Marenberg is under siege. Every day, ponies go out to battle, and every night they come back in, gaining nothing. Captain Jade Thorn finally decides to try a risky strategy in the hopes of a quick payoff.
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Admiral Biscuit
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Admiral Biscuit
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I know I said I was waiting on the blog post 'till the end (and I am), but for those of you who are wondering, between watching the scene in Lord of the Rings where Gimli blows the Horn of Helm Hamerhand as well as the soundtrack for interstellar and a rather silly video about an organ with a 128' pipe, I got to thinking what if ponies had such a thing? But why would ponies have a War Organ?
Then I thought, why wouldn't they?
Interesting snippet, though I would've liked more context to it.
(And I have a little disapointment, when I read that teaser, I thought you were finally going to update that story about how Commander Hurricane became famous and got his stained glass windows)
But hey! It conjured some great imagery, so there is that!
8873729
And here I was thinking that it housed a giant version of the Boite Diabolique.
A 16 foot Serpentine driven by a near horsepower drive is estimated to be louder than an MBT primary firing and measureable on the richter scale.
Vinyls Bass Cannon had to come from somewhere.
Just imagine what would happen if they used a solar concentrator for thermal acoustic power.
The Magic Of Song Compels You.
8873729
...I like this line of thought you had.
There has to be a Spark around here, with an organ that convoluted...
8873729
>insert discworld joke about "Mighty Organs"
That was epic.
About died laughing when he pulled the final knob. More so because I watched the vids first.
Warning lights on siege grade musical instruments.
Some great imagery here. Made me very interested in what other uses the organ might have, aside from it being a symbol of Marenberg's pride.
WAR ORGAN!
Pretty good. Was playing Stellaris, just finished up a war, then read this lol
Back in the Rainbow Rocks shorts, Rarity called the grand piano the most refined of instruments.
Bull. That honor belongs to the mighty Baroque Church Organ. (And Admiral, You totally missed the chance to use a "Trost/Trots" pun)
https://mypipeorganhobby.blogspot.com/2009/05/waltershausen-1741-trost-organ-germany.html
Shame, OP, you have brought shame upon yourself!
You didn't use this version!
Now that's what I call a Glorious Anthem. Wonderfully epic snippet. I can only imagine the confusion of the opposing forces.
Think you meant bass.
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Yeah . . . part of the reason it's sat in the unpublished pile for so long, to be honest. I always felt like I should do more with it, but could never figure out what.
That's also on my to-do, although I'd rather get the next chapter of OPP out first.
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Now that would be something. Also probably possible, given pony magic.
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Speaking of that, back in the day, some air raid sirens were driven by a big block Chrysler motor. The siren was so loud, you couldn't hear the engine over it.
"Oh that? It's just my BASS CANNON."
Ooh . . . the mind boggles. I wonder if there are unicorn magic focusing arrays? Seems like something they might have (spreading arrays could also be useful, depending on the desired effect).
That's basically canon.
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"War March of the Priests?" Bad news when the priests are on the warpath, methinks. Time to reconsider every life choice you've made up until that point.
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Maybe the organ is the original Transformer. Or maybe. . .
derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/7/1/1191106__semi-dash-grimdark_artist-colon-tom+scioli_lyra+heartstrings_moondancer_rarity_twilight+sparkle_context+is+for+the+weak_crossover_g1_idw_licki.jpeg
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Desperate times call for desperate measures.
And I just realized that that's a music pun I totally should have used in the story.
When I first watched that 128' pipe vid, I thought it was serious.
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Safety is important, even on siege grade musical instruments. Don't want anybody triggering that range without full knowledge of what's going to happen.
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Thank you!
Canon suggests that the ponies are very musical; I'd think that they could play it sort of as ongoing theme music for the city, or maybe just for special occasions.
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War organ!
Set the treble rank to stun.
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The organ at one of my dad's churches cracked the plaster in the choir pass-through. He wouldn't have known, except one time I was back there when the organist was playing a particularly spirited rendition of O Holy Night, and all the sheet music folders on top of the bookshelves were just bouncing up and down.
And that wasn't even a proper organ. It was electronic.
Although I will say that I find the theramin to be almost the culmination of musical instruments, simply because of the manner of playing it.
I did. I was actually looking for famous organists (I'm not really up on the genre), and the one I settled on I picked just because of the mustache.
i.ytimg.com/vi/ty-bt8hiAoQ/hqdefault.jpg
Léon Boëllmann
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I totally was going to, but I though that the intro was too long, for those who wanted to listen to the music while reading.
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Now every time you play an angel deck, you're gonna be thinking about this fic.
I suppose it depends on how much the opposing force knows about ponies. I can say that I've learned from LoTR when either giant eagles come, or when dwarves play giant horns, it's time to run away.
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I did, thank you!
Dumb English, how does it work?
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Unicorn Magic focusing arrays?
The Crystal Mines of the Canterhorn?
The Crystal Empire?
What if the Minotaurean Labyrinths have evolved over the centuaries to guide and synchronise the clashing of specially selected and trained Strike Bulls, so that their V3 shockwaves focus down onto massive stone and iron balls sitting in chambers situated at the end of the defenses access tunnels? Any invading forces that try getting in, comes out very rapidly indeed?
Theres other tricks with trees, monoliths etc forming focusing arrays, some recent research has been on drilling arrays of holes into the ground to create inverted acoustic lenses to bend seismic waves around areas to be protected. What if the rampaging Buffalo have been manipulating the geology and caverns to their ancestors guidance by magical etc interaction to create defenses for the area? I just wish I could remmeber where I saw that story idea first, maybe Alan Dean Foster.?
8875803
Add it to your stained glass story
So, I finally remembered where else I had seen a huge organ like that in fiction, turn out it's from an old belgian comic series from the 70-ies, with an organ so big hearing it could render someone crazy or kill him.
8875818
I believe the "Spark" a reference to Girl Genius. I've only read a bit of it, since, while I've pulled some major webcomic archive binges in my time, that one is just plain overwhelming. Heck, even the TVtropes page would take an hour or two to read through.
8875871
Sort of like the focusing arrays on some solar installations that ignite birds in flight? I think such a thing would be possible with sound, although it would probably only deafen rather than kill (at least using purely Earth physics). According to once source, you couldn't blow down the walls of Jericho with trumpets no matter how many you had, because you'd turn the air to plasma before you got enough force to do the job.
We suspect that the Earth ponies have some sort of effect on plants and the land, so why wouldn't the buffalo, or other sapient/semi-sapient Equestrian species? Changing it to their own purposes, even if they're not fully aware of how they do it. The king is the land and the land is the king and all that. Maybe that's why they need to keep the Everfree and all the denizens therein.
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I might. It'd be a nice passing mention, anyways.
The best musical instruments are capable of causing insanity. See especially bagpipes.
8875998
Could be. I've heard of it but never read it.
I'm so behind on my proper webcomic binges. Not enough free time!
I've reviewed your story HERE
Then the enemy commander stands forth to issue personal challenge...
(0:50)
8889825
Dueling bangos, but on a grand scale!
I wonder . . . back in the day, siege weapons were constructed on site. "Sire, they appear to be building an organ."
ETA: also, say what you will about spaghetti Westerns; Ennio Morricone wrote awesome scores.
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I put Morricone above Hans Zimmer and James Horner, on-par with Trevor Jones and Howard Shore, but well-below Basil Poledouris, Joe Hisaishi and John Williams.
Kenji Kawai is in a league of his own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z64HCi2rQkE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Wfh3PWsCs
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I think different strokes for different folks.
Each of the composers excels at a particular genere, in my humble opinion. IIRC, there's one Trevor Jones song that I really, really like from an obscure movie that I can't remember the name of. Zimmer's got some great hits that fit nearly any mood, as does Howard Shore--for example, some of the LoTR stuff is perfect for any time you need EPIC. Williams, likewise, does well at the bombastic music. Sort of like a movie version of Holst--but if you're looking for subtle, you're probably looking in the wrong place.
Hadn't heard of Kawai before just now. Pretty cool stuff!
Heh... very nice. I reached the final sentence at exactly the same time the theme music came to an end.
Well played so to speak.
9025378
I'm glad it worked for you!
Timing the story to the music is what I hoped would happen to at least on person
8873729
Though interestingly enough, someone did set up an organ with simulated 128' stop...
Them talking about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEVd2vdWYc0
Playing the ever-popular Bach in D minor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmQFS2E2GE4
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As he pointed out in the first vid, the camera can't pick up the low frequency that's shaking everything.
Back years ago, I read an article about building a locomotive sound system for model railroads, and one of the optional features was a bass speaker to shake the floor like a real locomotive would.
A lot of people don't appreciate subaudible sounds like they should.
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Yep. Been thinking of getting one of those "bass shaker" things that bolt to the bottom of a seat one of these days, actually. Always nice to feel the low bass, not just hear it.
(I've also read about some super-low-frequency "speakers" that operate more like a fan than like a normal coil-and-cone speaker, but that's really neither here nor there, I suppose.)
As far as the camera not picking up the low frequency, you can sort of hear it modulating the rest of the sound to some extent in the second video.
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It's funny, while I do appreciate good sound, most of my equipment is dumpster-sourced (had to get a new receiver; the old Akai finally gave up the ghost after fifteen years of use post-dumpster). But IRL I do appreciate sound I can feel, whether it be being behind the organ when the organist is playing O Holy Night like she means it, standing trackside as a pair of locomotives crank up their throttles, or watching ships pass through narrow channels.
Amusingly (and briefly), there was something on Radiolab where they were trying to figure out if trumpets could really bring the walls of Jericho down. Real trumpets couldn't produce enough decibels, so they went to a speaker manufacturer and he said that they couldn't reach the necessary decibel level because the speaker turned the air to plasma before it got to that level. At least, that's how I remember it . . . here's the link, if you're interested:
Radiolab: Jericho
It's probably still not the same as being there, though.
I've heard plenty of cannon blasts in movies, but none of them compared to the literal punch to the chest of one going off a few hundred feet from me.