Leveling Up
"You can't reason somepony out of a position they didn't reason themselves into."
"That's true, Micro," I said cautiously, "but from the story he gave... he might actually have reasoned his way to the best conclusion he can, with the evidence available to him. I'm not saying he's right - but that, at least, we shouldn't think he's any stupider than he actually is."
Micro Scope glared at me. "If the whole world in front of his eyes isn't enough evidence - what possibly could be?"
"The world behind his eyes. More practically - mind magic wouldn't match the theory he's got. Anything which forces him to do something he didn't decide to do, which involves not just his body, but his thoughts. Even just 'veritas' could be enough... emphasis on 'could'. In the meantime, though, we can't assume that we're going to have the chance to do anything of the sort... we're all going to have to step up our game."
"You're saying we haven't been doing our best?"
"I'm saying that whatever our best was - we can do better still. With the training and practice we've been doing, we've gotten to where we can manage a basic set of tactics... but we're brittle. Something too unexpected happens, or if we lose even just one of our key members - and the whole thing will fall apart. What I want... is to let us all rely on each other, but not depend on any of us. Even me."
"You're the one who's always been talking about your special knowledge and important secrets."
"Yep. And now I want you to be able to press on whether or not you've got me around. When I was petrified, you took over the Dairy, along with Safe Guard - but you weren't using it to maximize the odds of Equestria's survival, in the face of world-ending disasters. I want to figure out why that was - and to find a way so that, if I get petrified again, or turned into a bird, or captured, or eaten, or you-name-it, that you'll be able to do what I wouldn't - won't? - anymore. And if both you and I get knocked out of the running, I want Red to be able to take over. And Blanche, and Amethyst... and so on. That's going to mean I'm going to have to ease up on a few of the security arrangements I've been holding firm to so far, and there's a risk in that... but there's a risk if I don't, too. The longer we spend outside Equestria itself, the more time there is for disaster to happen there, so I want us to finish and get home as fast as we can."
"I was starting to feel like we'd be stuck up here forever."
"Mm. Dirk was right about one thing - there's a lot of narrative causality that seems to be tied up in all of this... so we should be working to make that work for us as much as we can - maximizing the good parts, and minimizing where it works against us. ... Mind you, I'm suddenly realizing that now that I've actually said that, then we can probably expect bad news in three, two, one... hm, maybe by counting down like that I managed to defuse the narrative tension by letting myself look silly-"
"Bad news, everypony!" came Blanche's voice, as she galloped into the bridge, her wings still spread wide.
I sighed, then said, "Let's hear it."
She panted a bit, catching her breath, before saying, "Huge fleet. Armada. Lots 'n lots of ships! West. Behind us. Coming this way."
"Dirk's?"
"Lots of flags. Of a black bird. On red."
"He did say he was a 'dark phoenix'. So... is the Mikoyan up for flying?"
Micro shrugged. "After getting rattled around in that super-speed leap, and now everything near you turning halfway into a forest glen - we might be faster than before, or the engine might blow up as soon as we spin it up. Don't you think it's time you took off that magic cloak?"
"Well - after Dirk left, I was thinking that its magic could come in handy, but for all I knew, that was the cloak influencing my mind, so I was going to let any of you be able to tell me to take it off. But, well, I tried taking it off anyway - and the clasp seems to be stuck. I thought maybe that was a magical effect, so I tried draining its magic again, by turning into a bird and back a few times, and that didn't work."
"Great," Micro said, "just great. You realize that I've started eyeing Berry Blast? I've never liked stallions with food-based cutie marks. Made it a rule for myself, after, uh, something that happened in college."
I rubbed my forehead. "We'll have to add prophylactics to the 'essential supplies' list. And I'll have to see if I can come up with an anti-conception spell. And if need be, hold classes on how to deal with the mental effects in ways that don't lead to foals."
"Now that's something I'd like to see you do - and maybe bet fifty points on you blushing so hard you have something go physically wrong with you."
"Thank you for your vote of confidence. In the meantime - we do have that armada coming up on us, and while Red's getting some well-deserved rest... how about we see if we can get a little more space between us and them, or if we're going to have to make our stand right here?
I'm going to summarize the next few weeks, since most days were pretty much the same as each other. We nursed the bruised engines and pipes and such to push us at least one day's sail ahead of the armada. We warned the local villages we passed about their coming. When they didn't listen, we watched, from a distance, to gather intel on the fleet's tactics and activities... and I lost all taste for the old joke, "Remember, pillage, then burn." Whenever some over-eager griffons and pegasi from the fleet flew ahead, and came after us, we zapped them with sleep-wands and puke-wands. The Mikoyan grew one notch flowerier. I tried teaching everyone from Micro and Red to Firebough and Ursula as quickly as I could. I ran through some super-fast experiments to try coming up with new magic. We tried thinking of some clever plan with a better chance of working than staying ahead of the fleet, without getting any implementable suggestions.
We tried pumping the locals for any new info on magic places, items, or creatures, but didn't pick up anything significant we hadn't already heard.
My hooves grew back in.
Without much new stuff to experiment on, I poked around with some of the stuff we'd picked up from Canterlot on. The most unexpected discovery was that some of the samples of obsidian-like rock, from the cave near the Great Battlefield, seemed to be at least as impervious to magic as the local dragons. I guessed that maybe the dragons had figured out some way to incorporate those rocks' effects, the way I'd taken some magic-storing opals into myself before the cloak started draining any gem-stored magic it came into contact with. I tried figuring out something of the sort for us, but nothing we had aboard the Mikoyan seemed able to even dent those rocks, let alone reshape them.
I consciously sublimated my cloak-induced urges for offspring by spending as much time as I could with the pups. I tried not to pry too closely into the details of how everyone else was handling such matters, but we did buy up every prophylactic for sale at every village we stopped at, I actually did hold a seminar on non-procreative sex, and I started casting the hurriedly-discovered 'sterilis' on anypony who asked, at any time, no questions asked.
No, I didn't jump into the fray myself - I had much too much to do. The closest I came to anything of the sort was letting Amethyst pet my fur whenever I tried to relax, and letting her and Blanche stay close enough during the nights to let me sleep. I tried not to think too much about Cheerilee; it just made me depressed.
And then we ran out of coast.
We'd been following the shoreline to the northeast; now, we'd gotten to a point where it turned due north. According to the globe of my Element necklace's gem, there was a large island - I thought of it as around the size of Iceland - due east of us, with nothing but ocean and cloud in between. According to the information we'd gotten, in that direction was the mysterious isle of Thule, which nopony had traveled from in centuries, and which was surrounded by a permanent storm. Depending on who you asked, the storm either sank every ship that came near it, or only ones that had hostile intent to Thule, or it just held all the ships that had ever entered with nopony aboard realizing that more than a single night had passed.
"Welp," I said to the members of the Round Table, "I'm stumped."
This set off some quick murmuring, as some points in a side-pool got traded.
I continued, "According to one of my secret bits of magic, which shows where the bigger swathes of clouds are... there's a circle of them around the island. Sometimes it's thick in some spots, sometimes it's thin - but it's always there. I've got a few ideas on spells to minimize its effects on us - but no guarantees any will work. We don't know how Dirk's fleet plans to get through, and trying to make any sort of raid on them to gather that particular piece of intel... seems to be at least as risky as just flying in ourselves."
Red commented, "We do have the Lady's Cloak - so if we wanted, we could just claim success by having gotten it, set course southeast, and arrive on Equestria's west coast."
Micro thought out loud, "If Dirk doesn't actually have a way through the storm - maybe we could just let him and his fleet sail into it and sink; that would take the whole lot of them out of business for us."
Blanche snorted at her. "That's a big 'if', which we don't have any info on. If we assume that and we're wrong..."
Amethyst herself spoke up, "Dirk. Mad at us. Shooing away prey. To safety. If we go one way. Fleet goes another. He'll chase us."
"Not to mention," I said, "that we don't even know if the Star Shield, or Svalinn, or both if they're not the same, are actually on Thule. Or, if they are, if they'll be worth the effort of trying to get them."
There was a brief pause as we considered all of this.
"So," Red said, "one last attempt to parley with Dirk, and when that fails, in we go?"
As it turned out, the only way any of Dirk's lead ships let any of us get anywhere near us was after we incapacitated every last crewman aboard. This didn't leave us much to try talking to, let alone arranging a parley with their admiral with; and with a few dozen other ships barreling toward the one we were on... the best we could do was re-capacitate the ones aboard who looked like they'd been enslaved, and let them decide what to do with their captors as we pulled away. It was a conscious and deliberate ploy to put them higher on the fleet's target list than us... but since the only other realistic plans were to leave them enslaved, to mercy-kill them, or to commit suicide trying to face down the whole armada with our single airship... we gave them their shot, and left them to it.
Before we got out of sight, looking back through binoculars, I saw the ship sink.
I added it to the list of nightmares I'd be facing that night.
We turned to face the storm.
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Author's Note: I'm trying to balance moving the plot forward, closer to the climax, with describing everything that goes on, and also with making sure each and every chapter contains interesting stuff. I've been going back and forth a bit here about what to gloss over and what to detail, and not satisfied with any of my choices, have picked what seems best. Feel free to tell me how you think I could have done better.
Spoiler for next chapter: I plan on inserting a song.
1435753
So you told me a fairly good summation of the story (which I liked) then essentially gave me the best possible method for beating the final boss of a game I will probably never play again?
I liek dis gai!
1435914 I think you're doing a great job, personally. This chapter turned out very well, with their fleeing from the armada and trying to save those villages from Dirk's cruelty as best they can.
Well I have to say that so afar this is my absolute least liked chapter. Nothing stands out to me. It just feels bland. I still love the story though and I'm still reading it. (Waiting for a direct crossover with one of the chessfics that I have read so I can see how similar the compared chapters are.)
1436064
'Bland' - that sounds about the same as my own estimation of 'workmanlike': it just barely gets the job done, with nothing fancy.
I did have a few thoughts on ways to spice it up, here and there; but I felt an actual distaste about getting into too much graphic detail about one of Dirk's ships doing a raid, and I still want to keep this fic from qualifying for a Mature rating, so... here we are.
my guess? Dirk learned about Stygian Obsidian's ability to be a 'magic black hole'.
And he likely hasn't had whatever amulet or trinket of it he's been using long enough to learn the downside.
Once it hits magical equilibrium? KABLOOEY!
We have a way of 'dealing with him'.
Though I'd really like to see someone get through his skull and make him realise what's really going on.
1436085
Exactly. This chapter moves the story forward but has no flair to it to make it anything more than that. Though i can understand the distaste. Felt bad about letting the slaveships be killed after freeing them.
This chapter is actually one of my favorite "build-up" chapters, to be honest. What really surprises me is the vague Fire Emblem feeling that your latest chapters have been gaining.
>I did have a few thoughts on ways to spice it up, here and there; but I felt an actual distaste about getting into too much graphic detail about one of Dirk's ships doing a raid, and I still want to keep this fic from qualifying for a Mature rating, so... here we are.
Don't mind it. I personally feel that chapter quality hasn't really suffered- and I know how hard writing is, as I've been trying to get myself to write as much as I can get myself to, lately. I'm actually starting to expect a whole scene of Dirk going "Oh my god. What have I done?" at the end of this arc.
Hopefully Sterilis won't have any long lasting adverse effects from using it.
1436676 if that worked, would it not be possible to revert with either the word for fertility or the established method for cancelling magic(assuming its a constant effect)
For whatever reason I kind of hope some one finds a use for this song in the setting...
1436952
Phrase, actually. And, you can't always write off magic as "Lol it's magic so just use more magic an' magic gon' reverse magic". While I was talking about just a possible adverse effect of using Sterilis, I now present the thought that more magic brought in might cause more problems. What if any other magic used in the process of nullifying or reversing Sterilis brought about completely brand new variables depending upon the word or phrase used to reverse the effect?
I'd say Latin-gem magic is like playing around with a primed bomb. As Griffin demonstrated in his latest chapter gem magic can, quite literally, make a bomb out of highly condensed air when using the correct phrases. If Missy done bucks up, Missy could make a not-so-literal bombshell of a situation with just a few wrong words thrown together if my speculation holds true. Probably won't, but the thought is still there.
Why does the Mikoyan's race with Dirk's fleet remind me of The Galactic Leyline from Outlaw Star? Several groups racing to a MacGuffin Location, which is surrounded by some kind of barrier that they each develop a different means to pass through (including "superior piloting")
[youtube=S1X6W49TcL0]
MAYBE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS IS ONLY WHAT YOU WANT IT TO BE!
LET ME START TO HELP YOU CHANGE THESE MYSTERIES YOU WANT TO SOLVE INTO WELL-KNOWN FACTS!
1436004
Hey, the game is 11 years old. At that point nobody gets to complain about spoilers.
SPOILERS: Jesus dies!
SPOILERS: He comes back to life!
1435914
You're doing great as usual. You're imagery stands to be a bit better, but you have the much more important aspect of telling what needs to be told down. In most cases it's not too much or too little, and is presented in a way as to make people want to guess and speculate on the future. I'm totally jelly cuz I have the opposite problem. I can make an individual description or scene simply magnificent and then confuse people where it really matters in tying it all together, so kudos!
1437298
No spoiling. Some people aren't completely up to date with all the fics. (me) I suggest white words.
Nice to see you back again, I was getting worried
I like the chapter, obviously different style but it works well in this context, gives a sense of tensiony-climaxy-ness....
Quick quibble, wouldn't it be a lot less awkward for her to give them 'sterilisis' gems/wands? I like how you've included a shippers dream scenario and treated it as a mild inconvenience, in any other story on this site I expect it would go a whole other direction...
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I CAUGHT UP!!!!! NOW I'M UP TO DATE!!!!
Author's Note: No new chapter tonight, due to slight vision problem, expected to be temporary. (Every so often, my blind spots get larger, so that I can't see parts of my vision I usually can. At the moment, both my eyes have a similar blind-spot on the center-right, so that while I look at one word, I can't see the next one, making it infeasible to read - I'm typing this with my eyes closed. (I'm happy for many reasons that I took the time to learn how to touch-type.) I'm good enough at that to write a non-essential comment, but I don't trust myself to be able to write a full 2k words.) I strongly suspect that the usual cause of this is when I let myself get dehydrated; so I'm drinking plenty of fluids, and I expect to be back to normal when I wake up.
Bonus spoiler for the next chapter: There'll be more than one song.
Build up and common sense action to pick away at a larger force. Right on! XD
I get a similar blind spot issue preceding migraines.
Feel better.
1436085 honestly. I agree that it's kinda bland but I don't mind that. I'm really glad you didn't go into any detail of his ships doing a raid because the few details you did give were enough to unsettle. I think if you had given any more detail it would've been too much. Like I said before. In this case, it works.
Wait... how did they check that "sterilis" actually functioned as expected? The way they are relying on it indicated they are pretty sure it works.