Chapter 174: Shatter
Ranger
Chapter 174: Shatter
By Wanderer D
Fluttershy and Tala sat across from each other, each with their own cup of tea.
"In my world, you are by all accounts one of the most kind individuals alive," Tala said, focusing on the pegasus. "But you also understand why people fight."
"Fighting should always be the last option," Fluttershy countered, eyes narrowing a little. "Violence doesn't solve anything, especially killing! How can any creature learn if they are dead?"
Tala nodded, "Granted, but that is assuming they are willing to learn, and you have the luxury of doing that. When you are at war, you don't. Everyone you spare because of pity will shoot you in the back, or come back to kill you."
"Kindness helps creatures understand each other," Fluttershy replied, "If you keep showing it—"
"More people will die," Tala interrupted. "While you worry about forgiving one enemy, droves of them will kill your friends, family and neighbors… while you worry about how to communicate with an enemy, those you're supposed to protect die. Do you know why people fight, Fluttershy? Why soldiers like Alejandra, Sunset, Mox, myself, Twilight—"
"She's not a soldier!"
Tala continued, unperturbed, "...do you know why we're out there, getting shot at, and killing those that would kill you without a second thought?"
Fluttershy bit her lip.
"Because if we don't you would never get the luxury of being forgiving. Because you would be dead." Tala crossed her forelegs. "When it's live or die, we'd all rather live, and sometimes the only way to do that, is to kill."
"But why kill?!" Fluttershy wailed. "Why not knock them unconscious an—"
"What, relocate them?" Tala interrupted, shaking her head. "If an enemy is knocked out, they can still wake up and kill you. If you move them, they return; if you imprison them, you run out of space eventually, provided they don't organize an escape and kill your people. These are not reasonable individuals, kind one, these are single-minded troops following the orders of their overlords blindly, without pity or compassion.
"Do you think the humans did not attempt peace with the Elders? They did. And they were conquered. Now, if a human does something the Elders don't agree with, that human will be gone forever. If humans don't want to live in the cities, then they are used for experimentation and as examples to instill fear in those that remain under the Elder's subjugation.
"XCOM fights because they must. They kill because they must."
Fluttershy looked away. "No enemy is beyond compassion."
"I am glad you think so," Tala said, her voice less intense. "But you only have the ability to think that way because others protect that, and dismissing them as nothing but brutes insults not only them, but your intelligence as well."
Fluttershy glared at Tala. "Is that why you put yourself in a dangerous situation? To prove a point about Alejandra?"
"No, the cave-in was not planned, although the jab was intended to drive a point home, as it were."
Fluttershy shook her head. "How could you take advantage of my worry for you to lecture me on that?"
Tala leaned back. "Because you needed some perspective, even if it wasn't a direct correlation," she said, leaning her cup to take a sip. "You were unduly harsh with her, kind one."
Fluttershy's brow darkened. "I did not appreciate her almost killing that poor—"
"Giant predator intent on eating your friend the Princess alive?" Tala asked, "it didn't stop chasing us when we moved away from the shore. It went straight for the kill, and at the time, Alejandra thought she had to choose between a hungry beast of unknown power, or the woman—" Tala stopped and cleared her throat. "...or the Princess she had sworn to protect.
"Under no circumstance was the choice a hard one to make. That thing would have killed Twilight Sparkle if she hadn't thrown it across the forest."
Fluttershy looked down, no less angry and took a sip of her tea.
"But that's not the worst part," Tala said. "And I think you know that."
"Our first instinct isn't to kill."
"You didn't grow up in a world where people were murdered daily by monsters."
"We don't carry weapons of death."
"You are not a soldier, but your Royal Guard is made up of them, and they carry swords and spears. Those weapons have limited uses besides killing."
"The Royal Guard would have acted different! They would have—"
"Alejandra had just arrived to a different world, she was in a different body, she was in an unknown area, against an unknown foe which was threatening her friend," Tala interrupted. "She reacted to protect her, just as she would have protected you, Applejack, or anyone else." She walked across the table to sit right in front of Fluttershy. "Why is it really that you can't even bring yourself to apologize?"
"I shouldn't need to—"
"You know you were wrong," Tala said, shaking her head. "I know it, or I wouldn't waste my time or yours with this line of questioning."
Fluttershy looked down, letting her pink mane cover her face.
"Even if her actions do not match what you would do, calling her a murderer, especially when she was trying to save lives is unforgivable."
Fluttershy flinched at Tala's tone. Her body trembled as the breezie waited patiently, until with a sob, Fluttershy collapsed onto the table, knocking the tea down and started crying and bawling as she finally confessed.
Gabby pushed the last stone into the wall, making sure that it aligned perfectly with all the others she had already fit into place, then nodded and wiped the sweat from her brow. "All done! Now you won't have that annoying breeze bothering you when it gets cold, Gladis."
An old, female griffon hobbled over to glare at the wall. "Well! Now how will I get the breeze when I want it, you smart ass?!"
Gabby silently opened the window, then motioned to it with her claws as if presenting Gladis a brand new magi-tech dishwasher.
The old griffon huffed then stomped away. "Fine! I suppose that means you did a good job! Now stop slacking off and go bother some other griffon!"
"You're welcome!" she called back, walking out of the house.
"Don't steal the silver!"
"I'll see you tomorrow, Gladis!"
"Whatever!"
"Another day in paradise," Gabby sighed, taking flight as soon as she was out of the house. Griffonstone was in no way as pretty to look at as Ponyville… but it was still home. Even if every griffon was nasty to each other.
Watching the others fighting all over the place, she sighed. "This place is a dump," she heard herself say.
Gabby blinked. "Wait, I didn't say that."
"Seriously, I was hoping you were joking," Gabby's voice said, just as the young griffon started following the origin of the voice. "How can the rest of your world be that green, organized, friendly and nice… while this place is a dump?"
"Now, now, Silent G," another, familiar voice answered, "It might not be what you would have liked, but there's no need to be so judgemental. These are your people, after all."
"For now."
"Once a griffon, always a griffon."
"I'm not comforted by this thought."
"You'll get used to it, duckie."
Gabby walked around a corner and stopped, her beak hanging slightly open. She hadn't seen Galahad in a while; the old griffon was well known for travelling and adventuring. He wore his usual, boiled leather armor and sword, and stood as proud and sturdy as he always had. But next to him, dressed in a different type of armor, also black, but made of some sort of strange materials…
"Mom?"
o.0.o End Chapter 174 o.0.o
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What a Twist!
O.O oh shiiiiiit. didn't see that coming. Oh boy. this is gonna be interesting.
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This is going to get really awkward really fast... and those of us on THIS side of the fictional boundary will likely laugh at the entire process!
Talk about Gabby getting the mother of all surprises.
Funnily enough, somewhere back in the beginning of history, this is probably how slavery was invented. Two tribes war, and one side ends up with a bunch of prisoners due to surrender or some such. What do you do with them? You can't kill them out of hand, that would be abhorrent. You can't let them go, they'll come right back in the next raiding party. You can't just imprison them, food is precious.
So you make them work for their keep, and perhaps ransom them back further along the line. Then at some point someone decided it was nice to have someone else do the heavy and onerous work, and went raiding specifically to take prisoners. And that's how it all started.
Just a thought.
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It's a-parent-ly a jaw dropper!
oof
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I'm guessing that last line is because Silent G looks like an older version of Gabby...
Has Gabby even been to Ponyville yet?
I've assumed Gabby to be Alejandra's counter part since the beginning. Seems I was right.
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I think that the CMC would have recognized her if she visited.
Ah oh, this shit just got complicated.
Another Twist!
"griffon hubbled over to glare"
"griffon hobbled over to glare"?
wut?..
what?
Oooo, hawkward.
Tala finally got her point through Fluttershy. No matter how horrible her point of view is, she was right and Fluttershy needed to be corned to admit it.
It was already stated that Alejandra was related to Gabby, although it was more leaned she was an older sister. Then again since there's a time gap between the two world, it surprise she would think Alejandra is her mom.
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No thats pretty much how slavery was invented. Human sacrifice to. Ancient societies needed some way to deal with prisoners once city states started to be a thing. So you either turned your prisoners into cheap labor to mitigate the cost of housing and feeding them, or you killed them but claimed it was for your gods and therefor not slaughter of the defeated and the helpless. Its cruel by our standards but they lived in a much harsher world, where one bad Harvest or a plague coming through had the potential to destroy your whole civilization ( because even if it didn't kill you, your neighbors would surly take advantage of your weekend state and finish you off.)
Of course with both things went incredibly wrong as 1. People realized that with a large enough work force that didn't have to be paid you could greatly increase your production and thus give yourself the ability to expand rapidly, and 2. forgot why they did it and instead it became a tradition that had to be upheld for the sake of appeasing their gods (see the Aztecs, who invaded people for sacrifices)
Now as for the chapter itself, its got me really hyped for the next chapter so all around win in my books.
Oooohhhhh.....!
As of this moment, I have nothing to say about Fluttershy and Tala's conversation. I already have a debate inside my head because of it, and it doesn't look like it'll settle soon enough
Leather. Though I trust that he didn't get it by illegal means, I'm still curious as to where it came from.
Wounder if you'll throw in the Tactical Legacy Pack into this?
Well, that just happened.
Aside from the question of what then, it's not as easy to knock someone out as simply tapping them on the head. That sort of trauma could easily prove to be not enough or too much, and something like a sleeper hold doesn't work well when there are five other hostiles trying to give you some extraneous new orifices.
I can't help but compare Fluttershy to Discord here. She's faced with a concept so completely antithetical to her fundamental nature that she rebels against it with all her might until someone finally finds a way to convey it in a form she has no choice but to accept. Also, that's some curious word choice. A confession implies Fluttershy's been hiding something. I wonder what the reveal will be.
Also, two griffons are in for quite the confusing experience.
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I always thought Gabby was part falcon.
I felt like in the past few chapters some commenters were being unnecessarily harsh on Fluttershy. I'm glad to see Tala took a more measured approach. Saying what needed to be said, but understanding where she's coming from, and making her point just strongly enough to get Flutters to see what she needed to but no stronger.
And... wow, now I'm caught up! After what, maybe a month of reading? (Checks) Yep, September 7th I posted my first comment on this. This story is amazing. My wife can testify to the gasps of "Oh no!" or "She didn't!", and massive amounts of "just one more chapter" syndrome... Serious congratulations on an awesome fic with great plotting, action, twists, drama, and of course really excellent characterisation.
Now I join the ranks of those who track each forthcoming chapter... For what I'm sure will be several months to come! I don't know how long you're expecting this to be in total, but I can't see it being less than 250 chapters.
You sir know how to make thing even more interesting... Just wow, now you just made me want to hype the next chapter ans see how (G)Alejandra handle this.
That’s awkward
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Consider what I've seen of it, it could make a great Breather chapter where Sunset recounts her Version of events, Or call BS On Central's Avatar kills.
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Fixed that for you
They've had the Viper King suit ready since what, chapter 40? Anyone ever gonna wear it?
Betcher wrong. Betcha dollar.
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the willingness of the wronged to forgive does not make the action itself rightly forgivable, that is what makes our nature as humans so interesting, we can choose to forgive what we deem unforgivable, that doesn't mean the statement was wrong.
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When I began reading your comment, I was prepared to admit that a specific person being willing to forgive a wrong doesn't prevent that wrong from being, generally speaking, "unforgivable". But to me the concept you describe of that specific person considering the wrong that they are forgiving to be unforgivable ... well, that's just nonsensical to me. What is the definition of "unforgivable" in this context? because clearly it's neither "that which cannot be forgiven" nor "that which should not be forgiven".
So I decided to reread the pony Fluttershy stuff as she really annoyed me the first time, and she ended up being worse on reread. At first I thought she was being deliberately naive. She knows the human world is life or death constantly, but since that clashes with her world view, she would keep denying it. While frustrating, it is understandable, especially for such an optimistic world view.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t come off like that anymore. Now she seems like a hypocrite, knowing she’s wrong, but her ego is keeping her in denial. There was the first scene where she got the letter from Twilight that said Twilight decided to fight and was already showing some questionable actions, blaming Twilight for wanting to do everything she can to keep her friends alive. She knows Twilight’s friends were slaughtered due to a traitor and that the traitor was executed. She watched Sunset’s battle with Aria, she knows just how utterly vicious the battles are. One second of hesitation and everyone with you is dead.
She knows all this, and yet she’s still willing to deny it, to pretend that a little kindness would solve everything, that violence is never the answer. Honestly, it spits on the deaths of Twilight’s teammates. Worse, she then decides to spin it that someone who’s been fighting for her life and the survival of her species is just some murder happy monster that enjoys killing innocents. Innocents like Aria... And to top it off, that was in defense of a predator trying to kill her friend. A predator, a creature that needs to kill innocents to survive, Miss violence is never the answer.
At this point Fluttershy knows her philosophy is wrong, at least in regards to the human world, she’s not stupid after all. But instead of admitting it, she takes it out on the easiest target, using her philosophy as a justification to be cruel. Otherwise, Fluttershy should go tell Twilight why X-Com should’ve showed Michael kindness.
This is gonna be awkward for Gabby and Alejandra for a bit, I assume.
I can sort of understand where Fluttershy has been coming from the whole time, and I think FanOfMostEverything's comparison to Discord trying to grasp something he has no true frame of reference for. You can be told that another world and their people are different over and over again, but coming face to face with it, especially if it counteracts how you see the world so completely, takes a bit to accept. I hope Fluttershy takes the chance to apologize for both Alejandra and Twilight when she can. They both deserve it, and she deserves a chance to do it.
Fluttershy needs to mature a bit...
Ooo Shit... D just pulled a fast one on us... I love it.
Drama where ever we go, magnificent ♡