For someone reason I imagine the winged knights halberd when I really shouldn't considering how fat it is. I am guessing it is more like gundyr halberd or the black knight Glaive? Another great chapter. I can't really remember how it works in this story, but I'm guessing that it is not an option to give them a mana crystal the size of a tree to power their machine for another run, in which they hand them two trees worth?

7318637 Not quite as elaborate as Gundyr's and with a similar color scheme to the the BK glaive. And while a crystal full of mana could theoretically work, it would still require a unicorn to drain themselves free of all magic to be on par with what the Rouge Knights need, and that's sort of defeating the purpose.

Crystals full of magic do not occur naturally in this story.

7318591 Thanks

7318675
I figured that it would be a sort of group effort, since 70 unicorns could be moved to the crystal to charge it.

7318701 I didn't think of that It'd be difficult getting a crystal large enough to store that much power, but it's certainly an idea. Why you! Beating me at my own thinking

7318720
Quick! Just make up the excuse that even a tree full wouldn't be enough to open a bigger one for the next run, and would just end up losing energy!

I'm hoping that Celestia, Luna and Nightmare Moon meet up under a flag of truce for negotiations against the knights. All of them wish to protect their peoples but the knights are the invaders and thus must be fought.

I'm imagining the decision to kill the ponies going a little like this:

"Sir! The ponies we've captured aren't putting out enough power. What do we do?"

"Hrm, that is a problem. Scribe! I need alternatives."

"We could negotiate some sort of trade agreement with the natives of that world, or maybe find another world to get resources with which to expand our infrastructure."

"Those sound boring. Give me something instantly gratifying!"

"We could... kill the ponies and harvest their magic?"

"Great idea!"

It's easy to see the Knights as the villains in this, but that's really underappreciating how completely desperate their situation is. An entire race is at the edge of extinction, with all its culture, history, knowledge and people about to disappear forever. Celestia's choice here is not as easy or clear-cut as it sounds. Do you willfully let thousands, possibly millions of strangers die, just so that 70 or your own will live? There will never again be another human if they don't act as they do. Celestia is morally right to refuse this, but so is Caed to demand it and do it anyway. Whichever choice they make and whoever comes out on top, nobody who has the barest shred of soul left will walk away from this without a bitter taste of failure left in their mouths. One way or the other, innocents will be who loses and dies here.

And it's all not nearly as contrived as it sounds. It's all about how the matter-energy conversion of the fractures works. Their situation is something that can be very easily likened to the current energy crisis in our own world. Hydrogen can be burned for electricity. Electricity can be used to electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen. There is more than enough water on Earth for us to never run out of energy ever, if we could use all that hydrogen.

Except, when you actually do so, what you get at the end is... less. There is a net loss. The electricity produced by burning is never enough to give you even just the same amount of hydrogen back again, never mind more, even if none of it is used for anything else. Secondary, renewable energy sources like solar can supplement it, making hydrogen gas a possible long-term storage method for what energy they produce. Given enough time, you can split enough hydrogen to power anything you want.

But we don't have that time. So instead, we burn coal and slowly kill ourselves, because there is really nothing else that we can do. The knights are in much the same position.

When does the human tag kick in?

Dew, will never be coming home.. that poor fiilly ;n;

I have a long thinking about a story, and if I wrote a plan for NM I come to this:

Goal: Keep her position as a ruler of Equestria.

Current position: A lose one. She control only Canterlot, and after escape of Celestia and Luna she did not have a chance to get loyalty of the rest of Equestria. Also after Celestia and Luna collect forces in the rest of Equestria shes been quickly defeated.

Possible Action: Offer Celestia and Luna a peaceful retake of the formal thrones in Canterlot in single condition as been recognized as they equal and rule alongside of them.

Points in support of this proposal: Preventing unnecessary deaths. Combine forces against a common enemy - Rouge Knight.
Maybe offer release a Twilight Sparkle and allow them to take care of her.

Guarantees of her own safety: NM keep the Elements of Harmony and be the only one who know where they are.

Possible ace in the sleeve: Find a way to broke a connection between the Element and Bearer and get a new set of Bearers loyal only to her.

Time to action: After she broke a connection between at least one Element and Bearer, or when Celestia and Luna start to collect forces against her.

7319299
They willingly slaughtered childern. Celestia's choice was the only choice, they deserve to burn.

7321191
You got even the stlightest idea how many children were burned in things like the Firebombing of Dresden and the droppings on the Nukes? Millions. Not 70. Millions. And it was considered still the superior alternative option to possibly even more people getting killed later. The perpetrators of those acts were decorated for their service to the fatherland, not burned at the state. As a species, we really are in no position to judge here.

This is a choise of the lesser evil. Do commit the greater evil of letting an entire race and civilization go exinct, though starvation and deprivation, or do commit the lesser evil and I sacrifive 70 of my people now so that they will have a second shot at life and possibly make our country greater than ever with all the things they'll bring along.

Only an idiot would say that this is, in any way, an easy decision to make.1

7321488
Sorry, not really trying to start an intellectual debate. Though I really would love to. It really is more of a personal thing for me. Children is really where I draw the line. Besides, with how hard Eclipse fought to save and badly the mother broke down...yeah no.

7321539
Anyone would love to have children as the abitrary cutt-off point that any one can agree on. Except, again, it's no that easy. Wo will take care all the thousads of human children left do die over this? They will also be hurt. Apparently it is a kind of hurt that doent matter to you beause they're far away and you dont't have to see them or the living conditions there. Makes it easier to just damn them as undeserving strangers who only reaping what they sow.

That there are still people, children, about to die horrible, doesn't suddenly matter as much when they're some faraway stranger's child, doesn't it. Never even mind that you are condemning their children to death just as surely as they are yours... and at a much greater scale of death.

The obvious solution here is to open portals from Equestria's side

“Well, first of…”

I belieb you mean 'off'

Caed seemed… taken back by her question

I assume you mean 'aback'

7329681 Found and fixed, thank you.

Also, Equestria doesn't have the means to open up portals to Caed's world. The replica Orxoni that's in the Crystal Empire only links to the 'Equestria Girl universe' and the Resonator's been modified to close Fractures rather than open them.

7330097 Well, yes, they'd need to spend some time working on it. The important detail is how long that takes ::[[

Say, how large is the human machine?

7330229 I'd rather avoid giving exact measurements, but it's not something you can just put into the back of a pickup truck and if you can imagine what it'd be like to defuse an active bomb or take apart a nuclear reactor, then you might get a feeling as to why the Rouge Knights would rather leave the machine as they found it.

7363993 Later on, these serve as 'build-up' chapters.

7364624
How many are "build-up?" (I haven't read anything yet, still contemplating)

7387030 A dozen until the human element comes in, a bit more for actual human interaction.

7387500
Cool, thanks.

THEY KILLED A FOAL!? INEXCUSABLE! THEY MUST DIE FOR THEIR CRIMES!

Well, these people truly lack vision do they not? Of the population of Ponies which is currently present how hard would it be to find 47 brave souls who would be ready to take the proverbial bullet to end the war and save a people?

The elderly, the terminally sick and the desperate, there would likely by enough of them who would like to be remembered for something worthwhile to save a world and a people. Specially in the world which underlines harmony in this manner, and this is even before whatever monetary or other compensations that can be thrown at them. Not to mention the amount of non-sapient magical creatures in the world?

These knights are true idiots, as are the so called 'good guys' who had no foresight to ask them to come back for additional options.

Anyone who takes a child from their loving mother and kills them is unworthy of sympathy and kindness.
And I was really hoping Dew would get to see her mom.

Huh.. the comments here have been split, but ultimately it is not evil to refuse to save another. In fact i would argue it is evil to ask someone to kill themselves for you. Ultimately these humans are worse than Nightmare has ever been, killing foals or watching their leader kill foals. I hope the Nightmare ends the invaders. If the humans destroyed their world it is their fault and they've no right to invade someone else's homeworld.