Equestria is suffering a dire problem. You are part of that solution, even if you aren't entirely aware of it. No, we don't need a dragon slayer or something like that. We're sure you can handle this just as you are.
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Why only one stud at a time?
run, mofo, run!
Wait, wait...if Applejack was among the very last ponies born to pony parents, meaning that the sterilization began shortly thereafter, does that mean that Apple Bloom is her half-sister? And Sweetie Belle is Rarity's half-sister? Is having a part-human parentage why Scootaloo can't fly? Or why Pound and Pumpkin aren't earth ponies like their father? (This says a lot about why Diamond Tiara's parents seem to treat her like crap.)
...and who was the lucky bastard who got to put Flurry Heart in Cadance? (Maybe that hasn't happened yet and we can do it?)
No, wait, none of those are my questions. Hm...How about:
"What did you do that caused this, specifically?"
"What's done to studs, the non-violent ones, who don't choose to live as a pony?"
"What's the rate of mares who are accepting being studded? If it's too low, then this is only delaying the inevitable."
"Can a mare's fertility be increased further, using that spell that you used on Applejack, to encourage multiple births? That would help slow things down."
"Would using the Mirror Pool before we're expended help any?"
"Why can't Discord just fix this?"
If you desired to stay. Are there any limitations for interacting with your children and those you bred with?
Or are you free to to meet with them as you'd like?
beside that tub - beside the tub
rest a hoof - rested a hoof
Ok, the red lights are growing a little dimmer now. I'm fairly certain that we're dealing with a Celestia now. I have my doubts that Molly could be this calm and serious for this long without slipping.
Still, now is the time for reasonable caution, so let's think carefully and listen even more carefully to the answers. We're not trying to trap Celestia, but listen carefully for non-answers, contradictions, or statements that cancel each other out.
Questions, questions, so many questions.
If Applejack was among the last, then what about Cadance and Shining Armor? Is there no Flurry Heart?
Without going into technical specifics that we won't understand, what happened, and when? What changes were made and what was the intended result, separate from what actually happened? Put more simply, what were the initial issues that spurred her to implement her solution?
I haven't really taken the time to say, but I'm really enjoying this new experiment!
7743256 I'm going to guess that this is because of how they never know if they're going to get someone pleasant or violent. Having fewer at a time prevents any sort of major event if most of them turn out to be cruel or hard to control.
Looking over some of the other questions already asked, I note that I haven't even begun to consider asking about things that would affect us personally. There's a mystery here to unravel; a problem to solve!
Okay, this isn't serious, and I don't expect this to be an option, but I just have to say:
If Flurry Heart hasn't been conceived yet, and you get to do it, then you should look Shining Armor right in the eye and grin while you're doing his wife right in front of him. Welcome to NTR Type-A, beta cuck.
If there is a reason why they hurry through the list, is it because there's a time limit on how long a stud can stay?
They summon only one stud at a time, because of the energy cost of summoning? Or because they use energy to keep them tied to their universe?
If they don't change into a pony are they ejected from the universe? Is that why becoming a pony is the only option for staying?
To repeat the question asked earlier in this thread but what was the reason that Celestia had this happen again? She took out something that seems important and now it is adversely affecting her ponies.
Do you also wish sometimes to become a mother, Princess?
7743302 while that does make some sense... one stud at a time will not be able to seed their entire species I don't think
7743278 Thoughtful responses as nothing better to do?
0-nonquestion: I'm thinking all foals after AJ are from studs and Tia isn't being real honest about when she started her program. (Not sure if she gave us a date stamp on that one anyway, have to go back and look). If only Luna has been doing the choosing then Applebloom and others her age should have born before Luna's return so Tia may have been responsible for early choices and as she doesn't dreamwalk as well as Luna, maybe why their were so many bad eggs amongst the early choices?
EDIT: If AJ was last natural birth, then Pinkie and Marble, being younger, would be stud born, might explain Pinkie's pinkie sense...plus other peculiarities.
Q1: I'm left wondering if Tia was trying to fix male to female ratio problems as herds were going out of fashion? It backfires of course.
Q2: Don't forget, our stud hasn't left the castle yet, human males may have sequestered themselves to quiet parts of Equestria at Tia's suggestion or their own to avoid constant non aggressive harassing questions (thinking Lyra types wanting to know all things bipedal/humanway gamer oriented), maybe with a mare they like and foal they sired.
Q3: I somehow doubt a race bound to friendship & harmony would have too much trouble seeking applicants, more like how to choose fairly from a large choice.
Q4: Twins are a normal possibility for equines, though not frequent, never heard of more than two though, doubt there would physically be room for three or more at the size they're born at. Maybe the rate of twinning can be boosted if not already done, still no idea from the sisters yet.
Q5: Don't know what I think of that one but I wonder about the stability of semen and embryos from that and would worry that they're as temporary as there sires.
Q6: As David hasn't stated when this story is (personal 'What grinds my mouth-bit' that authors don't ever state when a story is relevant to canon. Don't take it personally Dave, this is one of the usual things I get stuck on, sorry.), Discord may still be a statue.
7743281 Can't see why it would be a problem other than maybe holding off telling foal the reason they may have a 2nd father visiting occasionally until they are old enough to understand.
7743310 I'm assuming that the sisters are picking up studs that have no or little caring family in their lives and few friends to notice they're gone. An 'I QUIT' fake letter dumped mysteriously into the in baskets of employers by Tia would fix work related problems. Another reason they may be getting aggressive studs?
Well that's my 2 bits to the conversation so far, can't leave the author to come up with all the ideas on his own. That wouldn't be fair I guess?
Idea time for next chapter. Tia does some answering to questions maybe relevant to discussions here? Time to choose from list again and seeing the sisters names on the list decide to ask her if she would be next. After that before she can get any emotional hangups on him, she shows him the list again (if he's conscious, might be almost as rough on him as it was on Prince Silver) asking who will be next now...and cliffhanger!
Hmm would ask the same as Goldspoon
Q1: That is about if she desire a foal of her own.
Q2:Also ask about laws, trying to get a feeling on what I can do and can't
Q3:Ask what is taboo (cheating, incest, foalcon) and so o. Will be handy if for example a filly start flirting with me and I know if I can play it off or take seriousy
Q4:Estrus, how long, how often, how to recognise a mare being in one. Also how long a mare is pregnant
Q5: Ask what big thing have happened recently, doing so I can maybe pinpoint where in the time line I am. And doing so maybe is somewaht prepared for some events
Q6: Hmm maybe ask about Changelings :)
I can look on the list and maybe see Cadance or Mrs Cake names, then ask about them. Can get the anser that either they want another foal(s) or trying to get one
7743278
I think you've got it backwards. It sounds like Celestia did something quite a while back, and the sterility thing has been slowly creeping its way through the pony population like a disease. Applejack's parents are among the last generation with any ponies were unaffected. Which means Appljack's generation is the last, since AJ's generation is the one with a 100% "infected" rate.
I can't immediately explain Flurry, but it could be that Cadence is old enough to have just missed being in AJ's generation, and could also be one of the last fertile ponies.
What about the Crystal Empire? Isn't their entire population from before this started? If they are, then maybe we could use them as a template for revitalizing modern ponies!
Hmm...
"If I told you there might be a segment of humans that know about you like me and many would genuinely love to come to Equestria's aid, while being generally be kind-hearted on top of it, would you be able to focus on bringing them here, instead of the humans you have been seeking?"
"Celestia, have you considered the impact it would have on the populace if you and your sister both had foals of your own in this program?"
7743544
The problem is in the stallions, not the mares, remember. Either Cadence was part of the breeding program, or Shining Armor got real lucky!
I think it would be stupid for us to judge Celestia as what we consider heinous and morally questionable, shouldn't be applied to ponies. Mind manipulation is something himans find abhorrent because our ethical view. But clearly Ponies only have minor qualms about it.
Ok, my question sort of depends on what other questions are asked. Has she considered codeing some mares and or stallions into humans. If we are easily coded into ponies the reverse should be possible. Code a mare into a human, see if she can produce pony children or see if the human child could be changed. At the very least it could become an alternative to stealing humans that could become violent.
7743326 I'll suggest that maybe they can only magically support one stud's virility at a time. So the more productive each is the better, if ratio is pushed to 2 or 3 twinnings for each single foal occurring, according to this pic, Equestrian month is 24 days supposedly.
mlpforums.com/uploads/monthly_10_2011/post-93-0-52460300-1319038448_thumb.png
So 42 foals a month at best maybe, at 12 months, 504 a year ( if 12 months, unknown? ). Not knowing their death rate makes it impossible to determine if they're on the plus side or minus.
For the studs declining staying maybe a compromise of living with minotaurs as closest bipedal race may alleviate some of that number, for the stroppy ones of these and the aggressive ones maybe teleport them deep into the badlands to fend for themselves or if really aggressive, send them deep into dragon territory, let em' argue it out with the locals there, worst case scenario?
7743548 I will remind that both sides were affected.
Males:
Lowered Sperm Count
Reduced strength of the magic signal
Females:
Incredibly damaged eggs
Increased strength of magic signal required
The first bit on females would actually be more damning than anything else if they couldn't, against all logic, absorb a sufficient amount of sperm to undo the damage enough to make a foal.
Fun fact! This means far less of the mother's genes are being passed forward than normal, say 20-40% mother, 80-60% father.
7743562
Doh! Memory fixation.
Another thought came to mind based on the information that Princess Celestia has shared. We may be more closely bonded emotionally with Careful than we realized, after our time together, even if we didn't complete the act, and even though she fled immediately afterwards. It may have been her first time being intimate and the repercussions of that were just laid out for us. That's going to require some careful (no pun intended) consideration if we're to avoid harming her.
It may already be too late to be a good person (far too many shades of grey in all this) but we can try hard not to be monstrous in our actions during this adventure.
The big problem with havng an infinite number of questions to ask, is that to select the first one you have to roll an infinite sided dice. Discord, Im looking at You.
The problem started a time ago and has been getting steadily worse, meaning if nothing is done, nothig will stop it and good bye Equestria in a length of time that can be demonstrated fairly easily by Twilight drawing up the graph. In fact, two graphs. One giving a proportion of population able to breed, projected forward gives the time of End, and the other which is to plot the number of occurances, and project Back to find the Beginning, then look for events at that time and any major before.
Just what was Celestia trying to do at that time that caused such an occurance, hit the Tree with a magic blast to try and get the Elements to regrow so she could deal with the upcoming Nightmare Moon problem in the next centuary. When that failed she had to fall back to breeding her Elements?
1) What exactly was the problem with ponies that made changing their fundamental biology seem like a good idea?
2) Any of the studs who have stuck around – where are they now? You said that any that became mares would be fertile, are any of those on the list?
3) If you a managed a spell strong enough to effect the entire species and break their genetics, have you tried... the opposite of that?
4) Can we get a lawyer? Or even just a dedicated chaperone/guide of some sort. We may know a lot more than we should about your world, but we're still a lost and confused alien that doesn't know what all our rights and cultural expectations are. Having somepony to answer our general questions and let us know exactly what it's okay to do, without having to track down you or Luna would be nice. Especially given the conflict of interest of you authorizing our abduction.
5) Why should we actually trust you about anything?
6) Can we actually have a preliminary meeting with any future mares we're considering, instead just... being woken up by them presenting. That's kind of an awkward situation.
7) You mentioned an "official announcement". So, you didn't disclose this was all your fault, right? What did Twilight think of you when you told her? Please tell us you've told her, at least.
Seconding the first three and last of 7743278
1) Why only one stud at the same time?
2) Would using the Mirror Pool before we're expended help any?
3) How many times does a stud usualy last?
4) If I don't want to become a pony at the end what will you do?
Going with the repeated availability of breeding Celestia and Luna even though we never took it...
Question: Would a foal produced via studxalicorn be able to produce the signal/sperm needed in the case of a male, or have a whole/receptive reproduction system in case of female?
1.) What other strategies are being done? Can I help further?
2.) What is happening? Has Tirek attacked? Is Starlight reformed?
3.) On average, how many times can I do this before I can't anymore?
4.) When and why must I be transformed. Not a deal breaker but I'd like to know why I am to give up thumb twiddling and bacon.
5.) Can I see my children?
7743278 Ooooh the mirror pool! I like that!
Wouldn't trust Discord.
Aha. So it has been basically a whole generation since the sterilization. This means every foal is not their father's.
I wonder if this is all kept such a secret that the mothers are basically lying en masse to their husbands.
A good source for a question!
It looks like everyone's burning question appears to be why did she do what she did. And I agree.
So, 1. Why did you change your ponies a couple decades ago?
2. Did your original desire succeed? Are ponies "better" in the way you wanted them to be?
(I am stating this neutrally but it's actually rather outraging that Celestia would be so careless, especially that it came from a desire to control her ponies more.)
3. If as it is implied, every child younger than the main six is not their father's, do the fathers know? Is this a big problem with marriages?
Fridge logic: the reason why we don't see any adolescent ponies is primarily because the stud program hadn't started yet, so there would only be ponies between young adult (main six) age and child if there were exceptions to the sterilization or magical experiments.
7743598 A die or pair of dice (die is the singular form of dice) that has an infinite number of sides would be a sphere. So many sides, it becomes round, a sphere, and yet a sphere has but one side. There is one question:
What is the question?
In fact, I ask it to everyone here. Let's see if they know.
I would like to know what happened or was happening that made Celestia think she had to cast a spell and what did she hope the spell was supposed to do? Off the record, I would like to know how herding works in Equestria but I doubt that would be something you would ask. Also, when in the series are we? Or is this years after the show?
Question:
(Background below; other, more obvious questions had already been suggested multiple times.)
Last chapter:
This chapter:
She had known when was the correct time to appear...
So she did pry!!!
You probably forgot a letter here.
More thoughts incoming:
Since we are dealing with Princess Celestia, or at least a Princess Celestia we can operate on a couple of solid assumptions.
First, she has the best intentions for her little ponies at heart.
The tricky part is knowing what she feels is best for her little ponies. There is evidence to infer that she has been observing our every action since we arrived. That speaks to a cool and calculating pragmatism.
Second, she is the elder statesman, and by extension we are little more than a newly born foal yet to shake the horsefeathers from our hooves, in comparison.
Every question we ask is giving her at least as much, if not more, information about us as she is sharing in her responses. Our responses to her answers are also imparting information. We are way out of our depth here and vulnerable to being manipulated by a master.
My original thought to attempt to match her quid pro quo and pump her for information was predicated on her being Molly or a variant. That game is off now, so be calm, honest and as non-threatening as an extraplanar being with far too much intimate knowledge about Equestrian affairs can be and hope you/we are not deemed a clear and present danger to her little ponies. That cannot possibly end well for us.
I'm deeply sorry if this is way too much political intrigue for what is meant to be a clopfic. I can't just turn off my little brain sometimes.
Are the pones the only species affected by the crisis, or are other species affected too?
What is the status of Equestrias villains from Discord to the Dazzlings?
What is the state of the Mirror world, it was mentioned their facing the same crisis?
Maybe bring up the Dazzlings in particular. They just ran off in canon, so their still running free. That could become a problem later on if not addressed.
7743838
"Horn dog" is a colloquial term for a lusty/lascivious individual, usually a male.
7743838 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/horndog
7743866 This pandora box was thrown open a while back :D Y'all coulda just banged some mares and not asked questions, but nooooo.
7743877 The mirror world was noted as being a failure as a source of studs/mares, but wasn't otherwise noted as being in crisis.
7743667
I don't know the question, but the answer is 42.
7743881
That's why I said probably, and not definitely.
But I know someone who can answer that question.
Edit:
He already answered while I was writing this comment... (7743886)
Edit 2:
But even then: wouldn't it be one single word?
7743903
No worries, just trying to be helpful and waste a few minutes during office hours. No hard feelings, I hope?
7743946
Of course.
In fact: I was worried you may have hard feelings from my reaction.
Good to know everything is setteled, so we can think of new questions to ask Celestia.
1... What did you do?
2... What about zebras and donkeys?
3... Any ancient magic amulets just laying around?
4... Have you tried asking Daring Do? Seems like the perfect reason to find that 'mythical' fertility statue that every culture seems to have.
5... Alicorn amulet+Discord personality flip = highest level unicorn spells... Like duplication magic...
6... Magic 15 minute trip to a random furry convention?
7... Poison joke?
8... Chrysalis doesn't seem to have been affected... Changeling magic/biology?
9... Can humans learn/do magic other than this spooge spell?
10... What about the magic mirror pool for the pregnant moms? Poof the copy moms, adopt out the clone foals as a stopgap?
11... Why won't you (Celestia) answer a straight question until pushed?
12... Gender flip spell on 'expended studs' who chose to become fertile mares?
13... What about Cadence and Chrysalis working together? Princess of love...crystal heart...parasite Queen with a vested interest and an ex who wants her gone?
14... Magic flora... Positively everything there has some history... Any magic power up beans or whatnot?
15... Orbital friendship cannon?
16... Horrible idea, but musical flash mob to that one NIN song we all know?
17... Is Princess Luminace a name you recognize?
7743960
"Eight hundred years of unrelenting (mares in) heat!"
18... Time travel with an upgraded alicorn level version of Twilight's failsafe spell?
7743976
Priceless response. You, sir, win the internet
And, on a related note...
19... Has she considered the careful application of a 'curse' with the right outcome? (Suggest asking Spike or Big Mac for creative curse ideas)
7743897 42!?!
(click the link, CLICK IT!!)
7743667 A sphere has 2 sides, the inside and the outside. ( you never stated if it was a solid )