Chapter Seventeen
The Doom of Zatar
Wherein it is seen that an alicorn,
possessed of great power and in need of catharsis,
is not at her best when combined with architecture.
May 6th, 1014, Darkest Night
The palace of Sultan Zatar, Nagala, Marezambique
The Temple of Rushwa made quite an impressive show when I flattened it. It must have contained a considerable amount of bound magic to explode the way it did. Probably a lot of trickery to awe the populace in addition to the defensive traps in the inner sanctum.
I paused to watch the burning stones arcing through the sky. There were a lot of zebras in the plaza doing the same thing. They didn't seem to be enjoying themselves anywhere near as much as I was, and none of them made the appropriate oooh and aaah noises that you'd expect at a fireworks show. "Tough crowd," Pinkie would have said.
I shielded myself against the falling debris and expanded my magical senses, searching for the Sultan. Nothing stood out immediately. There was a great deal of magical energy at work throughout the palace complex but no heavy concentrations that would indicate a cluster of defensive magic. In fact, there were even a few areas nearly devoid of mana. And the biggest gap was... right behind the throne room.
I grinned. Clever, those zebras. Just not clever enough. Hiding all of their magic left an eye-catching void.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," I whispered to myself as I toppled the pillars of the arcade around the reflecting pool. Might as well make a pretense of being fooled, I thought. They obviously worked so hard on this.
I wondered briefly if the tactic was something they'd improvised or if they had thought to be prepared for an attack by some magically powerful enemy.
"What a shame," I muttered as the twin minarets fronting the Peacock Gate slammed into the ground. "I'm in the mood to play, and nopony else wants to!"
The magical void was moving away from the throne room; it was time to end my little farce. I leaped into the air and hovered over the spot where the Sultan was being hidden. I used a great deal of energy to rip the roof off the palace, so that there was another impromptu fireworks show as the molten bits of stone, brick, and tile fountained up into the night. I'm making a grand entrance, Rarity! Are you proud of me?
"THERE YOU ARE!" I cried out at the suddenly exposed crowd of zebras. It was a mix of guards, waganga, and heavily bejeweled mares, with one lone stallion who wore a fantastically complex headdress and more jewels than all of his harem combined.
I dropped out of the sky, not even bothering to flap once to soften my landing. Ornate tiles exploded into fragments under my hooves. "SULTAN ZATAR! I HAVE COME TO…"
An armored mganga to my right snatched a glass sphere from her harness and flung it at me in one fluid motion. I enclosed it in a little shield and it burst into searing green filaments of energy. I turned to the mganga, floated the contained spell over to where she could get a good, close look at it, and said very quietly, "If this sort of thing worked on me, I wouldn't even be here. You are a stupid pony and I am getting very, very tired of stupidity in general. How would you like it if—"
That's when the triad of waganga hit me from the other side.
They tried to pin me in position, literally. A unicorn mage would have used bands of force or a crushing increase of gravity, but the zebras took a much more direct and deadly approach. They threw tiny enchanted slivers of wood into the air that instantly transformed into large spears. The shafts shot downwards and would have pierced me in a dozen places if I hadn't reacted quickly enough. Unfortunately for the first mganga, tracking and incinerating multiple targets caused me to stop concentrating on the little shield containing her spell, and her own potion made a rather messy end of her.
The leader of the waganga lifted a curled, crooked staff and shouted, "O Mare of Night, my curse I send! The light of day will be your end!"
From within the curve of her staff, a burst of brilliant light erupted and passed straight through my shield. I winced and shielded my face with my wing. But aside from a great deal of heat, there was no pain, no effect at all, unless you count my sight being temporarily dazzled. I threw a few analytical spells toward the staff and was surprised to discover that what it emitted was only controlled, concentrated sunlight.
My first thought was that it was cover for a more potent attack. But no, the rest of the crowd was simply standing there, waiting in anticipation. I tried to grab the staff in my magic, but it was just as thaumicly slippery as the rest of the waganga's equipment, so I shattered it with a set of spinning, interpenetrating crescent-shaped shields. The light went out.
The ridiculously ornamented stallion waved away further futile attempts on my life and stepped forward. "You may take me, monster, but spare the others, I beg of you!"
I suppose they weren't really any less intelligent than average, and their little traps and ruses may have worked on somepony else. But it all seemed blatantly obvious to me. The "Sultan" was big and powerfully muscled. Beneath his finery, I could see scars crisscrossing his neck and shoulders, and there was a fresh one under his eye. I ignored him and scanned the rest of the guards. In the very back was a soft-faced stallion with a hay belly so big he couldn't buckle the girth strap of his ill-fitting armor. I plucked him up and dropped him to the floor between my front hooves. His helmet fell off, revealing wide, terrified eyes and a brow soaked with sweat.
"Spare me, oh mighty demon of the night!" he whined. "I bow before you! I will serve you as a faithful follower and obey your every command! I beg you to spare me, great Nightmare!"
"Y—you think I'm Luna?" I laughed and laughed. "Okay… I get it! Sunlight! That wouldn't have worked even if I was Princess Luna, by the way."
"Then… who are you, oh mighty one?"
I reared and snarled, "I AM TWILIGHT SPARKLE, PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP!"
The sultan fainted. The waganga and guards made assorted expressions of disbelief. The mares of the harem began to weep, except for the one that went up in flames.
Flames? Green flames?
"Uhmn..." said the changeling, edging away from the rest of the harem. "I'm not really with these ponies, Your Highness. Can I go now?"
It wasn't Ket. She was one of Chryssy's. "And you are…?" I asked. Nicely.
"Lieutenant Khahrvveen, ma'am, of the Ghastly Gorge hive, attached to Her Majesty's Foreign Service. Just observing. Really."
"So, you'll be telling Chrysalis all about this, then?"
"I—I guess? Well, maybe if you don't want me to, I could forget what I—"
"OH NO! Oh, excuse me," I said, dragging the trembling changeling closer. "No, I want you to tell her all about it. Stay and watch the fun!"
"D-do I h-have to?"
"YES!"
"O-okay."
I nodded and smiled in satisfaction.
Then, I ran a few thousand volts through the sultan to wake him up. I flicked away the acrid smoke and smell of singed hair while he recovered his wits. Once he managed it, he began grovelling again.[1]
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[1] What is it about an obsequious whiner that makes you want to stomp them into the ground?
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"Oh, majestic one! I will serve you faithfully! All my treasures are yours for the asking!"
I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Shut up."
"I obey, perfect one!" He flattened his face against the floor.
"Can't you imagine anything other than a master/slave relationship?"
He slowly lifted his head and stared at me in blank incomprehension.
I sighed again and gritted my teeth. "I am the Princess of flipping Friendship! I am here to SOLVE A FRIENDSHIP PROBLEM!"
The sultan moved his mouth, but nothing came out other than a few strangled squeaks. A lot of his court seemed to be having the same problem.
I took a few deep breaths and tried again. "This whole thing started because you wanted to annex your brother's kingdom, and thought that using the Eye of Rushwa to smite it with a magical plague seemed reasonable. That's not very friendly. I don't think you've ever had a true friend in your life, and I think that's because you lack any sense of empathy. You don't understand how other ponies feel when you treat them like mere things."
"I—I shall mend my ways, oh beauty of the night."
I permitted myself a tiny smile. "Good. That's the right attitude! And I'm going to help you with that."
Maybe it was the way I said it. I tried to keep my voice perfectly even and reasonable, but the sultan's eyes went wide and his pupils shrunk to pinpoints. "What—what are you going—"
I was suddenly tired of the whole charade, and wanted to get it over with. "I'm going to teach you empathy. You were going to put thousands of ponies to a slow, horrible death just because they were in your way. I'm going to show you exactly how that feels."
He tried to crawl backwards away from me, moaning out, "No! No! Mercy, great one! Spare me! I will—"
I couldn't stand another pitiful, self-serving whimper out of him. "I'm returning your plague spell to you," I said. I vomited up the modified disease magic and shoved it down his throat.
He tried to scream but only managed a choked gurgle. He tried to stand but his legs kicked uselessly. Large boils rose up under his skin and blood began to drip from his nostrils and eyes.
"See?" I said quietly, leaning down so that he would be sure to hear me. "Not very nice, is it?"
"Twilight Sparkle, stop this at once!"
It was hard for everypony to tear their eyes away from the writhing horror that the Sultan had become, but they managed it. I sighed tiredly and looked up.
She glided down out of the night on huge silver-white wings and came to a gentle landing beside me, her hooves barely making any sound as they touched down.
"It's alright. It's over." I said, not quite looking her in the eyes.
"It most certainly is not over!" Rarity snapped. "You release that poor pony from whatever spell you've cast on him, this instant."
"It's the spell that he had his witches make to infect his brother's kingdom." I chuckled. "Not exactly a dose of his own medicine, but in the same spirit. Still want me to release him?"
"Yes, I do!" She gave a stamp for emphasis and cracked one of the beautifully patterned tiles. She looked down and gave a little cry of dismay.[2]
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[2] With all the wanton destruction surrounding us, I was amazed she had any thought for a single bit of flooring, no matter how aesthetically pleasing.
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Rarity stepped between me and the moaning Sultan and pushed her head under my chin so that I would have to look at her.
"Twilight, the bad behavior of other ponies is no excuse for imitating them! You are better than that! You are a good pony who sometimes—"
My bark of harsh laughter interrupted her. "A good pony? No, I'm not. I'm officially not a good pony. Just look at me!" I roared at her and bared my fangs. I arched my neck and loomed over her, topping her by several heads. "I AM A BAD P—"
She slapped me. Hard.
Suddenly, the patter of little bits of masonry occasionally falling from the shattered walls seemed very loud.
"You are not," Rarity hissed, rearing and putting her forehooves on my chest so that she could press her muzzle against mine. "No matter what some judgmental rocks may think, you are a good pony, and I am not going to let you deceive yourself into thinking otherwise."
"I—"
"I know what you did, Twilight. Ket was aboard one of the zebra airships and saw you ingest the Eye and... well… the waganga."
Yes, I thought. Having a hard time reconciling that with the idea of a "good" pony, aren't you?
She shook her head. "That dark magic is affecting you. Clouding your thinking. You have to get rid of it, Twilight!"
That made sense. What did I need with all that black magic for, anyway? Of course, my traitorous brain immediately came up with several interesting experiments I could run…. "No! I mean, yes. Yes, you're right, Rarity."
She let out a huge sigh of relief and dropped back to all fours. "Oh, I'm so glad, darling! You'll feel so much better! You'll see."
I nodded.
"So, if you'll release the Sultan…"
"No, I don't think so."
There was a very long pause before she said, "What?"
"He won't die," I explained. "He'll suffer from the plague for a year and a day, and then it will leave him. Maybe it will teach him something. Maybe not." I shrugged and shook out my vast wings. "I'm going now, Rarity. I have to find somewhere far away to release all of the foulness inside of me. If I can do it. It certainly won't be safe to be anywhere near me."
"Dear, are you sure you won't let the Sultan…"
"He's lucky I don't set him on fire as well!" I paused to think. "I could. Wanna see?"
"No! No, I think he's properly regretful as it is!"
"Are you sure?" I couldn't resist. Rarity is so adorable when she's flustered.
"Absolutely, darling! I think it may be best if you did leave." Her look of alarm softened into a sad smile. "Twilight, please be careful! You know I'd go with you, but I don't know when I'll lose my wings and…"
"Huh," I said, suddenly realizing how long it had been since I'd activated the crystal engine. "You should have reverted to normal a long time ago. Maybe there's something prolonging the effect. Some… thing… oh, Sun and Moon!"
Rarity took a step back. "Twilight? What did you…"
I laughed. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Most of the zebras took the opportunity to escape, but there were a couple who stayed, notably the brave guard captain who had been willing to give up his life for his worthless father. The changeling scuttled around to take cover behind Rarity.
"Twilight, please! I'm becoming concerned."
That only made it worse. I flopped down and rolled onto my back, kicking my legs in the air like a filly, and howling with laughter. "Don't—" I gasped. "Don't be con—concern… oh, ha ha ha ha ha!" I couldn't get it out.
Rarity backed away a few paces and waited it out. The zebra prince approached her cautiously and spoke to her in a low voice. She nodded and he went and made a mat of some discarded capes and lifted his father onto it.
"Okay," I gasped, when my epic fit of laughter had finally ebbed away. "It's kind of a funny story. When you were unconscious down in the labyrinth, I cut open your head and stuffed a magic gem into your brain."
"You… what?!"
"No, no, wait! I told it wrong."
"I'm waiting." Rarity was the only pony I knew who could manage to give a short line like that a simultaneously frosty and horrified tone. She's a multi-talented pony.
"It's based on rapid amplitude deviation of… uh… yeah… never mind." I cleared my throat and began again. "After Lee Helm was killed, I realized that it was pure luck that none of you were hurt or killed. I was near panic at the thought of losing any of you, so I came up with a way to fix the situation, you see?"
"No, darling, I'm afraid I don't."
I waved a hoof at her. "The gems! They are capable of recording and transmitting incredible amounts of data. Magical and physical. All they needed was a structure with enough storage capacity and power to make them work."
"The engine?"
"Yes! You see now?"
"Sorry, darling. But you said, 'record' and 'transmit,' didn't you? Record and transmit, what, exactly?'
"You!" I'm sure my jagged mouthful of fangs made smiling a less than reassuring sight, but I couldn't help myself. "All of you, physical and mental! The gem transmits it to the engine and the engine stores it and feeds it back, making sure your form and thoughts are maintained in an optimal state. That's why you're still an alicorn! I should have realized that the recording wouldn't kick in until after the starting pulse elevated you into a higher state! That's why you're going to be an alicorn from now on!"
"I… you…" Rarity fell back onto her rump with a thud, and her voice rose into a squeak so high that if there had been any diamond dogs within a league, it would have set them to howling. "I… I'm going to be an alicorn... for the rest of my life?"
I laughed and lowered my muzzle until it was nearly touching hers. "You're going to be an alicorn, forever."
Rarity just gaped at me. It was clear she didn't understand, so I bit her. She gasped and jerked her wing away, holding it up to her face to inspect the damage. There wasn't any, of course.
"See? Instant reconstruction. Even if you get obliterated by something really nasty, the engine will build you back up and you'll start right back where you left off. Neat, huh?"
"I… I don't know what to say…"
"Say goodbye… for now."
"But you can't go!" Rarity protested. "The others will be here in a little while and they… they…" she paused and frowned. "You should have asked us, Twilight. I'm… well, I'm delighted, but perhaps Fluttershy and Applejack won't feel the same way about…"
"Too late! No take-backs!" I rose and stretched my wings again. "And I really need to go now, or I'm going to forget what a good pony I am and I'm going to stomp every one of Zatar's guards, waganga and courtiers into greasy little smears. Really… I'm practically salivating at how good their corrupt guts will feel under my hooves."
"Oh." Rarity blinked. "Well, maybe that's for the best, then. When will we see you again?"
"I don't really know." I shrugged. "Sorry for leaving you with this mess to clean up. Explain things to the girls and take care of Nebula and the crew, won't you?"
"Yes, darling," Rarity stepped forward and gave two flaps of her wings so that she was high enough to kiss me on the cheek. "You take care of yourself, and come back as soon as you can."
"I will," I said. "I… oh, roadapples!"
"What is it?"
The interstitial exit vortices were forming with alarming speed and power, and there were only two beings in existence that could create such high energy teleportation spells. To my horror, I found myself instinctively preparing to fight both of them. If my first reaction was to attack Celestia and Luna, I needed to be far away from… everywhere.
"Gotta go!" I yelled, and tore my own hole in reality.
= = =
=
So you have the engine. Something that can rewrite the laws of everything, bend, or even break them. You make your 'friends' (I omniship) unkillable so they live forever, and make them gods on top of unkillable.
Also:
Twilight: "What do you mean the 'engine'? You told me that it does not exist. How could I use something that does not exist?"
The 1st rule of childhood is "Whatever happens, it is worse when your parents find out"
2nd rule "The worse it is, the more likely they are to find out"
Twilight went on this trip to solve some problems for Celestia. IMO, this is NOT one of her successes
This chapter was not nearly long enough.
Huh, so they're all alicorns now... I don't have any arguments. This does mean no sad deaths of the Mane 6, right?
Luna: Sister, she asked you, you said it didn't exist, and she insisted. When you told her to stop arguing with her, she immediately gathered her friends, and left in that airship, headed for the one place in the world where she would find the engine.
Celestia: Not... the smartest way I could have handled that conversation, I admit...
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Of course, since what's happened to the girls is now comparable to Nathan Brazil in Jack Chalker's Well World series, they may have another problem. In that one, whenever the Well World bluescreens, it keeps drawing Nathan Brazil back to fix things. No one on the Well World wants him to, because they know that in order to keep faith with its creators, he'll have to reboot the universe and use the people on the planet as raw material to repopulate the universe with.
So... What will the giant engine do, now that it has a half-dozen people capable of serving as maintenance personnel for the Equestrian Well World whenever it needs them?
Oh, saw this online.
lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TTGYX6XEsjI/VP2RRkjzJYI/AAAAAAAAAaM/koyffamO2PI/w800-h800/mane6_as_alicorns_by_evolifanno1-d57fync.png
...Immortal, unkillable, phoenix-like alicorns of the Mane 6. Oh, my. I can see how that may or may not end well...
Instead, dammit Twilight stop trying to break everything!
6920995 Hmn... yeah, there are a lot of parallels there!
6921022 Yeah, Twi really needs to take a chill pill!
Hey iisaw, want to hear my dramatic retwlling of my reaction when I saw chapter 17 uploaded? Okay. Here we go.
"...."
"...."
*large inhale*
*SQUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
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Also, it's featured...
*Second Squee*
....... This is getting groan worthy dude...... Fuckign alicorns.... Shakes head.
just laughing my ass of at this
So, Twilight the Terrible has not lost her snarky edge...
I want to marry her now
Welp, that ought to kill any dramatic tension from here on out.
Other than that slight, possible pitfall, another quality chapter. The rate that you pump these out is
a little intimidatingvery impressive.Well, they're only immortal so long as the engine keeps running...
6921236 Yes, it's a wonderful gift which can't go wrong in any concievable way.
6921187 That's not an inapropriate reaction.
6921311 A trifling detail, right? Right?
6921065 I'm not sure there's a chill pill strong enough to work on her!
Feel the friendship motherbucker! Feel it as i melt your motherbicking face off!!!
I have to admit that Twilight is the most believable adorkable villain I've read so far.
You've really captured her thought processes excellently and kept it even through the roadapples hitting the rotating air agitator. Great work. ^^
6921236 I don't know, I'm feeling a fair amount of dramatic tension over Twilight's mental state.
...
Well.
That was eventful. :D
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That is a very good counter, but how does she then explain her friends being gods?
Oh dear frag.
This was probably the bets chater of any story you're written so far. I was killing myself all the way through.
(I'm suspect most sane people would be horrified or something, but I think my prior comments on this story have shown that sanity and I parted way decades ago...)
Now, I don't actually ever say this, like EVER, about anything (yes, even with exposure to five plus years of pony fandom), so understand this is a unique event for me to say this at all: but Twilight is legitimately adorable hopped-up on dark magic.
...Well.
That happened.
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Thank you very much!
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"Uhh... oops?" "Sorry about that 'ballace of power' thing I broke."
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Thank you! I think so, too.
Celestia is about to have a headache, and Luna is about to squee in delight.
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"Oh, well, when you feed enough magic through the link created by the Elements of Harmony..."
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I have to wonder if it'll allow her to form new long-term memories, or if it'll continually overwrite her long-term memory storage with what it was at the start of the recording...
>>CCC Oww. There's an ugly possibility. Although, I'd say it isn't doing that, because if it was, Twilight and the others would be perpetually stuck at the moment they linked to the machine, and it's clear Rarity isn't.
But bear in mind, it's already established in this story that the Elements, although introduced by Celestia as a way of creating a reward mechanism for good behavior in the universe, have altered in ways she never foresaw. The engine isn't just a simple computer program. It has its own agenda, and from the looks of things, it champions the concept of harmony in a big way. It's taken the opportunity Celestia gave it and ran with it, taking it in directions the princesses never saw coming. That's assuming the engine is the intelligence, of course, and it isn't simply a tool for a sapient universe.
But whichever it is, it clearly is willing to use the tool Celestia gave it to promote harmony. Although Twilight's method is questionable, the opportunity it gives the entity might allow it to both help Twilight achieve her goals, and rein the alicorn of magic in before she goes any further out of control. After all, whether she thought this through or not, one of the side effects of this is that she's deliberately linked herself with an entity which champions harmony. I doubt it'll allow its primary agents to remain as out of balance as Twilight has been, lately.
Edit: I just realized. Upon re-reading, I was visualizing the chapter, not as "Twilight, dark alicorn," but as "Midnight Sparkle." The entire chapter reads really well with her expressions, body language and voice.
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We haven't seen her for long enough to be sure of her long term memory yet. So far, she could be coasting along entirely on short term memory...
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This takes place after the new tree house, right?
Before the rainbow power was being held in the elements. But with Lord Tirek the raw power was sent into them.
Most of the rainbow power stayed in their bodies. Their normal pony magic pushed the rainbow power into a dormant state. They were holding the magic, not using it. So it did not change their bodies.
The next time they were pushed beyond their limits, draining them, they called on the rainbow power. But they stayed in Rainbow state to long and their bodies adapted to the power. They no longer hold the power like in a pocket. The power and them is the same. When they exited Rainbow state, they found themselves as alicorns; gods.
Twilight sounds like one of those friends that are just amazing to have, yet infuriating to interact with.
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That didn't feel like that many words! Also, the changeling helped me finally get a better sense for what you're doing with the alternating times, you cheeky thing, you! I wonder if it would be more obvious reading the whole book in one go without waiting for each individual chapter?
The whole conversation with Rarity was great, but Twilight's departure at the very end might be my favorite part for how it says so much with so little. She senses her mentor and lover incoming and considers taking them on in a stand up fight, but instead decides to casually do bad things to innocent spacetime. At this rate, I expect she'll be accidentally freeing the queen in a few more chapters. (Real talk: please don't.)
"Tased losers; cya, dopes!" --Twilight Sparkle, Nightmare of Friendship; Unlicensed Surgeon; Professional Natural Disaster
And you're doing so well at it, too! A year and a day of torture, what a friendly solution! And remaking your friends' bodies without bothering to ask, that's going to do such great things for your friendships.
At least any potential fallout will be gone in a mortal lifeti--oh right. Then again, how stable is that engine? And your friends with crystals in their brains, how well off will they be if the spell cuts out for some reason? Perhaps a mortal lifetime was pessimistic, and any friendship problems will be gone sooner. And of course, this is all assuming that the spell works as intended. You did test it, right?
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I see you've spotted a few of the flaws in the plan! (And who says she didn't test it?)
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Nobody! I'm certainly not saying that. I'm just a little curious about who it was tested on, is all. And how long the test lasted, and how similar the setup was to the engine used, and so forth. You know, the little things.
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3rd Rule: "When they find out, you die a thousand deaths before you get in trouble"
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A thousand deaths, you say? I suppose there are drawbacks to having this guy as a father...
vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/streetfighter/images/b/be/Akuma_sf4.jpg
Ahhhh--finally had a chance to catch up on this. Hi again iisaw! Great ride so far--I can report that it reads well all in a chunk as it stands so far.
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That's very good to know, thanks!
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my fears have been
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That's a fairly obvious potential problem that Twi would have taken into consideration. There are some other, more subtle problems with the process that she hasn't accounted for, though.
Twilight goes mad with power in the funniest / scary of ways!
Twi is the best villain ever. Meaning she's the worst villain ever.
Anyway, no wonder she wants to attack Celestia and Luna, she's currently wielding the magic of the Red Empress...
Well, we have a hopped up on Dark Magic Twilight....... again... and a chapter with "The Doom of" in the title, I'm guessing things are going to go about as well as you'd expect. Damnit Twilight, when is the 'learning your lesson about all this' part going to kick in?
Translation a pissed off, uber powered Twilight wrecks some shit.
Ohhhhhh boy, that is not the least bit ominous at all..... Where's a Green Lantern when you need one?
First Eye, now Temple, what the hell was Rushwa?
On the one hoof, Explosions? FUCK YEAH! Awesome, on the other.... Damnit Twilight.
I really am amazing and love how you keep her personality so... twilight, and just, how it's clear she is so far gone she does not see what she's doing. Seeing how the power is twisting her thoughts.
Anti-Magic safe room?
Or just magical dampeners hiding it? And yes, sometimes you can hide it TO well. Submarines have actually gotten to the point they are quieter then the ocean around them and need to produce ocean noises to make themselves harder to find.
Well how kind of you to indulge them in this.
Given the track record for this planet, can you blame them?
Ah not a Null-Space, but moving magical cloaking effect.
I mean, yes, Twilight is nuts and this is wrong, and yes she needs to be brought back in line and see how bad she is fucking up. BUT, you have to admit, when she goes super-villain, she puts on quite the show. /popcorn
Well, you gotta at least appear to be trying but, do any of your really think you stand a chance?
Yeah..... not a smart move.
Or smart, get her distracted monologing, still, doubt they are going to do a whole lot.
take a hint and stop trying, you are only going to piss her off. Granted, she's unbalanced enough if you COULD catch her off guard with a strong enough hit.....
Riiiiiiiight, yeah good luck with that.
Wow, they really do not get who they are fighting. She's not a vampony you idiots.
Well, if they would just stop trying to kill her.... Also, says the pony who was going to blow up half his city if he coudn't get his precious little doom-gem.
Decoy?
Wait, the Prince?
Wow yeah...asshole. I really have no sympathy for him, even if I do know Twilight is going to far.
Again.....
Okay, I know it' wholly inappropriate for how "Oh fuck shit got REAL" serious this is but, I just burst out laughing at that, she is just so over the top ridiculous about it, and totally missing how utterly out of whack her actions versus words are.
WHAT!?
Oh, hi Ket, wow, was not expecting you to get that far under cover. Still, maybe you can talk some sense into her?
Or not... wow she REALLY got her hooks into high places. Also "Hey look, we're both evil, how about some professional courtesy?
Wait... What!? ANOTHER Hive? So, Chryssi working her plans out and expanding, or, shit go wrong and she had to move?
Wait, WHAT!? Is, is she actually going legit!?
Yeah Cheese Legs has to be high up on Twi's "Do something about it" list.
I mean yes, yes it's bad, yes this is wrong, and yet, Twi is doing it such an absurd over the top way, it's hilarious, and creepy, and wrong all at once. She really does see herself as some great Teach who is just lecturing her disobedient students in how to act properly.
It shows they are spineless, self serving assholes who will do anything for their own survival and have not actual morals or values beyond self-serving greed?
I.. again how are you making something so serious, so tense, so damn hilarious, all at the same time!?
Yeeeahhh you aren't getting off that easy buddy.
And I have a very very bad feeling where this is going.
Not a total idiot.
Oh... shit I mean I can see the logic and, it's not necessarily a BAD idea given what he was going to do but, I doubt this is going to be anything not a horrible idea.
Okay, not what I was expecting and, this went even darker then I thought it would really quick.. but at least she getting rid of a good chunk of the dark magic now, right?
Hello Celestia.
Oh, Rarity..... this also works, and honestly, one of the Mane 6 is going to have a better chance of getting through to her then Tia right now.
And I love these little touches, these are still the Mane 6 and, this is still Equestria, even as dark as it is, there needs to be these little bits of levity.
Well, at least you admit it, though are going with the "Then let me BE evil" rather then, you know trying to fix it route, not a good idea.
If anypony knows how to deal with histrionics, it's Drama pony.
Just a little.
Huh, that was... that was actually easier then I thought it would be... granted, maybe right here and now is NOT the best time or place, maybe, you know, get far far away from the ponies/zebras that really do not like you right now? Also, damnit Twilight, not everything needs to be studied.
Huh.. given what he was going ot do that...... is not actually all that out of sorts and, isn't exactly unreasonable......
That really felt to easy..... but on the other hoof, ti's a sign that, Twi is still Twilight, this is just the dark magic clouding her mind, and Rarity made her notice that. Still just feels.. just a tad to easy.
Well yes, also.....so what now?
You done fucked up, didn't you? I mean beyond all this.
I really want to know this.
Well, at least it's the good kind, Rarity just, let her get this out, she needs an emotional outlet right now.
Dude.... now is NOT the time to score a date with some hot mare.
Oh, alright. Still you seem halfway decent, why go along with Daddy Genocide?
................................. Twilight, there isn't anything 'funny' about that. And we know this, now WHY!
I don't think there are many ways to spin this into anything else Twilight, now get talking.
Yes she is, and yes I could so see her doing this.
Okay so it IS tied to that radio thing... wait, is it to let the mane 6 directly access the Crystal Engine and control it from anywhere?
Wait... a way to save them.... it's a back-up feature for their consciousness? Just, up load them to the World Engine, and use it to make them a new body?
Wait, wait, stores, feedbacks.. so it's not a download, it is connecting them directly to the World Engine, but using it's power to keep them from getting injured? That... that is actually rather ingenious. And, yeah a lot less creepy them I thought it would be, that... isn't REALLY all that bad an idea, aside from doing it without their approval first. Or unless there is some side effect to it.
The initial pulse was just to give them enough energy to form the link, the Ascending was a side effect, but because the recording and feedback started after that, it thinks that "Alicorn" is their 'optimal' state and so is keeping them like that. huh, okay what's the catch?
Ummm, Happy squeal, or horrified squeal?
Yup, well that bit was just assumed. Twi REALLY does not want to lose her friends. And yeah this does make a LOT of sense, and, it's actually, not half bad. And nothing what I assumed she was going to do. Still you umm, did kind of forget yourself in that.. so ummm, don't do anything TO stupid. Well Stupider.
Actually..... yes. Though again, kind of forgot yourself in that. Which has it' own bit of being rather touching, she was doing this for them.... but also herself, for not wanting to lose them.
Okay Rarity is taking it well, and yes the not asking really WAS the biggest mistake here.
Really? So, no reset button getting hit after all this? I'l hold off on that one. We do have stuff in the past that is supposed to be a chess game, not going to take some kind of temporal Control-z being pushed back then somehow.
Yeah, get out of here.
Twilight, what are you doing? I mean, how far, where< you are talking like you wont be back for some time? Or, just expect to be passed out for a few weeks recovering from this afterwards?
Ah NOW those two show up.
At least she's on the "Oh shit I sucked in dark magic AGAIN and need to get rid of it" side of her binge, now the question is how will she deal with it, and when will she deal with all the shit behind her actions?
That.. really was a twist I did not see coming and, it makes so much sense. Just, really good job story. Can we get a side chapter NOT from Twi's POV? Just, seeing Tia and Luna deal with Alicorn Pinkie?
And yes as comments have said, you do THE most lovable, adorkable "Evil super villain" Twilight ever.
Officially Psycho
stop ripping holes in reality twilight that CANNOT be good for it