18 The Invisible Fortress, Day Six (II)
This chapter has not been edited yet
My Little Exalt
THE INVISIBLE FORTRESS, DAY SIX
by: Lithl
special thanks:
Rhanite
LordofRansei
QuietEmily
A long, straight stairway stretched out before the morose Rainbow Dash, penetrating deeper into the mountain and further underground. Each of the landings bore the now-familiar sunburst design, and the air practically hummed with energy.
Twilight walked up behind the athlete, with Fluttershy and rarity in tow. The recently-minted sorceress cocked an eyebrow at the passage before them and said, "Well there's a magic spell, if I ever saw one."
"Gee, ya think, bonehead?!"
Rarity gasped. "Rainbow Dash! That is incredibly insensitive!"
"What do you want me to say?" Rainbow shouted. Fluttershy cringed and flinched away from the volume. "Pinkie's gone axe-crazy, Zecora's lost her mind, and now the only pony who could push me to my limit is dead, all thanks to this stupid manse and its stupid traps and the stupid humans who built it! We're only here on the word of some sort of evil sex ghost, and the only reason we needed her help was because Miss I-Want-To-Cast-Magic-On-The-Multiverse over here screwed up!"
Fluttershy drew in a calming breath and stepped forward. "Maybe... you should try to calm down a little—"
"Calm down? Calm down?! We're lost on another world and even if we get home somehow, we can't use the Elements to protect Equestria because our Circle is broken!" Rainbow gave no indication that she noticed the emphasis she gave to the word "circle."
"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy's voice rang with the authority of the Sun, and the glow from her caste mark intensified. The declaration of her name, spoken with such authority, was alone enough to quiet the anxiety in Rainbow's heart, but Fluttershy was not done. "Don't worry about what went wrong. You can't change the past. You need – we all need – to focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward and finding the answers to our problems, because at this point, 'forward' is the only means we have of getting out of the thicket of thorns."
The normally timid mare turned to the two unicorns in the group. "It is not for us to hope for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks. Ever since arriving at this manse – this 'fortress' – I've seen our friendships begin to fall apart. It was slow at first, and I admit to being swept up in the current, but I don't want to see a bad problem get any worse." As Fluttershy spoke, the others at least had the grace to look embarrassed. She shook her head, dismissing a stray thought. "We've learned a lot together over the years. As friends. If we can't hold onto that friendship in the face of adversity, then we haven't really learned anything at all.
"Rainbow, I know you're distraught over what you've seen, but you're not alone. Applejack was part of our family, and we were a part of hers. We can't let that loss stop us; we're not just searching for a way to get ourselves home, but for everypony in Ponyville."
Rainbow Dash straightened her neck, and gave Fluttershy a curt nod, a quick salute, and said, "Right!" Without further warning, she turned around and ran for the first platform.
As she approached the sunburst pattern in the floor, the energy in the air noticeably peaked. A split-second after she touched the first landing, the area around her filled with fiery swords, each dancing through the air with a will of its own and slicing at Rainbow's unprotected hide. The magical fires cast an ominous orange light on the walls, mixing with the golden light of the ponies' glowing caste marks. The nimble pegasus dodged hither and yon, contorting her body to avoid the fires. She reached the next flight of stairs unscathed, and stopped for a breather. "Whew! That's some spell, Twilight!"
"Indeed," Twilight replied, her eyes narrowing at the floor, walls, and ceiling of the landing.
"Can you counter it?" Rarity asked hopefully.
"Oh, not a chance in Tartarus. This is way beyond me."
"Right!" Rainbow cried with another salute. "I'll check the far end of the hall for a disabling switch or something." Without waiting for a reply, Rainbow Dash continued to the next landing; once again, the ambient energy spiked and the air around the pegasus was filled with fiery blades, which she dodged with flair. Twilight continued to stare at the effects of the spell on the staircase, and while Rainbow took a short breather just past the second landing, Twilight calmly stepped forward onto the first.
"Twilight!" "No!" "Wait!" The others cried out in alarm. Rather than taking the effort to dodge the sabers as Rainbow had, however, Twilight calmly stood in the center of their dance. Once after another, swords cut deep into Twilight's body... only to pass through, harmlessly.
The other three ponies could only stare in shock, while Twilight studied the flames surrounding her. "Curious," she said, "I didn't expect them to tingle like this. It reminds me of the tickle fights my brother and I would sometimes have when we were foals."
"I... what... I don't even... huh?" Rainbow articulated her confusion.
"They're completely illusory. Harmless, all of them."
"Then what's the point, dear?"
Fluttershy took a deep breath and stepped into the flames next to Twilight. "Fear," was all she said.
At the bottom of the final staircase, a simple door barred the way. An engraved golden human hand encircled with the sunburst design dominated the center of the doorway. Twilight pressed a hoof to the center, and with a soft click, the door unlocked, unlatched, and swung open.
The door opened into a white tile-covered hexagonal room, with a door on each wall. "So, do we split up, or...?" Rainbow trailed off, waiting for input from the others.
Fluttershy shook her head. "No, I don't want us to split up again. We need to stick together." There was a chorus of agreement, and Rarity led the group to the door on the left.
"We might as well start with door number one."
Behind the first door was a small room, nearly full of heavy metal spikes that had fallen from the ceiling and dug deep into the tile floor. It was a squeeze, but the girls managed to move past the spikes into the hallway beyond.
The hallway behind the room appeared identical to the hallway at the Retreat's entrance, save for the gaping pit partway along its length. "We found Pinkie's trail again," Rainbow muttered, noting the fragmented edges of what used to be the pit's trap door.
At the end of the hall was a room showing more evidence of Pinkie's presence. The beige tiles and vaulted ceiling were nice enough, but the twisted wreckage on the right side was less so. To the left, a metal portcullis displayed a neat hole, large enough for a pony to fit through. Behind was a furnished sitting room – or the appearance of one, at any rate. Much like the frescoes in the artificial garden of the manse, this room presented the facsimile of more space. This particular fresco held a pony-shaped dent, destroying the illusion.
On the right side, the damage was more apparent. Some sort of mechanical beast – a spider or some other insectoid creature – lay in ruin, apparently launched into another portcullis and causing the other gate to warp beyond repair. Another sitting room sat at the far end of a short hallway beyond, presumably another expertly-crafted optical illusion fresco.
"I've got to admit, despite what's happened to Pinkie, her passage through this place has been really useful," Twilight remarked. "How may traps has she destroyed, now?"
The other ponies mumbled agreement; that the pink monstrosity had laid waste to many of the Retreat's traps had proven exceptionally useful.
The party squeezed back past the spikes and into the hexagonal room. Casual inspection of the next three doors following the first one clockwise proved about as fruitful as the first. In each, the far wall held a door blasted from its hinges, revealing nothing but stone wall beyond.
In the first of the three, the white tiles and stone walls were pockmarked with thousands of tiny pits, and a few of the larger holes in the floor still held water, from whatever event had taken place within.
In the second, every single tile on the floor had been smashed by some great weight, but there was no other indicator of what had occurred.
In the third door past the first, many of the tiles had become rough, as though attacked by some corrosive agent. Rarity refused to even enter, worrying that some of the corrosive might still remain.
The final room was different. While the door at the far end was also blasted off of its hinges, and it also revealed bare stone, and it also showed signs of some deadly trap – long crisscrossed gashes in the floor, this time – this room also had a heavy stone broken free from the wall and set very specifically on a certain tile near the far corner, which was clearly depressed by the stone's weight. The left wall had an opening, leading deeper into the Retreat.
Past the not-so-hidden door was another cascade of stairs. This passage held no energy like the previous one. However, the entire second landing was missing, leading into another pit.
The gap was a good six spans or so. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy cleared it without difficulty, by gliding down the stairs with their partially-functional wings. With a grimace and a shared look, the two unicorns galloped down the stairs, taking a running leap to clear the space.
Rarity cleared the pit with grace, landing on the far edge and flicking her tail in pride.
Twilight tripped over the final step on the way down. She pitched forward and slammed horn-first into the pit's far wall, landing at the bottom with a painful-sounding crunch.
"Ow," the hapless unicorn called up from the base of the pit.
"Twilight, are you all right?" Rarity turned and called down to the pit's bottom.
"I've just got a bruised pride and a sensitive horn, nothing to worry about."
"Um..." Rarity tapped a hoof to her lips and looked back at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. "How do we get her out?"
The three mares exchanged worried glances. "Did anypony think to bring a rope?"
"Oh," Rarity beamed as an idea hit her, "what about this rock-yarn cloth?" She produced the folded material from her saddlebag, and carefully extracted the razor-sharp butterflies she'd stored within, setting them aside on the floor. "Will this do?"
"There's only one way to find out!" Rainbow grabbed one end of the sturdy bolt of cloth and tossed the other down to Twilight, who grabbed a hold. Together, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Rarity slowly pulled their friend out of the pit trap and back onto sturdy footing.
Once Twilight was back on the stairs, Rarity gathered up the cloth once again, remarking on the surprising lack of creasing despite the torture it had just gone through. She carefully re-wrapped the glass butterflies and stored the collection in her saddlebags once again.
The group progressed to the base of the stairs without further incident. Past the door at the bottom was a great circular room, whose most outstanding feature was the proportionally great pit in the center. The room was at least as large as any other previously encountered, if not larger, but there was only a small ledge around the edge on which a human or pony could walk.
The pit in the center of the room was at least three stories deep, and the domed ceiling was at least three stories above the ledge at the center. The pit was also filled with hundreds of crystalline spikes glistening in the light of everypony's caste mark. To drive the point home further, there was a bare human skeleton in tattered armor impaled upon a few of them near the center.
"How'd a human get all the way out in the center of the pit?" Rainbow asked.
"If I had to guess, I'd say it had something to do with that," Twilight pointed to the top of the dome, where a polished opalescent stone poked out of the ceiling, easily as large as a pony's head. With a glance, each of the exalted ponies could feel the stone radiating power.
With a low hum, the stone in the ceiling began to glow softly. Everypony braced herself for another trap, but nothing seemed to happen. With a clatter, the sword lying by the skeleton in the center flew to the roof of the dome, and stuck pommel-first to the glowing orb.
"Um." There was no further reaction from the orb, and Rainbow Dash cautiously began to walk along the ledge encircling the room, hugging the wall tightly. The other three ponies followed.
A minute later, when Rainbow reached the halfway point, the ambient hum and the glow from the stone both stopped, and the sword instantly fell into the giant pit. The pegasus halted her motion when the sounds changed, which nearly caused a collision with Rarity right behind her. In just a few short heartbeats, the stone began to hum and glow again, pulling the sword up out of the pit to hang from its pommel once again.
Rainbow cocked her head, "I don't get it."
"Perhaps it's meant to disarm intruders. None of us have any weapons," Rarity suggested.
"Are you kidding? My hoof is a weapon!" Rainbow bragged. She paused, and then continued more quietly, "But yeah, that sounds like as good an explanation as any..."
"But what about the other weapons that human has – had – on him? Or her?" Fluttershy asked, pointing to the skeleton. Sure enough, the corpse had several knives sheathed along its belt and an unstrung bow on its back, which had been sliced in twain by the crystal blades.
"Maybe it's something unique about that particular sword?" Twilight suggested. "I notice that the sword is always hanging from its pommel, regardless of its orientation at the bottom of the pit."
Rainbow continued her trek around the room's perimeter. "Now that you mention it, that blade looks like it's made of wood. The grip is made of some green... stone?"
Twilight nodded absently as she walked. "Jade, at a guess. Remember the Yu-Shan gateways? They were made of all of the 'magical' materials, and one of those was jade."
The party reached the far end of the room, and the touch of Rainbow's hoof on the golden palm print opened the door. As Fluttershy brought up the rear and exited the room, the orb once again died down and dropped the blade into the pit.
After a short passage and another door, the girls found themselves in a funnel-shaped room, directing them towards a door at the far end. Above the door was another porcelain mask, similar to the ones that challenged Twilight to the Liar's Puzzle previously.
As soon as all four ponies had entered the room, the door behind them slammed shut, and the mask above the door shouted, "Halt! Give the password or die! You have thirty seconds!"
Rainbow edged closer to her companions and changed a glance backward. "Twilight?"
Twilight was, understandably, on edge. "I don't know! How should I know what the password is?!"
Rainbow gave a few attempts of her own. "Open sesame! Abracadabra! Shazam!" When none of them worked, she wove her way past the other ponies to try and force the door they'd entered from back open so they could escape, but was unsuccessful.
"Twenty seconds!" The mask shouted.
Rarity moved forward to the far door underneath the mask, and mimicked Rainbow's idea, trying to create an escape route. Twilight was frozen with indecision.
"Ten seconds!"
Fluttershy began listing the names of the original Solars, from their portraits on the second floor of the manse. "Kal Bax, Larquen Quen, Meherrin, Surin of Justice, Iatrixian the Weaver, Vaznia," Rarity's eye twitched at the mention of the name, but nopony was able to see the reaction. "Kotor Varos... um..."
Twilight shook herself from her stupor and continued where Fluttershy left off. "Crinis Proles, Ozandus Pal, Arvika Chas, Aure Orchester, Surin of—"
"Fluttershy already used that one!" Rainbow Dash shouted from the back door.
"Now you die!" The mask bellowed. Fluttershy hid her face beneath her hooves and tried to protect her body with her wings. Rarity and Rainbow Dash both pressed themselves against their respective doors. Twilight squeezed her eyes shut. Everypony waited for the end.
The end never came.
Twilight cautiously opened her eyes. Four arrow slits had opened in the walls of the room, but no arrows were coming out. Rarity and Rainbow both relaxed. Fluttershy peeked out from under one of her hooves, confused. The room was silent.
A moment later, Fluttershy squeaked. "I remember! Daveg Chlurion! That's the name we missed!"
She beamed as the mask spoke once more. "Pass." The door Rarity was leaning on swung open, dropping the fashionista to the stone floor.
Beyond the door was a narrow passage in each direction, curving around the room they had just exited. Below each of the four arrow slits was the wreckage of an automaton, a broken bow, and a quiver stocked with several dozen arrows.
"I suppose that answers that question, then," Rainbow said.
"I suppose," Rarity agreed, "but where do we go from here?"
Nopony had an answer. They had penetrated deep into the Solars' Final Retreat, but there was nowhere else to go. Surely, this was not the end? The narrow passage surrounding the previous room on three sides had no apparent exit other than the door leading backwards.
"Okay, everypony," Twilight clapped her hooves together. "Let's start searching for a hidden door."
"But every 'hidden door' we've come across so far was destroyed by Pinkie..." Rainbow whined. "She must not have come here."
"Rainbow, dear, did you see anywhere else Pinkie might have gone? For that matter, if Pinkie wasn't here, what happened to the archers that were supposed to kill us just now?" Rainbow grudgingly conceded that Rarity had a point. "We've simply gotten complacent – we're too used to the aftereffects of Pinkie's rampage. From here on out, we'll have to depend on our own cunning and skill."
The four ponies, at Twilight's direction, began to systematically search the corridor for some trigger or switch or pressure plate that might open a hidden door, or at least indicate its presence.
thud
"Did anypony hear that?" Twilight asked.
"Hear what?" Rainbow walked up behind the sorceress.
Thud
"That!" Twilight pointed to the wall directly opposite the door they'd entered the passage through.
"I certainly heard it that time, Twilight," Rarity joined Rainbow and her fellow unicorn.
THUD
"What is it?" Fluttershy asked. All the ponies gathered at the wall, and Twilight put one ear up against it.
THUD
"It's getting louder!" Twilight backed away from the wall just in time for it to burst outward, showering the corridor with stone and dust. Some kind of silvery light mixed with the golden light from the girls' caste marks; combined with the dust-filled air, it was impossible to see anything.
There was the sound of some kind of creature panting. The two pegasi worked their wings to try and disperse the dust, while the unicorns braced themselves for whatever was hiding in the dark. Soon, a silhouette was visible through the cloud: a large, blocky quadruped. Then, it became apparent that the source of the silvery light was the creature standing before them, as swirling patterns became distinguishable on its body.
Twilight, who was the closest, was the first to see that the creature was a large zebra stallion, easily more massive than Big Mac.
Twilight's heart began to race, and her breathing became heavy. Sweat drops formed on her brow and mixed with tears as her eyes were forced wide open and were irritated by the remaining dust cloud.
"No... No, stop!" Twilight cried. She backed into Fluttershy, but didn't seem to notice. "What are you doing, stop it!" The beast looked directly at her and cocked its head. The slight motion set Twilight off further, and she gave a wordless cry of terror. She began galloping as fast as she could down the corridor, despite knowing intellectually that it was a dead end.
As fortune – or, perhaps, misfortune – would have it, her panic-stricken flight caused her to run over a floor switch which opened exactly the secret door the group had been looking for. Without a care for the possible repercussions, she turned left and fled down the corridor behind, screaming the entire way.
The huge zebra stallion stepped forward and shrank, becoming a normal-sized zebra mare. "Was it something I said?" Zecora asked innocently.
cough cough
The puddles of burning oil died out. The pile of charcoal spasmed, causing flakes of soot to shake free of its bulk. Slowly, shakily, one leg moved, and then another. The legs gathered together underneath the body, and the motions began to tear the blackened outer layer away, revealing a fresh orange coat. With the inevitability of a glacier, the creature rose to its feet.
At her side, a black hat lay upturned, serene. With a swish of her tail, the hat crumbled to dust.
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Map reference:
lithl.info/images/my-little-exalt/final-retreat_ch18.png
Heh. Applejack can't die that easily. Although, the Mane 6 need to be more careful, Equestria's pretty doomed if any of them kick the bucket.
Adamantine skin technique, motherfuckers!
I never heard about Exalted I had downloaded some stuff about it by I don't see anything I could call "The hell Exalted is- Begginers Guide". Hm. Don't know if trying to read this story with at least no slightest idea is a good..well idea.
3184172
I've tried to write this story such that you don't need to be familiar with Exalted to enjoy it. I stay away from the mechanics of the game, and I try to explain everything the ponies encounter by either exposing them (and the reader) to the new things until it's understood, or else explain via dialogue with somepony "in the know," as it were.
If you read my story and feel lost, please tell me! It's possible you're looking at a story hook that hasn't resolved yet, or else it's something that I haven't written well enough, and I want to know what it is, so that I can fix it.
The first edition of Exalted had a Quickstart book, but I don't think there's anything similar for second edition (the closest would be the Return to the Tomb of Five Corners free adventure). Third edition is supposed to be coming out this fall.
3184191 Yup.yup. But from what I see the world itself is quite interesting I'm a sucker for magitech and all this babble. But I found on that torrent, little sneaky bastard called Exalted- Core. So no problem ;) I like to read rpg books I'm only ignoring mechanics since I don't have around anyone to play with, besides I never liked being narrator or GM so....blah.
I'll definetly start reading your story later ;) Can't tell if I'm going to like it though but no hard feelings.
Edit: I'm reading book now and there are little gods as well I'm liking it! At first sight I was thinking that White Wolf had done some another fantasy world but this is simply Worl of Darkness before it became Wolrd of Darkness. Yay.
I must admit I love that you had Zecora do the halloween head tilt to scare Twilight.
. . . Now, after looking Exalted up upon seeing this fic, I want to look into trying the game.
I have never tried any of these table top RPG's, so it would be very hard to get into I imagine. The most I have played is board games, like Settlers of Catan, but even I can tell there is simply no comparison.
Anywho, I am gonna read this soon. And try to find Exalted at my comic/games store, and people who play.
Farewell brave hat, you shall be missed.
Hope she gets another one soon.
And a continuation of the story that got me to start reading mlp fanfiction! Take the time you need to make the chapters, these are all well worth the wait.
Called it!
As always, a great read. Definitely looking forward to more. Especially Zecora's reconciliation with Twilight... though that's probably going to take a while. And may involve more Valor rolls.
Oh, and I hope Applejack gets some kind of artifact hat. Heck if I know what it'll do, but I like the idea of her sporting an orichalcum Stetson.
i have not read this yet, but I'm going to call it now and say . . . It's actually just the main six playing the game and describing what they are doing exc.
3184595
If you can stand to wait, Exalted Third Edition ought to be coming out in October or November. (I know I'm having trouble waiting!) Supposedly they've made some major changes to the combat system and charm trees, they've changed part of the storyline around Infernals, they've changed the nature of exaltations, and they've introduced a new exalt type (something along the lines of Frankenstein's Monster; the original, intelligent version by Mary Shelly, not the mindless beast in more recent iterations).
I'm getting the Ultra Deluxe Orichalcum Edition of the core book, from the EX3 Kickstarter. Eeeeee!
3184209
Exalted does have a number of thematic ties to other White Wolf games. Scions are kind of like modern-day Solars. Vampires are like modern Abyssals. Werewolves are like modern Lunars. Mages are like modern Sidereals, although that's where the comparisons start to break down. Demons don't really match up with Infernals, and nothing really matches with Terrestrials. The Changelings do share some similarities with the Raksha, I suppose.
3184900
Wow! That's a big compliment! Thank you!
3186844
lmfao, nice. I might as well wait then, but next time I go to my comic/game store (most likely tomorrow), I will ask if they even carry the game, and if anyone plays it there, and if I could try it with them or watch them play sometime. Prolly be better to try it before getting anything for it.
3186860
Completely reasonable... reasoning.
I got into the game when Brian Urbanek (currently, Senior Systems Designer at Vigil Games, previously Lead Systems Designer on Champions Online and Lead Designer on Lineage) ran a short campaign for some of the students at GameCamp! in Austin. Two years later, when I became a counselor at the same camp in Lafayette, I ran my own game for the students. To this day, some of the stuff I do in Exalted is influenced by that first game Brian ran for me.
3186910
That would be a really cool experience. Something similar for myself, I am working to become a 3D artist for video games thanks to a tour of Bioware studios I got a few years back. Before then, I had no idea what I wanted to do in life. SINCE then, I have had a goal in mind, and I have been working to get there. Heck, I am saving up $25 000 for a SINGLE YEAR post secondary course, because the college is considered one of the best, and is nearby to me.
So, random mini-rant/thing aside, looking forward to next chapter, and I will be looking up this game tomorrow.
Solar Exalt + Resistance Charms = Hah hah hah hahahahahahahah. Traps...
3186844 I actually refused to contribute to the kickstarter. Some combination of Hatewheel being a total doucher over the last several months and their temerity to put their pay raise as a (EARLY) Stretch Goal pissed me off. They're gonna have to impress me if they wanna make a sale. They're botching PR lately.
But hey, do a blog post or something telling us if it's any good.
3186860 White Wolf doesn't actually print physical books anymore. They're all PDF and Print-on-Demand from Drive-Thru-RPG. Unless they've gotten some kind of special deal set up for stores to stock again, you're not gonna see it in a store I'm afraid.
3190970
Several of the KS tiers were specifically designed for stores to stock up product. (You had to provide proof you were a dealer of some sort to be permitted to use the reward tier.) Of course, that was the KS.
DTRPG gives the publisher a bulk discount on the POD service, so they can do things like sell copies at conventions, but I don't think there's a similar bulk discount for anyone else. Still, that bulk discount could allow Onyx Path to get stuff out to distributors, which would then trickle down to the brick-and-mortar stores.
All that being said, if you've got a store owner anywhere semi-decent and you ask for product, they should be doing what they can to get that product to sell to you. Happy customer is a repeat customer, and all that.
3190963
It's fine to boycott something, but the pay raise thing seems a little silly. The price for whatever tier you may want doesn't change if they're using the extra money to pay their artists, writers, editors, etc. better (and it's not like their base pay is particularly good).
They sent out several updates to all the backers over the course of the KS (and more since it completed, including updates on their progress). I'm going to admit, the content they've shown so far in the updates has impressed me. I've got preview PDFs for the Dragon-Blooded, Abyssals, Infernals, and Liminals, and emails with snippets about Solars, as well as some short bits of fiction and a swath of pretty, pretty artwork. The most recent update has the Solar Dodge tree among other things (only the Charm names, though).
I'll definitely write a blog post about it once I get the PDF, and probably a second once I get the physical stuff. I'll try not to gush too much.
3193041 the bitch of it is that they put their raise above funding levels that provide more content for their users. That's super tacky. "Hey, give us money so we can pay our selves more." That's not a stretch goal, that's internal shit.
That and paying for them to go to gencon. No. That's advertising. You budget for it, you do not beg for it.
Kickstarter stretch goals are for bringing more product to your buyer. Not for personal crap. They've been super cocky lately and they need to stop.
3194074
/shrug
I'm of the opinion that I'm paying for the reward tier that I've selected, not for the stretch goals.
3201233
While I accept praise like the cookie monster accepts cookies, I can't take credit for that line.
The Compass of Celestrial Directions, vol. III: Yu-Shan, page 20:
Despite being an AU story in a very real sense, I try to stick to the canon of both elements of the crossover where I can.
.
.
.
Lytroll, Right Hand of Pwn?
I may not know of what exalted actually is, but I can definitely say that I was drawn in. I've pieced together that it is an RPG of sorts, and that you keep to both cannons, and that makes you commendable.
I can, without a doubt, tell you that I enjoyed this. Liked and faved, eagerly awaiting more.
3201677 Now that I'm caught up...
I'm really liking where this is going. Your caste assignment make sense, and you clearly have a better understanding of the charm trees than I do, but you manage to make the mane six's learning curve natural. That's probably why, for a crossover, you have such broad appeal.
I was skeptical about using the Invisible Fortress at first (I have Time of Tumult and I never liked it as a module; it depends too much on disabling character powers which is bad adventure writing) but you managed to get them to snipe at each other well enough to keep it both interesting and just a bit scary. Also, The Spark of Omnipresent Harmony: brilliant.
If the story has weaknesses, there are two: The characters are a bit flat; they seemed a little too mission focused (especially before the Fortress) to the point where their personalities don't really shine. You've got their voices down pretty well (even Pinkie, no mean feat) but they talk shop too much and don't talk about their feelings enough. A cinema analogy: your actors are reading the lines, not acting them.
The only other problem I have with the story is how quickly certain things happened. It was most pronounced in Whitewall and the Lover's tower; the party just accepted the quest prompts, without showing any real need to think about whether it was a good idea. In Whitewall, they just trusted the Syndics, Pinkie shouldn't have let that happen. With the Lover, they did worry overnight, but you didn't really let us into their heads to see the dilemma of trusting... her.
And yet, when we put them in a true dungeon, they become the pony exalts I was hoping for this whole time. Scared yet awesome, friends who know, even when they forget, that the power of friendship can overwhelm all the forces that threaten Creation; and certainly everything the Guardian has up his incorporeal sleeves. I'm really looking forward to the next chapter; I also really hope it doesn't take a month or two this time!
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It's almost as if Twilight is going crazy, too!
I really hope that they all are simply going crazy. Why? If not, characters become incredibly dull and almost artificial. Twi especially, not fazed at all that AJ end up as melted puddle on the ground.
Not to mention that I have no idea what this action with Zecora-stallion few chapters back was supposed to be. I think, dear author that you are so mysterious that you simply have destroyed some of the immersion in the story for me. No hint in next chapters at all if this was dream, or anything happened to Twi at all, nothing. I'm confused not in this nice way like "Well, I have no idea what is going to happen *brings popcorn*". I hope that this going to start making any sense in the next chapter.....
Hell yeah, that's right! Learn the Laws of Creation Motherbuckers, you cannot, I repeat, CANNOT, KEEP A GOOD! SOLAR! DOWN!
Has this story been abandoned? I really want to see their reactions when they figure out that the manse's AI is insane and trying to drive them insane, as well.
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Abandoned: No!
de-facto On Hiatus: Yes...
I actually recently started doing some things that should get me back on the horse (pun intended), but I won't make any promises that I can't keep.
Ill have to ask my GM if he has heard of or tried Exalted at all, he keeps looking at all sorts of RPGs to see what people can get along with.
Well, except for that he would still have to ban me from using ideas I can write down and describe to him.
Pinkie Pie with Samus kit.
Someone said something about a chaos engine. I thought it was a multispectral gem based mechanical construct that operated in physical, acoustical, optical and magical bands. When I say acoustical, I mean where the current real world record is green light in a sapphire giving 600 Terahz mechanical oscilation.
Think of what happened if someone built a prototype of such a device in Canterlot, and it got hit by a Sonic Rainboom?
Gods having instant kill on mortals is always annoying. Is there any artifact or such that can block that, or does the mortal have to rely on the use of a total reality reset Genesis device to detsroy everything, including the gods, in order to hold them off, Cold War, MAD style? At the last count, I think there was at least 6 different versions possible.
Hope you continue with this, intrested in teh location etc description, and that Twilights nightmare gets turned into a zebra bedmare instead.
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Exalted is an excellent game, I recommend it. Third edition is currently in production, though it has experienced some delays (one of the leads was diagnosed with cancer). An email was just sent out today notifying the Kickstarter supporters that it's entered the second phase of playtest, and only 3 (of 25) abilities are missing their charm trees.
(As far as second edition rules go, however, Pinkie should not be capable of using that weapon. It's only supposed to work for the Alchemical Exalted, who are basically robots living in another dimension, and the weapon is installed, generally either hidden inside a shoulder, or inside an arm. Pinkie just cheats.)
As far as instant kills go, I've said it before but mortals in the Exalted setting are pretty near the bottom of the totem pole. That a Deathlord (not a god) can kill a mortal with a glance and bind that mortal's ghost into the Deathlord's service, all with a single glance, is well within relative power-levels. Since the girls will at least be meeting the Lover one more time and they'll be meeting the Dowager before the story is complete, it's a damn good thing they're not mortal any more!
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The capability of the hearthstones is explained at the beginning of chapter 6: Omnipresence. Suffice it to say, the ability of the hearthstones themselves isn't that impressive. The level of and intent behind the manse's design justifies their quantity, though. (Oh ho ho, level 5, you're cute.
)
The first generation of Dragon-Blooded was selected from among all of the humans purely because they were the horniest ones. 1 + 1 = 3.
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Yes, they exited via gate 16. However, Twilight's manse's big shtick is that it can teleport (as mentioned at the beginning of chapter 6: Omnipresence). In game terms, it has the "Alternate Locations" power. The ponies found the manse near Gate 16, but then Rainbow poked Twilght's hearthstone and shifted it southeast of Whitewall, near Marma's Fell, about a mile east of the Holy Road.
As for the temperature, the ponies arrive in Whitewall on the 3rd of Ascending Air. Winter doesn't truly begin until the 1st of Descending Air. It's colder near Whitewall than it is near Nathir, but it's still summer.
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The tabletop roleplaying game Exalted by White Wolf Publishing.
Still love this story to bits. Hope you update soon
Any plans on continuing this?
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Yes. I have the next chapter (and the chapter that will come two after that one) partially written. However, my energies are currently being directed more towards The Long Trot and finding a new job.
Huh, subtle nightmares that seem to drive people insane. The only one actually immune to such would be Fluttershy. Because she is used to that shit. Twilight will probably have to deal with either sad Zecora or be terrified of her lunar mate for the rest of her days. Also, AJ is going to be a bit upset about being left behind so very far. Then again, she was lit on fire and roasted to death. Though, there is a certain amount of testament that her hat kept its shape until she swished it with her tail.
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Not really. On the other hand, the gateways of Yu-Shan are one of the fastest ways to travel across Creation, turning a world with roughly double the landmass of Earth into an area approximately the size of Russia, with taxi gondolas capable of traveling at or near mach speed.
Why was this cancelled?
I am out of story. This is sad. I know know what it is like to live on a flat world.
On a side note, I cannot find more flat-earthers at work now because I got hit in a crosswalk in November and have to wait for 3 limbs to heal (that is why I stopped reading for over a month, as I was in the hospital for a few weeks and in a rehab-center for a few weeks). I hope that my left arm will heal completely. As it it, it sucks at being an arm now. My legs still have to heal, but I am pretty sure that I will walk again.
Assuming that my left arm recovers, I can search for more flat-earthers at-work again in a few months.