Epilogue
Our adventure ended the way most of my crazier enterprises did: with everyone in the hospital getting patched up and checked out. We’d gotten some basic first aid back in the village, but that was no substitute for proper medical care.
Once the best doctors Puzzle could buy were done poking and prodding at me, I was more than ready to get a little fresh air. I trotted out onto a nice little balcony, only to be reminded that Freeport’s idea of fresh air was a lovely combination of wet fishy stink from the sea mixed with all the usual smells of a tightly-packed city. At least the hospital Puzzle had us at was in one of the better parts of the city; poor areas like Sandy Shores tended to smell far worse on account of all the locals dumping their trash into the water.
Strumming was already stretched out on one of the benches, munching away on a bag of chips. She greeted with a casual wing-wave. “Hey, Bacon-mane, how you holding up?
“Three bruised ribs and twenty four stitches.” I answered. I didn’t bother with all the lesser injuries—if I listed out every little cut and bruise I’d be there all day. “You?”
“Sprained wing and ankle,” Strumming answered, which sounded like she’d gotten off pretty lightly to me. “I also lost a couple too many pinions, so I have to stay on the ground until they grow back in.”
I was tempted to growl at her about how she was probably the least injured out of all of us, but restrained the urge. It wasn’t like she’d failed to pull her weight, and honestly I was too tired and sore to be mad at anyone right now. “Any idea how Puzzle’s doing?”
“Yeah, I saw him poking around the hospital gift shop on my way out here.” She smirked and winked at me. “I think he’s buying me something nice, so I pretended not to see him.”
“I saved his buggy butt, so he better buy me something too.” Okay, technically Puzzle and I had done some mutual life-saving, but that was beside the point. I stretched out, wincing when I pulled a bit too far on my bad side; even the best painkillers money could buy only did so much. “Might as well see how he's doing.”
“Yeah,” Strumming agreed. “I was gonna wait and let him surprise me, but I’ve never been good about letting anyone do that. I was one of those kids who spent every Hearthwarming finding all the hiding places for my presents and sneakily working out what was hidden inside the boxes.”
Sure enough, Puzzle was in the hospital’s shop, picking up a few things. Most notably flowers, which were probably for Strumming. I didn’t see anything for me. One of his legs was wrapped up and he had several smaller bandages all over his body, but he seemed to be and moving around reasonably well. I trotted on in. “Hey, bug boy.”
Strumming poked me, thankfully on the side that didn’t have three bruised ribs. “You can’t call him that. That’s my name for him.”
Puzzle grinned at both of us. “This one hopes you two won’t start fighting over it. That would be slightly undignified. Though it supposes that if such a battle must happen, then at least a hospital is a good place for it. You can get any new wounds treated immediately.”
Strumming chuckled and trotted over, giving Puzzle a peck on the cheek. “Relax, just teasing. I’ve been known to do that.”
“This one has noticed such tendencies,” Puzzle agreed dryly.
I scoffed and rolled my eyes at them getting all couple-y again. Seriously, did they have to do that right in front of me? I decided to change the subject before things got out of hoof. “Looks like you survived more-or-less intact.”
Puzzle took a moment to pass the flowers over to Strumming, who promptly went after them with her usual enthusiasm for anything edible. Then he turned to me. “For being set on fire and batted around like a toy, this one feels it is doing remarkably well. It must remember to thank its talismonger for such excellent work.”
“I bet you’ll thank him with some repeat business.” I’d seen what was left of Puzzle’s protective talismans after taking a couple hits from Rising. The results weren’t pretty, but better to have that happen to a couple bits of enchanted gear than Puzzle himself.
“This one does have quite a few protections to replace,” Puzzle agreed. “Considering the quality of the work, it sees no reason not to be a repeat customer. Though the best talismans do not come cheaply—the Shimmer-mare is a very expensive pony to be around.” Puzzle turned and grinned at Strumming. “Between the Shimmer-mare’s habit of dragging this one into expensive danger and Strumming’s snack budget, this one fears it will soon be bankrupt.”
I snorted skeptically. “I'm sure your contract with the Council covers medical expenses and lost equipment. Though when it comes to feeding Strumming ... yeah, you’re on your own.”
Strumming took a moment to finish chewing, then halfheartedly glared at both of us. “I’d fight back, but I’m too busy eating right now.” She chomped down on another one of the roses, which pretty much just proved our point.
Puzzle decided he’d had enough fun for the moment, and answered me instead. “This one is experienced enough to make sure operating expenses are part of any contract it signs. Otherwise this one’s fees would have to be high enough to account for the risk of such expenses, and any of the Shimmer-mare’s heroic impulses would be prohibitively expensive.”
“And I do give you a nice chunk of my pay to make sure everything stays profitable.” Come to think of it, I probably should be keeping a closer eye on my own money instead of trusting Puzzle to handle all of it. Though really, he’d probably done a far better job of managing my accounts than I could’ve. Though that brought another issue to mind. “Gonna guess Starlight's medical bills aren't part of of your contract, are they?”
“This one didn’t think to add a potential enemy to the list of individuals to be covered by the contract, no,” Puzzle conceded. “However, this one would not be overly concerned on that account. The Glimmer-mare does have a wealthy father, and this one did inform the Council of her injuries and arrange a temporary suspension of her banishment. It only seemed decent to allow her access to proper medical care.”
I frowned, a bit surprised to find I actually cared a little bit. I still didn’t like her, but Starlight did help me out during the fight against Rising and its minions. That counted for something. “How bad off is she?”
Puzzle sighed and shook his head. “She was very severely injured during the fight. Broken bones, sprains, cuts, the works. Happens when a revenant pummels you and then you suffer a fall like the one she did. Not to mention a bit of damage from whatever concoction Strumming used to get her back on her hooves for a while.”
“The stuff I used on her comes with a long list of fun side effects, not to mention it’s a little addictive and semi-illegal,” Strumming agreed. “But under the circumstances, I figured getting her body a bit more messed up was the lesser of two evils. Rising certainly would’ve done a lot worse to her.”
“That does seem likely,” Puzzle conceded. “As it stands, Starlight should make a full recovery barring any unknown complications.”
I nodded and headed back out to the balcony, the others following behind me. Once I was out there I did a quick check to make sure nobody else was around, then tossed up a privacy spell just to be safe. “I've been thinking about Rising. That whole crazy story about time travel and...” I trailed off, shaking my head.
“It was pretty nuts,” Strumming agreed, flopping down on a bench and slowly stretching out her wounded wing, wincing a bit when it went too far. “A dimension-hopping, time-traveling lich-thing was not what I was expecting to find when we went to the commune. Honestly, I was expecting it all to be some elaborate revenge scheme by Starlight. You know, stir up some trouble to lure you there, then wham!”
“The thought had occurred to this one as well,” Puzzle agreed, frowning thoughtfully. “This one can imagine a great many upsetting things about Rising, so what precisely was it about the lich that bothered you?”
I sighed and shook my head. “The story Rising gave me was totally nuts and violates one of the fundamental rules of temporal mechanics ... but the alternative is that there was a crazy, ridiculously powerful lich who knew a bunch of highly advanced magic and nobody heard about it until we ran into it. I’m the first pony in more than a century to master Sunbeam’s evocation style, and that teleportation spell is one that Celestia has taught even fewer ponies. I mean, the only other explanation I could see for Rising is something like Sunbeam Sparkle being a lich, going into a coma for centuries, and then waking up completely insane with elaborate delusions and an obsession with a random unicorn.”
“Compared to that, this one thinks time travel might actually be more plausible.” Puzzle shrugged helplessly. “At the very least, Rising seemed convinced that it was speaking the truth. And who knows, maybe it did accomplish what it said it did. Unless this one has heard wrong, isn’t even researching time magic illegal in Equestria?”
I nodded. “The rules are a little more complicated than a flat-out ban, but most of the exceptions are for magi who have special permission to do carefully controlled and supervised research in very narrow fields. So yeah, it’s illegal unless you have a royal dispensation.” I sighed and shook my head. “I'm not saying I believe Rising, but maybe we should warn Starlight not to screw around with time travel.”
Strumming shrugged. “Better safe than sorry and all that rot. I’d really prefer not to get into another slugout with Rising, let alone going through all that crazy stuff the lich talked about.”
Puzzle tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Taking precautions would seem prudent, unless telling the Glimmer-mare that she caused some kind of disaster with time travel ends up making her research time travel to try and fix it, and she ends up causing the problem in the first place. This one can recall no shortage of fictional stories where somepony tries to change the future, only to bring about the very catastrophe they were hoping to prevent.”
I grunted and nodded. “Yeah, good old self-fulfilling prophecies and predestination paradoxes.” Sure, that sort of thing was confined to fiction, but until recently I’d believed much the same about time travel being able to change history. “Let’s ... just keep an eye on her for now. If she starts messing around with any sort of time travel on her own, then we’ll deal with it.” I thought it over for a moment, then added. “Oh, and see if you can find out anything about somepony named Twinkle Sparkle. Rising said she was Starlight’s accomplice.” I grimaced and shook my head. “Not saying I believe Rising, but let's check anyway just to be safe.”
“This one was already planning on doing both of those things,” Puzzle agreed. “Though it feels that it should point out that the name Rising provided was Twilight, not Twinkle.”
“Whatever.” I grinned and nudged him in the chest. “Always thinking one step ahead.”
“It is what keeps this one ahead of the competition,” Puzzle shot back with a smirk.
“That's what you say.” I paused, one last issue nagging at my mind. “Any idea who Rising was? I mean, if we assume the story’s true. There aren't many ponies who could match that spell list.”
Puzzle and Strumming exchanged a cryptic look before he answered me. “This one cannot think of many ponies that could manage it, assuming Rising’s time was relatively similar to our own before the war she spoke of began. With Equestria being dragged into a long, desperate conflict with a dangerous foe who can say what might have changed? The war had clearly left some marks on Rising, even before we account for the destruction of her world.”
I frowned at the sudden shift in pronouns. Maybe Puzzle knew more than he was telling me? Or maybe he just didn’t want to come out and say what he suspected. It wasn’t all that hard to guess what his theory must have been; I was the only living pony who could both copy Sunbeam’s style and use Celestia’s teleportation spells. I didn’t like where that train of thought lead, so it’s no surprise Puzzle didn’t want to come out and say it.
I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “Not to mention Rising said time was getting weird towards the end. Makes it even harder to nail down who it could’ve been.”
Puzzle nodded along. “For all we know, the lich had centuries to perfect any number of skills. And considering how driven by revenge it was, it might have been killing Glimmer-mares across multiple timelines.”
I frowned skeptically. “Multiverse theory? That's supposed to be impossible according to the fifth law of...” I trailed off, throwing up my hooves in frustration. “Never mind! This whole conversation assumes Star Swirl’s rules of temporal mechanics are bunk, so citing them is pointless.”
“If we accept Rising’s story as true, it would mean accepting that our current knowledge of time travel is inaccurate.” Puzzle agreed. “Either we accept that she was speaking the truth, or we dismiss her claims and assume she was utterly insane and trying to kill the Glimmer-mare for reasons that were entirely in her head.”
“I think I’ll stick with believing the crazy pony story for now,” I grumbled. The alternative was just way too scary to even consider. I was much happier living in a world where nobody could screw with the timeline. “At least we got the lich.”
“Hope it sticks,” Strumming murmured. “Necromancers are kinda famous for cheating death.”
Puzzle frowned, staring out over the city. “This one suspects that if Rising did somehow survive, we will be hearing from it again. Or at the very least, the Glimmer-mare will. If Rising lives, it is only a matter of time before it seeks out its target once more.”
“Time.” I dropped the privacy spell, since we’d pretty well covered everything worth keeping secret. “I really don't want to think about time for a while. Or much of anything related to this mess. I dunno about you two, but I think we’ve earned a break.”
“Definitely taking a couple vacation days,” Strumming agreed. “Oh, and heads up, Bacon-mane. You might wanna do something to protect your ribs.”
I was about to ask what she meant when I spotted a little black blur headed my way. “Shimmer-mare!” Kukri called out. “This one came as soon as it heard you were hurt!” The little changeling leapt up and hugged me. Right around my injured ribs.
“I warned you...” Strumming murmured as I tried very hard not to whimper.
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Another good story, have a moustache!
I think you're missing a space here.
Calling it now: Rising is alternate Sunset.
And that was an awesome story for Halloween. Action packed, great character moments, fun concepts and some appropriately creepy ideas. Yep, Rainbow zombie had it all! Oh and the rest of the story was okay too, I guess.
Nah, I'm just kidding ya. This was solid from end to end and makes me want to see a lot more from these characters, and the developments brought up by them. Good one!
Rising is either Sunset or Twilight. Not sure which. Not sure if we'll ever find out, either.
Wait. There's an epilogue, but the story's marked incomplete. Is that intentional?
Great story, though I suppose I'm still smarting on behalf of Rising, Rainbow, and their entire world. The revelation that they regard Twilight as equally responsible for everything was unexpected though. In a way, I suppose she was responsible for their timeline to begin unraveling, and in such a disturbingly unexpected manner to boot. I think what most irks me on the bad guys behalf though is that everyone else is more or less dismissing their claims as mad delusions, that just feels like adding insult to injury to me. I'm sort of surprised at Strumming, who murders people she doesn't like, seemed to dismiss these accusations out of hand too. I wouldn't be surprised to hear if Starlight 'slips' and falls neck first on a steak knife on that front, perhaps without Sunset's knowledge. Again though, great story.
Thank you for another excellent Freeport story. I'm glad that while Sunset doesn't say it outright, at least she also suspects Rising Fire's probable true identity too. At least I think she does? Her narrative dances around the issue a bit (it is a disturbing idea, I can understand why she wouldn't want to even think about it too much), but its pretty obvious by now- the fire/ice spells, the teleporting, even the light blast. The idea of a zombie Sunbeam waking up in modern Equestria sounds kind of amusing actually (she would probably complain about the state of Equestria to Celestia).
Though I would think Sunset would have left before the Sonic Rainboom, but you never know (unless she returned to help the war effort). Wonder if that means in the Sombra War Equestria that Sunset did ascend. And this probably gives new meaning to the chapter title "What Comes After Sunset". Who knew in some time and place she might turn into an even more powerful lich version.
I'm a bit disappointed we didn't get to see Starlight again, to see how she's doing. As Puzzle said, never know if all this talk of time travel "inspires" Starlight to start tinkering around, which would be bad. Whatever else, after something like this both Puzzle and the EIS will probably keep a closer eye on Starlight- if she's even capable of that kind of thing, that probably raises her threat potential.
Wonder what Sunset's reaction will be when she someday hears about that "Twinkle Sparkle". Not only that she does exist (lending credence to Rising Fire's claims), but that she's her "replacement".
Time travel. It always results in headaches.
Regardless this was a pretty awesome story in the Freeport series. Can't get enough of them, and looking forward to whatever comes next. 
7685999
You want to hear a really crazy theory that I just came up with?
Rising Fire is Sunset Shimmer from Tales From The Phoenix Empire.
7685872 While it does sorta depend on how long between Sunset leaving and the rainboom, the Freeport series is mostly, and maybe even, a year along it's own timeline, so the rainboom could be happening soon. Might be a funny scene in a future story, Sunset and co chillin when a giant rainbow blasts across the sky. Also it would serve as a key point for people traveling through time, specifically to deal with the alterations to the timeline.
7686043 I haven't read those so I wouldn't know.
Incomplete? What aren't you telling me, Chengy?
7685865
I'm not remotely sympathetic towards them for the way their claims were dismissed. They couldn't have logically expected any other reaction with the way they went about things. They attacked innocent people, engaged in a straight up battle with Sunset's little group, and only after realizing that their win wasn't coming as easily as they expected did they actually bother to stop and try to explain things. Their story would already be difficult to believe on its own, but their behavior makes it seem like they were just spinning tall tales to get their enemies to stand down after realizing that it was more difficult than they were expecting.
As for their methods...they're questionable enough on their own. Their attempts to justify their methods, however, are horribly inadequate from any angle. They had the element of surprise when all of this began. There was no reason whatsoever to assume that Starlight anticipated their first attack. Meanwhile, Rising was able to take on Sunset and her backup in a magic battle by herself. There isn't even a remotely plausible excuse for why she couldn't have just assassinated the hell out of Starlight before she even knew that there was someone trying to attack her. She could have easily minimized innocent casualties by waiting until Starlight was alone, asleep, or simply working outside in an open space, teleported right behind her, and blown her head off before she had the chance to react. Even if Starlight somehow managed to react to a completely unexpected attack from a mage who is clearly above her level, then Rising could at least try to justify her casual dismissal of killing innocent bystanders by saying that she tried to fight without casualties and failed.
Throw in her big declaration towards Starlight when they actually encountered each other, and it paints a pretty clear image of someone who doesn't give a rat's ass about innocent casualties, but instead chose to handle it in the way she did because she was after revenge and wanted her target to know it before killing her. I can sympathize with their situation up until the point where their actions start painting their methods as a result of wanting personal gratification, rather than being the unfortunate necessity that they claim. Once that happens my sympathy goes right out the window.
As for Strumming's dismissal of things, honestly, I think it makes a great deal of sense and is totally in character. While both involve killing someone who might or might not become a problem, that's about where the similarities between the two situations end. Strumming has experience with necromancers and has presumably made quite a few enemies among their kind. They're a known factor, even if someone like Sunset serves as pretty fair proof that Strumming's beliefs aren't entirely accurate. Strumming - based on her knowledge and beliefs - has every reason to think killing a necromancer because they might do something is justified. But Rising is telling a far-fetched story about time travel and alternate realities. Strumming has no prior experiences or beliefs to draw on that would would give her reason to think that this story about Starlight killing entire worlds through time travel is legit in the first place, much less confident enough that it's true to justify acting on it.
7686061 He's telling you he forgot to click the edit button.
Ohhhh that last bit was just hilariously terrible!
7686657 Thinking a little bit more on it, Maybe Rising Fire is Sunset's Nightmare persona but with Sunset having more control.
7685701 How is Twilight at fault here?
7686790 She is the trigger for the time travel fight with Starlight, If Twilight hadn't followed the map Glimmer would still be in Our Town and have no reason to mess with time.
7685702 Yes, but why the name? Anybody remember if Sunset got a R63 name and persona in the On A Cross and an Arrow setting? Undercut by Celestia not being given his R63 name, so probably not. But Rising Fire certainly sounds R63ish.
Damnit, this mystery has eaten up the valuable analytical dreamtime that my subconscious usually devotes to exploring my own characters' motivations. [Utterly irrelevant-to-y'all but fruitful-to-me rambling deleted]
7686790 best I can figure, she wasn't. Applejack from that timeline could have just reported what the twilight said out of context and that got reported in to Celesti and her Magi. If out of context, one would consider them persons, or ponies, of interest to the incident. After a few entities of insanity, thoughts can change to outright believing it was them responsible out of assumption.
This was a cool story with a fun twist. Time travel stuff is always a dangerous thing to incorporate into a story, but you handled it well here. Looking forward to more Freeport stuff.
On that note, remind me what was your plan for this series? Are you planning another longer adventure like the first one down the line, or do you think you'll stick with these more one-off serials? I'll definitely read them either way, I'm just curious to know whether you have some endgame planned out.
7686790
By way of "I've gone insane from necromancying myself up the wahoo and now I'm torching innocent villagers for revenge for stuff that hasn't happened yet" logic.
7685668
7685679
7685689
7685754
7685985
7686061
Yeah, I didn't get a chance to do all my usual pre-publication checks due to internet issues. Getting the story up at all took some doing.
7686790
Everytime she failed to stop Starlight and activated the time spell spawned a new broken timeline.
7686321
Yeah, we kinda just never discussed the bokor again. I assume his unclaimed body is still rotting on that island.
7695327
Later events did end up overshadowing him, but I certainly haven't forgotten...
Alternate Sunset Shimmer is my guess.
7695040
Yeah, but you still can't really blame Twilight since Starlight literally dragged her back to the past, and Starlight made the first change to spawn the disastrous timelines--Twilight was only trying to restore the proper order of events and everything. Can you imagine if something like that falling apart thing happened to the original timeline because Twilight didn't go back and restore it???
Huh. Can't say that I gave the idea of Rising being Sunset much thought, but Puzzle seems to disagree. Still, I find it to be pretty circumstantial since we're only talking similar name and spell repertoire. The former only puts our necro in the same boat as nearly every other magically powerful unicorn mare in the show, and the latter could easily be explained by her story of the having an eternity of time for research and training.
I'm amused at Twilight getting named, since the Sparkle name is certainly known to Strumming and the EIS, and Twilight herself might even be on their radar depending on where we are in the timeline compared to her entrance exam. Someone in Canterlot is going to be getting a report about these events.
Like a certain zebra zombie mage, perhaps? Guess we'll see.
7703901
Or at least he didn't come out and say it. Puzzle isn't always 100% honest. He's prone to using a lot of misdirection, carefully worded statements, and deflecting with questions and suppositions. He isn't the type to come out and say a flat out lie that can easily be contradicted, but how much he says vs. what he actually knows or guesses...
7713352
Not to mention he might be wary of how Sunset would react to the suggestion that she'd fought her evil alternate universe counterpart.
And another Freeport adventure draws to a close. Always a pleasure.
Loved the way Sunset and Starlight played off each other here. Hope it's not the last we'll see of the two together.
wasn it suposed to be it again?
Stupid Rising Fire is stupid...
Doesn't she know that by one of Starswirl's laws of magic she just caused the events of the very future she sought to stop to occur? Sunset and Starlight are still set on their paths... Sunset will still wind up at CHS eventually, and Starlight will still end up in Our Town. If anything, now Sunset has the idea that inter-dimensional travel is possible.
Did Rising even think of the possibility that she might have left some techno stuff behind for the Freeport merchants to sell to the Sombra Cult so they could create Rainbows in T-1000 models instead of just T-800s? No, because she assumed that she would win.
I do like that even though Strumming and Puzzle don't say it outright, Sunset is smart enough, even while in pain, to pick up on vocal giveaways and figure out what they're not saying - even though she then dismisses it as something she doesn't want to consider. It's far more in character that way.
Also, presumably Strumming will report everything back to Celestia, including the name Twilight Sparkle and the return of Sombra. Celestia then presumably grants Twilight access to the Star Swirl wing of the royal library... is she attempting to close the time loop? Or is she deliberately setting things up so that if things go horribly wrong and Sombra returns in force again, Twilight and Starlight will apparently be able to restore a 'better' timeline? While also making plans to try and have something in place (Cadance?) capable of turning a returned Crystal Empire against Sombra, in order to try and turn the current timeline away from the Sombra future?
It might explain why she takes Twilight under her wing and gives her access to so much material and information; if Twilight and Starlight are going to be the ones to restore a "good" Equestrian timeline, it's best that Twilight associate the current timeline with extremely positive experiences, and also have some familiarity with Star Swirl's work - ideally enough to be able to move beyond it, if Rising Fire's commentary about it not being all-encompassing is to be taken seriously.
In other words, Rising Fire's presence (and big mouth) may have indirectly ensured the destruction of her own timeline.
For me it seemed that our dead living alicorn is a future version of sunset sickness, at least the way he fought her spells with total equality, almost a mirror of her own technique, made me feel ... or this or him Would be his future student, but I think it's Sunset because he mentioned that Celestia made an effort to save her, but did not save herself, like a mother saving her daughter.
*assuming Freeport is canonical two Winningverse, since I don't know if there's been a definitive statement on that*
I've been kinda sad before that Sunset running to Freeport instead of through the mirror pretty much does away with Equestria Girls completely (although I'm sure there are still those that rejoice at that), you'd think this story'd throw a wrench in Starlight's whole show arc. Unless she just ignores any and all lessons (except for the wrong ones) out there to her.
So just to recap, since coming to Freeport, Sunset has: defeated an entire pirate crew almost single handedly, killed one of the most dangerous warlocks alive and prevented the circulation of a dangerous black magic book in the process, killed a demon, vanquished an eldritch changeling abomination, broke into a spirit protected mercenary fort and defeated several armed mercs bloodlessly, killed Queen Chrysalis, and now destroyed a small horde of undead including the remains of the greatest flier in history and her possible alternate timeline alicorn self with centuries of training. Am I missing any thing?
Went to an island to fight zombies, came back having fought a lich version of (most likely) herself from a defunct alternate timeline. Heavy dark stuff, man. Best Freeport story yet
Still have to wonder how Rising jumped from her timeline to Sunset's. Did she expand upon Starswirl's theory of time magic? Alter her molecular frequency to phase across timelines? Or did she have outside help from someone like this guy?
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/0/0a/Observer_ID_comic_M10.png/revision/latest?cb=20140322055846
7953597
Centigrade
Should have used one of these... never got hooked on one
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/e/e7/Fallout4_Stimpak.png/revision/latest?cb=20160107001729
7954309 I know which report you used to get that temperature. I also know that the temperature you gave was what the value the report gave as the autoignition temperature of paper and that it was assumed by the report creators that paper and hair, being of somewhat similar chemical makeup had similar autoignition temperatures.
Naughty, naughty.
Also, why did I just spend ten minuets looking through that report?
7956460
Yeah, I'd assume that the actual ignition point of hair varies massively depending on what someone's hair is like.
7956481 Composition, products, how wet it is, environment, etc. I actually tried to find an autoignition temperature, the closest I found was that in one case a .1g sample of hair, after being exposed to ~75 C temperatures for 1:30, burst into flames. I did find that skin has an AIT of >~250C though, so that's probably a pretty close guess.
So, on Sunny's list of Things To Do To Fix Freeport, where on there is the EPA?
Point to Puzzle.
Yes, because what you really need to do to the crazy powerful and slightly nuts pony is get her addicted to something.
The whole black-magic-thing IIRC started as a clear shout-out to the Dresden Files rules against black magic - which, yes, boiled down to "murder everyone who tried a single spell" about 90% of the time. I don't hold it against Sunny (nor do the readers, obviously) but that doesn't mean the actual Equestrian Magi feel the same way.
I meant it as a joke ... but then again, Twi's cutie mark is simply magic while Sunny's (at least in this fic) is opposing magical forces. If anyone's going to have mastery, Twi's more likely than Sunny.
I know, right?
I think that's why I like her so much.
After finally taking the time to read and catch up on this series I have to say I really enjoyed it up till this story's antagonists were introduced along with their motivations because I can't see them as villains but more so as a trans-dimensional police force. I don't recall them actually killing anyone, they specifically stated they were there to arrest Starlight, they seemed to be holding back from going lethal until forced to do so with one possible exception if they couldn't capture Starlight, and they even offered to heal all injuries afterwards. Looking at those points it makes the protagonists seem more like villains. Also as a student who did tons of experiments Sunset shouldn't have just written off what they said as an impossibility as anyone who truly experiments knows that the laws of science(or in this case magic)/reality as we know them are rewritten or edited in some way almost regularly as our understanding grows. Now I just have this bad taste in my mouth as it doesn't really feel resolved to me. I hate to say this but Glimmer's capture or death would have felt better to me and the fact that I feel that way about it bothers me. Doesn't help that Glimmer had the worst redemption story in MLP (not counting changelings since I can't even properly consider that a redemption) even if her character grew interesting and better developed with season six. Throw in that this version of Glimmer seems to be heading down a slightly variant though possibly better path of the canon universe with her equality I can't help but root for the antagonists of this story and hope we see their(not alternates) return somehow even if they don't get her.
8085935 They want to arrest somebody for a crime they didn't commit, the kind where the only sentence is death. Let me repeat that first part, this Starlight is INNOCENT OF THE CRIME. If she had actually done the deed in question then sure I'd be on your side but she didn't. It would be like, using your own example, if interdimensional cops broke into yoir house to arrest you because some alternate version of you blew up the UN with a nuke. Has zero to do with you but they are here to capture you anyway. The undead are not the good guys.