- Member Since 25th Jun, 2014
- offline last seen Aug 31st, 2021
The Hand of Pony
If I ever write things with Zecora I WILL make her rhyme even if it kills me.
The Hand of Pony
Joined 25th Jun, 2014 ·
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Hello again, plucky antiheroes.
This story is great!
I missed this motley crew - it's good to have them back.
And damn, this chapter certainly threw some wrenches in to the works for everyone. Twilight's friends not being there, Nighmare being there, Twilight's subversion of Faust's mind control crystal, Starswirl's retreat being exposed ... things certainly aren't going like anyone planned. I can't wait to see how things play out ... though first order of business is probably relocating the mirror from the evrefree castle. It's a small miracle Faust isn't there already trying to break in.
I never knew you made the story until I checked. I love it. Also, how many books left after this or is this the final one?
This is turning into a fun read! Thanks for the new story!
8911960
This will be the last in the Faust arc at least. I do have others I could do, and would like to, but I'm going with getting this finished for definite, as it would at least be a decent end if I don't do any more.
8910510
Oh my god, Im so fucking ready... Im so ready for this.
I can't wait for another update.
FINALLY! I spent ALL WEEK catching up on your last story and now I am FINALLY caught up (faints)
Seriously, great work with the least story, and your first one, sorry I didn't comment more, but I am REALLY looking forward to this one. LET THE REVENGE BEGIN!!!
Trixie doesn't want to leave Twilight's side. So cute.
YAY! UPDATES!!! Will we get to see what happened to Celestia at all, or will we not find out until later?
8922822
Proof, if any were needed, of her complete irrationality.
8922858
That's more of a later sort of thing
8923176
Oh well. I look forward to any updates either way
Nothing like the UN. More like NATO, Warsaw Pact, or CSTO
8923986
Sunset is at her core, still a magical horse girl who gets things wrong.
8925181
MAGICAL HORSE GIRL
-Hand of Pony, 2k18
8923986
Who's the USA/USSR/RF in this
collective security pactimperialist bloc?8925181
Also, Sunset being wrong? Absurd and unthinkable. Sunset is canon Practically Perfect in Every Way.
8927822
supposed to be Equestria but will prob. be Griffons. Meanwhile, Mareitania is Albania
8927976
"That one country with the fetish for bunkers and Chineigh?"
8930042
no, the one country with a fetish for bunkers and a tendency for grandiose delusions, causing paranoia
When in doubt, get a boat. Though I like this idea. Not only can they now move from city to city, but if they get more ponies to help they could create a small fleet to cause chaos and stop Faust from using the Equestrian ports to attach other nations.
Keep up the good work
*insert a certain pirate music group's cover of a certain Lazytown song here*
Kinda of reminds me a little of xcom 2 where the resistance base of operations is a alien supply ship. Indeed I kinda of like this idea. Moving around makes it that much harder to catch them.
Yeah, I'm with Filly on this - and very much so disappointed in Twilight's parents. Because from the sounds of it they have barely (if at all) tried to understand Twilight or anything she has gone through, nor do they care to (to be fair, her friends were the same - but they got their lesson already on that front). They seem more concerned with the picture-perfect (in their mind) daughter they lost rather than the one they actually have. Good on Filly for calling them on that - they deserved to hear nothing less. Hopefully some of that will stick, if they care enough to do anything about it besides bitch and moan about the past.
And a boat, eh? I'm not sure how effective them playing at pirates is going to be, but narratively it does beat them sitting in an apartment and doing low-key stuff, I imagine, so I'm looking towards their misadventures. Considering that Maretania had no navy (I think?) their expertise with ships should be quite poor-to-nonexistent, so they can probably stay safe this way for a while. Though granted, they will have to look out for pegasi something fierce. Hmm ... we'll have to see how they do - should be an amusing romp regardless.
I'm guessing that Faust has boats transporting supplies?
8938840
They have a point though - Twilight is and going forward always will be a worse person than she was before going to Maretania. She's basically given up on life at this point, and there is nothing, nothing more to be done.
8939829
Has she? I don't recall Twilight being suicidal, if that's what you mean by having given up on life. Somewhat depressed at times and having some PTSD (that she has mostly worked through by now I think) - sure, but not suicidal. And even if she was, that would paint her parents in even worse light because that meant she would have needed their support even more, rather than empty complaining.
A worse person though? I don't believe so. Different, sure, but not worse in any objective sense.
8940343
If I meant suicidal, I would have said suicidal. I have stated my position clearly in the comments to the last story: what she wants very badly is to withdraw from the world and rest for a very long time. This would be a good thing.
And yes, worse in an objective sense. Took her a whole book to decide to help her captured friends here, where in Twilight's Kingdom (the last episode before the timeline divergence) it took her just a moment. This is not a person that can be helped, it is a person that it is better to stay away from.
(Also, depression and PTSD can't be "worked through." They are permanent and determining facets of the sufferer's psyche.)
She couldn't rescue her friends because she was preoccupied with finding Starswirl's private study. She had to prioritize that over rescuing three ponies.
That doesn't make her an objectively worse person or even a worse person in the sense of anything. That makes her a person that puts the needs of everyone over her own wants.
That makes her a very good person who is haunted by the actions of her past and present.
8942809
No she didn't. She could have done anything she wanted. She chose to prioritize finding Star Swirl's retreat - a fool's errand that ended up being a total waste of time, and which certainly did not amount to "putting the needs of everyone" first - over rescuing three ponies from torture or worse.
Yes she did, as a Princess of her country she needs to do what is best for her country instead of what is best for herself. As an authority this is necessary for the continued survival of one's country.
She did choose to prioritize finding Star Swirl's retreat, however it was one made with great difficulty. Throughout the story you could see that leaving her friends to their fate was eating her up inside like a slow rotting sensation upon her psyche.
Finding Star Swirl's retreat wasn't a fools errand because they did find his retreat. The long journey however was the fool's errand but looking at it, you shouldn't blame them for it.
They didn't have any other choice. Faust is immensely powerful, you and the rest of us saw how casually she defeated the the Princesses. From what we see in the new book, the journey wasn't a total complete failure...
8944007
Twilight isn't actually any sort of leader or authority, and even if she was, the best policy would have been immediate surrender. Countries aren't actually worth anything; beings are.
There was nothing in her psyche to be eaten up or to rot. The work of breaking her down into an unfeeling killing machine had already been done. That much is clear from the very choice we're arguing about.
Finding Star Swirl's retreat was a waste of time because it contains nothing useful and serves no purpose. It was madness to ever think that it would.
8944394
Twilight's a princess, of course she's an authority figure. It just took her awhile to understand that.
Really? You're telling me that if a dictator tried taking over your country you'd lay down and let them do it? You'd allow your peaceful way of life to be changed by a person who clearly doesnt care about peace and has little regard for your life?
Countries are basically a huge group of sapient beings working together to survive. They are very valuable. Humanity couldn't become the way we are today without them.
We'd still be out in the wild wiping our butts with leaves and chucking spears at lions.
Star Swirl's retreat contains something. But Star Swirl only cares about his own selfish wants and would rather risk the continued threat of all sapient life literally being turned dumb than to see that the Faust he loved has turned quite insane and she needed to be stopped yesterday.
8944673
Yes. In almost all cases, there is little to choose between rulers, and any given ruler is about as oppressive and exploitative as another - "peace" is just a cover for an ongoing civil war, sometimes open, sometimes hidden. Given that, why should I fight to preserve my current master's prerogatives over me?
8944878
That's why in western nations we have to pay tribute to the rulers of our nations or have our firstborns sacrificed to the gods to appease them and spare ourselves from being smited by them.
Sorry for the ridiculous response, but a ridiculous answer like this gets an equally ridiculous rebuttal.
I think I'd rather have President Trump than the Sauds of Arabia, the Ayatollah of Iran or the "Great Leader Kim Jung Un"...
If your "master" allowed you to have a decent education, decent standards of living, decent health and ready access to current modern technology then surely you owe them this? Especially if your new master would potentially have a whole group of people killed off and sent to concentration camps.
8946149
Education, health, and technology are not boons for the benefit of the masses, they are concessions to the needs of the modern workplace which could not function (could not compete) without them. Also, social contract theory is pure nonsense that does not describe reality, and shame on you for invoking it.
8946350
That sounds very logical; but you, my friend are only half right. Advances to medicine and technology were mostly made by private inventors and doctors who wanted to make the world a better place.
You were, however correct about education. Modern education... The K-12 system was actually made to create more factory workers.
Anyway, believe it or not, humans are very altruistic creatures. Everything has an agenda, but associating things like these with a "1984-like" agenda does no good. It maybe great for critical thinking but when you look at the facts, its a wasted effort.
I don't really think that I invoked any kind of social contract theory. I only stated that the countries we currently live in allow us to have a modern standard of living.
Go to Saudia Arabia or North Korea, countries that care little for their people while the top levels of government sit and grow fat with all that wealth.
We're not much different in terms of that, but at least a lot of the expenses go to maintaining public services and such.
Being so ready to betray your country when in such a position is just shameful in itself, really.
Something tells me the daughter will be taking over and assisting them, but either way I can't wait so see where this goes
8950298
Not that kind of story. She's too painfully naïve and genuinely curious about the world, and will have to be broken of that or killed for it.
I rather suspect Eustace will end up on the throne, or at least that Twilight and co. will support his bid. He doesn't want anything that they're not willing to give.
8946660
Since World War II, just about every technological advance has been at the behest of militarism or some other state prerogative, and with the purpose of increasing competitive geopolitical/imperialist advantage. The Internet, for example, was born from the Department of Defense, as we're the self-serving cars that are set to liberate so many workers from their jobs into the wonderful world of unemployment. These and our miraculous medical interventions have been harnessed primarily to boost the productivity of labor and the length of the working life in the service of profit, and not quality of life. Any benefits we've seen on that score have been largely incidental, and certainly far short of the technology's potential.
DPRK and KSA are not really distinguished from the OECD countries by the amount their rulers care for their peoples. They're distinguished by the methods they use to compete on the world market and in geopolitics. KSA doesn't give a fig for the productivity of labor, instead feeding ever more exploited people (of whom an endless supply make their way across the Indian Ocean) into the oil fields to be worked to death or serious injury. They compete on the world market by manipulating the price of oil by manipulating supply, and on the imperialist level by acting as a proxy for the US and a market for American weapons. DPRK meanwhile, is even more militaristic, an armed camp that cares a great deal for the productivity of labor that feeds its military machine, without the resources to spare for anything else. Because it doesn't really participate on the world market, only trading with (and thus perforce acting as an economic appendage of and buffer state for) China.
We can play this game with every country, finding reasons to denounce it's rulers and the role it plays on the world stage. Which is the point. To Hell with all of them, but the main enemy is at home.
I think you are doing just fine. Plus, plans change as a story progresses. So long as everything works out and comes together in the end, you'll do fine. Keep up the good work
"Hurting your ideas?" If this chapter is messed up and broken then I'm excited for what you consider to be a great chapter!
Anyway, it looks like the Emperor is finally seeing what the ponies have been saying. Good on him for being grateful that they just saved his life.
8964963
8966342
It wasn't so much that I thought it was a bad chapter as such, but I was stupidly tired, and the more I looked, the less it made sense.
8966354
It happens to the best of us, I'm an artist so I understand what ya mean now.
I'm trying to make something new but I can't, my brain looks at everything I'm drawing so far and spits on it. Ugh. Bad feeling to have, it is a curse for creators like us.
Goes then comes, then goes... Then comes back with a vengence!
8966376
Occasionally I do write something and think "this is pretty neat!" Those are the best days. Not that you guys can tell, but the best way to gauge whether I like the chapter I'm writing is by how fast I write it. I fly through what I think the good chapters are.
Enjoy your days off. I look forward to more
Personally I liked this chapter - especially for the Cadence portions. My opinion of Cadence has been very low for quite a while now, and that instead of acting like a leader she has been acting more like a ... a whiny brat, almost. All she ever did was complain and belittle the efforts of the others while not having anything constructive to offer herself.
So in a way it was gratifying that she was put in a situation where that was no longer an option - no Luna, Celestia or Twilight to hide behind and whine at. Just her and Flurry and she could either choose to swim or sink, like she has been doing all this time. And it was good to see that she chose to try and swim, instead of going belly-up like she has always been advocating. That's no way for a leader to act.
And, once she took that proactive step, it was nice to have Cadence look upon herself and be displeased with what she saw, with the ineffectiveness and not having a plan and not knowing what to do. An alicorn forced to flee down the toilet? Yeah, that's as far from any sort of dignity as one can get.
And might have been just the kick in the rear she needed to get out of her prolonged flunk. In a way this separation from the proactive members of her group could be the best thing to have happened to Cadence in a good while. Let's see if she can keep her head above the waves going forward.
And yes, Flurry is an unholy terror - just as she is in the show. I would suggest exorcism once this all is over
8978841
You took the words right outta my mouth, my friend. Cadence is gonna give 'em hell and Flurry's gonna blow them to pieces!
Now, I'm glad that the Golden Claws are here, their professionalism and prowess in combat is more than a match for the Bloodfeathers.