Twilight - September 19th, 2028
Rainbow Falls - Mirror Equestria
“Well? Come on, time’s wasting!” Pine said as the rest of us stared at him in a mixture of surprise and shock.
He stood there, in an adventurer’s get up, looking for all the world like a male Daring Do about to do battle with a hoard of River Tribe warriors. To me, his age made him even more scary. It said ‘I’m experienced enough to see any trick you pull coming a dozen kilometers away’.
But to Sunset…
“Uh, s-sir,” she said as politely as she could manage. “Don’t you think you’re a little old for-”
“Oh, this is young people only? Cool, I’ll stay here with Grandpa Badass,” Chrysalis interrupted sarcastically.
“You don’t count! You don’t age like we do,” Sunset countered immediately. “He’s what, sixty five? Seventy? That’s ancient for a human, Twilight. Like, that’s a Pony’s two-eighty.”
I felt my eyes widen in horror. They live less than a century!? How they hay do they ever get anything done?
“How old are you, then?” Pine asked Chrysalis's, crossing his arms critically. “I’d guess but you bugs have an unfair advantage, don’t you, nineteen seventy nine era. So- No, uh, Si… Lead actress from Alien.”
I turned to look at Chrysalis in time to see her beam Pine a huge grin. “Not as old as you, old timer. But close. And it’s Chrysalis,” she replied.
Sunset frowned sharply. “He’s still really old and-”
“Will lay you out cold if you tell me I can’t save my grandkid from sadists,” Pine threatened, eyes narrowing into a death glare.
It worked. Sunset gulped and stood up. “Um, o-okay then, s-sir!”
“That’s right, Sun. Don’t fuck with old folks,” Chrysalis laughed before nodding to Pine and pointing to Sunset and Nova in turn. “That’s Sunset, and that’s her mate Nova. Sun’s our DPS, Nova’s our shield wall, I’m our tank. What can you do?”
“Shield wall?” Pine asked in unison with me.
“I‘ve got a ton of shield projecting items,” Nova informed with a nervous demeanor. “I provide cover and ‘armor’.”
Pine nodded. “Right so then, pardon the old here, Chrys carries the big guns and draws all the fire, you provide protection, and Sun attacks targets of opportunity. You’ve got a second opportunist now. What can Twilight and Jade do?”
“Um, I can’t cast spells… So I guess I can help carry Megan out?” I answered with an uncertain frown.
“I’ve got a little adventuring experience, but last time I went on an adventure, she died,” Jade said pointing to Chrysalis.
To my surprise the mirror queen nodded in satisfaction. “You kick her ass?”
“Uh, briefly…” Jade replied with an embarrassed tilt of her head.
I cleared my throat. “She um.. She did pretty well until she got a hole punched into her side.”
“Belly,” Jade corrected reflexively, wincing at the memory. “I- I’m not experienced. Twilight and I should hang back and help Megan out. I don’t imagine she’s capable of sprinting long distances.”
That was likely the truth. Celestia knew what the poor girl had experienced in there…
“What equipment did you bring?” I asked hoping to push the planning stage along into full gear. “Jade and I have some gadgets but I didn’t think to bring any real weapons. I um, I presumed this would be a peaceful mission. Maybe some light adventuring things but you know, combat free.”
Sunset shook her head slowly. “You know, I never got why Equestrians are mostly like you. You should always bring a weapon. Even if you’re just camping. What if a dire boar decided to eat you while you were camping?”
“I’d telekinetically throw it away from me,” I replied flatly.
Sunset blinked. “Oh yeah… Magic. Right.”
“Chrys is our gear girl too,” Nova said with a smirk. “She’s got the BEST spell for that!”
“I do!” She cackled in response. “I invented this as a young bug. At a time when the best it could do was make a stick work like a spear. But now? Oh man… A spell which makes a thing which resembles something else work like the thing it resembles is the fucking best!”
Chrysalis swept a duffle bag off her shoulder and set it down, opening it before taking two plastic guns from her bag. The only way I could tell that they were guns through their extreme sci-fi appearance was thanks to having seen Sky’s hoof held weapon designs.
“Those are plastic toys…” Pine said slowly.
Chrysalis nodded, her eyes burning green for a moment as her magic’s glow engulfed the two toy guns, sinking into them like water into a sponge. The spell itself looked rather interesting visually, I’d never seen that aura effect before. I frowned, wishing I had my arcane senses so I could analyze the spell itself.
My train of thought derailed as Chrys fired a shot from each weapon into the dirt beside her. The twin blue-white plumes of fire and spray of each seeming to happen the very instant each weapon unleashed an ear shattering boom.
“Sure are! Magic, am I right?” Chrys laughed, holding out one of the two guns to Jade, and one to me. “Now then, you get an N7-Eagle, and you get an N7-Eagle! Don't fire too often or it will overheat, aside from that there is no ammo limits or reloading. That’s why I love Mass Effect cosplay weapons. The spell wears off in three hours. So um, let’s not take three hours.”
I took the weapon uneasily, not really wanting to have to use it. But I would. When I had to.
“That sort of spell has to take a lot of energy to cast,” I said as I inspected the still plastic but now working weapon before trying to find a place to put it, and discovering it sort of magnetized to my non-magnetic belt then folded up into a compact form for storage. “Woah! Yeah, um, a lot, a lot!”
“It does. I’ll be dry by the end of this fight,” Chrys grunted as she reached back into the bag, pulling out weapon after weapon. “Best thing about plastic, it’s super lightweight. I can carry a ton of ordinance. Let’s see… M-6 Carnifex, Auto Nine-”
“Where do you even get that many replicas of science fiction weapons? Some hollywood prop-shop?” Pine asked in astonishment as she took out some sort of multi-barreled thing with a motor on it.
“-gatling laser-” Chrysalis continued.
“I bought her a three-dee printer for Christmas,” Nova laughed. “I seriously don’t know why she never thought about that before.”
“Cuz I’m old and that shit is brand new,” Chrys grunted. “Where was I? Oh yeah! Compression phaser rifle, bandoleer of Siphon Grenades-”
“Are you going to use all of that by yourself?” Jade asked, her jaw dropping incredulously at the pile of weapons which was admittedly almost as large as Chrysalis herself.”
“No,” the changeling replied, pulling one more item from the bag. “And one psionic spirit blade.”
The ‘blade’ was more of a mace. Or a club. A short flanged metal tube with bits and bobs stuck to it in an artistic way. With no actual blade to be seen. At all.
What?
“Uh, kid, even I know that one,” Pine said pointing at the tube. “Just call it a Lightsaber.”
Chrysalis venomously shook her head. “Sir, I do not see a lightsaber. That would be copyright infringement. This, is a psionic spirit blade. Totally different.”
Pine gave Chrysalis a baffled look, trying to piece through the oddity of her statement. “But how would they ever-”
“Disney has an arcane legal department,” Sunset answered bitterly. “We’ve had… Incidents.”
I wanted to question that, but Chrysalis cast her spell again, animating each of the models into weapons and passing them out between her group. Nova took the normal looking pistol, Sunset got the compression rifle (which looked very sleek and yet also oddly bulky. The curved design of most of its surfaces giving it that weirdness), while Chrysalis took the ‘spirit blade’, gatling laser, grenades, and the other scifi-looking pistol.
“Okay! So, before I get our ride ready… Can we all agree on a plan of attack?” Chrysalis asked after quickly checking her equipment.
“I know nothing about the facility or the enemy. I’m not qualified to help plan this,” Pine acknowledged.
“I um, I suppose that goes for me too,” I added. “Do you three have a plan? We can follow along.”
Sunset nodded in response. “Yeah. My plan for hitting the place is simple. If we sneak in, we die, because this isn’t a videogame and you won't fool the sensors. If we just attack we get mowed down by the security forces. The plan is we knock the power out with an EMP, blast our way in, and make a beeline for the holding cell. If we stay long, we die. But with the power out, there will be more than enough chaos to get in, get Megan, get out.”
Nova and Chrysalis nodded in agreement.
“Okay,” Pine said with a sage nod. “So… Can your spell make a working nuclear bomb? You’re not doing much more than just flipping the breakers and messing with screens if you are not detonating a nuke. With you know, an EMP range that’s usually smaller than the blast range...”
“Uh, no. That’s a bit too much of an energy release,” Chrysalis admitted with a sad sigh. “I ALMOST got a Fatman to work but a true nuclear explosion is beyond the spell’s limits.”
“Then how are you making an EMP that will affect more than say, a few feet of space? They are not the ‘instant all tech on the planet is off now’ buttons that most people think they are,” Pine grumbled irritably. “Stupid conspiracy crap…”
Sunset blinked. “Um, sir… Magic,” she answered, doing her best to hold in a laugh.
“Right. You’re talking to a wizard, you know,” Chrysalis replied as she set down the other bag and opened it. “Annnd here goes the rest of my magic for a day or so.”
Inside the bag was a little metal model truck. It was ugly as sin.
The front was bulbous, rounded, and made of sleek curves. The back was flat, squarish, blocky, and screamed military. Like someone had accidentally driven a designer car Rarity made into the front of a big military truck. It had narrow slits for windows, a big grill on the front along with about eight different headlights, six tires, and a odd cylindrical thing on top which jutted up out of nowhere.
“... Ew,” I exclaimed with a wince.
“You hush your mouth! That’s a goddamn Herkimer Battle Jitney, THE finest military vehicle ever made!” Pine exclaimed, honestly upset with me. “Can your magic make it work? Actually work?”
“Yep! It’s sort of the vehicle we use for this kinda thing, I can even make it full sized,” Chrys said proudly.
“That includes the prototype EMP generator which was never actually finished in reality,” Sunset added with a wink.
“Yes! I haven’t gotten to ride in one of these girls since nineteen seventy four. That’s going to be our in and out, isn’t it? You know these babies can plow right through a reinforced concrete wall?” Pine exclaimed with an almost geeky grin plastered on his face.
“That’s the plan,” Chrysalis said as her eyes once more began to glow as she drew upon her magic.
I didn’t like that plan…
“Um, we’re going to hit a wall at high speed, that seems like a bad idea,” I pointed out, my lips pulling into a nervous frown.
“It’s fine, trust me,” Pine, Sunset, and Nova said in unison.
“I, um, I’m kinda with Twilight on this one,” Jade said worriedly.
Chrysalis picked up the truck, casting her animation spell on it before suddenly throwing the thing away from herself, and tossing a bolt of magic after it. The bolt slammed home into the truck, which grew midair, hitting the ground at four times its original size before swelling to the size of a small house.
“Oh. Nevermind! That looks like it could take out a wall,” Jade said with a decisive nod.
Yeah, but you could still be thrown around INSIDE a vehicle…
“You look worried, Twilight,” Sunset said, looking at me with an apologetic frown.
“I am. Quite a bit, actually,” I admitted, returning her look with one of my own, pleading for her to do or say anything to help.
“Twilight, it will be fine,” Sunset replied, giving me one of her big smiles. “Little raids like this have become kinda routine. We’ve got this.”
The Herkimer’s three diesel engines roared like three dragons fighting over a mate made out of solid gold. The seat dug into my back. Sunset continued to pull back the odd stick-throttle-thing. I could just barely see the asylum up ahead through the slit window. We seemed to be racing straight down a row of other vehicles towards a small structure next to the main building… Some kind of dowards ramp. An underground parking area perhaps?
“Nova, thirty seconds. Hoist the colors,” Sunset said, not taking her eyes off the parking lot ahead.
Hoist the colors? Why would raising a flag help?
Nova reached up above his seat and flicked a switch. Even over the engine’s roar I could hear loud, big band music, start blaring, a triumphant militaristic tune which reminded me a lot of the Wonderbolts anthem.
“Really?” Pine asked Nova flatly.
“Hey, we’re basically the same thing,” Nova objected. “Besides, it’s psychological warfare.”
The truck lurched, tipping as it moved down the ramp and was plunged into darkness. The dimly lit area below was most certainly a parking structure of some kind, but I didn’t get a chance to examine it in any detail as we lumbered across the chamber towards a super strong looking concrete wall.
I gripped my seat’s armrests, knuckles turning white as I ducked my head down to avoid smashing it open on any one of a dozen protruding boxy consoles. My frightened whimper lost amongst the screaming roar of the engines.
“Should we knock, or just let ourselves in?" Chrys asked sarcastically with a hearty guffaw.
In one single motion, we exploded into and through the wall. The sound of shattering concrete and creaking metal echoed over the blaring music and even the engine’s screams. My body shook with a single sharp jolt, as if I’d flopped out of bed and onto the floor.
That was it. No deadly punch to the guts. No cabin crumpling in like a packet of hay fries underhoof.
“Oh,” I said in shocked relief, peaking out from my curled up position.
“It’s a military troop transport, Twilight,” Sunset said supportingly. “It was always okay… But outside is not okay at all now. Chry-”
“Done!” The changeling exclaimed as she flipped another switch.
I’d expected a hum, a crackle, a pulse of light. Instead, nothing. Absolutely nothing. She flicked a switch. The seconds ticked by.
“Uh, does it take time to warm up?” I asked hesitantly.
“Yep. Just wait for it, it’ll happen before those security guys get back up,” Nova said as he squinted out of the front view-slit.
“When do you put the shields up?” Pine asked as he got up and walked for the back of the vehicle, to it’s sole entrance.
Which was a ramp. For some reason. This thing was so stupid looking!
But I have to admit, it did work.
“Soon as-” Nova began, only to be interrupted by a loud click and slight static buzzing as every last light outside of the truck was snuffed out.
“-now!” He corrected, turning around and rushing to the back of the truck, touching each of us along the way with a pale purple glowing hand.
I felt the spell take hold. It was crude, but very robust and durable. My own shield spells protected against almost everything, and as such were intricately designed with layers and layers. This thing would only stop physical attacks, but could take a real beating.
“Nice shield,” I complemnted.
“You’re welcome, don’t get shot. It’s just protection, not invulnerability,” Nova said firmly as he pulled the lever to drop the ramp down, immediately making a gesture with his hand and conjuring a flat, hardlight panel in front of the ramp.
Chrysalis hopped out of her seat, snatched up her bulky weapon and edged her way around Pine. “I’ve got point, old timer,” she said in a surprisingly polite way for her word choice.
“Chrys, stop it. You said you knew Alexander the Great. You’re WAY older than he is,” Sunset mumbled irritably.
“Um, no. I WAS Alexander the Great. That was a fun century,” Chrys rebutted with a wistful smile.
“Yeah, right. You may be that old but there’s no way you were him,” Nova laughed. “Come on girls, focus on the mission. We can playfully joke about who Chrys has been later.”
“Have you been anyone relevant to helping us out here?” Pine asked as Nova pushed his shield wall out and slipped into the room.
I got up, letting Jade go first as we took a position behind their group.
“Well, I was able to prove to these two that I was Jack Churchill,” Chrysalis commented.
“Okay, now THAT I call bull on,” Pine laughed good naturedly. “But I think you know how you can prove it.”
Chrys laughed, nodded, and then hefted her bulky weapon and vanished around the corner of the truck. A rapid flurry of shrieking thuds and red glow lit the parking lot up brightly for half a second.
“Oi! You two! Fuck off or die!” Chrys ordered.
I slipped out of the truck just as two unarmed guys in cloth security guard uniforms went sprinting out through the hole in the wall towards the dim moonlit ramp.
Sunset waited for them to leave then aimed her weapon down at the floor, tapping a few little buttons on the top then firing a bright orange ray of light in a cone shape into the floor. The weapon screeched, quickly melting a hole through the floor big enough to drop through.
“What the hay!?” I exclaimed eyes widening. “Why didn’t you just arm everypony with those?”
“She uses it because it’s similar to a spellbolt and can replicate attack spells. I use this because it is cool,” Chrys explained hefting her weapon up before dropping through the hole.
I blinked, completely stunned. What do you even say to that?
“It’s a gatling gun that shoots lasers, Twilight,” Nova said gently resting a hand on my shoulder. “Chryssie there is more like a human than any one of you, is all.”
Sunset and Nova dropped through the hole as Pine spoke. A moment later, another flurry of screeching thuds broke out, the hold flashed red like a tartarian fire burned within it.
“Clear!” Chrys called, the room lighting up a dim white from what I guessed was a single flashlight.
“No it’s not, they ran off,” Nova countered.
“They saw their buddy. They are not coming back,” she grunted. “Come on you three! Speed is key!”
Pine walked over to the hole and lowered himself down slowly, dropping down with a slightly pained grunt. Jade dropped down next, leaving me up at the top. It occurred to me that somepony should stay and make sure the truck was useful for an escape.
But we could all be needed down below…
“Hold on!” I called reaching into my own bag and rummaging around for a warding plate. Taking the small brass plate from my bag I brushed a finger along the etched in runes, making sure they began to glow white, then set the plate down on the truck’s ramp.
There! Now anyone but me who set foot near the truck’s entrance would fall asleep.
“Okay, I trapped the truck ramp so they can’t take it from us. I have to be the first one back on it!” I warned as I dropped through the hatch.
“Good thinking, Twi!” Sunset praised as I dropped into a pile of white ash. “Oh right! Don’t shoot at anyone not in black body armor unless they attack you. That gun you have doesn't have a stun setting like this thing.”
I blinked as I noticed Sunset was stooped over, rummaging through the ash pile. How had this happened? Wouldn’t someone have swept up? Did a gust come down a fireplace or someone knock over a document disposal bin?
“Wait, we’re using less than lethal ordnance?” Pine asked in surprise as the group headed for the door on the far side of this small office we’d dropped into.
“She is,” Chrys grunted leaning out into the hallway, looking both ways. “I prefer to never have the same problem twice.”
“The third one had an ID,” Sunset said standing up with a small plastic card held in one hand. “Annnd…. Yes! We have clearance for the holding cells.”
I raised an eyebrow subconsciously, Sunset noticed my look and smiled. “Yeah yeah, convenience, probably a trap. It’s a Level 3 clearance card. Holding cells need a Level 3 clearance rating, meaning this accesses them in addition to other things.”
“Oh,” I said with a relieved nod. “It would have been really weird to just happen on a card someone dropped specifically for-”
“Moving on, speed, elevator is forty meters,” Chrysalis said as she and Nova slipped into the hallway, the light moving with them making me notice that the flashlight was attached just under Chrys’s weapon’s barrels.
“No, fifty meters,” Sunset corrected.
“Eh, not much of a problem. Twilight, watch our backs,” Chrys ordered.
I moved out into the hall, doing my best to peer into the dark hallway behind us. Pine joined me, walking backwards oddly enough, keeping his shotgun in his hands as he backed down the hall.
“You’ve done this before, haven't you?” I asked nervously.
“Yes. I’ve gone through a lot to get the recipes I have. If I was more of an egotist, I could likely do the Daring Doo thing and publish my adventures as fiction,” he said slowing down at the end before stopping and cupping a hand to his ear.
“Hey,” Pine asked. “Do you hear metal crumpling?”
“No,” Sunset replied. “Wh-”
“Freeze!” Someone shouted from behind me.
I froze. The hallway blazed red as Chrysalis fired.
“Laser beats ice,” she quipped casually.
I didn’t especially like killing. But sometimes it was necessary. The real question was how justified had this particular-
The BUCK was I thinking!? Twilight, you’re on a life or death mission inside a facility containing an evil, anti-mage army. It’s justified.
“Elevator ahead,” Sunset called. “Left side.”
We moved forwards at a fast walk, arriving at a pair of steel sliding doors just as the hallway lit up with a dim red light, and an intercom system crackled.
“Backup power to the sub facility has been restored,” the voice informed. “All B-class personnel are to begin a full inventory of currently contained subjects. Security teams, begin a full sweep for the intrud-
“Security! Belay the sweep! X-Ninety Eight has broken containment, repeat, X-Ninety Eight has broken containment! All security teams to floor S-Eight, ignore the intruders unless they move to floor S-Eight. Return X-Ninety Eight to her dampening chamber immediately. Deadly force is authorised… If that’s possible.”
“Yep,” Pine said to himself with a knowing look in his eyes. “Not the magic button everyone hopes for. They’ll likely finish power cycling the main system soon.”
Chrysalis nodded. “Mhm, but smaller stuff could be permanently fried. And more importantly it will take them a while to get the real security systems back up and running.”
Nova flashed the old man a grin. “We know it’s not a ‘magic no tech anymore button’. We’ve used it before. There’s going to be a lot of business at the apple store tomorrow, but that’s about it. It’s really just the twenty minutes or so it takes to get the power back on that we need.”
Sunset quickly swiped the ID card in a small reader next to the elevators. After a moment they hissed open.
“So um, that could be Megan,” Jade pointed out.
“Mhm,” Nova agreed. “As I recall, that floor is the holding cells. Is that right Sunset?”
“Yeah,” she agreed as she stepped into the elevator. “Too bad we’re not going after the talisman anymore. With security on that floor, getting it would be cake.”
The elevator doors hissed shut behind me as I stepped inside. Sunset quickly swiped the card again and hit one of the buttons, the car shook slightly, beginning to slowly descend.
“How many places like this have you broken into?” Pine asked suspiciously.
“Six,” Nova answered. “We’ve also had some skirmishes with their field agents while trying to retrieve things.”
“All their bases have a standard layout and security clearance system,” Chrysalis sighed. “Honestly, if there weren't so many god damn troopers in these places, I could likely do a little raid like this by myself.”
“They are correct. Sunset’s Crew has breached six of our facilities,” a voice crackled over the intercom.
“Shit!” Chrysalis swore, reaching down for the blade on her belt. “I’ll cut a hole out for us!”
“No need for that,” the voice urged. “The director has asked me to negotiate with you. If we wanted you dead, I could have detonated the car the moment I saw you walk into it on the cameras.”
“Then what do you want?” Sunset asked, eyes narrowing in disgust.
“You are very skilled agents. That’s all which is keeping you alive, the hopes you can one day understand that our organization is a necessary evil,” the voice informed flatly. “You have never broken into one of our containment facilities before. You don’t know what we imprison here.”
“I know you’re imprisoning my granddaughter! What did she ever do to you?” Pine demanded angrily.
“... Ah! Pine WIlliams. Fairly shocking someone as old as you has a Facebook page,” the voice mused. “Ah, Megan Williams. X-Four Seven Six. Is that who you’re after?”
“What’s it to you, murderer?” Chrysalis snapped.
I flinched. They were willing to negotiate! I gave Chrysalis a pleading look, begging her not to mess this up with my gaze.
“You are heading down to floor S-Eight,” the voice resumed. “One of the most dangerous things on this planet has broken free of their containment. If they get loose, thousands, if not millions, will die. Their escape will most certainly allow other things located here to break containment.
“Some items housed within this facility are capable of causing mass destruction on a continental scale. One item is capable of causing mass destruction on a global scale. Presuming that ‘Ripply’ there is a Changeling, you may be interested to know that a blood sacrifice of five hundred of your people was necessary to prevent X-Two from boiling the atmosphere off the planet. That is the kind of things we secure and contain.”
“If I had any reason to believe you, your words might affect me,” Chrysalis spat. “You and your fuckstains ripped out my mother’s eyes in front of me.”
“I’m certain you would do the same thing to my mother if it was the only way to appease a literal diabolus ex machina which can not be destroyed by currently known means,” the voice said adamantly. “And unlike you, I would thank you for the five hundred years of time I’d just bought the entire planet. Honestly, what else can you do when a misanthropic, unregistered enchanter creates a living doomsday device that you can’t take apart or destroy safely, but can only keep it happy until it can be destroyed?
“As for our offer, since a full breach of containment would be catastrophic, this facility has primed its self destruct. The device in question is nuclear to ensure nothing short of Omega Class threats survive. Detonating it is an absolute last resort, we do not want a nuclear detonation on this nation’s soil. Especially not with the current President.
“If you do not interfere with our security personnel's attempts to recapture X-Ninety Eight, we are willing to allow you to leave unharmed and provide a cash payment of seventeen million dollars.”
Sunset laughed. “Hey, that sounds great and if we were on our own, we’d take it. Thing is, see, this old guy’s hired us to get his granddaughter away from you guys. Sorry. But a deal is a deal.”
“Yeah,” Nova agreed. “Unlike you assholes, we actually KEEP promises.”
“Standby,” the voice instructed.
“We’re not taking that deal. We can get out of here on our own, and they know it,” Chrysalis said in satisfaction. “Whoever they are trying to contain has them scared… Maybe we can walk out of here with your toy too, Sun.”
“Let's not push our luck,” Sunset urged.
I nodded twice. “There’s no room for error here, Celestia needs Megan’s help. There’s no other option,” I reminded everyone.
“Wait, you need her help?” Pine asked in surprise. “With what?”
Oh. Um… Crap!
I thought I’d explained it to him.
The intercom crackled again. “The director has authorized the release of X-Four Seven Six, should you assist in destroying or capturing X-Ninety Eight. It would be a small price to pay since X-Four Seven Six isn’t hostile-”
I felt something snap in my heart. “You admit that somepony isn’t a threat and yet you’re keeping them imprisoned underground forever!?! You really ARE monsters!” I shouted.
“Subject X-Four Seven Six is capable of lucid dreaming and altering reality itself. If she so desired, she could potentially replace every president of every nation with identical bonobo chimps and no one alive would notice the change. She could easily cause mass chaos on a global scale and therefore must be contained,” the voice sighed wearily. “Do you guys have any idea how many things are out there that could end civilization, destroy all life, or otherwise cause massive and serious damage to us all?
“I do. Thirteen thousand nine hundred and twenty seven, as of this morning. Our methods are cruel sometimes, and even evil other times, but you’re alive in a non-apocalyptic hellscape because of us. Eight times over, in fact. Now will you take our offer or do I detonate your car?”
Oh. Right. He’d said they could do that…
Take a deal with an apparently untrustworthy person, and gain time to escape, or die now? The choice seemed fairly obvious. But given how hostile Sunset and her friends were to these people...
I looked around the car at everyone, searching for some kind of clue as to how they might react.
Pine’s experienced eyes were scanning over the interior of the still descending car, searching for something. Sunset’s hands were behind her back, likely moving to activate a spell stored in her enchanted gloves. Nova seemed ready to put a shield around everyone. Chrysalis… She was unreadable.
It seemed likely we could escape this elevator. But I remembered one small thing.
Nukes. Are. Terrifying.
Someone who would sacrifice changelings to appease a god would use one of those bombs for certain. There was no question. We had to try and stop the thing.
“We accept!” I said as quickly as I could.
Everyone turned to look at me in shock.
“Twilight! Why?” Sunset demanded.
“Because even a small nuke will kill everyone in this town and poison a huge section of your world for decades,” I answered in my best imitation of Dash’s ‘no shit’ tone of voice. “I stopped Tirek, I can stop this thing.”
“You did that when you had magic!” Jade countered immediately. “You don’t have any magic here. And didn’t you have the full power of the other Princesses at the time too?”
I nodded. “Yes, I did. But I actually am more powerful on my own now then I was then. I kinda grew into power… Still am too. But that makes sense as, you know, I’m the alicorn Princess of Magic.”
“I thought it was friendship,” Nova said with a confused frown. “Sun, didn’t you say-”
“Friendship is magic. Equivalence Principle. It’s a Thaumaturgical Physics thing,” I interrupted, moving to the next phase of my plan. “Hey, mister mysterious voice, man? I’ve had magic here before, specifically in Ponyville. I know it’s possible, and I know that Sunset believes you can control who has magic here. If you want us to stop the thing, give me my magic. It won't have to be for long, five minutes will be plenty.”
“Standby,” the voice replied after a moment’s hesitation.
“What are you doing?” Sunset hissed urgently.
“Solving a problem. Saving lives. My job, really,” I replied with a slight grin.
Nova smirked. “Hon, you did describe Twilight to me by saying, ‘She’s basically fantasy Commander Shepard’. This is a total paragon move,” he quipped.
I noticed that while joking, he moved slightly, flicking a few copper studs on his belt, which caused a little ark of magical energy to race around the buckle. Good, he was still working on getting a shield spell working.
The intercom crackled again, this time, a different deeper voice spoke. “I am this facility’s director. Our systems indicate that you are a wizard of extreme power. Enough to where we would under normal circumstances, be monitoring you to ascertain your threat level. But under these circumstances, you can prove yourself to not be hostile here and now.
“We are not capable of lowering the dampening field. We don’t house the local generator. We can provide you with one of the rings our spellcasters use to get around the thaumaturgic dampening field. You may have it on the condition that if you use magic in any respect other than to stop X-Ninety Eight and leave this facility, we will attack you immediately. The ring is capable of being remotely used to destroy the user.
“The ring is also tracked. You are to bury it as soon as you leave, should you accept. If not, you will have to try and take X-Ninety Eight down with your mundane equipment.”
“How fast can I get one of these rings?” I asked carefully.
“One of our mages on the floor will give you theirs. Or you can pick one off a corpse. There’s quite a few down there to choose from,” the director remarked in a hollow voice.
“Oh, so you guys care about your own lives but not my people’s? We can live in harmony, you know. We’re more symbiotic than parasitic,” she snapped.
“Morality and ethics are not as simple as you seem to think they are, Chrysalis of Sapphire,” the director said coldly. “Unknown mage, do you accept the offer or not?”
“I accept,” I answered quickly.
I need to get away from here. I had to get away from here. If it was a trick, everyone else could save me, if it wasn’t, I could finish this whole mission and go home now.
“Excellent. Good luck,” the director replied as the intercom buzzed once more.
The elevator doors dinged open. The flat gray, steel corridor outside looked dark, dismal, and smelled bad. REALLY bad. Gunfire echoed maddeningly in the corridor, so much that you could smell the burnt powder as well as a really disgusting coppery-ironish scent that made your nose just burn.
Pine took a reflexive step backwards. “Something spilled a LOT of blood!” He exclaimed worriedly.
“That would be X-Ninety Eight,” the director informed over the intercom. “She is exceptionally violent, needlessly brutal, and has been comatose for six decades. You can understand why she's even more enraged than her baseline state… Ah yes, here comes your ring now.”
I blinked in surprise. “You kept her contained by keeping her asleep?”
“Yes,” he replied. “We’ve tried extermination, but even if totally incinerated, she revives and respawns at the site of her death. This is the only means of removing her from the world.
“The power failure you orchestrated interrupted a routine medical examination, resulting in a nurse jabbing her with a syringe of adrenaline in fright. X-Ninety Eight is immune to projectiles, short of overwhelming firepower, hence our inability to tranquilize-”
“Thank you. I just needed to know if that approach worked or not,” I interrupted.
Plan formed. This was going to be easier than I thought.
“It might be best to give you something of a strategy,” the director decided. “If you get within thirty meters of her person, she will rip you to pieces. This makes melee attacks unadvisable. Utilizing spellcraft, I would imagine you could shield yourself and approach close enough to strangle her into unconsciousness.
“We originally captured her using a similar method, only we ambushed her during a rest period. She has been able to resist magical attacks by swatting away arcane projectiles with a ve-”
A short man, or maybe woman, in a set of black robes sprinted around a nearby corner, panting uncontrollably. Before I could even hope to say anything the robed person ripped a small silver signet ring off their finger, and threw it at me while forcing their way into the elevator.
I eeped and fumbled for the ring, barely catching it before it fell down between the crack in the elevator doors.
“GET OUT SO I CAN GO UP!” The mage demanded in almost total panic.
I nodded and stepped out of the Elevator. I immediately regretted it.
To my right I could see down the corridor the mage had come from. A solid line of black armored guards were pouring continuous fire from their rifles down the corridor. Two of their barrels were actually glowing red hot, a thing I was very certain barrels were not supposed to do. The terrifying volume of fire was made possible by two lines of guards behind the first row who were doing nothing but passing large drums containing what had to be more bullets forwards to the shooters every time they ran out of bullets.
You could see an almost solid carpet of used shells going all the way down the hallway. A carpet on which a pale white, emaciated, naked woman slowly shambled, dull pink hair sticking out from a helmet I assumed was meant to blind her, but had a chunk of metal simply ripped away to form an eyehole.
Just one eye hole. Through which starred a red eye, it’s pinprick pupal expressing an extreme hatred of all which lived. The same look Tirek had given me.
I hesitated, fear flashing through my mind as I looked into her eye and realized that the bullets fired at her were simply stopping in the air, collecting into a small ball of lead, and then dropping to the ground.
She suddenly screamed, her rage muffled by the remaining bits of helmet as she launched forwards. One of the shooters screamed in pain even though she’d only lept a few meters. I gasped in horror as the soldier's left arm ripped free from his body to go flying down the corridor… While the rest of him flew in different directions.
My stomach churned, only fear of my own death preventing me from vomiting at the sight of someone literally exploding into a pink mist.
I nervously jammed the ring onto my finger as our team exploded into chaos. Chrysalis fired her weapon down the corridor, Nova erected a shield in front of the shoulders, his jacket catching fire as the enchanted components almost immediately overheated from stress. Pine added his shotgun pellets to the wall of lead.
I felt magic rush into me. I’d never noticed the feeling of it being gone before. Not as a human. Not here.
The shadows dimmed, colors popped, smells became more intense. I could feel the layers of magical protection which the woman had wrapped herself with in a primal, animalistic fashion. I could feel the power at my fingertips. A weird sensation for somepony who normally cast through their horn. I could also feel that this body was NOT meant to contain this much power.
I was literally so powerful that I was burning up. I had better expend some of that power.
A lot of it, in fact.
I looked back at the raging monster of a woman as she screamed, telekinetic blows smashing against Nova’s crumbling forcefield. I gathered all the power I felt would fit into one spell, focused my mind on that one single action of pushing the magic into my hand, pointed at her and released the spell with a cry of, “Sleep!”
My spell engulfed her in a blaze of of lavender magic as my spell clashed with her protective wards. If I couldn’t over power her-
My eyes widened as I felt the arcane protections around her crumble to nothing under my spell’s assault, and she simply fell to the ground like a sack of bricks, completely comatose.
Huh… Well, looks like humans had inherently less magical strength than a pony. Good to know.
While I stood there dumbfounded that the monster had gone down that easily the wall of soldiers spun around, clearly terrified of whatever lurked behind them. Realizing I was still in danger I raised one hand to wave.
“Hi! I’m Twilight Sparkle. We’re here to take Megan Williams home,” I said with a friendly but shaky smile.
I could still see that poor man explode in my mind’s eye…
That was going to be there for a while.
“You guys know her as Subject X-Four Seven Six,” Pine added, staring down the group, shotgun held ready.
“U-Um…” One of the soldiers stammered, his worried frown visible behind his riot helmet’s tinted visor.
Chrysalis reached down to her belt and stanched the saber off of it, a bright crimson energy blade springing to life with a snap-hiss as she sneered. “These assholes never follow through on a bargain… But they could start with this one. If they were smart,” she growled angrily.
The nervous soldier let go of his rifle, letting it swing on the strap to rest at his side.
“Let me just get that for you,” he said holding up one hand nervously.
I’d expected a gentleman in distress scenario, storm the castle, break into the room, collect the poor stallion and escape together on hoof. Uh, foot.
No. That wasn’t remotely what we got. Five minutes after the guard left to collect Megan, we had been handed a blanket wrapped bundle. The poor girl had been drugged to prevent her from dreaming, for a long long time.
She needed real medical care to recover at this point in time. She was conscious, we could tell since her eyes would focus on things, but she couldn’t move. Her ‘cell’ had apparently been a room big enough for one bed.
Pine held Megan’s limp form in his arms. You could see her pale, diseased looking face and a lock of blond hair through the coarse woolen blanket trap. I think it was the only thing keeping him from breaking the neck every last person in the building. I wasn’t even a changeling and yet I could feel the hatred boiling off him. A father's hatred.
He may not be her biological father, but it didn’t matter. Not in the slightest.
“You’re going to tell me exactly how to undo what you’ve done ot her. In the highest level of detail possible,” Pine said to the soldier who had handed her to him, eyes narrowed with deadly intent.
“I-I’m just a soldier! I don’t even know what they give them, it’s classified!” He yelped.
“Then who does know?” Pine asked. “And where can they be found at present?”
I took a deep breath. My body REALLY didn’t like having this much magic in it… I’d take off the ring, but i needed to ensure our escape. Which gave me one option.
“Pine, sir? Everyone else here wants to go with Jade and I. And we need to take Megan with us too, just for a little bit,” I informed as politely as I could. “Princess Celestia needs her help fixing a thing Megan made for us a long time ago. It’s very important. My hometown has one of the best doctors anywhere I know of.
“Do you want to have these people try and cure her, or would you rather you and I take Megan to a clinic ran by a doctor who is literally magic?”
Pine nodded slowly, turning to me. “That’s a far better option, Twilight. I trust you’ll get us home once she’s better?”
I nodded. “Yes. If you want to leave. You might like to stay and hey, if an android replica of one of my friends gets to stay, why can a nice old man who will die in another decade or so here but um… In Equestria, well, my brother is almost Seventy two. He’s almost a third of the average life expectancy… So, since species transformations occur through the portals you could become more physically able, due to ponies of your age being towards the end of their prime.”
“Kid, you had me at ‘My little girl isn’t dying’, I don’t also need a fountain of youth. Let's go before I decide to help Chrys here bring heaven’s wrath down on these sadists,” Pine said bitterly.
“I like you, old timer! We’ll get along just fine,” Chrysalis laughed.
I reached into my pocket and dug out the moonstone, holding it ready to plant in the earth on the other side of the teleport. I REALLY couldn’t stay here for much longer!
“Everyone hold onto my shoulder please. I need to teleport us to some place with moonlight,” I informed with a weary sigh.
I was so glad to be headed home.
"JUNK IT!"
So, first of all:
I was listening to Rose at Nightfall while reading this, and I think it was very fitting.
Secondly:
Secure. Contain. Pone.
This Megan rescue arc is really becoming my favorite part of all the storys you have written
All jokes aside, I can't begin to state how proud of Twilight I am, and how well she is finally developing. And before you ask what i mean, I am not just talking about her sexual revolution.
Twilight has always sorta just thrown her magic around. She's smart, yes, and powerful, But as the great Oliver Queen once said, "There's a difference between power and precision.". This is something she has been faulted with for a long time. But look at what she just did. Everyone there was letting their emotions guide them. Pine was pissed to all hell over his granddaughter. Chrys was upset over her people's slaughter. Sunset was mad over the treatment of the magic community. Nova was feeling their anger and also afraid. Jade was kinda outta the way but I am gonna assume she was just straight afraid. But what did Twilight do? She handled shit.
Sure Twi was afraid, but she didn't let that cloud her judgment. She put that big mind of hers to use. She ran the numbers, thought out scenarios, and predicted outcomes. Then she took that knowledge and seized control. She made the smartest choice available, when no one else was emotionally stable enough to do so. She took the lead and got the job done,
For the first time in her life, she understood her power. It wasn't till now, when she felt it come back, and how it overwhelmed her body, did she finally know what she truly was. Then she took all that power and focused it down on her target. Yes, she threw overwhelming power at her enemy. But this time... This time it was focused behind a Plan of Attack, thought out through rational thinking, and executed flawlessly.
She had power, and precision.
This speaks volumes for her character. Sure its only the first steps, but they are monumental steps in the right direction. And I am glad to finally see this day.
Wow just.... wow. Talk about sci if action scene...
Lucy. Motherfucking Lucy. Fuck mages, let the damn evil organization keep our world from being destroyed bytes dint of inhumane actions thank you very much.
Do you know what they need? People that actually know their shit. X-98 could be easily neutralised by Lilly without killing her, if that's what you need. An evil machine of doom? Let the princess of magic have her shot at it. I bet around half of those threats could be done with a treaty with equestria.
One that they could possibly take, after what they just saw. And that the princesses could suggest... I think.
Anyway, yeah, go go Foundation. I like not living in an apocalyptic wasteland. Or, you know, simply living
7939354 I'm glad you like it :) The best part is if we can get a total of ~60k words counting the warm up to that ark, the ark, and the resolution of the ark, you get a whole novel's worth of that storyline ^^
7939370 She was also outside a space Dawn can effect and thus outside of his dominion. That most defiantly helped her along.
7939381 In a good way, or in a bad way?
7939453
There's a moment every young agent experience when the reality of what is needed to safeguard the world from pure chaos sets in. A moment where they understand what being a hero really means. It means willingly becoming morally gray at best so that others can remain clean.
It's more complex then that. They've tried lobotomization, behavior-altering medication, amputation... It's not Lucy exactly. Same species, but almost completely feral, and somehow able to regenerate back to an intact state over time. (SHe's likely cursed)
THat would be to everyone's benifit. They have harmless items and useful items as well. But a possible diplomatic arangment is for another day.
It's a job no one likes after their first asignment, but hats off to the people who can do it. If their organization was public I imagine they would have free beer for life.
Its stupidly scary how much I can definitely see Disney having an arcane legal department.
Aside from that, references and sci-fi everywhere! Whoo!
7939587 The only reason they didn't file a lawsuit over the Micky Mouse like crater formation on Mercury was their legal team couldn't find anyone to sue... No. I'm not joking. The meeting can be found as a public records transcript...
Hey I got to talk outside the comment section! Woot!
Grampa Badass, that is now your official adventure name.
Chrissy, Stop printing every god damn laser gun out there! You can make then real, I think you officially haver the world's biggest nerd dick.
Wait, what song are we playing? Is it this?
Ya Twi, magic means we can lessen internal inertia, I think we would have been plastered on the windshield before now with out it.
Fiiiin, we'll make the 'deal with the devil' so to speak, were in this for you guys after all.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd Cue battle music!
Hey Pine, how about you come with all of us and never come back to the place where your granddaughter gets hurt, also she might be a ligament ruler there, so ya how does a castle room sound?
7939616 Holy balls. That's nuts right there. I mean, damn. I don't even know what to say. And that doesn't happen often.
Somehow the weapons scene reminded me of this.
but I want laser guns too D:
I doubt the ring could actually kill twilight, seeing as she's so powerful
Organizations like that, instead of being secretive, should just tell the world
"hey, we have secured threats X, Y, and Z, they have X amount of potential"
I'd be fucking pissed if any government or organization was holding secrets about things like that.
like, ohay, magic exists, lets suppress it and limit something that could be amazing.
fuck that
seriously
7939453 Exactly! As evil as these guys are, they have deliberately taken that route to safeguard the greater good when they knew of no other options. This organization is a poster child for the Well-Intentioned Extremist trope.
And having gotten a glimpse of the why behind their actions, I cannot imagine Twilight ignoring it. Once the situation back home is dealt with, I'm sure she'll be back to help them learn how to properly deal with the creatures and items they are containing as well as offering aid.
7940035 Their secrecy is actually one of those 'avoid turning the world into an apocalyptic wasteland' reasons. Not sure if it's something spoilery, though, so if Meep wants to elaborate it's her call, but they do have a very good reason.
3D printing plus magic, now there's a great combination.
Interesting.
This Chrysalis is fun. Reminds me a bit of the equinoid world Chrysalis, which lends a bit of evidence to the idea that the original Equestrian one was brain fungused into craziness.
Oh my goodness, it's the SCP Foundation. I suspect that means whatever cultist crap Megan's father was up to, these guys were in no way cooperating or encouraging him outside of trying to control whatever bad shit he might have managed to bring about. Like, for example, misuse of Megan's abilities.
Take this deal, guys. Don't spit in the eye of the Foundation.
Nice.
Dang, 98 went down like a sack of potatoes.
Alternatively, that's just you, Twilight. You aren't exactly a good yardstick for the rest of the normal population.
Time to go home, such as it is. Hopefully the portal won't open up in the middle of Ponyville's previous location.
7939545
So genetic manipulation. If that doesn't work it's a curse, then decurse her (again, equestria) and then modify the genome. They are not willing to kill her, after all. It actually makes some sick sense, keeping her alive to study and be better able to deal with similar threats. Shame they had to get a so insane one.
And good thing they have enough common sense to not trust in anime logic.
On another note, the Director's talk with them is sobering. Specially the part about Chrissy's mother's eyes. Yeah, anyone that truly knows deep down what really means killing one to save seven billions - scratch that, make it all human beings alive AND those to be born during the next five hundred years - would make the same. Because that's not the TRUE choice, the true choice is "do I let untold billions die to keep my conscience clean of the murder of one?". And indeed, being a true hero is saying "No, I won't."
And lastly but not least, Dawn-free Twilight is a damn refreshing thing to see. I wonder, will she realize there's something messing with her when she comes home?
7939844 I may have based her slightly off this guy:
and this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6oEwEtvYt8
7940035
It's actually just filled with a magically compressed 4 pounds of semtex... It could level a small building.
Organizations like that, instead of being secretive, should just tell the world
"hey, we have secured threats X, Y, and Z, they have X amount of potential"
No you wouldn't. Think about this:
"Dude, there's a gangbang tonight at Ronnies."
"Realy?"
"Yeah! Jake finally got that spell he read online to work. She's totally mind fucked dude! It's awesome, and since she's saying yes to everything it's legal."
Humans having magic across the board? More bad shit than good shit would happen.
7940543 I have to agree.
If magic was suddenly revealed as possible to the world, that there was a simple trick to it that prevented most from using it for centuries but is now publicly available and by passable...
Suffice it to say, a lot of bad shit would go down very quickly. Modern human society isn't structured to handle magic in any of its extreme variations, and mind control is just one of them.
Also, Meep, you have a SCP foundation expy in EQG and you don't have 682? Seriously?
Eh, I'm being melodramatic here-it was a good chapter and I did like how you presented everything.
The only thing I have to disagree with is that Twilight has more power now than when she had all of Equestria's alicorn magic. If you'd said "Control combined with maturing alicorn magic that could run circles around Tirek now" I would agree, but to just have more power, period is a stretch.
7940900
Not realy. She faced Tirek mere months after ascending according to the timeline. Her domain as an Alicorn is magic itself. We know that alicorns mature and grown in power as they age. If Tia can control the sun, and Luna the moon, and Cadence love, then logically Twilight can control magic. All of it.
7940906
Twilight in under a century has acquired more power combined than every other princess of Equestria, some of whom have been alive and had a chance for their power to mature and grow over a thousand years...
Pardon me if I think Twilight forgot to carry a zero or is feeling inadequate in the badonkadonk department and moves a decimal point a bit too far to the right when measuring her power.
7940909 Except, again, her domain is magic. Tia could raise the sun from day one. Twilight should be able to channel absurd (but no infinite) amounts of magic with ever increasing power levels as time goes on. Also, Celestia is WEAKSAUCE as a spellcaster >> She ALWAYS looses in canon. She NEVER frees herself.
7940917 So she's just amping her power up to ridiculous levels?
I'd expect her to be more like archive from the Dresden Files who had near perfect efficiency with spells and fended off multiple accomplished spellcasters powered by fallen angels-which are a major fucking thing in that verse-with about 1% of the power they used.
7940922 Twilight's never had to learn fitness with her spells, she's just that powerful, even as a unicorn. She's always brute forced things. THis is actually canon, and is shown in a novel as one diffrence between her and Sunset (Celestia is talking about them as her students.) SO yes. Twi just boosts her raw power and crushes things or forces the squair peg into the round hole. She has yet to learn finesse.
7939545
And then they realize, wow why are we trying to physically affect something thats got 'immune to physical' on its bs sheet. You have magic, you have teleports, you have modern technology. As we've already massively accepted portals and thus violations to thermodynamics, stick her in space. Or put her in a pool so she drowns and regens and drowns. Your description is absolutely right, for a corrupt cop who gave up a long time ago. Their actions are that of an organization who wishes to stay in power, not that of problem solvers. And honestly if you have time to round up and slaughter and entire species for a blood ritual, you have more than enough time to think things through. As in, whats going to happen next time when you just ran out of sacrifices. Theres a difference between a shades of grey operation and a straight up evil one that the author is desperate to justify. The second one comes with continual excuses for their actions, kind of like sentencing something to ego death for science.
Yaknow, Twi, I don't think that anypony who matters would fault you if you dropped a shield around that facility and then triggered its nuke. Maybe throw scary psychopath lady into deep space first, though.
For some reason, it stopped tracking this story. I wondered why there wasn't an update until I saw..
rip
7944002 That's an error that happens sometimes :/ Nothing the devs can do sadly.
7944265
Now I'm nervous I'm missing out on an update because it untracked oh god oh god
And now I have some time to catch up, so here we goooooo! (Strange how it seems to always be a Twilight Chapter I end up replying to...)
Yeah, don't leave us oldies out of the fun! I can still kick some tail. *winks*
*chuckles* Have I said how much I love this Mirror version of Chryssy? So funny! :D
Most. Epic. Spell. EVER!!!!!
Dare I make the comparison? Yes, yes I do hehehe.
Hoofrah: You get an N7-Eagle, and you get a N7-Eagle, you all get N7-Eagles!
Especially since that mouse and his friends now own that copyright and would not be happy with the all 'seeing' Hasbro if they called it that.
HA! yep kiiiind of called it. XD
No kidding! That is some vehicle, wow!
Hmmm this makes it even weirder that he was one of my favorite 'real life villains' when I learned about him in HS. Don't recall why he was my favorite though.... IT IS THE CHANGELING MAGIC! They are like the Men in Black, they wiped my memories, how dare they! *snorts* Hehe anyway, another interesting tale I would love to hear hehe.
*cackles* I seriously laughed out loud about this for around 30 seconds before I could continue. *chuckles.*
Even the old folks need some entertainment, even if it is just mostly teenage drama. x.x
Yikes, poor Chryssy.
Eh, with a lot of those we have running things today(not just in the USA) I would say that might actually be an improvement for some countries.
Obviously the sleep she got during those years didn't do much good, that or she is REALLLY not a 'morning' person....
Ooooo *shivers* got shivers going up my spine about this creepy woman!
Hmm well that was easy, almost too easy....
Quite the dynamic duo there *chuckles*
WOW quite the chapter! But then you never disappoint me, *hugs*
7940543 but how many people would have access to spells? how hard would it be to practice and perfect one? and I could see a rapidly growing market in magic protection devices.
I think it would still benefit everybody to at least know whats happening, not necessarily how.
7944507
All of them.
Depends on the thing you want to do. Magic is like a martial art. Anyone can punch. Anyone can kick. With a little work, anyone can learn to punch through a board.
With a world that's functioned for thousands of years without spellcraft... Introducing it back in now would cause enough chaos to probably end most civilizations within the decade.
7944501
We must science this!
She's never needed to learn many more attack spells... It's probably the most versatile spell anyone has ever designed.
Commander Sheppard - Mass Effect 1
I personaly wouldn't call him a villen... But then again I'm pro-global unification. Ether way, a damn great guy.
Actually it's because he has a youtube show.
That, or that's precisely what happened...
You should... The anime I based the species from has one of the single most cruel characters in all of fiction. Also the violent onscreen deaths of MANY children. Even people who like Elfien Lied admit that it's an emotional punch to the balls/ovis.
7944620
*chuckles* That's just what Twilight would say!
Why learn any more, when this covers pretty much it all right? Indeed,!
Heh though I think they got it from Oprah(Hoofrah) as that is where the meme comes from??
Yeah villain might not be the 'best' word for him... Yeah he was certainly interesting to learn about, and I think the first (from what we know) gay guy I heard about?? But yeah lol you want us to become one biiiig country eh?
Well yeah there is that too.
You very well could be right!
*goes to look up anime* Oooh that does look like one creepy, messed up anime! So I can see why the characters would give one the feeling as well. Yeah....
7945252
It is, but I take it you never played Mass Effect? In part 3, the N7 is the best handgun you can get for general purpose use. It's kinda pricey but giving one to your squaddies will DRASTICLY improve their performance, and since at one part in the story your whole team is active at once you can't just swap around your good gear. So giving everyone a heavy auto-pistol when you have spare cash is a good plan.
Hence the Opera joke.
Actually I want the concept of a country to become a quaint anachronism of the past. I want one day for children to be in history class and think "They used to split the world up into territories with different laws at random? Wierd." I invision atruly egalitarian future of peace, science, and global community. One culture, one people, one language. This will give all of human kind the greatest possible gift, the ability for all 7.5 billion of us to all work on the same task togeather as one.
Do that and there is no problem we couldn't solve. With All of the world working on any given project, we could likely find a way to take the Naked Mole Rat's immunity to cancer (Yes, it is) and genetically modify human cells to have that same property, than globally introduce that modified code to permanently eliminate cancer from all future humans. We could put the entire world on shoring up Africa with infrastructure so the region becomes self-supporting. We could easily stop mining the earth and take our materials from the asteroid belt instead. We could replace cities with Archologies, which is a hard to explain topic best summed up as "City sized building that is self sufficient in manufacturing, food production, and living space for all residents, and is environmentally nutural."
We won't reach that point if we keep squabbling amongst ourselves and blaming the neighbors for all our problems. With humans, the only real way to achieve peace and unification is to meld into one massive singular culture and people to the point where 'nation' is a silly old fashioned term. Because there's just the planet. Borders don't exist.
When the point of the story is "Psychopaths: Nature, or Nurture?" It's NOT gonna be pretty. Hopefully you didn't watch the bit where Lucy fights her sister. That's one of the worst moments...
Chrysalis has the coolest ability ever! I have nothing to which gives this chapter justice.
7946273 Well, I wrote it to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMKD4Po3h7I
7946392
Very appropriate.
7946129
Nnnnope, heh my computer is old enough it sucks for games, and all I have otherwise is a 3DS... But oooooh that is awesome!
That actually is a really awesome idea! Would be nice if we could all be one people of peace and harmony. Though culture and language wise I almost doubt it will happen, as people are proud of their heritage and want to keep doing what they have been doing for centuries, though we might all have one language everyone knows, people would still speak their native tongue as well I would imagine. (plus if we all switched to one language, just think of all the ancient texts that might never get solved if found sometime in the future when noone speaks X language anymore! )
Yep I've heard about that in the NMR. A pretty awesome thing, and would be SO cool if we could figure out a way to use that to make us all immune to cancer. (Would put a little less strain on me, where one of my fears is dying of cancer or some other long term illness. ) But yeah, helping the whole world be a better place? I am all for that!
Ooo sounds like an interesting idea. Kind of like those biozones(I think they are called) where things are controlled and put in the right way for everyone to live well and prosper?
Sadly no we won't. We are a strange species like that, fighting each other over the air we breath pretty much! And I'm not sure if that is possible, what with the millions of different cultures/religions/world views/etc of people that wouldn't want to 'conform' to one idea. Buddhists wouldn't all want to be come Christians or vice versa or similar ideas. It is a nice idea, but I don't know if people can be unselfish enough for it to work.
Oh I just read about it, didn't watch any clips. (heh sounds creepy enough in words! ) But yeah that kind of concept would be hard to make pretty.
7944592 that sucks :c
This made me laugh quite a bit. I actually worked for them for a bit in college. Their legal non-sense is ridiculous. They actually own everything you even think of while you work for them. Like you make a new type of drill bit on your spare time and want to patent it. Sorry that goes to the mouse.
DM: "You can't have a freaking light saber!!!"
Monk: "Indeed. Lightsabers are copyrighted. This is not a lightsaber. This is a psionic spirit blade!"
DM: "S@#(*@!!@*!!!"
<3 that scene. Even if I didn't manage to quote it perfectly, anyone will get the gist of it. (No, copyright doesn't actually work that way. It's still funny.)
*continues reading* Oh. I see you did continue the reference. Well, my comment shall remain. Because cool. So there!
Uh, no, they're not. If you shoot until the barrels glow, they've already started to droop. They would have zero accuracy, and I would be wary of continuing fire, because with as soft as the steel is getting may not be able to continue containing the pressure. They would be much better served by an M249, or an M240B, something with a quick change barrel system.
And immediately burn through his uniform because the barrel was red hot.
11774927 Fwoosh!
11774924 Fair point. Oversight on my part.