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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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In lieu of saying "first", I'd just like to take my turn announcing a new chapter for The Other Side of the Spectrum, almost certainly with more to follow not long after! As indicated by the helpful numbering in the title, there's one more part to go until the denouement of the hostage crisis itself, whereupon any loose ends such as Trixie and Pina's hitherto off-screen fight ought to find their resolution in the immediate aftermath, cos' nothing ever wraps in a neat little bow within the Spectrumverse...
Cheers,
~Vox
P.S.
While I may lack a handy GIF such as Sledge115's to express my feelings, let it be known that, as Pineapple Cutter is a personal darkhorse to KizunaTallis, so too is Macua the Cihuatetotl, a creation courtesy of Redskin, to me. Though her role in the story is minimal, writing her provided some of the most fun I've had with this 'verse for a good long time, a feeling which hopefully shines through.
Daring Do is sounding more and more like Lara Croft.
This is so awesome
Thanks for the chapter!
6994028 SOMEONE GETS IT!
Again, like last chapter, this was fun to work pre-read with you guys loved it!
Hope to do it again soon
DAMN GOOD SHOW LADS!
Wait, are we thinking of different Noteworthys? The Noteworthy I'm aware of is an Earth Pony: http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Noteworthy
5972565
Starlight Glimmer became a Redeemed Villain at the end of the season finale, The Cutie Remark. I enjoyed how the Princess of Friendship - Twilight Sparkle knew what to say to convince Starlight to redeem herself.
6994549
That's a bit of broad-stroking on my part, I have to admit. Noteworthy first came to my attention as a potential character in relation to this story when a unicorn version of him was quick-witted enough to fire on Tirek.
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/7/7b/Unicorn_Noteworthy_fires_magic_at_Tirek_S4E25.png/revision/latest?cb=20140512135516
A chance at giving a new, more sinister spin on his famous "one-eye" glitch proved irresistible, too.
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw8606-tumblr_mcnt4wZmzz1reziyso1_1280.gif
We haven't been slacking off! Expect the closing parts to this three part chapter, plus the actual closer to the whole arc, in the next few weeks or so.
Cheers!
6993825 For the record, I would have used that gif again, but I'd wait till the Tree...
This chapter is a bit confusing. A bit too many characters and jumps between perspectives for my liking.
6994269
Sounds like it's based on the prequel game.
6994935 we will hash it out later, right now there are many things going on at the same time
6993825 He's right - Macua is awesome.
I think it might be because of the 5 month wait period, but there are some things that I don't remember with this story and, as a result, following along with these last 2 chapters has been a little confusing for me.
Who's Blackjack, and why was Fuse tied up in the pit?
What happened to the rest of the ponies that helped Fuse kidnap Stephan?
How did Peachbottom get hurt?
The ponies who are getting attacked by Vinyl's unit, are they with the loyalists, or do they work for Blackjack?
6995870
These last two chapters are a direct continuation of an arc which started in Love and Hate and was further covered by the two subsequent chapters, with Of Broken Pasts serving as a rather abrupt interlude referring back to the Princesses' actions in Canterlot, including their response to the crisis.
Basically, Noteworthy and Peachbottom are two of the Loyalist ponies who aided Fuse in his abduction of Stephan, so one can safely assume that Peach got injured like many of her fellows did whilst capturing the Major, who doesn't gender-discriminate.
Fuse, a former member of the Caballeron gang seen in the episode Daring Don't, called a few of his old colleagues for assistance in undermining humanity, backed by the promise of a handsome repayment from a Weaver working in the shadows, of course.
Unfortunately for him, all Weaver really wanted from the gang was a batch of tatzelwurm venom to use on Discord, and when Fuse went off-script by kidnapping Stephan against Catseye's wishes, she double-crossed him in turn by destroying his memory-keeper, as well as those of the other Loyalists involved.
In the event, Weaver improvised quite cleverly, first exploiting Stephan's psychic connection with Discord to lure the Chaos Lord and poison him, then correctly anticipating that the gangsters' greed would lead them to hold the fort with Discord as their prize, leaving them as sitting ducks for a reprogrammed Blue Spy.
And with Fuse's worth to the gang already diminished by his memory loss, he landed himself in hot water when he objected to their designs upon Discord. By coincidence, Blackjack is one of the gangsters whom Weaver dealt with for the venom, and he's none-too-pleased that she almost disposed of him afterward.
Hope this explanation is sufficiently succint.
P.S.
Locksmith is the thug ringleader here, not to mention the only character meant to be truly hateful.
7000241 Do you care?
7000241 Well uh, given the rather vague tone your comments have - is there a problem?
It's about time this story had an update!!!
Lol
6456514 Kinda late to this, but...
I'd say part of the reason why so many are wishing such violent retribution on Catseye and her followers is because Catseye is modeled after Chatoyance, and let's face it, the troublesome content of her work aside, Chat hasn't exactly done much to endear herself to anyone outside of her little hugbox (starting fights with members of the Anti/Alt-TCB group, the Sockpuppet Incident, Ten Minutes: Aftermath, her smug and self-congratulatory attitude, just for starters). And while Weaver's done far worse, I guess people still see her badass qualities and the intricacies in her character/morality/motives enough to want to see how her arc goes (or at least "love to hate" her).
6996532 After Nightmare Moon was purified.
7004068
That's the Doylist, external perspective on the matter.
The thing is, once you apply people's workings to a diverse, in-universe group who'd logically each have their personal reasons for distrusting an alien race, whether it's Berry's skittishness, Icewind's past trauma or Short Fuse's projection of his negative qualities...
Not everyone would be like Chatoyance or her ponysona.
6990040
That's actually a theme I'll be exploring way more in detail in Other Side of the Mirror.
7011575
All I can say is, when Pina closed the first chapter of that story with a half-menacing comment to Comet and Frost's families about how the Empire could well be holding an exhibition on mankind's wrongdoings, I know that much as it pains me to state it, my sympathies lie with the sociopath on this one.
At its best, dystopian fiction is meant to hold a mirror, as it were, to our own world's ills.
Everything you see the TCB!Equestrians do in these stories, the war, torture and violation, are all things you'll never get to witness on Friendship is Magic, because the cartoon world depicted in the show was designed as a first stepping-stone for young children to handle the basic obstacles of life.
... Kiz, if our intent is to push forward a scenario in which the pastel ponies and humans can, somehow, stay true to the show's message and be friends, I'd consider it best to focus more on whatever positive traits both races find they share – and given the former were meant to be a metaphor for the latter, they would have plenty in common – rather than a guilt-trip or finger-pointing.
Fear and ignorance is never a good combo, especially when it comes to ponies. Hopefully, the Loyalists will wake up and realize that, while humans may not perfect (especially in the past) and can be rough around the edges at times, many of the human race is not monsters like they think we are. And they need to learn this very soon, because they are going to face something far, far worse, which mean that safety is no longer going to be an option for them.
On that note, things are getting out of control...and apparently rocking, thanked to Vinyl (heh). But that ending...oh boy, that is not good at all. This mess is going to get a whole lot messier before the war can even start, that for sure.
C&Cs will be PM.
6415955
Many critics have criticized The Lord of the Rings for including material not relevant to the main quest, such as describing birthday parties. However, The Lord of the Rings is a tale of transition between the Third Age and the Fourth Age. Thus, The Lord of the Rings is more than a simple adventure tale; it is a description of a world in transition.
Likewise, The Conversion Bureau: The Other Side of the Spectrum is a collection of interwoven stories of the cultures of three worlds set between an age of isolation and an age of integration. While our protagonists are saddened by the loss of their isolation, shocks to their established cultures, and the downfall and/or deaths of once mighty heroes; our protagonists are happy making new friends, fighting against a common enemy, and learning about new discoveries from the other two worlds.
6965185
Dear Bendy:
“I was born in London in England in 1934. I went through, as a child, the horrors of World War II, through a time when food was rationed and we learned to be very careful, and we never had more to eat than what we needed to eat. There was no waste. Everything was used.”
- Jane Goodall
You wrote, “Millions have died in America alone.” According to statistics tabulated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 2,596,993 people died in the United States in 2013. As a result, even if World War C had not happened, during three-and-a-half years there would be about nine millions American deaths. So, you can see that millions of people dying would not cause an economic depression.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm
Also, if there are millions of American deaths, then the now unused homes and businesses of these dead citizens would be available for immigrants to settle in and restart those businesses.
You wrote, “The sheer mass of refugees that don't see themselves as American and want to go home and rebuild their lost countries.” How would a plethora of refugees in North America wanting to go home to rebuild their lives and communities overseas, decrease American GDP? For example, Cubans seeking to escape Fidel Castro’s dictatorship became immigrants to America. While they tend to identify themselves as Cubans, these people have often enriched the American communities they settle within.
In addition, foreign born refugees living in America would think, “Every bullet, cannon shell, and rocket I make will help me and my family to return home.” Also, these refugees would get paid for their labor, in the military or working in war industries, and then purchase war bonds. During World War Two, mainland European civilian refugees that immigrated to Britain and America supported the war effort as much as any British or American citizen did.
Historical fact: The 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade, located in Great Britain, didn’t see themselves as British and also wanted to return home to a free Poland. Despite being funded by the Allies, this and other brigades of soldiers of occupied nations didn’t create an economic collapse in Britain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Independent_Parachute_Brigade_(Poland)
You wrote, “Human Liberation Front diehards who will never, ever stop fighting until they are put down with force.” In 2008, state and local law enforcement agencies employed more than 1.1 million persons on a full-time basis. With every National Guard unit mobilized, and patrolling rural and urban areas, the chances that PER or HLF forces could take over and then hold anything bigger than a cluster of farmsteads without detection by law enforcement is almost impossible. In other words, I can’t imagine the HLF could manage any major raids within a large city, because local police, FBI agents, and National Guard forces would kill or capture any large HLF raiding party that attempted to attack a major target.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_the_United_States
Those are three big problems for the civilian economy. Yet, the harsh decrease in the civilian economy would be overcome by a 21st century wartime economy that would be much stronger than the wartime economy created by the federal government during World War Two.
Note: TCB Equestria deals with an underground resistance, takes in millions of newfoals, while maintaining an Equestrian wartime economy that started with the war against King Sombra’s Crystal Kingdom. Yet, somehow TCB Equestria is not in a great depression. Why is that?
Now pay close attention, as this is my most important point. What is an economic depression? “A depression is an unusual and extreme form of recession. Depressions are characterized by their length, by abnormally large increases in unemployment, falls in the availability of credit (often due to some form of banking or financial crisis), shrinking output as buyers dry up and suppliers cut back on production and investment, large number of bankruptcies including sovereign debt defaults, significantly reduced amounts of trade and commerce (especially international trade), as well as highly volatile relative currency value fluctuations (often due to currency devaluations). Price deflation, financial crises and bank failures are also common elements of a depression that do not normally occur during a recession.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_(economics)
An economic depression is the opposite of a wartime economy, where there is almost full employment, where there is a great demand for wartime goods from combat boots to mighty warships, where soldiers and civilian workers have steady paychecks, and all media encourages every adult to buy war bonds and follow war rationing.
In cataclysm fiction, the setting must be dark, yet believable. However, it can’t be so dark that readers wonder why the named characters even get out of bed in the morning. If PER and HLF terrorist attacks could cause “the great depression on steroids”, then Cobra Commander is now turning green with envy.
Question: How does the HLF fund their operations? I assume that PER operations and personnel are funded by the Solar Tyrant’s treasury and thus have a lavish amount of funds available to them.
This is my second most important point. The morals of the stories in generation four are a big part of most episodes. What better way to show honest morals in World War C stories than to show named characters, using their disposable incomes, to buy war bonds or to purchase black market goods, diverting essential resources away from the war effort.
In my imagination, allow me to walk into a United States where every type of advertising sell war bonds and encourage people to do their fair share in the war effort, where any stranger could be a PER or HLF terrorist, and where a popular propaganda poster has the words, “Not one more inch” with the image of a rifle bayonet sticking through a pale pink foreleg, wearing an ornate golden shoe over the hoof, over a photo of North America taken from orbit.
“When the writer, while writing, is moved to strong emotions, be it to laughter or to tears, is the special moment when he or she is writing at their best.”
- Dances with Unicorns
Conservation where Marcus Renee is talking to Cannon Lyra Heartstrings: “Before the Solar Tyrant come to my world, I never thought that my America would once again become a wartime economy. Sure, federal economic policies and the demands for a two hundred division Army have achieved almost full employment. Yet, most basic necessities are rationed by Federal and State ration boards, and even tap water would be rationed if a government administrator could figure out how public water fountains can take ration stamps.
“I see many people turn to the black market for extra consumer goods beyond what the rationing boards allow. People have also become very creative at maintaining their civilian goods such as automobiles, kitchen appliances, and other luxury goods as new luxury goods have not been made for three years.
“Every civilian worker that made, shipped, and then sold those civilian luxury goods, including many of my high school pals, are now working in wartime industries, are in the military, were killed by the HLF, or the PER turned them into newfoals and then were killed by everybody else.
“Speaking of the HLF, most of them I’ve fought have never had military training or even been in the Boy Scouts. I’ve taken more painful beatings from my massage therapist than from those yokels.
“Many active American mines have been expanded, abandoned mines have been reopened, and new mines have started up. My high school friend Charles Moynihan now is working as a mining explosives specialist at the reopened Soudan Underground Mine in Minnesota. He works ten to twelve hours, six days a week in the mine. Come to think of it, almost everyone I know in industry is working ten to twelve hours, six days a week.
“Charles’s work partner is Aednat, a big and brawny PHL unicorn mare, who uses her most refined magic spell in finding the richest pockets of iron ore in the mine. These two hard rock miners are the most productive team in the mine; Charles brags in his e-mails that they are paid twice as much as their supervisors, while finding enough iron ore and other precious metals, such as copper-nickel and platinum, to pay for their salaries over 100 times.
“I shouldn’t be surprised, yet I am at how ordinary ponies and ordinary humans are doing amazing work in such a short amount of time. Just proves that when ponies and humans have our backs against the wall and a blade against our throats that we can amaze ourselves at what we can achieve.
“My Lyra, the one the Solar Tyrant murdered, had a dream. She once told me that after we had defeated the Solar Tyrant that she and her pony and human friends would create an Equestrian wireless phone company. We would bring phone and Internet service to every Equestrian citizen, and then we would all become wealthy. Maybe, after this war has been won, I can make my friend’s dream into a reality.
“But, most ponies, humans, and allied species don’t think much about their plans for their lives after the war has been won. Almost all of our thinking is devoted to surviving to see the next sunrise. That’s a miserable way for anyone to live.
“I remember leading an improvised, defensive battle group to fight a nighttime attack of two divisions of newfoals in the Bavarian Forest National Park. My battle group blew up or burned down half of that ancient forest. But, we destroyed two entire newfoal divisions and their royal guard officers within a few hours and setback the Tyrant’s invasion plans of the Czech Republic for eight days. My battle group did to the newfoals what the Germanic tribes did to three Roman legions and their auxiliaries during the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
“When I saw a beautiful, red and orange sunrise the next day, through the smoke of all the forest fires, I noticed that I was crying. It was not the warm ash and the stench of the dead that made tears run down my cheeks. During the night, when wave upon wave of newfoals attacked my battle group’s earth and concrete defensive positions, I had an honest belief that I was not going to see that sunrise, not as a human anyway.
“While I still don’t believe it, the soldiers under my command had only 30 fatalities that night. Of all the major battles so far, that was by far the most lopsided victory PHL and UN forces have had. I have told reporters not to build any monument to honor what I did during that battle. Instead, build a monument to honor these twenty-two men and women, six PHL Earth ponies, and two griffins that died, so that more than five hundred thousand Czech civilians could escape the Tyrant’s bloody grasp.
“Speaking of the Tyrant, her hissy fit showed her senior military leaders that she was not pleased with the battle’s outcome. There is a thirty centimeter concrete patch in the ornate marble floor of the Tyrant’s military operations room where the Tyrant lost her cool and tapped the floor with more excitement than she had wanted to. The blue spy reports that the war room is the size of a 747 aircraft hangar, and has all types of maps and photographs, military terrain models that are so well detailed that they look like they belong in museums, examples of captured PHL and UN weapons, and detailed plans for their PER allies to hack into military communications and reconnaissance satellites.
“General Shining Armor, the pony that had created the battle plan to capture the Bavarian Forest, was in the proverbial doghouse for weeks. Unfortunately, there are many senior human military commanders that become newfoals that took up the invasion planning and have become rather good at defeating my defensive plans.
“‘General Armor versus Battle Group Commander Renee, a match of the two most skilled commanders in the war,’ was how the newspapers described it. General Armor’s favorite tactic is to load D-Day inspired combat gliders with Earth and Unicorn newfoals. Then, have Pegasus pull them into the air and then let them glide behind my lines to attack my staging areas, fuel depots, and field headquarters. But, the mature Bavarian Forest was so thick that the Earth and Unicorn newfoals had to come at my defensive lines with frontal attacks and on hoof.
“Turning to another topic, you should hear the intense, ethical debates about humans and our non-human meat eating allies such as the griffons talk about using the corpses of fresh dead newfoals, the dead PHL ponies, and other large corpses as a source of food for the living.”
Question: Do you know if newfoal meat is safe food for humans, dragons, or griffons?
“Private security firms are hiring anyone who can see, walk around a building, and fire a handgun. My rural high school was closed and then converted into immigrant apartments, while the woodworking and mental shops are now making grenades inspired by the German Model 24 stick grenades.
“My high school friend Jade, her parents named her that for her beautiful green eyes, Mayer was the first woman in my class to become an automobile mechanic and had just bought her first Smart Car dealership when the government converted all civilian automobile production to military vehicles. I’ve heard that Jade is now a M113 armored personnel carrier mechanic for PHL and UN military forces in Fort Devens, Massachusetts that is located northwest of Boston.
“Sometimes, Jade asks me questions that I can’t answer. She once asked me if ponies and other talking, life forms of Equus who are born in the United States can become full United States citizens, including becoming President.
“Sorry, I got sidetracked for a moment. Fort Devens is about 28 miles by air from Boston Logan Airport. I know that’s kind of close to Boston. But, I’ll stop the Solar Tyrant and her armies before the barrier reaches anywhere near Fort Devens.
“I’m the military leader of the UN taskforce of all of North America. That title sounds impressive, bringing a smile to my face. And then, I realize that hundreds of thousands of my combat and support soldiers are teenagers, previously discharged veterans, and angry refugees from overseas.
“I’ve hired one of the lesser-known Apple family members to look after my late mother’s horse and maintain her home. I haven’t had the time or the heart to put Mom’s things into storage and then rent her house to an immigrant family yet. If I was not a combat veteran and military commander, I would have been required by immigrant housing laws to rent my Mom’s empty home to an immigrant family.”
The facts are that while the civilian economy would shrink as nonessential industrial production such as nylons and refrigerators would be discontinued, the growth in war industries would more than compensate for those losses. Every gun repair shop would be humming with new costumers. Even the gunsmiths that now make Civil War replica revolvers and lever-action, repeating rifles would have huge increases in sales.
Note: In fact, the postwar economic boom was made in part by people buying War Bonds and the restricted access to consumer goods during the war, resulting in larger savings rates per person during the war. When consumer spending decreased, savings by buying war bonds increased.
This is my third most important point. Between 1929 and 1933, U.S. GDP fell around 30 percent. To achieve “the great depression on steroids” the U.S. GDP needs to fall around 60 percent. As America had a $17,968 billion dollar economy in 2015, then the PER and HLF would have to destroy $10,780 billion dollars worth of goods and services to the American civilian and wartime economies. Also, America’s $17,968 billion dollar economy would not include the economic lift generated by Federal wartime spending.
http://knoema.com/nwnfkne/world-gdp-ranking-2015-data-and-charts
Note: I will point out here that the PER and HLF causing $10,780 billion dollars of destruction is the destructive equivalent to a limited nuclear war, and I don’t see that anywhere in the published stories.
Note: The destruction of Washington, D.C. would not create a big downturn in GDP, as there are secret bunkers that the government can relocate to in case of national crisis. The former congressional bunker, codenamed “Project Greek Island” under the Greenbrier hotel in West Virginia is a decommissioned example of what these still secret bunkers look like.
As I have stated with the upmost clarity in my last post, it is impossible for America to have created a wartime economy and also have a massive economic downturn, for the entire economy, at the same time. In 1943, two-thirds of the American economy had been integrated into the war effort, leaving one-third to the civilian economy. That means that “the great depression on steroids” would have a serious impact on building up a two hundred division Army, and I don’t see that described anywhere in the published stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_economy#cite_note-Henretta_REVISED-3
It is true that many American adults that made civilian goods and sold civilian goods lost their jobs in the downsized civilian economy. However, in the weeks and months that followed December 7th, 1941 all these unemployed civilian workers found employment working in a plethora of new job opportunities within the expanded military and the much larger wartime industries. With wartime rationing of essential goods and luxury goods no longer being made, Americans spent about $3,125 billion in 2016 dollars of their disposable income on War Bonds.
I dislike repeating myself, but you and everyone else on our writing team needs to get this idea. With massive individual savings combined with massive federal spending, a great depression, let alone a great depression on steroids would be impossible.
I’m not writing my essay to attack you as a person. I’m writing this essay to make World War C into something that is Rainbow Dash awesome. Also, I’m writing this essay to respect our readers’ intelligence to tell the difference between believable drama and idiotic farce.
Drama that moves the readers’ emotions is created in a story by showing the reader the protagonists in the role of the underdog. George Lucas built his entire Star Wars franchise based on showing the audience that his Rebel Alliance protagonists are outnumbered and outgunned. However, my objection to “the great depression on steroids” is that it rivals the absurdity and surrealism of Warhammer 40k and that is not a good thing for World War C stories.
PS: Please answer these two questions: First, how does “the great depression on steroids” contribute anything meaningful to reading World War C stories? Second, why not obtain our inspiration by researching the actual, American home front during World War Two?
PS: My thesis is supported by real world facts. What is your antithesis supported by?
I would love to read descriptions about an American Home Guard. American citizens in an American Home Guard would be either too young or too old to serve in the national armed forces, but would still be willing and able to fight against the Solar Tyrant’s Earth invasion force.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2191365/Forget-Dads-Army-newly-released-war-records-shows-Britains-Home-Guard-Lads-Army-somethings-teenagers.html
This article describes that in Great Britain after the Battle of Dunkirk that “New National Archive documents show around half of volunteers were under 27 and a third of them were under 18.” It turns out that World War C stories are more accurate in our description of young combat soldiers in developed nations than I first thought they were.
Sincerely,
Dances With Unicorns
The reasons why Marcus Renee is not a Mary Sue
First, with the purpose to entertain and/or instruct their readers, writers control their character’s actions to tell the story that they wish to tell. A story outline is written first, and then the characters and their decisions are written to follow and fill in the outline.
That is why James Bond can overcome any foe and win over any woman to achieve the “Bond wins and villain dies or flees” outcome because that is the way Ian Fleming wrote his stories. Furthermore, James Bond can be thought of as Fleming’s Mary Sue, as there is not enough hours in the day for one person to maintain so many different skills at expert levels.
Second, to determine if a character is or is not a Mary Sue depends upon the opposition, the environment, and the total context of the fictional world that character is in. For example, despite both being trained Marines, a challenging opponent for Gomer Pyle may not be a challenge for Master Chief John-117.
Third, ask yourself this question: Is Batman a Mary Sue? It depends if Batman is fighting an inexperienced subordinate or is fighting a super villain such as the Joker. Is a Super Saiyan a Mary Sue? It depends if the Super Saiyan is fighting a redshirt minion or is fighting a godlike opponent like Frieza. You see, raw power alone does not make a fictional character a Mary Sue.
Now, let’s examine Marcus for any classic Mary Sue traits. Get a drink and a box of popcorn from the theater concession stand. Please silence or turn off all electronic devices, sit back, and enjoy the following presentation.
The title of the story is “The Conversion Bureau: The Other Side of the Spectrum”, not “Marcus saves humanity.”
Hordes of groupies are not constantly telling Marcus how smart, strong, and handsome he is.
Marcus is never described as being more muscular than Arnold Schwarzenegger was in his prime.
Marcus has never starting singing a brand new song that everyone else around him somehow knows the words to.
Marcus didn’t get a phoenix as his animal companion and an Ursa Major as his own battle mount.
Marcus is not a member of GI Joe and thus does not have a flying aircraft carrier as his command base.
Marcus has never been described as a one man army and does not save everyone near him.
Marcus has one love interest, not a different one every five episodes like Star Trek’s Captain Kirk.
Marcus is unable to save humanity by himself and must rely on friendship, hard work, and planning to do that.
Marcus is not the main character, or even mentioned, in every chapter.
Also, Marcus’s runes give him a fighting chance, not an overwhelming advantage. Marcus is still a vulnerable human being. In other words, Marcus didn’t become Superman.
Take a good look at the cover art. I can want a few minutes as you take a close look at it. Come back here when you are ready.
The cover art shows the main characters, including the cannon princesses and Marcus about to fight the Solar Tyrant. These six protagonists against the Solar Tyrant is a key event for a future and so far unwritten chapter. Thus, those characters had to live past the library battle, as the established story outline requires it. In short, while having the princesses kill Marcus was a reasonable possibility, the story outline required him to live via Twilight’s spell.
Using D&D rules, Marcus would have been killed by the princesses or the Royal Guard ponies 9 .99 out of 10 times. But the story outline is not a game simulation and the story outline demands that those characters need to survive to tell the story that the author intends to tell. That is the same reason why Indiana Jones or any other action hero or heroine manages to survive so many battles and then win at the end of the novel or movie.
Note: Without the library battle, the story would be without the contest of strength and/or will that creates the “Fire-Forged Friends” trope.
Note: The author wrote that combat scene to prove to the readers that Marcus could hold his own against the princesses, and because that battle looked cool. Cool combat is a part of the cannon TV series. In the second episode of “A Canterlot Wedding”, the changelings could have blended into the crowds and drank up all the love around them. The only reason why the changelings attempted to take over Canterlot was to have cool fights between the six main characters and the changelings. For example, it was cool to see Pinkie Pie using Twilight Sparkle as a magical machine gun.
In addition, ask yourself this question: When Marcus and Lyra were in the Everfree Forest; why did Marcus decided to return to Ponyville with Lyra; instead of sending her back home and then making a northward beeline for Canterlot, a city visible from Ponyville, to assassinate who he thinks is the Solar Tyrant. Marcus was out for revenge on his “white whale” or in this case a light pink Tyrant. While reading the story, I wondered why Marcus didn’t choose that path, which would have been reasonable given the circumstances. However, having Marcus choose a different path would have derailed the established story outline.
My point for this memo is that what determines if an individual fictional character is or is not a Mary Sue is subjective. While other people do have the right to see Marcus as a Marty Sue, the correct term for an overpowered, perfect in body and mind male character; I also have the right to see Marcus for what he is - a balanced character for the setting, the friends that support him, and the opponents he fights with. You see, there is no right or wrong answer to determine if Marcus is or is not a Marty Sue, because we each have different views on how we define who is a “realistic character” in a setting where mythological creatures, magic, and modern military technology coexist.
That’s all I have to say on this subject.
7019952 ...
Well...
I suppose i can use this. In any case, Dance, make what you wrote into a side story.
I been trying to do something like this for a long time. Saved me a lot of effort.
What types of campaign medals and ribbons could be awarded to those in the US armed forces and the cannon Equestrian armed forces for service in this war? Don’t forget that it is possible for US soldiers to accept medals from foreign nations. Thus, a US soldier could accept cannon Equestrian medals and ribbons in service to the pony nation.
I assume that the Tyrant’s potion gives off a unique and powerful magical signature. The potion could not be mistaken for any other type of magical potion or artifact. Thus, could a PHL unicorn detect the Tyrant’s potion in the same way that Rarity detects gemstones? Could the PHL build Geiger counter like machines that could detect the potion and stop the PER from shipping the potion in the mail and in airline cargo holds?
If I were Marcus, I would attempt to recruit some of the good-natured ponies from Cihuateto’s jungle tribe. Who knows what types of knowledge that jungle tribe has of the natural world that could be used to support the PHL and oppose the Tyrant? Also, the magical gold rings found in the fortress that was featured in the “Daring Don't” episode, can’t be the only magical artifacts in the jungle.
Do you remember the goats featured in the “Putting Your Hoof Down” episode? One of the goats was strong enough for Iron Will, a much larger creature, to stand on their back and walk. If a goat can carry Iron Will on their back; then they can carry supplies from a supply dept to the front and carry wounded to aid stations.
http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Putting_Your_Hoof_Down/Gallery?file=Iron_will_goat_stand_S2E19.png
I was kind of confused about what's happening but I feel like now that this place they're in is some sort of large factory or town instead of some sort of small house to make bricks and that's why there's so many people here fighting.