4 - Magic
Twilight Sparkle - Day 3
South Jungle - The Island
The sun caught the dust floating inside my cabin, forming dozens of sunbeams, one per small gap in my cabin’s walls. I yawned and slowly sat up. I felt kinda stiff, like I’d been laying down too long. Based on the brightness of the light streaming through the walls it was almost noon.
I’d slept for the entire morning.
I rarely ever did that. It made sense that I would have today, given last night, so I wasn’t upset about it. At least I felt rested.
Rested enough to realize that I had been a complete mess for the last few days. I definitely had not been in a healthy state. Mentally, that is.
If the last three days hadn’t been one long mental break, then I had no idea was happening. While I feel fine now… Well, I’d felt fine then too. In the heat of the moment, I’d felt like I was behaving normally. But on reflection… Yeah, no.
There was only one way to make sure I was really better. By doing science!
A happy squeak drew my attention to the storage box in the corner. Sir Hopps’ light brown tail tip flicked over the edge of the still open box I’d filled with berries. While I was happy he could get his own food…
I shook my head slowly and smiled. “Don’t eat too much or you’ll get fat, silly,” I teased standing up to step over to the box and give my new pet’s head a little pat.
He chirped, nuzzling upwards as I pet his head, one of the enormous grapefruit sized purple berries held between his paws, a bite taken out of one side.
“Holy cow!” I yelped, looking at the berry.
No wonder those things weighed ten kilos per stack! If anything a hundred of them should be more than ten kilos. You know what? Math time!
The average grapefruit weighs approximately two hundred and sixty grams. Assuming the individual berry has a similar mass due to its size and being composed of roughly the same materials, one hundred of them should have a combined mass of twenty six thousand grams, or twenty six kilograms.
Which meant that either those berries weighed exactly one hundred grams each and were exceptionally low in density, or the base units of mass this system used equated to two point six kilograms. Only one way to find out!
“Hey, mind if I have one?” I asked Sir Hoppy as I reached for one of the berries.
He adorably tucked his berry into his chest floof, curling around the berry protectively, making me have to hold in a laugh as I retrieved a berry for myself. “Awww, I’d never take your food,” I said as soothingly as I could before gently tossing the berry up slightly to judge its weight.
A bit heavy, but not by much… Yeah, this was pretty close to an apple, perhaps just a bit heavier. An apple is about half the mass of a grapefruit, which would most certainly allow a hundred of these to weigh in at ten kilograms, assuming they were all identical in size and density.
Mystery solved! The units were kilograms.
I took a bite of the berry. It tasted like the ‘drinks’ Pinkie made when mixing up sports drinks. She’d fill the bottle with water, and then add in powder until the liquid became sludge. Then call that a drink. When it could be more accurately called ‘thinned frosting’.
This berry was one of those, if it dried out enough to be handled like a solid object.
Turning a bit green I gently set the berry I’d bitten into next to Sir Hopps and gave him another little head scritch.
“Since you like those, go ahead and give this one too… I’ll find something else to eat,” I informed turning to the door to get myself some ‘breakfast’.
I’d really hoped those berries tasted good. I’d been eating grass for the last few days. While a pony can survive like that, well, it’s not exactly good tasting. Or nutritious.
There had to be some nut trees, or potato plants, or proper vegetables around here somewhere. Or perhaps I could catch some fish. I definitely had enough pegasus in me to be able to handle fish thanks to my ascension.
But for now, grass would have to do.
After a few minutes gathering up enough greens to make a ‘meal’, I returned to my cabin and sat down in front of the storage box. Sir Hopps was still sitting inside, and so I gently picked him up and set him next to the box.
“Sorry little guy, but I don't have a desk, yet,” I said while he squeaked in protest.
A quick flick of my tail and the box's lid fell shut with a thump. The top of the box wasn’t exactly flat but it would do. It was time to work out a way to bypass the dampening field. I had to gain full use of my magic, or at least work out a way to cast more powerful spells than I was right now.
While gathering breakfast, I’d also picked up everything I needed to make a lot of paper. I’d figured out how to get items I’d made out into the real world several day sago, and so a simple flick of my wrist conjured a nice stack of paper atop the box while I retrieved a lump of charcoal from my firepit with my telekinesis.
The first thing I noticed was that I could effortlessly lift the bit of charcoal. That would be my baseline for the test. I could lift this effortlessly, and the lump charcoal was about… Oh, five cubic centimeters. Given the density of charcoal, it should weigh about a gram.
Thank you, Miss Pestle! Your Intro to Alchemy class has once again been super helpful.
I closed my eyes and allowed the charcoal to float in front of me, focusing on how much energy it was taking me.
None. I could do this all day. Just like normal. That meant I could write, because I honestly SUCKED at writing with hooves, mouth, or hands. When I had been in the mirror world, everypony had to be polite and say that I wasn't that bad… But I had been BAD.
I slid a page from the top of the stack and quickly wrote down that I could suspend one gram without power loss, then proceeded to record my unaffected AUV as I recalled it.
Five hundred and twelve. I was definitely not capable of using the energy output of half a thousand unicorns each of whom were of average power today. If I could find out how much current I could draw at once, then I could start to work on improving spells. Telekinesis seemed to be working just fine, so it would be my testing method.
It was a good testing method too, because telekinesis is a simple spell. So simple that all unicorns know it by instinct, and even the weakest unicorn can lift a cup of water.
I spent the next few hours lifting increasingly heavier objects, and recording the results. Rather than simply make large jumps, adding another kilogram with each test, I chose to work in ten gram increments. I’d get much better data with more data points, and it wasn’t like I had anything better to do here.
My implant was able to conjure things in different ways. If I told it to make a ‘rock’ I could choose from lots of sizes and basic shapes of stone. Each of the rocks I conjured used different amounts of stone, depending on their mass, which let me workout how heavy they were. But the largest rock I could make was only three kilograms, so I eventually had to make another storage box and fill it with rocks and charcoal, then lift the box.
Then I would lift the box with my actual muscles and try to hold it aloft for the same time and at the same height. I needed to determine just how much more my magic could lift than I could on my own. Because if my magic couldn’t lift more than I could, then I had an AUV of one here, and that would be a big problem.
The heavier the box became, naturally the harder it became to move, though the rate at which it did surprise me. I was used to being able to lift an Ursa Major if I put in effort. Here that same effort was letting me lift a box of fairly heavy stones for ever shortening amounts of time.
Eventually, I couldn’t lift the box at all.
Wiping the sweat from my attempt off my forehead, I nodded, a small smile parting my lips. I had the data!
Picking up my charcoal stick I recorded the final data point, namely the last mass I had been able to lift. “Maximum lifting capacity, two hundred and thirtyfive thousand six hundred and thirty grams, suspended for a total of one second at a height of half a meter,” I announced to myself with satisfaction.
Much less than I was used to… But I could now do the math! The lots and lots of math. One equation for each data point.
I spent another hour crunching the numbers. Working out both the raw numbers and also graphing the curve each point gave me. Sadly, that wasn’t optional. To find the AUV I currently had, I needed to figure out what equation would produce the logarithm that made a particular curve.
Fortunately, I was good at math and getting the equation didn’t take long. Extra fortunately, I still remembered the formula for calculating AUVs. Currently, I was a six.
I could draw six unicorns worth of arcane energy at any one time. I had been able to use four times that amount power since I turned ten. Which sounded really bad at first, but there were plenty of wizards who were able to perform well enough despite a low AUV rating.
The Average Unicorn Value is a measure of current after all. It’s not a ‘power level’ as conceived of in Fluttershy’s favorite magna. It was one of three components which went into determining how powerful you could make a spell. You also had your total magical reserve to factor in
However, I personally had a major problem.
Since this was the rating of how much energy I could use at once, well, I had one point one seven percent of my normal capacity at my disposal. That wasn’t sufficient for me to do much of anything with… Because I used a trick in most of my spells…
I sat down, leaning against the wall of my cabin with a weary sigh. “This is going to be very, very hard, Sir Hoppyfox,” I grumbled, closing my eyes in thought.
Ever since I’d wanted to cast higher level spells as a filly, I’d been using a technique to let me cast the spell far more easily. I’d used it for EVERYTHING, because I had no reason not to do so, given my arcane power. Specifically, I’d used the Roaring Blaze Technique.
In a nutshell, when a spell requires less power to operate than you can supply to the point where you could in theory cast it twice at once, you can overload the spell matrix with excess energy which forces the spell to work. It’s a brute force method, like using a sledge hammer to knock down a wall instead of a saw.
I'd never had a reason to NOT use it. Even as a first year student, while I was still a growing filly, I’d had more power than my teachers. There was no spell I couldn’t use it on, and well, it’s a lot less mentally taxing.
Of course, I did know the proper methods too, but I rarely used them. Practically never. I would have to practice until I could cast things expertly using the normal method. That I could do in about a week.
But the real problem was that I only had one point seven percent of my arcane power to work with. I’d have to work out how to not use excess energy, and then on top of that, learn to make spells work as efficiently as possible. All to have the hopes of casting anything above the first tier spells in a given school.
I’d need to be able to cast second tier spells to begin finding a means of breaching the dampening field. Hopefully, that would be possible. Otherwise I’d need to turn to enchanting, and I was kinda terrible at enchanting...
“Ohhhh,” I moaned rubbing my forehead with my left hand gently. “This is going to SUCK!”
Going about a task the exact opposite way you normally do is probably the single hardest thing anypony can do...
I stood up, and opened my cabin door to go outside. No reason to waste time. Let's get to practicing with concussive blasts.
Nyota - Day 115,343
South Jungle - The Island
There’s an old thought experiment lots of people obsess over. The short version goes like this:
You enter a machine that puts you to sleep, then destroys you, breaking you down into atoms, copying the information and relaying it to a distant location at the speed of light. At that location, another machine re-creates you from local stores of carbon, hydrogen, and so on, putting each atom in exactly the same relative position they were when you entered the first machine.
The question simply being, is the person in the second machine the same one who entered the first machine?
Lots of people get stuck in that philosophical quandary. Not me, and I actually did that exact thing just now, in real life.
The difference between a person who gets stuck on that question and myself being they lack a piece of technological magic in their arm which is the place their mind and soul resides after convincing it to move on in. Everyone in the ARK System does. It’s the warden's trick which lets the inmates slash test subjects cheat death. Our bodies are not the places we reside in, so it doesn't matter how damaged they become.
Therefore yes, absolutely, I can be transmitted just like any other form of data and downloaded into any appropriate device then get wired into whatever organic body it’s hooked up to. And no, I’m not picky about what kind of body I get on the other side so long as it works.
That said, I do like pleasant surprises. While Camo telling me he’d finally recovered my original genome took some of the surprise out of it, I’d still get to learn whether or not he’d done it right as soon as-
My vision flashed bright white as my nanites finished generating my new body’s optic nerves, making the fresh tissue freak out upon exposure to the bright sunlight. An irritating little thing, but one you just had to get used to.
I sniffed the air, checking for the scent of any large predators. Nothing. Just Razor’s dry, leathery, chives and onions scent.
I closed my eyes to block out the whiteness and listened. Nothing but the gentle lapping of water against the rocks below me, the calls of seabirds and jungle critters, and the distant roar of a giga. I was familiar enough with the sound to be able to tell it was all the way over at Far’s Peak. No threat there.
My yard sounded and smelt safe.
I slowly opened my eyes, blinking one or two times to clear them. The spidery silvery-blue metallic ‘limbs’ of transport pad beneath the Red Obelisk twinkled in the late afternoon sun. From the very end of the peninsula, I could see the entirety of the South Jungle stretching away to the horizon before me.
My home’s cyan and burnt orange alloy walls shimmered under the sunlight atop the hill I had placed it on. No bubble shield surrounded it, just as I left it. If someone had broken in and captured it, they would have switched on the shield. I’d rebuilt the damn thing after a total tear down so my whole tribe could use it.
The ‘only those who can slay the great beast is worthy of this technology’ idea Green had was bullshit and pissed me off. Seriously, you have to be able to slay that dragon with its cyberware fully upgraded just to be able to turn a shield on or off for me? Yeah, no.
Of course, that meant any raider who had taken my house could turn it on. But the shield was down, so no one was inside. And my stock pile of element was still there.
And everyone on the island knew I had a shield. And that meant they knew that I had the single hardest to acquire resource available. But my stockpile was intact, because they would NOT simply loot that base and run.
“Just like we left it a month ago,” I remarked, a smile on my face. “That’s what a proper reputation gets ye.”
And no thank you for getting you here faster than you thought I could? Razor chuffed, lashing her tail back and forth.
I turned around and raised an eyebrow. “I thanked ye when we got to blue. Yer not the one who got us here,” I pointed out, frowning behind my helmet.
Razor growled playfully and flicked her tongue at me. I’m practicing jokes, she explained.
“Pff, keep practicing. Ye need it, lassie,” I laughed, shaking my head for a moment before looking down into the ‘lake’ around the transport pad. “Stay here for a minute, I want to see how I look.”
I took the express down, jumping off the side into the waters below. A fairly stupid move, if I didn’t know the water around my yard like the back of my hand. The only things that might be down here were megapiranha and dolphins. Dinner and ocean puppies respectively.
The moment I heard the splash I let myself pitch forwards and swam to the base of the spiral ramp. It only took a few seconds before I could crawl up onto shore and stand back up. I’d always been a good swimmer.
Turning around to face the water, I grabbed the crappy plate helmet with both hands and pulled it off my head, immediately looking into my reflection in the water below. My leaf green eyes looked back at me as I watched myself smile.
Cream fur with burnt orange stripes, including the distinctive one starting just between my eyes and running to the tip of my nose. Long thin equine ears, a short muzzle, and my straight haired spiky mane, styled into the mohawk I’d kept it as, but now with the proper white and burnt orange segments. My head was just how I remembered it being before they crammed me into a human body. Yay!
I had really missed being colors other than two shades of burnt wheat toast!
I pulled off my left gauntlet and looked at my hand, checking to see just how much of my old self was present. My handshape and structure was human, not equine. But I was fine with that. Humans had stronger hands than we did. Looking down I noticed I also still had feet instead of hooves, as well as human style leg joints.
That made sense, I had to be able to use the armor engrams and all. But the real question was did Red mess up my sex again?
I wouldn’t be mad if he did, I was weird after all, but I’d damn well make him fix it.
I debated taking off my greaves for a moment to check, but decided to leave that for later. Raptors and Carnos sometimes wandered in here after all. Getting caught with your pants literally down is, well, there’s a reason the saying is what it is.
Quickly putting my gauntlet and helm back on, I ran up the ramp, circling past two of the transporter’s transceivers on my way to the top where Razor waited, a bored expression on her face.
You smell like an Equus now. You could have just asked me, she grumbled. Then I wouldn’t have to wait…
That’s right! Her sense of smell was excellent. I could just ask.
“True… Sorry I made ye wait. If ye want to help, I didn’t want to strip completely. Do I still smell ‘weird’ as ye call it?” I asked hopefully.
Razor sniffed twice then nodded. Yes. Why do you like that?
“Because it’s my normal,” I said rolling my eyes before pointing towards my house in the distance. “Come on, let’s go. Twilight should be along the way home. If she’s not there, we’ll get you a better saddle and go hunting till she gets back. I imagine that-”
GOOD! This saddle itches, the straps move too much, and the colors go horribly with my scales, Razor exploded, lips pulling back to show her fangs in displeasure.
I held up both my hands defensively. “Woah! Hold on there. If ye hate it that much, I’ll take it off and I’ll run with you,” I said as I waved my implant over her, instructing it to deconstruct the saddle.
I would have liked to bring her the custom saddle I made for her, but well, we just had the one. And I made it mundanely. Losing it would be a major loss.
Razor nodded the moment I took her saddle off and ran off towards the path leading into the jungle. I twisted around and pumped my own legs, easily able to keep pace with her since she was running at a leisurely pace.
To tell the truth, the only reason I liked raptors as a mount was assistance in combat. I was plenty fast on my own, but you can never beat backup. Especially when that backup is a person with an urtharaptor's body and mentality.
Also, because you need friends in this place. You go mad without them.
Five minutes of running brought us to Hayse Lake. My favorite fishing hole. It was nice being back here, the towering cliffs which formed one side of the lake contrasted nicely with the gentle bank on the other side. I’d taken pictures everywhere around the lake. If I ever left this place, I’d take them with me.
Much to my dismay, spotting the place the new mare was staying was easy. Sure, my home was out in the open, but it was built from a mixture of tungsten, titanium, and plasteel. Her’s was built from dried grass.
From what I could see, she’d established no defenses at all, but the fact she expanded the old wooden hut meant she’d learned how to work the engram system on her own. That was good.
But if she were living anywhere else…
My train of thought trailed off as the hut turned cabin’s door opened and a purple mare stepped out.
“No…” I said softly and apprehensively as I squinted at the dot from my position on the opposite shore.
It couldn’t be. It had to just be another mare who happened to be purple and named Twilight. That was too big of a coincidence to happen.
I flexed my right hand and materialized a spyglass, holding it up to my eye to get a closer look at-
Lavender fur, totally naked, magenta starburst cutiemark, curvy, short, super stacked, Twilight Sparkle!
BEGIN MODIFIED STATIONARY PANIC! AAAAAAAAAAA!
I clamped a hand over my mouth before realizing my scream had been internal, not external. I felt my ears squish against the top of my helmet as they tried to raise, likewise my tail smacked painfully into the back of it tried to stand in alarm.
I’d have to do some customization to my kit, but in the meantime, AAAAAAAAAAAAA!
You’re afraid! Where’s the other Alpha! I’ll eat it, this is MY jungle! Razor hissed angrily, her head whipping around as she searched for the non existent threat.
I turned around and grabbed her by the shoulders. “That’s PRINCESS Twilight Sparkle!” I squeaked, voice cracking nervously. “W-well not my universe’s… But it’s still her! And she’s hotter than mine is!”
I’d gone to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns as part of an exchange program to learn enchanting. I’d gone to school with Twilight, and had the biggest crush on her, back before she became famous. But I never did anything to let her know. I was a meek and cautious person back then. I’d been too afraid that she’d reject me due to my sex, and the fact that I was a foreign national, not an Equestrian.
Three years of a self imposed holding pattern. Thank the gods our Twilight had turned into a rather bland person just before graduation otherwise I may never have gotten over that crush. Of course, she was still hot, just not somepony I felt a romantic attraction towards.
With any luck this Twilight would also be a by the numbers professional demeanor always, stickler for formal behavior-
“Come on, Sir Hoppyfox!” I heard Twilight call happily, her voice faint but still clear enough to be heard. “We have to slay the evil floating rocks to prove our magic is still strong!”
A baby jerboa hopped out of the cabin, rushing to Twilight and swiftly climbing up on her shoulder while the mare laughed happily and gave it a little pet on its head, before tossing a lump of charcoal into the air and trying to hit it with a magical laser attack. She missed, nodded to herself, then tossed another, trying again.
Nope. You’re bucked, Nyota. This Twilight has the same determined, playful, fun loving demeanor she’s characterised with in Arcane Moon. There is NO WAY you can teach her how to survive and be professional. You’ll do something inappropriate, she’ll get mad, and the whole thing will go south faster than anything Mike cooks.
“This is a disaster,” I sobbed leaning down to hold my head in my hands.
Happy, fun loving, determined, Twilight, with e cups… Discord did it! This has to be him! Nothing else makes sense.
Why? She has good legs. Your hatchlings will be strong, and her colors are nice, Razor chuffed, cocking her head to one side.
“That’s not what I meant by the word ‘mate’,” I mumbled. “It’s a dialect thing… I meant friend… But yes, now that I know it’s her I do want her as a mate, in the way you use the word, and that’s a problem.”
Why for the love of Faust did I start fantasizing about Twilight after getting stranded here? I knew of plenty of other hot and famous ponies. Any other stallion or mare would have been just fine. But no! Since the second month of being alone here that was the fantasy. Me, and her, being awesome, and having a dinner date consisting of rex steaks and chips, while stargazing on the back of a titanosaur.
Why is it a problem? You’re strong and pretty. She seems strong and pretty. You both will desire offspring, Razor asked, her tail dipping down as she became even more confused.
“Most people aren't like ye raptors are, Razor,” I sighed, finally looking back up.
Yep, she was still shooting clay pigeons using lumps of charcoal. Already trying to get better. Working to improve herself despite the massive handicap of the arcane countermeasures.
THAT’S what attractive is! That’s why I loved how she was portrayed in Arcane Moon, a wonderful take on a Twilight that could have been expertly written and drawn by an exceptionally skilled manga artist. I’d actually redrawn the series from memory to pass the time over the many years I’d been trapped here. Heck, I’d even continued the story on my own after I ran out of volumes I could remember.
My art hadn’t been that good to start with but-
“OH, GODS!” I exclaimed, my eyes flying open in blind panic.
What? Razor asked worriedly, the poor confused raptor hunching herself down lower to the ground.
“My bookshelves are covered in my reprint of Arcane Moon!” I yelped, spine tingling with terror.
My modified stationary panic transformed into full boar linear panic as I turned to run towards my house behind the treeline at my top speed.
I had to hide those books!
Arcane Moon was primarily a very, very good adventure series. Which is why I liked it. But it was written for an adult audience, and was therefore mostly an Adventure Magna but had a handful of chapters which were dedicated to the romance subplot that were totally just hentai! And the other main character was Nightmare Moon.
I had to get that off my shelves RIGHT NOW! Before she even set foot within a dozen meters of my house.
I mean, she was a celebrity. She HAD to know that being good looking and well known meant that kind of stuff existed. There’s no way her universe didn’t also have changelings employed to mimic celebrities for photo shoots and other things. But that didn’t mean her finding it wouldn’t screw over any chance I had of being able to teach her how to survive here, let alone her helping us out in return.
Yes, I liked her, but I made a promise to train and try to recruit her. I had to be professional here! I didn’t want to freak her out. ESPECIALLY if she also once hypnotised an entire town because she panicked due to forgetting her homework just like ours did!
I’d ask myself why the hell I redrew it, but I already knew. It’s a good story that put real people, one of whom I liked, into a cool fictional setting and has sexy bits in it. I had to pass the time somehow. You can’t tinker with stuff or hunt every day!
This was such a disaster!
My panic made the run to my house feel much longer than it really was. I didn’t stop as I sprinted up the rocky hillside towards the massive looming nano weave gate. The slightly rippling gold colored ‘door’ disassembled itself as I ran up the ramps and across my deck, letting me zip through the rex-sized opening into my garage before reassembling itself.
The inside of my home was pleasantly cool as always. The garage full of parts I’d salvaged from things built with the engram system rather than dinos. I hadn’t owned anything big for a while.
Carefully picking my way through the mess I made it to my elevator and moved up to the living quarters on the second floor. The second I was upstairs I sprinted into the living room, vaulted over the couch to the bookshelves, created a steel storage box with my implant, and threw all eighty two volumes into the box.
I slammed the lid shut, rushed back to the garage, found a length of chain, returned to the living room, chained the box shut, welding the ends of the chain for good measure, then moved it into my bedroom, tossing the heavy box into the back of the closet with a loud crash.
“There,” I said to myself amid a long relieved sigh.
Mission complete.
Assuming that her Princess Cadence was like our Princess Cadence, since her brother had married Cadence, I doubted Twilight would be upset at a person for owning porn. But still, it would definitely be weird to know that had some of you.
The sad thing was that the covers were always clean. But Twilight, being Twilight, would definitely read every book I had… And despite the truth that I mainly enjoyed Arcane Moon for the plot, that would NEVER come across as true when she found out that it was a shipfic between herself and one of her greatest enemies.
Even though in said story Nightmare isn’t remotely evil after the first volume and has Twilight decide to go to the moon to ask her to not come back and end Equestria, and the two wind up talking out her problems over some drinks at-
I took a deep breath to try and calm my nerves. I couldn’t go about helping Twilight in this state.
I was going to force myself to be cool, calm, and professional about this. Yes, she was very hot. Yes, I used the version of her I knew in school as a personal fantasy to make living here more bearable. She had NOTHING to do with that. I was going to keep things to a kind mentor slash friend type relationship.
Of course… If SHE wanted to push things further…
NO! No, don’t think like that. She’s probably nothing like how you imagine. She’s a completely different person. Just- Just do your job. And don’t be awkward about it. You’ve killed things hundreds of times your own size and then eaten them. You can talk to a mare you like and keep things normal.
Maybe…
I bit my lip nervously. I should go over and get the introductions over with. That would be the hardest part.
Yeah, I’d just change out of this crappy armor into my usual outfit then go over and say hello. The fact that Camo sent me and that the Dragonslayers were interested in recruiting her, after I had taught her how to survive, and that she would be under no obligation to join us at the end, was of no consequence. Just a friendly service we would provide to everyone if we had the numbers and power.
I nodded to myself, my mind properly set for the task at hand. I’d just go to my closet, change, and then head over to her cabin.
…
After cooking her something nice to take over there. I can’t imagine she’s eaten anything good in the last few days. Did I still have some Quetz eggs? I could make her a nice omelet.
No! No, that’s a breakfast food. Did she eat meat? Probably not, most Equestrians are vegetarian.
I could do a Rösti Casserole with a side of fruit salad and bring over a jar of Mejoberry juice. I had everything for that in the fridge already. And it was a good meal by anyone’s standards.
Yes! That’s the plan. Change, cook, go say hello.
…
Does she have a good blanket? Is there one in the basic engrams list? No, just the world’s worst bed. I could bring her a quilt too. That would be a nice thing to do.
No, that’s silly! I’ll just offer to let her stay with me. It’s far more secure, and it will make teaching her easier. I can’t imagine she’ll say no to ‘Hey, would you like to sleep inside a house with metal walls? I have a guest bedroom because when I built this place I was stupidly optimistic about making friends.’
…
Should I shower first? Yeah, I should. I had been in the sun, inside plate-steel covered leather for a week. I had to smell bad. I’d have to add that to the list.
Twilight Sparkle - Day 3
South Jungle - The Island
They day always seemed to fly by when I was practicing spells. Despite the inconvenience of having to learn an entirely new method of spellcasting, I was a little happy that I got to practice the basics all over again. Especially since I’d already worked out how to throw a decent concussive blast without expending much energy.
I wouldn’t say I could throw them all day, but I had been firing one or two a minute for the last three or four hours. That would definitely be plenty for keeping smaller creatures at bay.
For larger ones I would need to use a proper attack spell. I couldn’t compress energy into a bolt yet, but I felt fairly confident I could form a bolt of lightning and throw it. Did I have time to try practicing that?
I looked up at the sky and frowned sadly. The sun was just starting to think about setting, leaving maybe an hour of usable daylight free. I didn’t have time for that. Not with my belly starting to gurgle. I had to find some food.
Real food. Not the grass and leafy ferns I’d been eating. After today’s bathroom break, it was very clear that while I got nutrients from those plants, my body REALLY didn’t like digesting them.
I dipped my head to my left, rubbing against Sir Hopps lightly to avoid hurting the tiny little guy. “I need to go find food, so I’m going to put you back inside now, okay? We don’t want you to get hurt,” I said as I turned to walk back to my cabin.
The moment I turned my back, a piercing whistle split the air. My ears twitched, turning to try and face the noise. It had come from behind me, at the top of the cliff across the lake.
It also hadn’t sounded like a bird, or one of the monstrous lizards.
I quickly turned, squinting at the top of the cliff. I could barely make out a humanoid shape. Despite the fearful twitch my tail made as I spotted the figure, I remained still. If they meant me harm, they would have shot me from up there, not whistled, right?
My suspicion was confirmed when the person raised their left hand and waved to me. Was this the person Camo said he’d send to help me? It had to be, right? Who else would wave?
While I debated the question of ‘ally or enemy with a trick’ the person suddenly jumped off the edge of the cliff!
I gasped reflexively, and remembered there was water below them just before they made a jerking motion with one arm and deployed a rectangular parachute. The light brownish-orange cloth snapped taught unusually quickly. From what I recalled, a parachute had to fall about thirty meters before properly deploying. His one just opened up as if spring loaded, caught the air immediately, and allowed the mystery person to glide slowly across the lake towards me.
Deciding to play things safe, I flexed my wrist, accessing my implant and making sure that it could deploy my spear into my hands at a moment’s notice. After all, I couldn’t be completely certain that-
The person drew near enough for me to make out a few details. I gasped in surprise. They were a pony too!
Or well, a zebra. Same difference.
I was fairly certain that she was a mare, based on the general body shape and the small bumps behind the brownish leather vest she had on. I mean, if I looked like I was half human here, other equines would too, right?
The closer she got, the less I thought she was a zebra. While she had cream fur with orange ish stripes in a common zebra patern, her body was exceptionally toned, and her muscles very well developed. Not that a zebra couldn’t look like that, but her body shape was halfway between earth pony and human, with just her pelt, nose, eye shape, and ears expressing zebra traits. Additionally, I’d never seen a zebra who wasn’t exclusively black and white.
This mare was half zebra, half pony. She had to be.
As she started to land, somehow making the parachute go down faster, I could make out her clothing in detail. That had been pretty hard from a distance, because her clothing had a LOT of equipment attached to it.
Her dark brown leather vest which was tossed over her bare fur had a very large knife, at least two grenades, a pair of binoculars, a small strip of what I believed were shotgun shells, and a half dozen pouches attached to it. She had a pair of loose fitting olive green cloth pants which had large pockets on the sides, a pair of handguns strapped to the thighs via a harness that secured to her vest as well as the legs, and were tucked into her black boots, one of which had a smaller knife lashed to the side.
While all of the stuff she carried was laid out in a way where you could get to it at a moment’s notice, it made determining exactly what she was wearing difficult at a distance. Especially since the strap for the back scabbard holding… some kind of medium length bladed melee weapon to her back. The straps for that obscured the things on her vest too.
“Hey there!” The half-zebra called a few moments before her boots touched down, the parachute disintegrating the second she touched the ground, her long tail trailing after her, decorative brass rings shimmering as she moved.
Okay, I liked the tail style! I needed to do that. Bunch fur up into a little ‘ball’, secure with a ring, bunch another section, secure with a ring, twist hair so each ball is one color on one side and another color on the other. That looked cool.
“Um, hello,” I replied, still a little nervous.
And a bit confused. Up close, she looked more like an earth pony stallion in terms of her musculature. Well, she was living in this place. She probably worked out a LOT.
I should probably work out a lot too.
“Are ye Twilight?” She asked in Zebrican with a friendly smile and a mild Owlwood Accent. “I mean, I know ye are… But…”
An Owlwood Accent, but speaking Zebrican natively. Sure, that part of Equestria bordered Zebrica, but how do you have native fluency with a foreign acc- Oh, duh! She was just great at languages.
The zebra mare closed her eyes for a moment, a quick look of embarrassment flashing across her face.
I couldn’t help but giggle. “Yes, I’m Twilight Sparkle. Did Cam send you?” I asked, just wanting to be safe.
The embarrassed look cracked, an honest smile parting her lips. “Okay,” she chuckled. “NEVER call him that. He hates that abbreviation. Use Camo. Or John. In fact, ye should call him John, because then he’d be freaked out about how ye know his real name since he doesn't know I know it.
“I’m Nyota Komeo, or Star Bolt if ya want to say it in Equish… Oh, um, How fluent are ye in Zebrican? Sorry, bit of an oversight.”
I flashed her a smile as I tilted my head forwards slightly, my look saying, ‘please…’ for me.
“I invented the most accurate translation spell known to ponykind,” I said simply.
She blushed lightly, rubbing the back of her head with one hand. “Yeah, dumb question. Sorry…” She said with a shaky grin. “I’m sorry, I’m not normally this, uh, flustered. It’s just that, well, ye’r well… You. I sort of looked for ye through a spyglass a while ago. I didn’t want to just dive right on in and uh, I wasn’t expecting a Princess.
“Oh! Are ye a Princess? I’m from a version of Equestria where ponies are bipeds. Camo told me you were originally a quadruped like the other two of us trapped here. Where I’m from, ye’r a princess. But I suppose-”
I nodded, understanding her problem completely. “Yes, I’m a princess back home too… I think I know about your home. I talked to a person named Lyra Heartstrings, not the one from my own home, but a dimensional traveler. She said she visited a world where ponies were like you.”
To my surprise, Nyota shook her head and laughed bitterly. “Oh boy… Yeah she was. She’s the reason I’m here. I sort of had to take a summer job as a maid, wound up working on Empress Mysuki’s estate, and accidently stepped into a portal that Lyra made to leave as it was decaying. I was carrying a tray of tea and looked down to make sure I’d remembered the cream at exactly the wrong time. Walked face first into the ass end of a stego. Easily the single most surprising thing ever…
“Until I see that somehow Twilight Sparkle of all ponies wound up here too. Wot happened to ye?”
I frowned, looking down at the ground for a few minutes. Trying to hold back the memories from flooding back. I’d just gotten a nice, calm, peaceful break from remembering those…
“Oh… That’s a look that says ‘war’,” Nyota remarked sympathetically. “I’m sorry. I won't ask again.”
I nodded gratefully. “I um… We won. I did a stupid thing when taking down the enemy leader. Now I’m here,” I summarized. “But not for long! I’m sure that my friends and Princess Celestia are working hard on rescuing me! I’m certain that they will be okay with rescuing you too.”
“That’s good!” Nyota said with a broad smile. “I'd like to live in a less asshole infested place again. Given the circumstances, maybe I will go with ye one day. Speaking of leaving… It may be a while before yer rescued. Ye ken?”
I nodded twice. “I hold no delusions about seeing Pinkie pop through a portal tomorrow,” I agreed my tone remaining even and natural. “I expect a rescue to take months, a year at most. After all, we only barely became aware of universal travel before I was banished. It will take some time to create a safe means of travel and figure out a way to track me here, even with the artifact used to send me here in Equestrian hooves.”
Nyota smiled, oddly happy with my statement. “Good! Well, bad. I mean that it’s good ye’r taking a realistic stance on your situation. And speaking of your situation, I want to formally offer you my assistance in learning how to survive, and on behalf of the Dragonslayers, I invite you to join our Tribe once ye can survive on your own, should ya wish.
“That’s not a requirement for my helping ye to learn the ropes, it’s an offer. That’s all. If ya want to know why we’d invite a complete newcomer to our tribe, I’m willing to admit that it’s because yer a unicorn, and our chief is jumping at the chance to have a wizard as a friend or ally. However, if after ye can survive out here ya wish to do so alone, we won't press ye to join or anything.
“One of our goals is to offer basic survival training to all newcomers. We’re trying to help. Which, if ya ran into any other Tribe, sounds-”
“Like something I really need,” I interrupted with a nervous laugh.
Nyota nodded. “Yeah… It’s hard learning it on yer own. But you know that already. I can tell. At any rate, here’s the offer in plain Zebric. Ye can keep living here in my back yard, and do that alone. Or ye can keep living here and I can come over every day to teach ya new things and give ya supplies from time to time. Or ya can come up to my house with me and live there, behind metal walls, with air conditioning, and-”
Air conditioning!? SOLD!
“Let me grab my notes and we can go!” I answered flashing Nyota the largest most grateful smile I could.
“Hey, awesome! I was hoping ye’d go for that one. It’s definitely much safer at home,” she said happily, her tail swishing behind her.
Then I frowned. Maybe I was jumping the gun a little? I mean, I didn’t know anything about her as a person.
“Uh, on second thought, before I do, can you tell me a little about yourself?” I asked, my ears drooping with embarrassment. “I mean, I do appreciate the offer of tutoring in survival skills, but well… I’d like to know who I was sharing a room with since the last people I ran into here wanted to-”
“Eat ye to gain magic,” Nyota said with a grim nod. “Yeah. Don’t worry, I understand… Let’s see… I’m a zebra who grew up in Takha. My dad is a zebra, my mom is an Earth Pony from Carriagebridge. But I consider myself a zebra since I grew up in Zebrica.”
I blinked tilting my head slightly. Carriagebridge? The old world city which had been leveled during the last Thaumaturgy War? If her universe was similar to ours, and ponies rebuilt there after that war, and the land was still cursed, then I might have just found the answer to her stallions physique.
I also had a serious question to ask incase I was being very, very rude…
I cleared my throat nervously. “Pardon my interruption, but in my world, Carriagebridge is a small town built on the ruins of a cursed city. Is that the same for you?”
Nyota nodded. “Aye,” she confirmed. “An I imagine if it’s cursed in your world that the curse is probably the same too. Did an evil archmage try to mess up ponies living there so they couldn’t have foals, wound up increasing the rate of birth defects by a lot instead?”
It was my turn to nod. “Yes, that’s true of our world too,” I said apologetically, if this much was the same, most ponies born there likely suffered the same affliction as in ours. “You don't look like you were conjoined, or are deformed in any obvious way… That leaves the most common one. Just so I’m not being rude, are you a mare or do you have an intersex condition?”
Nyota smirked. “Twilight, only one in fifty or so ponies born to parents who lived in Carriagebridge are normal. And I’m trapped on an island full of super monsters. So ye know I’m not lucky.”
“Ah,” I said with a short nod. “My I ask what particular condition you have? Also, you seem fairly tomfillyish. Do you style yourself as a stallion or a mare?”
“Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. I don’t want to go into details, all you need to know is I ‘style’ myself as myself,” Nyota said in a rather firm tone of voice. “Medically, I’m a mix. But I am female, get it? Though I do have a few stallions traits, but hey, lots of mares do.
“And sure, some of my Tribemates call me a guy, and that’s cool. I don’t mind because it’s more of a battle brother type of thing. Just don’t call me ‘they’ like Camo does, that’s extremely de-equinizing even if appropriate for his culture.
“I’m a girl, just another one of the mutants from Carriagebridge as far as I care.”
The way she said the word ‘mutants’ was fairly upbeat. I could tell that she knew she was abnormal, but completely fine with that. Even a bit proud. You had to respect that.
“Neat,” I said with arms crossed, after a moment’s thought.
Nyota blinked. “That’s it? Most people have more of a reaction… I uh… I kind of expected some disgust…” She said in an odd mixture of happiness, distress, and regret.
“You have an uncommon medical condition which is basically just a few extra, or oddly formed, internal body parts, and maybe a bit of weird shaping of one particular external part. Unlike, say, those poor ponies born with an extra leg or head. That’s nothing to be disgusted over,” I explained with a small flick of my tail. “Is it alright if I call you a mare? I know what you said before but I just want to be completely sure.”
“Yeah, go right ahead. I don’t mind,” she chuckled. “All of that aside, uh, do you want to hear the rest of what I was going to tell you, or have you made up your mind?”
I looked up at the sun. It was starting to tint orange. Nocturnal predators were probably waking up right now.
“Um… Can I get a short version?” I asked hopefully.
She nodded. “My accent is because my father worked two jobs to support us while I grew up. My mom taught me how to speak so I learned her accent. I can turn it off, but that takes effort so I just don’t.
“I’m an engineer by trade. I attended Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns to learn enchanting thanks to an exchange student program. I actually was in a few basic classes with ‘ye’ for a few years. I graduated, went to a secondary school and learned mechanical engineering. Zebrica is less focused on traditional architecture and arcane development than Equestria, we use plenty of machines. I wanted a nice job to help support my family.
“I graduated with my degree in technoarcana, and while looking for a job I decided to apply to a SkyTech factory in Neighpone. I’ve always loved to travel, and hey, who doesn't want to work on mechs? I already told ye how that wound up going… But I got here because the ship’s purser lost my letter of acceptance, and some system bug meant the receptionist at the factory couldn’t pull up their copy. So no job till my mom could mail a copy to me, and SkyTech hires in the spring and autumn exclusively for… Reasons. So I had to get a summer job.
“Now I’m here.”
I nodded, taking it all in. She sounded like a fairly normal pony. Loved her family, liked to travel, hard working. A good person by anypony’s standards.
“Okay, I’ve got an idea of what kind of person you are… Sorry for having to ask it’s just-”
Nyota shook her head. “Don’t apologize. I get it. The first tribe I joined killed me in my sleep to take my kit, then banished me,” she grumbled. “I haven't seen another pony in… Well, in a lifetime. I don’t want to hurt ye. I’d like to be yer friend.”
“Of course we can be friends,” I said with a smile. “Um, one last question. You said that there were two other ponies here. I was told that Starswirl and Clover the Clever were banished here too. Is that who you were talking about? Where are they? Why haven't you talked to them?”
“They are here,” she confirmed with a sad sigh. “Well, not here here. They are on the Center. It’s another habitat in the ARK system. But we could travel there eventually. I haven't seen them because Starswirl took over a huge chunk of that ARK and is running it like a micronation. It’s… Well it’s very hard to get permission to go into the Beastfolk’s home base if you’re not one of them.
“The Center is home to some of the worst tribes. So they don’t trust anyone. And before ye ask, this body I’m in right now, yeah it’s my original one. But um, I just got it back today. The portal I took here messed me up, Red stuck me into a human body because I was dying. He just managed to fix it up a few days ago. So everyone here except my Tribemates think I’m a human, not a pony.”
“I believe you,” I said after a moment’s thought.
After all, they made me part human for whatever reason. So them transforming a dying pony to save her life made sense to me.
Something growled in the jungle, making the fur on the back of my neck stand up.
“Uh, so, how about we be roommates now?” I asked nervously looking over my shoulder into the jungle.
Nyota giggled. “I’d love that! Also that was a Moschops. They are harmless. Friendly even. I used to have one as a pet. Come on, let's go before the Troodons decide it’s time to hunt. We don’t want to tangle with them…”
I nodded and quickly ran into my hut, grabbing my notes on my AUV and then going back outside. Nyota turned and started to jog up the hill towards the cliff and the distant house on the hill.
“We can make it safely if we jog. If we get caught out when the sun kisses the horizon, I’ll toss ye a pistol just incase. Ye can shoot, right?” She asked, looking over her shoulder.
I nodded. “Kinda, yeah.”
“Cool, stay close, okay?” She asked as she put on a bit more speed.
I smiled as I ran along behind her. Her ‘jog’ being what I would consider a run. With a good friend’s help, life here would definitely not be as bad as it had been.
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I think I'm with Twilight on this one, as far as all the exposition in this chapter.
orig08.deviantart.net/ddc6/f/2017/104/3/e/neat_by_popmannn-db5r00f.png
Mhm. In my experience, giving someone a quilt is a good way to get them to like you.
Well at least Twilight knows she's staving off a mental breakdown, if not starting the beginning of it. I believe the saying gos: "Only the sane think they are insane", or something like that.
Ooooooooooooo purrrrty zeebra! hehehehe manga reference is priceless.
I smell SHIPING!!!!
At least one can always fall back to reliable math and science.
Ahhh, so Twilight knows that she is being inefficient with her spells, she's just powerful enough in normal situations for it not to matter. Good thing she bothered to learn the normal casting methods even if she's out of practice.
Newly reponied pony is now pony.
Hahaha, real life Twilight Sparkle in all her naked and apparently really hot glory.
Oh man, that manga connection. Awkwardness abounds.
Endless awkwardness.
How exotic.
Thanks, Lyra!
Just give her fair warning about Razor, Nyota. An alpha raptor is going to be a surprise.
So, no ghost Flash all chapter, which lends credence to the likelihood he's just in Twilight's imagination (darn). Might just mean Twilight is successfully distracting herself, or that she is getting more emotionally centered about events. No Romance tag so Nyota and Twilight may not be intended to go anywhere, but that's always subject to change as the story develops.
Sounds like Nyota is probably in for a surprise or two. AT a guess she is only used to dealing with Twilight in happier times not when the chips are down. Also if Nyota needs anything fixed once Twilight gets out of there Lilly probably can help and Sky can probably get her back to the proper universe
So what about Sir Hoppyfox
I like Twilight's approach to spell casting. Sure, she can do it the right way, but she has enough power to simply not give a damn. I feel like not having access to a good portion of her reserve is going to end up teaching her a very important lesson in the long run.
I also had a thought: Twilight mentions that she was at 512 AUV. But is this actually accurate, seeing as what Dawn had done to her for most of her life? Seems to me that she might actually be even more powerful than she realized she was. That is, unless Dawn simply made it hard for her to concentrate on casting instead of actually reducing her power. I seem to recall mentioning multiple times in previous stories (featuring Reep especially) that Twilight was actively shielding her reserves, but was still so powerful it didn't help much. But the other alicorns (according to Reep) weren't flaring so brightly while they had their shielding up. So then is 512 AUV more reserves than the other princesses, or what? I know Twilight mentions in this chapter that AUV isn't a catch all measurement, but does this mean that Twilight is actually quite a bit more powerful than her fellow princesses?
I suppose I could just be looking at this thing all wrong.
8096508
The story is called Catalyst becase this situation is the Catalyst for some major changes. Twilight reaching her full potential is one of them :D
But yes, it's clear in the show that she just brute forces her magic and frankly, she has NO REASON not to. Ever. She's a freakisly powerful mage. Which will be scary as hell when she can use that power efficiently...
No, it's not right. Without Dawn's meddeling that value is higher. Howeaver, that is the value she would remember, as she mentioned that Scoots soaked up 75% of her reserves and gave the number for that back in Lifegiver. So I simply did the math to work out her full power as she knew it was 512.
That's true for anypony over 300. The arcane energy arround a pony like that is painful for unicorns to look at since they can see thermatugic curents. Shielding it dosn't lower the output or change the number. It's basicaly just putting welding glass arround yourself.
Yes, Luna is a 215, Celestia is a 308, Cadence is a 142. Remember, Twilight' sspecial talent is "Magic: All of it", and with Clover as her mother she's half changeling. So she's getting a significent power boost from her friends, Flash (at the time), and the general Equestrian public. After all, changelings litteraly convert affection into magic for bouth food and their spells. This is true of all hybrids, even the ones who can not shapechange.
No. It means she's got far more amperage than anypony else, but that's a third of the equasion. Celestia still beats her in terms of true power because Tia's experiance at forming spellmatrixes lets her use her lower amperage to achieve the same results Twilight can with brute force (the Roaring Blaze Technique makes the spell less effective, but easier to cast.), and she's got more 'voltage' than Twilight, giving her a higher 'wattage' over all. Twilight will be more powerful than her in time, but as it stands now, Celestia is about 4 times as effective as Twilight is at everything but the most crude spells (which Twilight is far better at, because they require no finess so the RBT making them less effective is compleatly countered by the excess power thrown into them.)
You had it almost compleatly right :D
Oh and fun fact, Twilight dosn't have the highest AUV of any currently living pony, or historical figure. She's just in the top tier. Empress Mysuki of Neighpone is the highest known with an AUV of 893, but like all A.L.I.C.O.R.N. pilots, she had her horn removed and replaced with the nessicary arcane implants for piloting one of their mechs, so she's only able to use magic in her mech, meaning for most of her life that number is irrelevent.
8096623 Thanks for the reply! I knew Mysuki was quite powerful just by herself, but never knew exactly how powerful. And while that number might be irrelevant most of her life, that does mean that she's one hay of an A.L.I.C.O.R.N. pilot. Or at least, it should. Either way, I do understand now exactly what you're aiming to accomplish in this story: Help Twilight come into her own, especially since for the first time in this timeline she is actually free. Of course, we all know that she's going to need it sooner or later when we finally hit the big showdown.
And I recall her being stupidly powerful in the show, but I've also not seen anything past the pilot episode of.... was it S5 or S6? Which ever Season was the one that introduced Glimmer. I can't even remember right now. Shoot, I've never even watched the newest EQG and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to watch the actual movie there's been rumors about. I'm so damn stressed all the time, I don't want to have my ponies tainted by stress and worries. So I'm kind of just waiting until I can get my feet back under me a bit before going on a binge watching spree.
8096951
She's exceptionaly powerful, the entire Neighponese royal line is and has always been. But, with the full number crunch she's just a bit under Twilight in terms of spellcasting. To get the true "power level" you need the AUV, MP, and Effishency ratings. Then you go (A*M)/E and that geys you your effective power capabilities as a mage. Effishency is not an across the board number, BTW. It's a per school (and sometimes per spell for the REALY complex stuff) rating of how well you can cast X type of magic. This means a mage's power will be diffrent from school to school.
When Twilight says she's good at transformation but terrible at enchanting, she means she has an effective power of 678 in transformation, but a 9 in Enchanting. This is why Lily is stupid good at biomancy by horrible at most other schools of magic.
If you have an effishency of less than 1, deviding by a decimal increaces the number. IE, 3/0.3=10. That's how most mages get powerful, and why most mages do one or two schools. They learned effishency for one thing well enough to be great at it and it took all their time.
What do you mean? The show was mysteriously canciled just before the season 5 fanalie. We will never know what happened. how tragic.
So zebra girl meets princess crush. That's bound to go without a hitch and deliver no shenanigans, no sire!
8096623 893, huh. Considering the formula in
8097354, you can certainly say a wizard would need more than only that. But when you're talking machines your MP and Efficiency might become a moot point, since you're a power source. Considering that she might as well be the most powerful pony in the world, with a sufficiently optimized Mecha.
That did make me curious, how does the royal family go around making heirs? Do they take the empress out of commission for it or is there a branch of the family purely responsible for popping out little cute powerhouses?
8097354 Now damnit Meep I know that's horseapples; being on this site for any length of time is hard to hide all spoilers in regards to episodes, and I know for a fact the new season is being aired today the 15th and has been picked up by Discovery Family instead of just The Hub.
And seriously, if the show had been cancelled "mysteriously" there'd be rioting in the streets and quite a few of our websites would be shut down in protest, or something. Shame on you for trying to convince me of that bologna!
Now, if you said what you did because you don't care for Glimmer (like everyone else) then I suppose that's a little more understandable. I'm afraid I don't really have grounds to base my own opinion on yet.
8097761 Looks over each shoulder
Okay, good, she isn't online atm... Right, so, Meep hates Glimmer with an unbridled passion. Like, she wanted a death sentence after the finale of season 5 with no chance at redemption. In her eyes, everything from that point on doesn't exist. Which is why there is no 'Starlight' in her AU and how every event from that point on is where her AU fully diverges from the show cannon (A lot of different things happened in the 'canon' bits actually, including Twilight defeating Tirek without the Rainbow Power transformation). I would recommend not mentioning it to her. It is a super sore spot, trust me, I know...
8097761 8098205 Actually hate too. Not merely "I dislike this but say hate because using the appropriate word is a dead aspect of the English language." I loathe her to the point where if I could kill her as slowly and painfully as scientifically possible, I would, and I would never feel bad about it. I actively long for her destruction, not just as a fictional entity but as a piece of IRL IP. I want her to be purged from reality. Every mention, every picture, every story, every idea. Totally gone, as if she never existed.
I could explain why if people care. In short, she completely ruins the entire setting and characters to the point where I can't enjoy the show, even retroactively, because of character traits she reveals in the main cast. This has taken from me the one thing that could always push away depression, and once even made me decide to not go through with a suicide attempt. Her existence took something special, important, and even lifesaving from me.
As such, "What do you mean? They canciled the show just before the season 5 finale. Thta realy sucked, didn't it?"
8097620
Me thinks the internet ate part of your comment :c
Yes, and also no. She can be, but it's going to exclusively be in attack and defense combat spells. She's not an omnimage, nor are mechs designed to do more spells than those required for combat. They are battlemage devices.
The Emperor/Empress is allowed to marry anyone they wish, but is required to have several consorts consisting of the highest tier mages available. Whichever child they produce who turns out to have the greatest over all magical power becomes the heir regardless of birth order and age with a minimum acceptable threshold of 450 AUV 600 MP (Efficiency can be learned).
The Emperor of Neighpone is the strongest, because they are a protector first, and a leader second. Technicaly, by the law, reguardless of her bloodline, if a nore powerfull neighponese mage existed, Mysuki could pass the crown to them, and they would be foreaver concitered a part of the Segata bloodline.
8098205 Oh I already knew she hates her. She told me as much when I was writing the draft for Dented Armor; Twinkleshine was originally Glimmer (and even now I'm still teetering between who the fourth Paladin is going to be if I ever decide to turn that one shot into a little universe). That's why I added that as an afterthought on that comment, was because I remembered that little detail I discovered. However, while I do understand and respect Meep's point of view, I'm also unable to accurately offer my own insights since I've yet to see anything past the Season 5 pilot. Once I actually do get around to watching it, I'll be free to form my own perspective and decide if I want to join Meep in pretending S5 onward doesn't exist, or if I don't think its nearly so bad as to completely shun the rest of the show, that same show that managed to drag me up from the depths of my depression ages ago. I feel like I owe the show at least to the S5 finale. Eventually, anyway.
8098407 it didn't eat it, there's only a line break where there shouldn't be one. The second quote is part of the first one, I only linked both posts I was referencing
Hmm I wonder, will those two be together in a permanent manner or only during their hand universe Durance. Makes one think
So, on the maths, how many EUPs (Effective Unicorn Power), being EUP = (AUV * MP) / Efficiency, would it take to levitate an Ursa Major, as in effectively negating gravity at 1m height? I'm considering time would be limited by reserves, so a not-issue on this matter. If that's too much mass to consider, just make it 1kg or so. Lots of 1s make do good science constants and definitions
8098739 I
Nothing involving her is good. Her character intentionally causes a situation which results in a live, on-screen, suicide attempt, of a named character.
8098895
At 50, you could lift it for a moment. At 80, you could hold it aloft for 30 seconds. At 100 you could lift it for a minute. At 120, a few minutes. At about 150, you can suspend it for a half hour or so.
8099161 interesting. Why the nonlinearity?
8099607 This is one of the mysteries of Arcane Physics. The 'curve' in terms of power requirements isn't linear, or geometric. Instead it's oddly bumpy, following a general linear form but festooned with peaks and valleys.
8099614 so there are moments where you did achieve less with more? Damn, that must be a headache and a half to study. Arcane machinery must also be a pain to project.
But it does give decisive goal points for power development, since you always want to reach the next peak.
Is the curve equal across all spells/schools or does that change too?
8099624 The curve of 'required work energy' is the same across the board. Lots of it is mapped out in detail, most of it is kind of hazy. (Maped out in detail meaning 'well known useable target points.)
8099646 does it extend in the negative range too? Is magic weird enough for it to net a raw positive point with Bryce energy input?
And why didn't scoots help against Dawn, again?
taught -> taut
8099159 You mean that stupidity with Trixie and the Manticore?
8099662
Where does she live? And where was that location for the duration?
8100061 As with the Library of Alexandria's destruction, I shall never forgive those responsible.
8100611 that's an extremely valid point I had forgotten about
On an unrelated note, you still haven't written Luna and 7%'s meeting. We wants that awkwards!!
8101212 Sorry Neece, old news. Time moves on, as it were. Those events are now in the past.
8101481 nevar!!! We were promised the cute awkwards, we shall have the cute awkwards!!!
8101757 You were never promised. You deduced that it would occur and asked and Meep at most said "perhaps".
8102192 do not mess with forces beyond your reckoning, pop. The desire for The Cute it's a strong force with few equals, and it's not easy sated.
Incidentally, it trembles before the almighty Dirty, Dirty SHIPPING, but that's not here nor then.
It would be cuuuute. And awkward as fuck. And, above all of that, would be SnekBon meeting with Aunt Lulu. HOW CAN YOU DEPRIVE US OF SUCH OVERWHELMING CUTENESS?!?
8102206
Nah, I can reckon it pretty well actually. Also it's easy for me to say, cause I know what happened.
8102289 do you want irate fans discovering where you live and flying thousands of kilometers just to wallop you? Because that's how you get irate fans.
8102296 Umm... Come at me, bro?
Also in case you forgot, Lulu already has a giant waifu...
Oh, and I live in San Diego.
8102842 I know she has a giant waifu that's also Prance's heir, said waifu only adds to the awkwardness of the meeting and absolute cuteness of SnekBon. Because more aunts. And I dare you to say any non-villain (and even then it's hard) would be able to resist such avatar of cuteness incarnate.
Giant Pone Aunt would be plenty warms, too
8102955
8102842 I've actualy still got a short 1-2k word fick on the backburner for this.
8103230 WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*insert a ponkaton of squee here*eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Meeps is best changebug
8103304 I think you are referring to Metric Fluttermass. The base unit is a Yaytogram.
Alchemy is almost always a weird subject in stories. I recall reading one story that had a character remember his first alchemy professor starting off the demonstration by having a magical reagent that violently reacted with water in an explosion that set off fire alarms.
Meep, if I hadn’t already given this story a like, this line alone would have made me.
blinks
blinks again
I...really don’t know what visuals I expected this chapter, but definitely not that.
Now, as a whole I’d say this chapter was good, although some of Twilight’s introduction with the half zebra dragged on a bit. I wouldn’t say it got into exposition territory, but it did drag on.
Yay!
On the bright side, if Twilight learns the much more efficient way of doing spells rather than bruteforcing them, then later whenever she gets her original power output back and applies that output to the now more efficient spells... Yeah. Probably make her normal output used with massively inefficient spells look like barely anything comparatively.
E cups....Discord did it omg i was laughing sooo hard because that is something he would do
8099614
8099624
And if it is Chaos magic, having to contend with the peaks and valleys being literal and made of chocolate and filled with thinking banzais covered in polka dots and smelling of fchvfgxvf