cold. Cruel. Beyond all appeal to mercy -- and, trust me, we have tried." She sighed. "I am sorry. He will not relent."
"You know some; you know not all," began Zecora. "Grey Hoof is a Shadow's --"
"Three Leaf!" roared Grey Hoof. "Come back from them! I will not have thee harm-ed!"
"I must go," said Three Leaf, ears drooping. Then, very swiftly and softly. "I hope ye all win free!"
Zecora might have made reply, but Three Leaf suddenly darted away, like a leaf wafting through the air in a strong wind.
Her kind presence was gone. There was now nothing between the living Ponies and the line of thralls.
Gladstone drifted forward, to float above his line of Skeletal Guards. He smiled sardonically at Zecora. "Hail, and ill met, Zecora," he said.
"Save your mocking, and your hate," replied Zecora coolly. "While you still can, open now your gate." Her blue-glowing staff hummed softly in time with her words.
"You, and those of your Harmonic Order, have pent us up in here o'erlong, Zebrican witch," he said to her, sneering. "Beyond the Mist, your power may prevail. But within these walls, mine -- and that of my father -- reign supreme. Ye now are all upon mine own chosen field."
He glared at Snips and Glittershell, and despite herself Glittershell shrank before his terrible gaze. She remembered all the unthinkably vile things he had said to her, the even more vile things he wanted to do to her, the unendurable violation of his mere touch. It was hard to be brave before such perversity and hate.
"I will have thee yet, little maiden," he told Glittershell. "Thee, and the other mares who have come in vain hope of rescuing thee, shall be but my hoofmaidens ... my toys." He leered first at Ermine Lightning, then at Apple Bloom.
Ermine hissed at him like the weasel she resembled, a wordless warning, full of pure menace. She beckoned him with her left forehoof, held her blade ready to fight in the right one. Looking at her, Glittershell could see absolutely no sign that she was in any way bluffing.
Gladstone blinked at her fury, then laughed. "Thou'rt but a beast. Slaying thee is surely no sin. After that, thou shalt be my hunting-ferret."
"Trrry ... mmme ..." said Ermine, forcing each word out with extreme difficulty, "Monnnster."
Her voice was thickened with a strange sort of fury that Glittershell had never seen in anypony before. Compared to it, the hostility that Ermine had shown Snips the evening before, when she had drawn that selfsame blade at him, was but gentle chiding. Glittershell noticed that Ermine's eyes were becoming bloodshot.
"What she said," added Apple Bloom calmly, hefting one of her potions. "Ah got outta yore town afore. Ah'm fine with a rematch."
"Dost thou not know ..." began Gladstone.
"Ah know yore a pervert," stated Apple Bloom. There was absolutely no fear in her voice, something Glittershell found incredible in their situation. Her accent was thicker than usual. "And a braggart, an' bully. And Ah know braggarts an' bullies offen ain't all they say they are." She paused, then added. "An' Ah think, deep down ... yore a coward."
Gladstone roared in fury, and his face changed, becoming a burned, rotting skeletal horror. Black lightning played about his outline. His visage was truly terrible.
Before this fury Zecora stood firm, and on her right side so stood Apple Bloom and Ermine. Glittershell saw a momentary flicker of fear in the face of Snips, and she herself felt her heart skip a beat. Then, it was as if a wave of warmth washed out from Zecora, and Glittershell felt her fear flee, and she realized that everything Apple Bloom had said was entirely true. Gladstone was like a mean little colt who stepped on worms but groveled before the bigger colts; all he had that the mean little colt lacked was sheer power. And Zecora had power of her own.
Gladstone could hurt her, she could not deny that. But, unless she chose to submit to him, he could not be her master. She did not have to respect him, and there was nothing in him that she found respectable.
She would stand, with Zecora and Apple Bloom and Ermine, who had after all chosen to risk their lives for her. And with Snips. Always with Snips, against any odds.
When Gladstone saw that his wrath had failed to move them, there was only one thing he could do. And he did it.
"Attack!" he howled at Bravesword. "Attack! Attack!"
It was a direct order.
Bravesword pointed with his weapon.
Step by slow slogging step, the line of Skeletal Guards advanced upon the five living equines.
The battle between life and death had begun.
Stats
Page generated in 0.025 seconds
Total duration
984 users online
1,992,349 hits today, 2,167,270 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
1) away_from (double spacing
2) and (missing the "a" here, it's like I'm back already)
3) and_undead (you've double spaced here also)
4) The (missing the "e" here)
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Honestly I'm kinda half expected Zecora's back-up to be ponies with Longbows and sanctified arrows. All this chatting would be the perfect time for a sucker punch shot to the face. Just Rainbow in the clouds with a Crossbow sniping the shit out of the wraiths.
Does this make me a bad person, or just practical.
This is Snips, Zecora. You're asking a lot.
Okay, that's not fair given how drunk he was and the excellent use of his special talent. Indeed, depending on how sharp his magic is, Snips could prove invaluable. It's just that he does have a track record.
In any case, fantastic setup for the fight, highlighting the weaknesses of rule through fear and intimidation. If your troops don't respect you, they aren't exactly encouraged to hop to your orders, even after taking into account their lack of living vigor. And I'm sure most of Gladstone's troops who retain the capacity to do so actively despise him.
As for Grey Hoof and the force pulling his strings... Yeah, this will be tricky. His loved ones have been trying to free the good-humored stallion at his core for centuries. Something more is needed there.
Also, I don't know what the story is with Ermine, but she's definitely ready to get to the hacky-slashy. I just hope whatever's coating her blade will hold up to more than a few passes through undead flesh.
Eagerly looking forward to more. Especially seeing just who is among the reinforcements.
8241334
I'm probably not giving away too much by saying that the rescue mission happened because Ermine feared that Snips would lead Snails into the Everfree, as her father had warned them to avoid, and she wanted to be there to help him in case the cutie-colt got into trouble. This was a romantic whim on Ermie's part, but a good-hearted one; Ermine Lightning is scary, but one of the good Ponies.
Ermine tracked them to the turn-off to Sunney Towne, with the tracks leading in ... but not out.
Ermine knew what that probably meant, and with fear for Snails in her heart went to Zecora, whom she knew was a generally-benign hermit living near that road, though she did not know that Zecora was actually an agent of The Harmony and a guardian against what might come out of the chaos that has spread through the Everfree over the last millennium. Apple Bloom happened to be with Zecora learning alchemy at the time.
Zecora realized that she had to do something quick -- if she waited to send to Ponyville for help, Snips and Snails might die -- if they were not dead already. She dispatched a message by a means that she had, but in the meantime collected her supplies too if necessary face down the Wraiths of Sunney Towne alone. This, with some trepidation, as she knows that they get stronger as they are closer to the center of their haunt.
No way was Apple Bloom letting her do that alone. Nor was Ermine willing to not help save her cutie-colt. With some misgivings, Zecora ensured that they were prepared with charms and potions for what they might have to face in there, and went into Sunney Towne with two -- if not children, exactly -- rather young mares as companions.
Zecora is pretty sure there's backup coming, because of the message she dispatched before she left. But she's not sure exactly when. If it could have come really quickly, she would have waited for it to venture in.
Zecora is torn between annoyance at Snips for being the one to disrupt the wards she placed that should have prevented the Wraiths from attacking anypony that close to the main road, and awareness of the fact that quarrelling with one of the Ponies she's supposed to be saving, and doing so in the face of the enemy, would be colossally stupid. Zecora is a lot of things, but she is not stupid.
I thought I set up his ability to cut the bonds nicely earlier in the flashback, when Ruby commented that Talents are rarely so simple or limited as being only be able to cut straight lines with scissors.
Yeah -- Snips comes off as kind of stupid in this adventure in part because we see it from the point of view of Snails, and what Snails notices is that Snips isn't very good at being liked by others, while charisma is actually one of Snails' specific talents (the name "Glittershell" is as fated as most Pony names, and part of Glittershell's character is that she's very likeable when she comes out of her shell).
Discord, incidentally, is not immune to this. He rather likes Glittershell, and part of the point of the ordeal he put them through on the Day of Discord was to give them a strong hint as to their true Talents. He showed Snips that scissors can be a weapon, and Snails that -- like a snail -- his sex was not necessarily determined by his genetics.
Did Discord do this in a cruel manner? Well, yes -- this was Unreformed Discord, and even Reformed Discord is a jerk. But he actually did them a favor, and on purpose.
They, of course, don't realize this.
Ermine is a berserker. A hellaciously-fast berserker. The only match she has in this situation for speed would be Starlet, and only because Starlet has her Wraith powers. She's also extremely brave, and when she's in full berserkergangen essentially fearless, save for one thing.
Her one real fear, and greatest weakness, is that she is very much afraid of her friends and loved ones getting hurt. That leads her to put herself in dangerous situations to protect them. Which is why she's here -- Snails is actually neither to her, but she kind of has a crush on him and senses that he might come to like her back, at least in some manner.
The reason she was so upset after she threatened Snips the evening before was that she realized that she'd let her temper slip a little, in front of somepony she liked. Her greatest fear is that she'll go berserk and hurt or kill a friend.
Part of the reason she decided to track them was to have the chance to make it up to Snails.
She's getting that chance, now.
8241362
That's may the case for living creatures, not necessarily undead slaves eternally bound to his will. They don't obey because they fear him, they obey because they literally have no choice.
I also think Glittershell sees the situation in too simple terms. Sure, the part about how Gladstone can "only" hurt her and how Apple Bloom dismisses him is comforting to her, but neither of them truly know what it's like to be a thrall, let alone his. The one who knows most is Zecora, and that one has no interest in bluster and banter; perhaps because she has an inkling of the true horror he can inflict on them.
8241713
Oh, they're forced to obey, certainly. But they use every last micrometer of room for interpretation. The direct order at the end is emphasized as such for a reason.
8241713
Being the Wraith in command of a Thrall gives one a considerable advantage in controlling that Thrall. Essentially, it's an always-on geas with a penalty to reisist. Resistance is possible, but only up until a point.
The main drawback, as with all geas spells, is that it's harder to make the victim do something to which his will is positively opposed. The Thralls can't very effectively resist direct orders, but they can (with an effort of will, in most RPG systems a Will Roll) subvert anything but a direct order.
Bravesword has a high will to begin with, so he can do this more than most. He also has preserved more of his identity than many of the Skeletal Guard (he has to have some intelligence and free will left or he'd be useless as a unit commander) so he has a greater incentive to try, when faced with a command to do something to which he would have when living have been very strongly morally opposed (handing an innocent young mare over to a monster).
Gladstone is probably aware of Bravesword's opinion of the situation; it would give him all the more pleasure to know he was forcing someone who was inherently good to commit a grossly evil act. That's the sort of person Gladstone happens to be.
Well, Glittershell sees most situations in overly simple terms. She's not very bright. Nor is she very experienced with confronting true evil, though she's more experienced in running from monsters than you might imagine, given that she and Snips rather often get into dangerous situations.
Indeed ... it would be horrible. Especially HIS.
Though it is ultimately true that everything Gladstone can do to anypony else amounts to "hurting" them. And he's going to hurt them anyway, unless they either defeat or manage to escape him. So they might as well fight, and fight with all their might: his threats to hurt them are literally irrelevant.
Glittershell is not the smartest nor the most logical Pony in the world. But she gets the basic logic of the situation, and realizes that being afraid will only make her less able to fight effectively. So she's choosing courage.
It's quite true that Gladstone is basically a bully writ large. The same is true of every tyrant, petty or otherwise, whether he be a corrupt sherriff or Mao Tse-Tung.
Apple Bloom is considerably smarter than Glittershell. She's also been here before, and she's had conversations with Ruby Gift in between then and now. She knows in general what's at stake.
She's also an Apple, the wholly-worthy scion of a family which has been producing heroes for much, much longer than the Realm has existed. She's extremely brave, both by nature and by rearing. She has an effective weapon, but even if she didn't, she'd fight every inch of the way to save her friends
Apple Bloom is very much aware of what she's facing. And she knows that Gladstone's not going to treat her any better if she's silent, or worse if she tells the truth about him. So she figures she might as well tell him exactly what she thinks of Gladstone, while her mind is still her own.
Ermine ... is naturally combative, to a degree rare among Ponies. She comes from another brave family; she's the one of them who is the most crazy-aggressive. She's generous toward anypony she's decided she likes, and she's decided she likes Snails. She actually had the least serious reason to join this fight (Zecora has her duty to the Harmony, and Apple Bloom is loyal to her mentor), but Ermine doesn't run away from fighting for a good cause.
Zecora is the least innocent of all the living equines at the fight, but she also has a very good reason to be there -- it's her duty to The Harmony to try to rescue Snips and Snails. She's not entirely pleased that Apple Bloom and Ermine Lightning are also there, though she knows she can use their support. She was actually hoping that she could prevail on the Wraiths to reslease their captives -- she's been able to see them off at the borders of their haunt before -- but right now they are at the heart of their power, so Grey Hoof and Gladstone are quite willing to fight given this advantage.
Boss Battle Time! A shaman, an Apprentice, a Buck-ball player, Jr. Magician/Barber and a Trapper vs. Sunny town, roll for initiative!
Interestingly they don't have to beat them all, just survive long enough, because time is on their side. Dawn comes and with it a reset for the curse. The disadvantage is that the party is outnumbered and the undead don't have the same stamina limits the living do. Plus Snips and Snails are both hurt, and they aren't really and coherent unit. It will be down to Zecora's magic.
8242252
Yes. They basically have to hold out long enough to either (1) find a way to escape, (2) have more backup arrive, or (3) the Wraiths reset.
I loved Snip's moment of greatness at the beginning.
And it's Zecora, Apple Bloom, and Miss Ermine to the much-needed rescue! I really do like the Zecora gave Snips a brief but much needed reaming out for his rather foolish actions.
I also get the idea that Greyhoof isn't really a pony any more. Not in the way the Wraiths and their carrion thralls are, but in a much deeper and darker way. I get the idea that even if everyone in Sunney Towne could be restored to life and health, he would refuse. He likes what he's become.
Glittershell felt a bief, strange pang of regret
Maybe 'bief' should be 'brief'?
Glittershell fncied she saw dead stars
Perhaps 'fncied' should be 'fancied'?
I'm looking forward to the climax of this battle! Hopefully Zecora has enough mojo to handle the Wraiths. But it would be interesting if more help came. I'd like to see what the Mane Six or the Princesses could do to the Wraiths; though I strongly suspect Celestia would pity them too much, and Luna feel too much shame, to make a permanent end of them.
8241334
Honestly I'm kinda half expected Zecora's back-up to be ponies with Longbows and sanctified arrows. All this chatting would be the perfect time for a sucker punch shot to the face. Just Rainbow in the clouds with a Crossbow sniping the shit out of the wraiths.
Does this make me a bad person, or just practical.
As one uncle who used to get into a lot of fights, every one of which he won, said to me: "Any fight you win is the fairest fight ever."
I finally decided to read this story several days ago, and I'm glad I did! The travails of Snails AKA Glittershell (per the story description) really didn't draw me in, but after enough hints on your blog about Sunny Town, I opened it... and wow! Several questions and thoughts:
First - story-externally - I've gathered that the original Story of the Blanks had them cursed by Celestia and Luna themselves? Was it you or Ardashir that explained the curse was put on by Nightmare Moon and that Luna herself couldn't remove it? Whoever did that saved the story.
Second - story-internally - how much do the Princesses know about this? If Ruby still hasn't heard any word from Luna by this story, six years or so after her Return, something's looking very wrong.
Third, how does this view of death and rewards fit into your broader universe? If Ruby had accepted St. Sweetheart's offer, would she have subsequently reincarnated several generations (or more) later, like Pinkie, Dusk, and everypony else in your cosmos? How does that jibe with her talk of heavenly(?) rewards based on the overall track of her earthly life?
Finally... wow. I wonder, how would Sunny Town have fit into the various alternate universes? Discord might have kept them around to play with, Nightmare Moon in the Pale of Air timeline would've given them more or less free rein on the dying world, but what about Nightmare Moon in the Moonlit Nights timeline? She could've lifted the curse - would she have? Would Ruby have welcomed it at that point?
(Okay, maybe that wasn't "finally," because I've got one more thought: What were Ruby and the others doing during Nightmare Moon's brief main-timeline return? Were they the ghosties Pinkie was giggling at?)
8303391
First - story-externally - I've gathered that the original Story of the Blanks had them cursed by Celestia and Luna themselves? Was it you or Ardashir that explained the curse was put on by Nightmare Moon and that Luna herself couldn't remove it? Whoever did that saved the story.
AFAIK I was the first to come up with the idea of the Sunny Towners having been cursed by Nightmare Moon and not Luna, though I recall it being inspired by some line in one of Alex Warlorn's earlier entries in Pony POV. And thanks for mentioning my story.
Finally... wow. I wonder, how would Sunny Town have fit into the various alternate universes? Discord might have kept them around to play with, Nightmare Moon in the Pale of Air timeline would've given them more or less free rein on the dying world, but what about Nightmare Moon in the Moonlit Nights timeline? She could've lifted the curse - would she have? Would Ruby have welcomed it at that point?
There's probably as many answers to that question as there are people to answer it, though I did show a brief bit of them (with Applejack and Apple Bloom among the wraiths) in a world where Thorne won in one of the 'Amicitia' stories by Alex Warlorn.
(Okay, maybe that wasn't "finally," because I've got one more thought: What were Ruby and the others doing during Nightmare Moon's brief main-timeline return? Were they the ghosties Pinkie was giggling at?)
I personally doubt it, if only because the Sunny Towers wouldn't have been chased off so easily. Unless of course the sound of Pinkie's laughter is some sort of 'Turn Undead'! Which is a cool idea. Then again, there is an old line about how 'the Devil, the Prideful Spirit, cannot endure mockery'. And the way the Midnight Carnival was driven off in Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.