A unicorn commando from the war survives the Last Day and finds herself magically transported to one hundred and seventy years later. Her new life in the wasteland is filled with old friends, old monsters, and old villains. Because War Never Changes.
I often wonder just where the raiders get all these victims for... decoration. Both here and in game. It’s not like there are easily siegeable settlements of large people for every single raider camp. Traders and wanderers couldn’t be that plentiful, right?
Anyway, good fight sequences. Got that good blend between pacing and none of that “freeze the world so we can talk” shananagins.
Too many firebolts. Besides, it's a swamp. I doubt those would be that much effective. And, the thing is, she is either a pyromancer or something else. She could have conjured lightning, foe example, but noo, let's use fire on a creature that breathe fire. Drop something heavy on hydra? Also works. Shove a tree or something down its throat? Could be, but... eh. Reading further.
Oh, yes, finally she used something else, a decapitating beam or whatever. Why couldn't she teleport onto hydra, use some kind of sticking spe;ll and shave those heads down with the very same spell?
>Glancing behind me, I saw the acolyte peeking out from the opened door, her eyes and mouth wide with shock.
Acolyte? Why she sudden;y called that pony acolyte? She barely spared him a glance while teleporting and wasn't looking at him/her ever since through the whole battle.
>The hall ended in a larger room filled with tables and benches lined up from wall to wall with a gap centerline of the room leading to a windowed wall on the far side. The floor was tiled with a linoleum finish that still seemed intact from lack of use. This was a cafeteria. "That's not your business, outsider." I was starting to feel like I wasn't wanted. "I would advise we separate the moment we leave this facility." I stopped at that.
"Oh, now you're asking for my help?" Cashew stopped and stared accusedly at me. "You could start by saying the words. Otherwise I might just leave you here to rot with the bones." That made her glance around and notice the dozen pony skeletons scatter throughout the cafeteria.
"How would you do that? Teleport?" Her voice starting sounding a bit shaky.
I smirked. "Of course. But I used a lot of energy fighting that monster. I can't just spare the energy to take you with me." Her eyes spread into saucers.
"Is there something you want?" She was near panic now.
That dialog is a mess. I couldn't understand half of the time who was the saying what to whom due to reaction of another pony was amidst the words of the current talking one. Ugh.
>She was starting to look flustered now. "Who were the alicorn princesses?"
"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence and Princess Flurry Heart."
Quite ironic, if you think so. TS was already an alicorn in canon before Flurry and yet you selectively take pieces of timeline while ignoring the others. Not that I disapprove, but... in that particular case that gave me a weird vibe.
>The radscorpion no longer shielded it's eye its?
>The second one had, for whatever strange reason, a radio on it's back. Same thing here?
>I glanced at my gun. Even it I could hurt them with it, I only had two drums. Maybe 150 rounds. 2 drums 75 each?
>The armory had a fence halfway into the room, with a gate and a small access gate for handing weapons out. Gate & gate in one sentence.
>The guide was a bit of a mess, clearly written in haphazard fashion by some pony somepony
Peculiar. I wonder how Moondancer knew about where to send the pegasi on a such short schedule.
>What would my companions do? The ones who had lived their entire lives dealing with ponies such as this group? Dust, I suspect, would have turned a blind eye and never interacted with the raiders to begin with. He can run, and has nothing of value for them to hold hostage. Cashew would give the colt a chance at redemption. Perhaps the other raiders, too, but I could be wrong about that.
No, my companions will not decide my fate for me. I will take the wasteland head on and cast my own destiny upon it and everypony, every creature who lived within my Equestria.
Thus, the chapter ends on an uncertain note. Did she kill him or not? That question is not being answered. Eh, why not?
8835523 Fighting the hydra - Fire typically retards regeneration, so that's why she stuck with it. She did use lightning once, but right before the beam. She does prefer firebolt, much like Littlepip used the zebra rifle, but she gets variety when in more complicated fights. In any case, I'll make sure to add more variety in general. The hydra was meant to be very large, and while there may have been things around large enough to actually hurt it, they also would have been large and a heavy TK strain that she felt was unnecessary. A lot of her combat thought goes into spell efficiency, and I guess I should better show that in her internal monologue. There is the mythology that if you cut off a hydras head, two more will grow back. I didn't want to give any reference to that and whether they can or not, so I avoided decapitating the hydras.
Acolyte - Whoops, didn't fix that from past edits. It's just pony now. Also, any other fix that isn't mentioned is fixed.
Alicorns - In FoE, nothing beyond season 1 is shown because that's when FoE was written, so Twilight is not an alicorn. PH did not contradict this but did mention Cadance and Shining Armor (like once). I'm basically trying to act like some things still happened while still preserving FoE's canon. So anything the original FoE didn't mention that could still have happened is still feasible, such as Starlight Glimmer existing and Flurry Heart being born (as an alicorn).
Drum - She doesn't actually know how many rounds the drums hold and is guessing. Maybe I should put a question mark?
Moondancer - It's good that you wonder. It will come up.
Did she? - Well, it's mostly me trying to make the reader wonder about the morality of Ruby. If it's off putting, then I can change it.
"Way I see it, we all have killed a lot of zebra, which is bad, but we did it for a good reason. We don't want another Littlehorn-" I spun around, hooked a hoof onto a chair and tossed it above the table. My horn flashed and a green bolt flew from my horn to the chair, turning it bright green before the object melted into ashes.
DDDDAAAAAMMMNNNNN!!!!!!!
Another pregnant pause, ended not by his voice but a static burst from the speakers ushering in a 170 year old motivational song. I wrinkled my face at the bot before turning back to the north. I didn’t like Watcher’s way of ending conversations.
You're not the only one
"That's what's wrong. Four Stars was prominent in name only. Nopony I knew had any idea what they did, besides what their name implied. And no zebra would be able to run a company. Pinkie Pie wouldn't let them take a step without eyes watching. This place makes no sense."
References!! I remember that place and probably the first time Steelhooves got picked at Calamity. If I'm remembering that right.
The doors snapped shut and the room surged up, almost crushing us to the floor and reminding me of when I learned to never let a Shadowbolt drive a skywagon.
This reminds me of an elevator I went on in Chicago. Shoots you up 100 or so stories in seconds. I didn't like that, course I'm not a big fan of elevators anyway.
The ending was interesting and Watcher doing his thing again. Don't tell them anything Spike yeah that's a way to get stuff done.
I often wonder just where the raiders get all these victims for... decoration. Both here and in game. It’s not like there are easily siegeable settlements of large people for every single raider camp. Traders and wanderers couldn’t be that plentiful, right?
Anyway, good fight sequences. Got that good blend between pacing and none of that “freeze the world so we can talk” shananagins.
8731985
It might make you happy, but these particular victims do get explained later. In general and in detail.
Oh, and thank you.
Too many firebolts. Besides, it's a swamp. I doubt those would be that much effective. And, the thing is, she is either a pyromancer or something else. She could have conjured lightning, foe example, but noo, let's use fire on a creature that breathe fire. Drop something heavy on hydra? Also works. Shove a tree or something down its throat? Could be, but... eh. Reading further.
Oh, yes, finally she used something else, a decapitating beam or whatever. Why couldn't she teleport onto hydra, use some kind of sticking spe;ll and shave those heads down with the very same spell?
>Glancing behind me, I saw the acolyte peeking out from the opened door, her eyes and mouth wide with shock.
Acolyte? Why she sudden;y called that pony acolyte? She barely spared him a glance while teleporting and wasn't looking at him/her ever since through the whole battle.
>The hall ended in a larger room filled with tables and benches lined up from wall to wall with a gap centerline of the room leading to a windowed wall on the far side. The floor was tiled with a linoleum finish that still seemed intact from lack of use. This was a cafeteria. "That's not your business, outsider." I was starting to feel like I wasn't wanted. "I would advise we separate the moment we leave this facility." I stopped at that.
"Oh, now you're asking for my help?" Cashew stopped and stared accusedly at me. "You could start by saying the words. Otherwise I might just leave you here to rot with the bones." That made her glance around and notice the dozen pony skeletons scatter throughout the cafeteria.
"How would you do that? Teleport?" Her voice starting sounding a bit shaky.
I smirked. "Of course. But I used a lot of energy fighting that monster. I can't just spare the energy to take you with me." Her eyes spread into saucers.
"Is there something you want?" She was near panic now.
That dialog is a mess. I couldn't understand half of the time who was the saying what to whom due to reaction of another pony was amidst the words of the current talking one. Ugh.
>She was starting to look flustered now. "Who were the alicorn princesses?"
"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence and Princess Flurry Heart."
Quite ironic, if you think so. TS was already an alicorn in canon before Flurry and yet you selectively take pieces of timeline while ignoring the others. Not that I disapprove, but... in that particular case that gave me a weird vibe.
>The radscorpion no longer shielded it's eye
its?
>The second one had, for whatever strange reason, a radio on it's back.
Same thing here?
>I glanced at my gun. Even it I could hurt them with it, I only had two drums. Maybe 150 rounds.
2 drums 75 each?
>The armory had a fence halfway into the room, with a gate and a small access gate for handing weapons out.
Gate & gate in one sentence.
>The guide was a bit of a mess, clearly written in haphazard fashion by some pony
somepony
Peculiar. I wonder how Moondancer knew about where to send the pegasi on a such short schedule.
>What would my companions do? The ones who had lived their entire lives dealing with ponies such as this group? Dust, I suspect, would have turned a blind eye and never interacted with the raiders to begin with. He can run, and has nothing of value for them to hold hostage. Cashew would give the colt a chance at redemption. Perhaps the other raiders, too, but I could be wrong about that.
No, my companions will not decide my fate for me. I will take the wasteland head on and cast my own destiny upon it and everypony, every creature who lived within my Equestria.
Thus, the chapter ends on an uncertain note. Did she kill him or not? That question is not being answered. Eh, why not?
8835523
Fighting the hydra - Fire typically retards regeneration, so that's why she stuck with it. She did use lightning once, but right before the beam. She does prefer firebolt, much like Littlepip used the zebra rifle, but she gets variety when in more complicated fights.
In any case, I'll make sure to add more variety in general.
The hydra was meant to be very large, and while there may have been things around large enough to actually hurt it, they also would have been large and a heavy TK strain that she felt was unnecessary. A lot of her combat thought goes into spell efficiency, and I guess I should better show that in her internal monologue.
There is the mythology that if you cut off a hydras head, two more will grow back. I didn't want to give any reference to that and whether they can or not, so I avoided decapitating the hydras.
Acolyte - Whoops, didn't fix that from past edits. It's just pony now. Also, any other fix that isn't mentioned is fixed.
Alicorns - In FoE, nothing beyond season 1 is shown because that's when FoE was written, so Twilight is not an alicorn. PH did not contradict this but did mention Cadance and Shining Armor (like once). I'm basically trying to act like some things still happened while still preserving FoE's canon. So anything the original FoE didn't mention that could still have happened is still feasible, such as Starlight Glimmer existing and Flurry Heart being born (as an alicorn).
Drum - She doesn't actually know how many rounds the drums hold and is guessing. Maybe I should put a question mark?
Moondancer - It's good that you wonder. It will come up.
Did she? - Well, it's mostly me trying to make the reader wonder about the morality of Ruby. If it's off putting, then I can change it.
Dialogue - Working on it. Is this the only spot?
DDDDAAAAAMMMNNNNN!!!!!!!
You're not the only one
References!! I remember that place and probably the first time Steelhooves got picked at Calamity. If I'm remembering that right.
This reminds me of an elevator I went on in Chicago. Shoots you up 100 or so stories in seconds. I didn't like that, course I'm not a big fan of elevators anyway.
The ending was interesting and Watcher doing his thing again. Don't tell them anything Spike yeah that's a way to get stuff done.