12 - Lightbringer
Tempest stared down from the rooftop as the darkness closed over Twilight and the Lunas confronting her. No. No, this was not happening. Alicorns were powerful, but they weren't rutting invulnerable! If anyone knew that it was her. Luna must be cheating, she made the damned dream after all.
Well even if Luna was going cheat she'd make her bucking well work for it! She wouldn't let Twilight be taken out by some hack of a Princess who wouldn't admit when she'd lost! She felt the fire of that anger, focused on it and let it build till she saw red. Someone was shouting something to her, but it didn't matter. Her mind was lightning and dark fire and Luna and how she was going to end her. She let the energy burn in her limbs and leaped from the roof.
It was like plunging into deep water, a sudden crash of silence followed by an all too real one as she misjudged her landing. She barely felt it, rolling to her hooves. It was pitch black, where was she?
"Show yourself!" She shouted. Or tried to. The sound never even reached her own ears. She had to find Luna or this could be over in an instant. The darkness and silence was total. All she could hear was the rushing of blood and the thunder of her breathing. Dammit where was she?
Well Tempest, she thought, you really put your hoof in it this time.
Her mind was still racing, anger still coursed through her, but there was nothing to strike. She hissed silently to herself. Anger was a tool, and an old friend, but right now it was a distraction. She wanted to run, scream, something to make Luna appear, but there was nothing but the chill darkness. Twilight could be fighting for her life right next to me and I'd never know it!
And then in the maelstrom a memory floated to the surface. It was shockingly clear in the void, like she was back at the rocks by the sea. 'Ay yeh think yer clever, but what'll ye do if'n they throw acid in your eyes hey? What then? Put on th'damn blindfold.' Heh, her mad old teacher. A northerner from the isle of Sky, the only unicorn she'd met who really understood fighting. The reason she'd added Shadow to her name. She hadn't thought back on that place in years.
She focused on her anger, calling it back, shaping it to a chilly edge. 'Eye of the storm' she chanted silently to herself, and spread her mane and tail wide like cat whiskers. Breathed deep through her nose. The ozone of magical discharge and the petrichor of the rainboom. It wasn't much, not deafened like this. With her broken horn she couldn't even seek magic. But it was enough. There, just to her right, the breeze of something large moving through the air.
She whipped her head round and snapped off a blast of lightning in the darkness. It was still silent, and even the lightning couldn't pierce the dark, but she felt the resistance as it struck home and hurled something away. The air fell still. And only then did she remember that Twilight could also fly.
Her rage vanished in a splash of cold fear. Dammit dammit bad habits! She was too used to working alone or with soldiers in magic resistant armor. And the darkness hadn't lifted. Luna was still standing. She'd just attacked Twilight. Another set of too-clear memories flashed by. Leaping through the air kicking an obsidian orb that held a fragment of a basilisk's heart. Standing on deck as an airship broke to splinters in a blast of her lighting. She'd just done it again, and Luna had won. She closed her eyes, not that it made a difference, waiting for a blast from nowhere she didn't think she'd be able to dodge.
It never came. Where was she? Was Cadence somehow holding her off? More memories were flashing by, quicker now. Twilight pulling her out of a storm, eyes full of concern, never mind that minutes ago Tempest had had her in a cage. Fireworks over Canterlot, and a wing over her shoulder. The first time they'd had breakfast together, Twilight's mane messy and her vocabulary limited to grunts before coffee. Arguments for clemency before Luna and Celestia, insisting she be given another chance. Their first kiss just hours ago...she felt her heart glow at the memory and she almost giggled, which shocked her back to her senses.
She shook her head hard. This was not normal, something was very wrong. I need to concentrate. I've heard sensory deprivation makes you loopy, but not that fast. How long had it been? It couldn't have been more than seconds could it? Minutes? In a fight that was an eternity, and the warmth in her chest was still spreading. The darkness around her was taking on a rosy glow. What has happening?
And then suddenly light flared around her like breaking dawn, and the world was illuminated as by two blazing stars. Cadence descending from above, wings spread and horn flared, the peach of morning clouds. And Twilight, standing tall after all and shrouded in a hemisphere of force, the deep red of the sunset shining from her chest. The light mingled, casting the cobblestones and storefronts, even the steetlamp, in gorgeous relief. Tempest stared in awe for a moment, then galloped desperately to Twilight's side. It's probably an illusion, she thought. You're about to plant your face into a wall. But what have I got to lose?
She saw Twilight turn to stare at her and gasp, the shield rippled, and Tempest was through the membrane with a rush. Sound returned, the clatter of her hooves sounding like cannons. She stumbled from shock, but Twilight was at her side supporting her.
"Tempest, are you alright? What are you doing here?" The sound pounded at her ears. Huh, real after all. That was something
"Ugh, not too good, better than the toast I thought I'd be. I got reckless." Cadence was swooping in for a landing next to them, lighting the whole street. "Why can I hear? Where's the light coming from?"
"My Reality Sphere" said Twilight. "It's the strongest shield I know and I panicked." She brushed her mane nervously, like they weren't in the middle of a fight. "I designed it to stop Discord but I can't keep it up long." Tempest nodded, Twilight was already showing strain. "And we can see because Cadence is casting Roselight. It lets you see by...um..." and Twilight blushed beet red.
"It lets you see by the light of other's love for you" said Cadence, stepping through the barrier. "Even Luna's Night Veil can't block it. Don't worry about me by the way," she added with a wink, "it's Agape, not Eros."
"...Right" said Tempest, making a note to find out what that meant as soon as possible. But there were more important things to worry about now. "I attacked someone in the dark, I don't know who. I think it was Rainbow."
Twilight stared at her, and Tempest noted with alarm that she was definitely starting to sweat from exertion. "No, they're all over there, outside the dark. You can't see them? Bright pink glows highlighting them like signposts?"
"Storge" added Cadence.
Tempest winced. That, she thought, hurt much more than I would have thought. But I still have more important things to deal with. "No. I can't" she said curtly. "Now where in Tartarous is Luna? We've been standing here talking for too long, why hasn't she hit us yet?" Twilight definitely couldn't keep this up for long, her horn glow was flickering.
"Oh but I'm enjoying this." Twilight jumped, while Cadence and Tempest looked everywhere for the source. "My enemies exhausting themselves, putting themselves together in a single, safe, magical bubble?"
"Oh lift your tail cause it comes..." she muttered to herself. That couldn't be good.
A black blade rammed through the shield, striking Cadence in the flank and making her cry out.
"But if you insist, I shall oblige." Resonite with a sharpened glass handle for telekinesis, thought Tempest in a detached way. My own damn trick. Glaring cracks erupted across the shield. She shoved Twilight aside as a second sword shattered the barrier completely, glancing off her armor and skittering the cobblestones. And Luna appeared, coalescing from a cloud of flowing stars, four more swords held in her magic. They weren't resonite, but that didn't reassure Tempest. That just meant they'd be enchanted with something spectacularly nasty.
Tempest snapped off a lighting bolt, but to her fury Luna instantly reverted to her starry cloud. She effortlessly flowed around the bolt and then actually split in two, one diving for Cadence while the other reformed, giving Tempest a mocking grin.
"Too bad you didn't have that trick last time" Tempest snarled. "Decided reality could use a few creative enhancements?"
Luna's face blackened, and her eyes hardened to reptilian slits. "Now I am not surprised. Now I am prepared for you. And now I have not seen my niece and sister petrified before my eyes." The venom in her voice was growing, her teeth lengthening to fangs. "I owe you much for that, you impudent wretch, and none of it unearned. I believe it is time you receive what you deserve. Murder Shroud!"
She spread her wings wide and dozens of pitch black ravens burst forth in a blinding cloud. Tempest leaped forward, casting a broad spray of lightning to cleave through the swarm. She's only calling her attacks to intimidate you, she though, and it's not going to work. She hurt Twilight! The conjured birds burned in the lighting, releasing a choking gas that burned her eyes, but she called on her anger and powered through. And there was Luna in front of her. Tempest lashed out with a kick, only for her melt like smoke once more. Luna flowed to roof of a building, reforming and letting out a mad cackle. Damn her!
Tempest stole a glance at the other fighting Twilight and Cadence. Luna and Cadence clashed, flashing swords against shields that Cadence conjured with stunning speed, both silent in grim concentration. Twilight darted around her, firing at Luna whenever she got a clear shot, but she was clearly reaching exhaustion. And their Luna hadn't even begun casting.
"You FOOLS!" Luna proclaimed from the rooftop, dark storm clouds forming around her at the beats of her wings. "You thought yourselves equal to us. You thought yourselves the next Sombra! But I am Queen of the Night! I am eternal! I am your Nightmare!"
"And here's what I do to nightmares!" A hoarse voice rang out, and a rainbow blur blazed through the gathering storm. It went off in a stunning blast of thunder, the anger of the alicorn grounded in a blast of lighting that knocked Luna to the street. And to Tempest's shock the other faded entirely, the blades clattering to the cobblestones. Just an illusion? And the real Luna was just staggering to her hooves when Applejack appeared like magic, landing a kick to her head that drove her back to the ground. And then she put her hoof solidly on Luna's horn. Tempest's eyes widened.
"Now Sugarcube, I recon you've got a bit of a headache and should lay still a spell. And if I see that horn even flicker, apologies to present company but ah will break it off."
Tempest staggered at the threat herself. Applejack had spoken with chilling sincerity. She felt sick.
"Booyah! How do you like that, Nightmare Nobody!" Dash looped in for a landing, grinning wildly, completely oblivious to Tempest's inner turmoil. "You mess with my friends, you mess with The Dash! Two for two, who the bomb? Two for two, who the bomb?" And she started dancing. The disconnect was just too much, Tempest could only stare in appalled fascination.
"Alright" Twilight panted. "Good work you two. Now that we've actually got her we can..." she was cut off by a crossbow bolt striking square in the chest. She stared at it with a confused expression for a moment, then collapsed silently to the ground. And forty royal guards galloped around the corners, cutting off both ends of the street.
"Twilight!" Dash and Tempest shouted together, galloping to her side. Oh damn oh damn thought Tempest. She's still breathing oh thank Harmony she's still breathing! "Don't you dare die on me from a damn sniper Twilight" Tempest muttered furiously. "Don't you dare. You are way too stubborn and lucky for that!"
Cadence conjured another shield just as more sniper's bolts snapped off it. Tempest couldn't even see them, it had to be pegassi from the angle. She couldn't think about that. She had to be detached, fall into combat medic mode. Not think about how it's Twilight's blood all over your hooves. She focused on keeping pressure on the wound, willing her Grip into Twilight's body to hold the wound closed. Arrows kill by bleeding, she reminded herself, and it missed her heart. Collapsed lung for sure but she'll live if we get her out of here now. Dash was right at the edge of the forcefield ready to charge, and Cadence's face was black with rage. But Tempest could see in the guards eyes they were determined and they wouldn't back down. The fear of the Princess would only hold them for a moment. Two pegassi descended, carrying heavy thunderheads, and she saw a unicorn in the rear who would doubtless be maintaining their own teleport ward.
We're going to lose. The thought went clearly through Tempest's mind. Cadence can maybe take fifteen. The rest of us can take another fifteen. And the last ten will bring us down, and Twilight is going to die.
A ratcheting click echoed across the tableau. Applejack had produced a crossbow from her bags, and was aiming it squarely at Luna's head. "Just so y'all are clear on the situation, this here is a Burly and Strongleg heavy crossbow. Now I might be a might rusty, but not so much ah can miss from this distance. And ah know healin don't cover the brains too well. So how bout ya'll just call this a draw and we'll be on our way? You tell 'em, Princess."
Luna shuddered. "It's alright commander" she rasped from the ground. "Let them go for now. I would rather we all lived to fight another day."
The commander's face looked like he was being forced to swallow glass, but he nodded. The unicorn guard's horn stopped glowing, though they made no move to lower their weapons. Smart, thought Tempest. "Princess" she said, "get us out of here." Cadence didn't seem to hear her. She was focused on the captain, her lovely face twisted in an ugly expression of pure hate. Oh dammit, thought Tempest, Princess of Love, no matter the type, and Twilight was family. "Cadence!" Tempest shouted, and she caught the full force of her glare as she turned. She didn't flinch. "Get us to the empire or Twilight is going to die!" That at least got through. She nodded, her horn flared, and all five of them vanished from Canterlot.
As soon as the teleport had flared out, there was a ripple in the air and most of the guards vanished like a mirage. The five remaining earth ponies dashed forward to help Luna to her feet, and the snipers swept out to secure the area.
Luna groaned and staggered to her hooves. "Thank you my friends." She gave a sardonic glance behind her as a dozen squads of actual soldiers galloped around the corner. "Your timing is impeccable."
The captain swooped back. "Area secure, your highness."
"Good. Lets not count on it staying that way." She nodded to him. "Captain Sure Sight, yes? Your squad is to be commended for your alacrity. It will not go unrecognized. However, I require further assistance." She walked to a store that had it's windows shattered, and kicked open the door. Despite himself Sure Sight gasped. Within was Luna's body, bloody and battered and scorched by magic, unconscious on the floor. "My body is comatose, and will require extensive healing. And I cannot maintain my dream avatar in the waking world for much longer." She looked directly into Sure Sight's eyes, and he gulped involuntarily. "Your squad have proven your courage and reliability. Prove to me now your absolute discretion. I entrust you to convey my body to the palace hospital in secrecy. And you must make haste. I am in mortal peril."
Sure Sight was speechless. He tried to speak but found his throat choked up. It was the Princess lying there like she was dead! But she wasn't, he reminded himself. Not if he did his duty. He simply nodded, saluted, and signaled his squad to the building. Fortunately Luna seemed to understand. He heard her leave the building, giving orders to the other squads that would send them far away, heard her flying away to presumably vanish out of sight. And he cleared his throat, and briefed his shocked team on how they would save Luna's life.
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fucking bull shit hax luna when twilight comes back i hope she goes midnight on your ass (that or dimmed star) and gives you the whooping you deserve
9078008
Well to be fair, they DID put her in a coma. It's just that knocking out the Princess of Dreams doesn't necessarily stop her unless you do it twice. And most of what she did was illusion. Bullshit Hax is what she WANTS you to think, but she was really on the ropes.
But yes, a rematch is coming once someone gets that quarrel out.
9078010
yes but the fact is this is in a dream who is to say luna can actually manifest an illusionary body while comatose in the real world, i highly doubt she could do that in the real world also kinda pissed at the cheap shot from the guard
9078010
also was this not supposed to originally be about training the equestrian guards to be better at there jobs not just a slugging match betwixt ageless mortals, the only thing the guards did was save lunas ass with a cheap shot.
I know this is your world but what kind of royal guard stands around while their diarchy slug it out and possibly get killed, also wtf is Twi &Co thinking, she has an entire empire from an age where ponies lived hard lives and had to fight to survive.
here is what they should have done
Assemble the crystal legion's and invade the freaking country, the crystal ponies would walk right over the soft ponies of equestria who have known nothing but peace and safety for the last 1000 years and are unaccustomed to war and fighting. You DO NOT teleport high ranking officials into the enemies capital and center of power and engage in a dick swinging contest with the enemy leaders you know are older and stronger than you.
Sending fluttershy was a smart move (sort of) why not just send her and assassinate the high ranking military officials instead of bugging his uniform sure you get details on their plans but cut off the head of the snake and the body withers(ie: kill the generals and march on equesria while the equestrian guards run around like chickens with their heads cut off ).
Well that's my rant done for the night
have a good night
Commander Darklight
9078104
You have a good night too.
I can answer some of that, but first of all: you're right that alot of mistakes were made. That's why for the most part their plans haven't actually worked.
First of all, Luna didn’t cheat. Tempest thought she did because Luna’s tricks fooled her, and Luna got really pissed at the false accusation.
For Twilight getting shot, it is absolutely cheap yes. Which is pretty much the only way for a normal guard to go after someone of her caliber. Besides which it was Luna's plan, and she absolutely approves of cheap shots. And now they've learned to keep a light screen up to protect from snipers, and that keeping the cavalry nearby even in Princess-level affairs is a good idea. Exercise proceeding as planned.
For Luna to be able to essentially astral project, sorry you didn't like it. It seemed a pretty logical extension of both her domain and what the Tantabus did, but I can understand if it's not to your taste.
For Fluttershy, the main reason they didn't plan for her to assassinate Tornado (aside from the fact that she wouldn't have agreed) is that he's someone who they know and can predict tactically. His replacement could do anything. Instead, they decided to spy on him.
Dropping Spike on downtown Canterlot like a nuke was supposed to go VERY differently. They thought he'd be able to stay in control, be a big distraction and occupy the guard with evacuation, then snap out of it and escape. Neither Cadence nor Twilight realized just how extreme the effect of that much wealth would be, and Spike is going to be pretty horrified with himself when he wakes up.
Cadence and Twilight jumping Celestia and Luna, well on the one hand it's a bit egotistical and they wanted to show off. On the other hand, Pinkie insisted they throw something together for that night and they can't teleport the whole army. And the plan was always to capture one of them, not to try to capture both. If it had worked it would have been major leverage for the rest of the war, enough to force Celestia (or Luna) to stay out of the fight and leave it to the armies.
Besides, this is Equestria. The guard needs to know how to deal with Overpowered Space Fleas from Nowhere. And they ultimately did: after all, they stopped Twilight and in another ten seconds Luna wouldn't have needed the illusory reinforcements.
But yeah, to summarize: Mistakes were definitely made, but there were at least reasons for most of them. And now that the surprise attack phase is over, they can deal with a real war.
Luna, you're going to regret this.
9078438
Oh she already does.
9078512
Even more.
9078130
Meh. Twilight and co. will have to be orders of magnitude better at logistics than they are at personal combat if they don't want to FUBAR it as badly as this op. This is not a test of Equestria's capabilities. This is a demonstration of how ill-equipped the current generation is for the needs of war - even more so than their teachers.
9078512
Why? She accomplished her aims, and will be fine.
9079375
This will be elaborated on next chapter, but: she'll live, but she's not okay. She's just putting on a good face for the troops and making a concerted effort to intimidate her enemies. Luna is very badly hurt, she can only manifest a dream avatar for short bursts, and it significantly cuts her power when she's doing that. Second most powerful alicorn (behind Celestia) down to very strong unicorn. Plus it just hurts alot.
9079354
They're definitely going to have to up their game yes. Shockingly, war is hard.
As for logistics, that's what Spike is for. Pity he's captured...
9079416
Thinking on it, the Crystal Empire doesn't actually pose a threat to Equestria. It is dwarfed in industry, population, magical prowess, technical warmaking skill, and size. It's only advantage was surprise, and even then Equestria could trade space for time. Now it doesn't even have that.
9079424
All this is true, they actually talked about that a bit back in the planning chapter. It's why they opened by trying for a rushed decapitation strike, with everything else a backup plan: they knew anything else would be a seriously uphill fight.
Celestia, set this up as an exercise for Cadence and Twilight as much as the guard? Perish the thought...
They do have some advantages. The Northern wild weather is a huge defensive advantage, the Crystal Empire is a giant magical amplifier, and Spike's rampage just collapsed the Equestrian economy and vaporized alot of it's gold reserves. But in an offensive war, yes, they're going to have some issues. The only way Sombra could do what he did was universal enlistment through mind control.
9079440
Yeah, I could see her trying to teach them not to mess with their betters. But it's not like they ever had much ambition to be more than her errand-girls/junior princesses to begin with.
9079445
Not so much don't mess with your betters as throwing them in at the deep end because they do their best work in extremis.
9079472
Where does that notion come from? They have done no good work yet in eight years of television.
Well, Cadance has.
9079481
Twilight and co have saved Equestria quite a few times. But even back with Nightmare Moon Celestia's solution was 'throw Twilight at it and have faith she'll rise to the occasion'. That's what she's doing here, but with leading a war.
Celestia's teaching methods MAY be influenced a bit by founding a nation from scratch. And have something to do with why Sunset stormed off.
9079485
She didn't rise to the occasion. She leaned on a lot of other people and was lucky enough to be standing next to the good result in the end. That's how it always goes. Twilight never actually contributes anything toward resolving a crisis. Even when given all the instruction and preparation and advantages one could hope for. She is that useless.
I'm glad this story has the Comedy tag, 'cause it could easily sprout a Tragedy one. These idiots haven't placed any psychological safeguards on their dreamscape: all the pain, and worse, all the anger and hate is playing out with 100% waking fidelity.
Wait, I'm abit confused? Luna says she can't maintain her dream avatar in the waking world for much longer. Now, when she says "waking world" does she mean the real waking world, where everyone participating in the exercise is still asleep, or is she referring to the dream construct world as the waking world, and to the avatar as the projection that was just speaking to the pony captain?
Also, there were several times in this chapter when you switched from third person to first person, usually with Tempest, sometimes in the same paragraph. It wasn't really that bad, but it was kinda jarring and broke up the flow just abit.
You used streetlamp twice here?
Basilisk hearts for the petrification orbs? Brilliant!
Huh, Luna sure is bein' abit hurtful with her language towards Tempest here, even referencing events that took place in the movie that aren't part of the backdrop or fake history of the dream exercises. Is this part of her dream characterization, or does she feel this way genuinely?
Also, the part where Tempest couldn't detect the others' glow because she hasn't yet learned to love them as friends is actually very interesting, and leaves room for further character development, not to mention an in-depth topic of conversation she could have with Twilight for emotional bonding.
9079776
Thanks for the editing help, I'll consider fixing that later. I do have a bad habit of switching tenses.
Luna was speaking in character for the most part, she's used to dreams and so it comes naturally to her. When she talks about the waking world, she means the simulation. She doesn't actually think that about Tempest, though she's still not completely over it, but she lost her temper at the false accusation and got hurtful.
Glad you liked the orbs idea :)
And yeah, Tempest and Twilight have lots of talking to do on many topics. Should be fun.
9079569
Interesting you mention that...
(Don't worry, it's not going grimdark)
Hahahaha! That is a hell of a way to mess with people! (Luna)
Credit to the guard for shutting down an enemy hero. That's not easy for the mortals playing the match.
Cpt. Sure Sight [Eq] <X-Bow> Twilight Sparkle [CE]
"if Luna was going cheat she'd make her"
"if Luna was going to cheat she'd make her"?
"to splinters in a blast of her lighting. She'd"
"to splinters in a blast of her lightning. She'd"?
"What has happening?"
"What was happening?"?
"even the steetlamp"
"even the streetlamp"?
"her armor and skittering the cobblestones"
Missing word?
"Tempest snapped off a lighting bolt, but to her"
"Tempest snapped off a lightning bolt, but to her"?
"intimidate you, she though, and it's not going"
"intimidate you, she thought, and it's not going"?
"birds burned in the lighting, releasing"
"birds burned in the lightning, releasing"?
"Tempest lashed out with a kick, only for her melt like smoke once more. Luna flowed to roof of a building"
"Tempest lashed out with a kick, only for her to melt like smoke once more. Luna flowed to the roof of a building"?
"the anger of the alicorn grounded in a blast of lighting that knocked Luna"
"the anger of the alicorn grounded in a blast of lightning that knocked Luna"?
"from a damn sniper Twilight" Tempest"
Missing punctuation?
Well, overall, I think the Crystal Empire is still ahead here, even if their attack on Canterlot was not a complete success. They've already been noted as having a great advantage in defensive fighting in their home territory, and so far, none of their own infrastructure or regular soldiers have taken damage. Equestria, on the other hand, has a capital city that's had large swaths turned to ruins, a large and as-yet-uncounted amount of classified information has been taken by the Empire, and a significant fraction of Equestria's wealth has gone up in magic smoke. Equestria's only real victory here, as opposed to the draw or loss in the rest of the fighting, was the capture of Spike, a highly valuable piece and likely a focus of some future operations, but not, I think, enough to more than offset Equestria's losses and have this counted as a victory for them.
Of course, the war is only just beginning, with the decapitation strike (which might not have immediately and completely ended all resistance, as we've seen numerous times, but would certainly greatly improve the Empire's relative standing) failed. Equestria is ill-placed for an offensive now, particularly given Luna's secret condition. Celestia could attack the Empire herself, but with no support against its formidable prepared defenses, she seems unlikely to succeed and might even fail to withdraw, handing herself to the enemy. As the gearing up for war is started (from behind already, with the damage to Canterlot and the national treasury and the capture of information by the enemy) and Luna heals, two options present themselves: covert operations (possibly involving Starlight, Trixie, and Maud; it seems that both sides may be unsure where those three stand, which, if they can gain enough of Equestria's trust, could then allow them to infiltrate the Empire) and attempting to use Spike in one way or another. We'll see how that goes. For now, the next move may still be the Empire's; Twilight's injuries and Spike's capture are setbacks, but the Empire's military command knew just when the war would begin and had Twilight and Tempest making plans.
Overall, I think that the Empire needs to win this war quickly. Equestria is starting from a poorer position and is a much larger and more vulnerable target, but it also has more resources and a larger population to draw on; the longer the war goes on and the more of its potential Equestria is able to bring to bear, the smaller the chance of an Imperial victory gets.
edit:
Oh, and:
"had to be pegassi from the angle"
"had to be pegasi from the angle"?
9131502
9079968
9078104
So, lets look at this purely from a history view, and victory types.
Tactical Victory (type one): Was the main objective (Kidnap a Princess) achieved.
No. While injuring Luna is a major bonus, no one (either for the Crystal Empire or the Equestrian Public) is aware of that and unless Twilight can get a spy in the palace its going to be very hard for this information to leak. Thus few are going to be aware of this.
Secondary objectives (Acquiring sensitive information, Disrupt the government, place spies on the Guard Captain) were achieved so this isn't a complete loss.
Tactical Victory (Type 2): Did the Crystal Empire inflict greater losses.
Again, no. While Equestria has a wounded Luna, the Crystal Empire has lost Spike, Pinkie is weakened (although how much is hard to say) and Fluttershy's dream-self is aware its not real, which unless this is fixed makes Fluttershy essentially useless. Luna is VERY powerful, true enough, more powerful then any of the 3 lost by the Crystal Empire but with the sheer size of Equestria's army, and the sheer experience both Luna and Celestia have at their disposal due to age, they can afford her being weaker way more then the losses the Crystal Empire sustained.
As a side note, Moral is also very important, and to take 3 hits right out the gate is going to hurt Twilight mentally in a way that Celestia and Luna will be more able to shrug off (once again due to experience). She is going to doubt herself and not trust her judgement and this is not something she can afford.
Strategic victory: This is the important one, and is impossible to really judge yet: (For example at the time US claimed Victory in the Tet offensive over the Vietnamese as they held their ground and North Vietnam achieved very few of its objectives. But because of how bloody the fighting was it shattered Moral of the soldiers and the public sentiment turned against the war, so it is historically considered a Strategic Victory for North Vietnam) However we can make some statements.
1) Bureaucracy of POLITICAL capital disrupted (Its worth noting that Equestria is more like the US then European or Asian nations in that their Political Capital and Trade Capital are not the same city. As long as Manehattan and other such cities are fine, Trade and manufacturing will not be effected.) This will take a little recovery, but as no casualties are recorded, no kidnappings achieved and every document stolen will have been recorded in triplicate the loss is minimal.
2)Theft of sensitive material: This is possibly the second biggest achievement of this attack because unless someone realises Pinkie was using Dragonfire no one will know thats what she did. It will look like a distraction or poorly thought out sabotage. How useful this ACTUALLY is will depend on what material is stolen that Shining Armor wouldn't already be aware of.
What they really need is either an up to date schedule of Princess Appointments so they can try this again, OR a deployment plan for the trade cities of Equestria so they can hit those and disrupt manufacturing/trade.
A lesser win would be any forms filled out by companies complaining about the current situation. Used VERY carefully those who control those companies could be convinced to turn traitor.
3) Melting of the Treasury: Minor influence. Equestria's ability to issue bonds or otherwise pay for the conflict depends on revenue rather then current wealth. While this MAY mean they require more and larger loans, they can afford it way more then the Crystal Empire can.
4)Injuring Luna vs the capture of Spike and the 'casualty' status of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie: How useful this ends up being is impossible to say at this stage, and depeneds on how quickly Luna can recover from her physical injury vs Fluttershy's mental issue and Pinkie Pie's.....thing.
5)Spying: Inpossible to say how useful those bugs will be at this stage. If Celestia is smart all people who enter the war room pass through an anti-magic ward (also effective againest Changelings), and in that case they will do nothing.
6)Moral: Equestria will have a moral boost from this win. Crystal Empire Moral will go down.
7) Misc: Equestria has Trixie and Starlight doing the Hero bit. And thats an issue for Twilight and co. Meanwhile Twilight and co are POTENTIALLY (after all, Pinkie may say nothing) aware of the chaos gems, although how useful that information is, is difficult to say.
I give a TENTATIVE Strategic Victory to Equestria though, pending how the Crystal Empire uses the info it gained and just how quickly Luna's injury is revealed.
So yeah....not a great start, and they can't afford that loss.
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I also feel the need to comment on the "Defensive advantage" of the Crystal Empire as its really anything but.
Sure, any attack force marching on the Crystal Empire must walk through the stormy, hellish weather.
But the Crystal Heart barrier is completely permeable, and the city has no wall. They also lack the numbers to completely stop attacks from all sides. As such they can't just hold people out in the storm and force a painful siege. Given the air capabilities of Equestria, if the Equestrian Army reach the Crystal Heart Barrier, its almost certainly going to force the Crystal Empire back to the city to protect from attacks from above.
MEANWHILE, any attack coming out of the Crystal Empire also must cross those stormy lands. And we have zero evidence that Crystal Ponies handle the cold and stormy any better then normal ponies do. In fact, due to a lack of Pegasi they probably handle it worse, tactically speaking.
As such its not so much a 'defensive advantage' as it is a tactical hindrance to both sides.
What IS potentially an advantage for the Crystal Empire comes in the form of Yaks. Assuming the Yaks are willing continue to trade with the Crystal Empire they have a VERY secure overland trade route that is hard to disrupt (while Equestria must trade across the sea or via Klugetown, both of which are obviously sub-optimal and far easier to disrupt) and POTENTIALLY access to some seriously powerful Mercenaries.
I mean seriously, being a merc is almost a Yak fantasy, "You mean Yal gets PAID to go and smash things and people? Am in fact ENCOURAGED to smash as much as possible?"
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"place spies on the Guard Captain"
Ah, yes, I'd forgotten that they got that done too; thanks.
"and Fluttershy's dream-self is aware its not real"
...Hm. Do you mean that Fluttershy is reluctant to fully use Night Whisper due to concern for her (Night Whisper's) wellbeing? Or something else?
"6)Moral: Equestria will have a moral boost from this win. Crystal Empire Moral will go down."
It depends on how each side spins it, but I think it's more likely to go the other way. What does the Crystal Empire see? Their leadership led from the front, conducting a daring raid on the enemy capital and doing significant damage to it, and, if they didn't fully win, they also did well enough that they were able to withdraw with only one of their number captured. And I'm sure Twilight and Tempest planned for not achieving total victory in the first assault, so the Imperial government should also be able to give a clear statement of position and direction to its citizens and soldiers (though leaving out some of the greatest actual victories in the battle, since those need to be concealed still). I'd expect their morale to rise.
By contrast, yes, the Imperial attack was beaten back from Canterlot and prevented from achieving its primary objectives, and Spike was captured, but what does the average citizen of Equestria see? They see parts of the capital in ruins, including major significant institutions. They see how hard Celestia and Luna had to fight just to force the enemy to withdraw. Those who know and think more will have some idea just how hard a target the Crystal Empire will be to take. And don't forget how the individuals involved in the Empire are seen: the Bearers won't be coming to save Equestria this time, because the Bearers are on the other side. I think it would take some significant spinning to stop Equestrian morale from taking a hit from this, and some even mightier spinning to make it rise.
(Though one potential exception might be if the attack hardens a desire to resist, I'm not sure if that will come into play or not; that sort of thing can happen, but it doesn't always.)
"I give a TENTATIVE Strategic Victory to Equestria though, pending how the Crystal Empire uses the info it gained and just how quickly Luna's injury is revealed.
So yeah....not a great start, and they can't afford that loss."
I find it interesting that we looked at the same battle and each concluded that a different side had the balance of victory. Thanks for the analysis. :)
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"But the Crystal Heart barrier is completely permeable, and the city has no wall."
They have Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle, though; the Empire is ripe for fortification.
"They also lack the numbers to completely stop attacks from all sides."
I don't think we know that? And, in any case, they still have a much easier time with that than Equestria. The Crystal Empire seems to be small enough in footprint that, on a strategic level, it counts as a single location to defend from both conventional and unconventional attacks; any force for the defense of the homeland knows exactly where it needs to be and will need to be and can focus all its efforts on preparing to defend there. By contrast, there are a great many places Equestria could be attacked, making its defensive strategy much more complicated and and potentially full of strategic holes, and the Empire has already gotten some intelligence resources that might help them spot those holes.
"MEANWHILE, any attack coming out of the Crystal Empire also must cross those stormy lands. And we have zero evidence that Crystal Ponies handle the cold and stormy any better then normal ponies do. In fact, due to a lack of Pegasi they probably handle it worse, tactically speaking."
Hm, uncertain, I think. You may or may not be right there, depending on things I don't think we know yet.
"As such its not so much a 'defensive advantage' as it is a tactical hindrance to both sides."
A potential tactical hinderance for both sides, yes, but I do think that, overall, it's still a strategic advantage for the Empire.
Hm. Interesting points on trade and yak mercenaries. I'm not sure either belligerent is particularly reliant on trade, or could even significantly benefit from it, but the Empire is probably the more likely of the two to want it. The Empire should also be looking for force multipliers for small units, since small units would be less of a strain on their more limited resources and could potentially be deployed and recalled by teleportation, removing the surrounding harsh environment as a deployment advantage for the operation in question and further enabling strikes on vulnerable points scattered throughout the bulk of Equestria; a properly equipped yak or two in the right place, particularly if they're in a mixed unit for mutual support, might count. And depending on how much carried over from the real timeline, who are the yaks likely to support? Twilight and Pinkie Pie are both major figures on the Imperial side, and the Empire is also geographically closer; I doubt that they'd support Equestria, if some relations hold. That said, I doubt they'll explicitly join the war on the side of the Empire either, or at least I think it would be a bad move; that would immediately give Equestria a larger target to attack. But trading, officially unrelated to the war? Some yaks individually deciding to join the fight, officially without government backing? Yes, I could see that.
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This is a few Chapters ago now so I am not surprised its exact details slipped your mind. So when Fluttershy was fully Night Whisper, things started to go a little wrong. Firstly we see a merger of beings when she starts refering to herself as Night Shy Whisper. But more importantly this happens after that.
This leads to a Magical explosion, Fluttershy resuming control and then her fleeing. Following that, we get this:
This tells us that Night Whisper is aware she is not real, that this is all a Dream, and reacted VERY poorly to this revelation. We don't know the long term ramifications of this, but in terms of combat effectiveness she can be seen as at least a temporary Casualty.
I agree its about how each side spins it, but three factors you have yet to consider....
1)Who is spinning it? Seriously, think about that for a second, which of the Mane6 can spin propoganda? Most would give the job to Rarity (like Fallout: Equestria did) but she has little time to spin and zero practice at this type of thing. Tommrow morning Equestrian papers will be telling their versian of events and pushing it strongly into the Empire. Headlines like:
"Failed Empire attack leave Equestria with leadership Prisoner."
"Celestria Protects: How Celestia defeated the largest Dragon seen in 500 years."
"Luna takes on 4 of the strongest in the Empire and walks away the victor."
"Is the War over before it began: Royal Guard repels Empire attack without a single casualty."
If Twilight has completely isolated the Empire from outside news, it MAY take an extra 24 hours for these papers to be smuggled into the Crystal Empire, giving them 48 hours tops. But Luna and Celestia should be working as hard as possible to make those news articles arrive in the Crystal Empire, so really 24 hours is likely generous. The Crystal Empire Propaganda machine isn't ready, and Celestia and Luna have been doing this for 1000 years.
2) Applejack.
Celestia and Luna are under no obligation to be 100% honest and will likely fudge the truth to look good....hell, Luna has already done so. Applejack isn't going to like events being spun by the Crystal Empire side, as its going to feel like lies.
3) The fact the bearers are on the other side isn't news.
This conflict in the dreamscape has a LONG backstory to it. The Ponies of Dream Equestria have been aware of the possibility of war and the fact Twilight and her friends would be fighting againest Equestria for quite some time, as the scene with Starlight and Trixie proved. Thus the Moral effects of 'We lost the Elements of Harmony' has long since faded. However the moral boost of capturing Spike IS news.
As I said, we are dealing with Strategic victory here, and thats always harder to pin down. Lets go back to the Vietnam Tet offensive I mentioned earlier...
The US recaptured all their land.
The Vietcong failed to do any major damage to political leaders, infrastructure OR military bases.
It was the US media that did the majority of the reporting.
The Vietcong achieved none of their objectives.
At the time the Tet offensive was considered the biggest failure of the Vietcong. It is now remembered as a Strategic victory as it led to their victory in the war, however the REASON this happened was in no way planned for. The North Vietnamese Government didn't think, "The Media will show a lot of dead US soldiers and make the public feel less invincible and as such they will protest againest the war and we will win as a result."
That was a completely unintended result...but it made the fight a Straegic victory for the Vietcong. As such Strategic Victory can only be talked about much latter. Right now we are simply guessing the results.
Even with Magic, making a wall completely surrounding the Empire is difficult to do quickly. This is a given since Earth Pony construction is still favored in almost every cannon case.
Given ponies are quadrupeds, it means they can run up an embankment steeper then humans can so it has to be a wall, not a steep embankment. dug with a shovel. And the Empire is substantially bigger then Canterlot, to the point that an Alicorn found shielding it to be exhausting, so I don't think Shining is going to do a bubble trick like he did for Canterlot.
Now ADMITTEDLY we have one known way they could solve their wall Problem. Using Sombra's dark magic would allow the construction of a very quick crystal wall. However I highly doubt Twilight would do so, even in a Dream.
Simply put, I don't see them pulling a wall out of no where.
We can assume it because of the way defending an area works. The more area you defend the more spread out you will be. The Crystal Empire must defend the city AND the farmland that surrounds it. And the defense of a city from a dedicated force takes more soldiers then that city can supply. These are well accepted facts with war.
If the Equestrian troops get to the Crystal Empire, by train they are fresh. In 24 hours they can easily encircle the city...it will be hard, like a forced march, but still doable.
Then they hit from 6 sides at once. If they get a single foothold inside the bubble, doesn't matter where, it will be near impossible for the Crystal Ponies to repel the Superior number of Equestrians without letting the Equestrians estabilsh another foothold, just due to sheer manpower difference. This forces Twilight to retreat as street to street combat favours the crystal Ponies over the vastly larger Equestrian military.
At which point Celestia can wait and starve Twilight out. They hold the Crystal Empire's farmland, so why charge in.
No.....if Equestria reaches the Crystal Heart Barrier, this is over. Its critical to the Crystal Empire to make use of Guerrilla Warfare to make supply chains from North Equestria to the Crystal Empire impossible to maintain.
I will give you this, however I must point out that due to sheer manpower difference, and Equestrian aerial superiority maintaining Supply lines is going to be next to impossible for the Crystal Empire...Really they need both the Griffons and the Yaks. (Princess of Friendship = Princess of Allies right?))
So Equestria can't defend everywhere. But they don't need to....in fact what they need to do is defend like Russia....
Based off this map of Equestria, northern Equestria is fairly empty. There is Rainbow Falls (which is basically completely indefensible as Equestria needs to cross Crystal Empire Land or inhospitable mountains to reach it) and a city on the East and West coast (one of which is Manehatten) but otherwise....fairly empty forests, swamps and plains compared to South of Canterlot.
This means, Equestria can evacuate the land, burn the food, all the way down to those cities. As the Crystal Empire leaves the cold lands, they will have 3 options.
Make for the East city....make for the west city....or march on Canterlot. And they will either need Supply lines that stretch all the way back to the Crystal Empire (which Pegasi can harass) or the Unicorns will have to constantly re-supply the army. And when the Crystal Empire is over stretched, Equestria strikes back.
Seriously, with the way Equestria looks its almost like this is EXACLTY what they did to the Crystal Empire back when Sombra was in charge, and the populations just never went home, instead remaining and growing those two large northern cities.
So yeah....the barrier isn't great for either nation. Whoever crosses it first will have the harder time.
Yeah I can see that. While its difficult for Yaks to be hit by anyone without the Crystal Empire having capitulated first (again, based on the map.) their is little gain from officially declaring war.
HOWEVER, we are thinking in logical terms. This is a nation that almost declared war because they didn't like the food/music/sleeping accomidations. I tend to think of the Yaks like Equestrian Vikings....really, they kinda just like to fight, and the Yak tribes regularly declare war on each other, as well as Equestria.
Normally it doesn't mean much...because once again, Northern Equestria is basically Empty. But the Yaks have fun.
Twilight can however teleport Yaks into cities with lots of things to Smash.
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re Fluttershy's dream self:
Ah! Okay, I see the problem. The issue isn't that I didn't remember those events, but that I misinterpreted what you meant by "dream self"; I thought you meant her body/presence in the dream, something like that (I wasn't sure), not her character.
So, regarding that, firstly, as I understand it, what she did there doesn't really have anything to do with this being a dream; that's just something she can do, and could do even outside the dream. Secondly, that instance of Night Whisper ended with realizing she wasn't real, but, again as I understand it, Fluttershy might be able to just start up a fresh instance of her which hasn't realized that yet. However, thirdly, overall, I think you're right, because I think it likely Fluttershy won't want to start up that fresh instance and subject Night Whisper to that again.
re who is spinning it:
Well, firstly, there's an easy counter to what the news put out by the enemy is saying: of course they'd spin it to favor themselves and demoralize the Empire. That won't negate their effectiveness, but it'll reduce it.
Secondly, you say that the Empire's propaganda machine isn't ready, but what evidence do we have of that? They've been preparing for this war for a while. Relatedly, the person in charge of spinning it doesn't have to be one of the main protagonists; there are a good number of other people brought into the war game, and the job might even go to an NPC.
re Applejack:
But the truth favors the Empire. It actually favors the Empire more than Applejack knows it does at the moment. At the very least, just from us here as an example, it's clear that the facts are complex enough that different people can look at them and draw different conclusions about who's ahead; just pushing for plain facts wouldn't necessarily hurt the Empire, and if it can be proved that the Imperial and Equestrian stories conflict, well, are the Empire's people going to believe their own government, including the Bearer of Honesty, or the news from abroad that has a strong incentive to make the Empire's position look worse?
re the Bearers being on the other side not being news:
Good point, but that's not quite what I meant. This is, granted, an assumption, but I'd expect that, prior to the actual start of the war, whatever problems there may have been between the Empire and the rest of Equestria, the Bearers, Princess Cadence, and the like could still be counted on to respond if the whole of Equestria was threatened by an outside threat. Now, they are the outside threat.
re strategic victories and the Tet Offensive:
I've heard mixed things about whether the propaganda effect actually was or was not intentional on the Vietcong's part, but yeah, it's too early to really be sure about this; so much depends on how things go from here, which side better exploits the advantages and mitigates the disadvantages this encounter gave them, etc.
Fun to debate, though. :)
"Even with Magic, making a wall completely surrounding the Empire is difficult to do quickly. This is a given since Earth Pony construction is still favored in almost every cannon case."
I was thinking of magical defenses, mostly; a physical wall would be of limited use, anyway, given how likely it is that an Equestrian attack would be heavy on aerial forces, with potentially some teleporting. Not useless, given it would add additional defenses and force different behaviour out of the Equestrians, but a direct ground assault would only be part of the attack unless other things could even more completely shut down other approaches.
"And the Empire is substantially bigger then Canterlot, to the point that an Alicorn found shielding it to be exhausting, so I don't think Shining is going to do a bubble trick like he did for Canterlot."
Do we actually know it's bigger? There's also the question of how much potentially usable magic is already built into the Empire's structure, or could be. But good points; this depends on things we don't know.
"Now ADMITTEDLY we have one known way they could solve their wall Problem. Using Sombra's dark magic would allow the construction of a very quick crystal wall. However I highly doubt Twilight would do so, even in a Dream."
Well, Cadence doesn't seem to need dark magic to quickly grow crystals, based on Princess Spike.
There's also the question of how quickly the crystal ponies could do it, which is again based on unknowns (it seems a safe assumption that they have some way to build and maintain the Empire's structures, but we don't know how quickly it can be done, what it needs, etc. in this universe).
"The Crystal Empire must defend the city AND the farmland that surrounds it."
Must it, though? They've been preparing for this war, and that could include preparing to last out a long siege, if need be. They might even have, as a last resort, the same magic Sombra used to cast the Empire out of time for a thousand years, in hopes of finding a more favorable situation when they return.
"And the defense of a city from a dedicated force takes more soldiers then that city can supply. These are well accepted facts with war."
...Um. Really have to disagree there: besieging cities has a long, long history. Even as recently as WWII, as bad as conditions got, Leningrad still held out for over two years before the attackers were driven away.
"If the Equestrian troops get to the Crystal Empire, by train they are fresh."
Unless the tracks get torn up before they can use them, or their train is blown up while they're in it. If the Empire is about to lose control of the rail line, or doesn't need it for some reason anyway, why leave it intact for the enemy?
Also, even if they do get there by train, they'll only be as fresh as they can be just coming off a troop train. The defenders have all the resources of their home city, permanent barracks at worst, and maybe even their own homes. Speaking of, the defenders are on home ground; there's nowhere to retreat, no more earth to scorch, and if they fall here, the Empire falls. The Equestrians will be camped out far from home, in the cold (or with forces dedicated to keeping the cold off).
"If they get a single foothold inside the bubble, doesn't matter where, it will be near impossible for the Crystal Ponies to repel the Superior number of Equestrians without letting the Equestrians estabilsh another foothold"
Except that a tendril that pushes into the city is instantly flanked by virtue of still having the defenders on either side; it may also still have defenders from rear ranks in front of it.
"No.....if Equestria reaches the Crystal Heart Barrier, this is over. Its critical to the Crystal Empire to make use of Guerrilla Warfare to make supply chains from North Equestria to the Crystal Empire impossible to maintain."
Mostly agreed there, though. Unless the Empire manages to think of a way to still get attacks out even while besieged, if it comes to a siege, things probably aren't looking good for them. Some potential for, if they can get attacks out, pinning the besieging army to reduce Equestria's strength elsewhere, or trying to wear the Equestria forces around the city down faster than the city itself is worn down, but I doubt that those are part of Plan B (Plan A having presumably involved a fully successful capture of Celestia and Luna, or at least one of them). At that point, it would likely be about getting more favourable peace terms (or maybe casting the Empire out of time). Preventing the siege from starting in the first place would probably be much better for the Empire.
"I will give you this, however I must point out that due to sheer manpower difference, and Equestrian aerial superiority maintaining Supply lines is going to be next to impossible for the Crystal Empire"
As you pointed out above, though: unconventional warfare. A small unit doesn't need nearly as much in the way of supply as a large army; if their ability to operate covertly is good enough, they might even be able to just buy things in Equestrian shops. As an addition or alternative, long-range teleportation has already been demonstrated as able to insert and recall a small unit for a strike deep in enemy territory.
"Really they need both the Griffons and the Yaks. (Princess of Friendship = Princess of Allies right?))"
Oh, I do like that idea; thanks. :)
"Seriously, with the way Equestria looks its almost like this is EXACLTY what they did to the Crystal Empire back when Sombra was in charge, and the populations just never went home, instead remaining and growing those two large northern cities."
Interesting idea.
"So yeah....the barrier isn't great for either nation. Whoever crosses it first will have the harder time."
I still think it is an advantage for the Empire, though. With conventional forces, yes, probably whoever crosses it first has the harder time, barring differences in capability bigger than what I think are there. Looking at small unit forces again, though, the empty areas aren't as much of an obstacle, and I think that small unit operations favor the Empire: Equestria's greater ponypower isn't as great an advantage as in conventional operations, and the Empire's smaller size gives less space for enemy small units to effectively operate.
"HOWEVER, we are thinking in logical terms. This is a nation that almost declared war because they didn't like the food/music/sleeping accomidations."
Hm, good point. Though that raises the potential for the Empire gaining an ally being an active worsening of its position in the war
"Twilight can however teleport Yaks into cities with lots of things to Smash."
Indeed.
Oh my, what a cluterfuck. Even if it's a dream realm all the mental trauma is real and will stay with everyone once the simulation shuts down. Now, that by itself wouldn't have been too bad if only willing and conscientious participants were involved but we already know some ignorant ponies are being pulled in and have no idea it's all training.
Wake up won't be pretty: not for the soldiers who saw their homes and comrades shredded, not for the civilians that "lost" loved ones and certainly not even for the main characters that crossed some lines that should have never be crossed for mere training. Looking forwards to seeing it!
However, will the mundane ponies step up to the challenge in future chapters? So far it's been only the big players trading blows while everyone else is mostly useless, just like in all the previous real perils.
Thingd just got serious, both in the story and in the comment section.
Welp, there goes the light-heartedness.
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Well, maybe. It's not luck, though. Twilight Sparkle is the Princess of Friendship and/or Organization; getting the right ponies into the right place and standing next to them is her area of expertise.
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Being good at spinning uselessness into credit for yourself isn't actually a positive trait.
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More plz.
This is awesome stuff, all the more so once everyone stops and thinks about how this has stopped being a fun little exercise. Shit has, to put it bluntly, gotten real. Looking forward to more.
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Yep. Almost like realistic violence is traumatic or something... I swear this was a comedy when I started, then I actually started thinking about it too hard. The problem for continuing is whether to embrace the Cerebus Syndrome or find a way to get it back to it's roots once the Real Shit has been addressed. I swear I'll make up my mind eventually.
Cerebus called, he wants his syndrome back.
Seriously, the last few chapters have ended on majorly sobering notes. Especially with Spike.
I'ma track this regardless, because it really is a fantastic story, and I'm very eager to see what comes next.
Oooh this story concept sounds so cool, too bad it's not finished yet
I'll read it though
...huh.