Luna makes her way to my side after the four Crescents assemble in the arena. I cross my arms and huff in annoyance. “You know, a three on one isn’t exactly fair.” I state, not bothering to hide my tone.
She gives me a sidelong glance, then smirks. “Well, if it bothers you so, you may stand by his side if you wish. After all, it was your lie that got him into this scenario. So if anything, you should probably be there with him regardless.”
I raise an eyebrow at her. “As opposed to what? Watching a friend get locked away for a joke?” I say.
“Relax Null, I jest. I do not hold anything against you for what you did; in fact, I thank you, truly. I meant it when I said Skyline is a friend.” She smiles a bit.
I stand there for a moment before shrugging and pulling my backpack infront of me, and pulling out two bottles full of bright liquids; one yellow and one orange.
Luna watches with interest, and raises an eyebrow of her own at the potions. “While I said you Could keep the potions from Starswirl’s Cache, you do know it is possible to develop an addiction to potions, correct?”
“Well, It wouldn’t exactly be fair on me without these, now would it?” I ask, popping the cork on the yellow one and downing it. Huh… Banana flavored.
She looks at me for a moment before staring at the four other ponies patiently awaiting her order to begin, and nodding. “Given the circumstances, I suppose you are right. However, I’m curious as to why you are only taking a Stamina and Strength Booster; do you not harm yourself with your own eye? Why not the Pain Nullifier as well?” she asks as I’m downing the orange potion.
Putting the empty bottles back in my bag, I pull out my dagger and give it a once over before looking back at Luna. “Couple reasons; one, I’d rather save those for when I really need them. Two, I don’t want it all hitting me at once, like Starlight explained. Three, I’d rather get used to it so when I don’t have potions, I’m not overdoing anything, at least as far as my eye is concerned.” I explain.
She considers this, then nods in understanding. “Fair enough.” she says simply as I set down my bag and make my way over to the dueling circle, standing by Skyline; who for his part, looks as confused as the rest of them.
“Null? What are you doing over here? Shouldn’t you be watching with Luna?” he asks curiously.
“Evening out the playing field a little bit; A one on three doesn’t exactly sit right with me.”
Before he can protest, Luna speaks loudly across the arena. “Null will be standing by Skyline for this clash. He will receive no special treatment in this; I expect you to treat him like you would any other you’d face in a dueling circle. If there are any objections, speak now or hold your peace.”
Skyline looks like he’s about to object, but thinks better of it. “No? Very well then. Begin.” As she says that, the arena dome erects itself and encompasses us, blocking out all visual and audio stimuli from outside of it. Well, I can still see outside of it. But whatever.
We all stand there for a moment, waiting for someone to make the first move. My left eye twinges for a second, and the world takes on a blue hue. But nobody else seems to notice. Thinking it might just be me, I watch as Skyline dashes ahead quickly, and brings his blade to Twisted’s head, intending to remove him early from the fight. However, he’s stronger and faster than he looks, as he easily brings up the haft of his weapon to block the blow.
I was about to run in and try for an attack of my own, when I see a blue version of myself running ahead of me, and towards Twisted as well. I'm startled by this, and even more so when I notice Aria wasn’t where she was, and was currently zipping towards the blue me as Skyline was exchanging blows with Twisted, and Caiuss was preparing runes and seeming to be pumping magic into them.
However, I notice he gets encased in a yellow aura, as well as Skyline and Twisted. Looking back over to myself, I see that the blue me is caught in a red aura and Aria is caught in a blue aura, mere inches from my face with the guard of daggers. I watch myself get carried out of the arena by the red aura, and placed down next to Luna.
My vision is suddenly no longer blue, and I find everyone back in their starting positions. I raise an eyebrow at this, and watch Skyline repeat his exact movements as I saw him do before: going for a quick blow to the side of Twisted’s head, and him blocking it. This time, I ignore my instinct to run in, remembering what I saw, and assuming it would happen again. This time I more clearly notice Aria slinking off to the side and Caiuss beginning to pump magic into his runes. We watch each other closely as Skyline and Twisted exchange blows as they did before.
My vision goes blue again, and I watch her dart at me again. This time, I flinch as she seems to go right through me, and jumps back through me again towards where the blue me now is, which is next to Caiuss and swiftly bringing the palm of my hand to the base of his horn, causing him to recoil, his book to fall to the ground, and his runes to fizzle out. With him blitz’d, the blue me turns and brings my dagger up to block a downwards strike from Aria, knocking her blades to the side, but getting caught in a red aura once again by her reprisal.
The blue vision disappears and once again, everyone is back where they were before that all happened. I repeat the motions I saw myself do, seeing no problem with them up until Aria catches me with her counter. When I get to that part, I blink away. I watch Skyline trying to keep his distance from Twisted, who’s currently doing fast and wide sweeps, each swing seeming to leave a trail of some sort of energy behind. I notice a red glowing spot on his weapon, but don’t have time to think about it at the moment. Skyline quickly takes notice of Caiuss’s debilitated state, and rushes him. Aria realizes this, and rushes to defend while Twisted then rushes me.
My vision once again goes blue, and a couple things happen. Caiuss gets encased in a red aura, Skyline in a blue one, and the rest of us in yellow. Everyone seems to remain focused as Caiuss is carried out of the arena. As the aura’s fade, Aria is now duking it out with her brother, and Twisted is still rushing me. Despite the blue me bringing up the dagger to try and stave it off, a red and blue aura catches us just as it did with Caiuss and Skyline.
So it would have gone clean through my defense...
Starting to get an idea of what’s going on with these visions, I just sorta roll with it, and when it disappears, the events unfold just as I saw once again; this time though, instead of bringing my dagger up, I quickly blast his halberd with my eye and he gets sent flying back. Crashing into the wall, He gets back up quickly and is nearly on top of me again, and I’m also startled when I see Skyline holding back Aria from taking me out as well.
He knocks her to the side, and I blast her with my eye as well to further knock her back, while Skyline wheels around and thrusts his blade towards Twisted, who cannot stop his own momentum. Suddenly we’re all caught in an aura. Oddly enough though, while I’m caught in a red aura, Twisted is in a purple one, and Skyline in a blue one. Both me and Twisted are Carried out of the circle, and the battle resumes, this time in a one on one. The two walk circles around each other and stare each other down.
A voice from my side grabs my attention however. Looking towards the voice, I notice Caiuss still rubbing his horn. “Did you have to blitz me? That really hurts ya know.”
“I’m surprised Skyline didn’t try it first, and even more surprised you didn’t see it coming. Isn’t that one of the best ways to deal with a unicorn?” I say back to him.
“Ha, you’re just upset you got eliminated first ya edge lord.” I hear Twisted say, not even trying to hold back his laughter.
Next to speak is Luna. “frankly, I’m impressed by your reaction speed and decision making. Was it skill? Or sheer dumb luck?”
“I’ll explain later.” I say, turning my attention back to the now clashing blades of Aria and Skyline, running over what happened in my own head, trying to understand it fully; picking up my backpack in the meantime.
The battle goes on for a couple minutes, both of them fiercely matching each other blow for blow. Figures they would, given they’re siblings, but still. It comes to an end however, when they’re both caught in a purple aura, one of Aria’s daggers right at his throat, while Skylines blade is centimeters away from piercing her chest. The two are pulled apart, and placed on the ground, where the dome collapses and allows them to leave.
They walk over to us, and eye me curiously. “You handled yourself better than I expected Null.”
I smile a bit and scratch the back of my head. “Course I did. Though I’m still leagues behind you all. I did have to take some potions to be able to keep up with you guys.” I say.
Caiuss raises an eyebrow at me. “Are you alright? You’re eye…”
“Huh? Oh yeah, the blood. It does that.” I say while wiping it away, having completely forgotten about it in lieu of watching the fight.
Luna clears her throat and all the Crescents stand at attention. “Dismissed, all of you. You are free until next nightfall, upon which you will resume your duties as usual.”
“Finally, drinkin’ time.” Twisted says flippantly, taking off into the air towards the city proper.
Caiuss simply nods to Luna respectfully, and heads into the double doors leading into the castle, going to who knows where.
Skyline and Aria relax, but stay where they are.
I’m about to leave, but Luna clears her throat. “Null. I believe your exact words were, ‘I’ll explain later’. Now seems to be later.” She says with the tone of voice a mother would have when catching their kid up at night trying to steal from the cookie jar.
I turn and give a wry smile. “I did say that. But I never specified when or where. So…. cya!”
I say, blinking away back up to my perch on the mountainside, then through an open window in the front of the castle. I wince in pain at the consecutive long range blinks, wiping the blood away, and make my way to my room, upon which I drop my bag and collapse into bed.
Besides, I’m not sure I quite understand it myself. I mean, I get it, I can see the future a little bit, but how do I trigger it?
Id join it. Also nice job keep up the good progress.
Seeing as im a one piece fan this "blue mode" reminds me of Katakuri's future sight (few seconds into the future to predict what your opponent will do in a battle)
Amazing fight
So he's got a limited form of Combat Precognition? Niiice.
10449408
well reminds me of the battle of Dr. Falco in the TV series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012
I wonder if when Discord get reformed if they will be friendly or could know something about the eye, maybe enough to make sure it don't hurt as much or bleed
This really makes no sense. Why siddenly pull this... thing? To punish Null? Why not just instead have Null be put onto trial to fuck him over instead of Skyline? Why suddenly have Null stick his neck out for the one who fu ked him over for no real reason and showed no remorse, only to have them go and beat up Null's new "friend" to what, punish Null? Its convoluted and makes no sense, and feels stupid as hell. If hes going to suddenly forgive Skyline for no fucking reason there is no reason for Null to not have just forgive Celestia and let her fuck him over ruthlessly.
It doesn't make sense. If they're going to punish Null, then just fucking punish him. If they're going to punish Skyline, then do so. It feels like everybody is doing this to hurt Null for no real apparent reason, including himself.
The blue vision kind of reminds me of Shulk and the Monado. It won’t help him against the mass destruction of sanity that is the Pink One.
Well this should give him Undertale dejavu.
The difference is that he gets a vision, recording of events , not loading a save point in time and he doesn't experience them,like feels pain
10449506
Like I commented before in the trial chapter I think Null wanted to also fuck with Celestia and her reputation.
yea, i do too, it's like Markus's Special vision in Detroit: Become Human, right?
10449508
He'd probably see her constantly breaking off into multiple paths and doing random things. Probably even some of them interacting with eachother.
Oof
I'm not going to ping him on this, but this is like the 8'th time I'v seen Vaalintine criticize a story without due coarse because they have a screw loss and don't have that good a memory to keep track of "what has happened and thus said".
So what I'm saying Deka, is that the chapter was once again great, and all your plot points are covered, so keep up the good work!
AS for the discord server, it could work, but the story just isn't big enough for such like Diary's of a Mad Man or An Extended Holiday.
So like wait until you reach either 100 or 200.000 words.
10449506
Null seem to be chaotic neutral kind.
Ah, Battle Cognition. For those who don’t know what this is, it’s a form of Time Dilation mixed with minor precognition.
In essence, you are seeing options akin to the future events but not, basically your brain speeds up while the world slows down and it allows you to formulate plans based on likely outcomes.
There is a real life equivalent to this, it’s called Deductive Prediction and it is a very, Very deadly skill to have but Very Very hard to train and learn.
10449773
Even you have to admit this was a dick move on Lunas part, he had already been to CourtMartial on a Charges that made no sense.
In fact Skyline didn’t break ANY laws, exposing someone to Poison Joke as far as we know isn’t against the law and Skyline had NO way of knowing what happened in the end WOULD happen as Poison Joke has never shown those kinds of extreme reactions before.
To me Luna has basically said “If he wasn’t my friend, this could have been so much worse and it would have been all. Your. Fault” this would be setting off red flags to all high heavens if it were anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
Hmm, this skill puts him right on the edge of OP and very dangerous. He needs muscles or buffs to keep up, but more powers may make him too much “one punch man”
Kinda like one piece when that one guy could see minutes into the future. Xd
Now THATS an awesome ability to have! Xp
I like this new ability actually. It explains why the last wielder of the eye was so feared and deadly. Most of the abilities we've seen before this one were pretty good, but came at a cost of extreme pain. But this power shows why the last guy was so powerful.
I keep hearing everyone in the comments section complaining about this being some kind of weird unfair punishment for either Skyline or Null and getting really upset about it, but notice that absolutely no one in the story is upset or angry about this turn of events. Obviously they were written to not be upset by this, but it is completely in-character for everyone, and makes real world sense that they wouldn't be.
Skyline and the other three are all soldiers, and have trained in this safe environment before multiple times. A small amount of easily-healed physical pain is not only expected, but inevitable for a soldier.
Luna is a hard-ass of an instructor with close connections to both Null and Celestia, who would have unresolved aggression from Null anticlimactically saving Skyline after not only endangering both, but by bringing shame on her as the master of the Crescents, bringing a blunder of this magnitude before all of Equestria.
Null has a very go-with-the-flow, what-even-matters-anymore attitude and doesn't really mind one way or the other, other than 3-on-1 seems unfair.
Just forget that Luna said the words "Trial by Combat," and accept that she fully intended for him to get his ass beat, which he kind of deserved, honestly. There was no intent to cause harm, but his neglect could have seriously fucked everyone over, and he deserves a rolled-up newspaper to the snoot, which the battle basically was supposed to be.
Good fight, all involved acquitted themselves well.
And that is an exceptionally useful ability Null's unlocked, very nice.
10449912
The whole matter behind the court martial was one of DISCIPLINE.
Null was Skylines responsibility. Doesn't matter that there are no laws on the matter, or that no one could have seen this outcome coming, it was all a matter of morals. Sure Null messed with him when he first tasted out his blink in that jump from a balcony, but that didn't give Skyline justification "not" to tell him what he tripped into.
In the end even tho Luna (apparently) has less restrictions on her Crescents then Celly does the normy guard, that doesn't mean she lets them go "all" loosy goosy and undisciplined, if she did their reputation would effect her own. Meaning less trust from the public.
This little trail by combat? twas more a means to make sure he remembered what his fluke in discipline almost cost the nation as a whole.
10450024
You make some very valid points may good sir!
10450304
The Court Martial wasn't an Issue of Discipline, you don't Drag a Soldier (Special Forces Equivalent or not) into a Trail like that for something as simple as a Disciplinary fuck up. There is Literally an entire DETATCHMENT for Disciplinary Actions, ranging from Simple Work Duty, to in some nations Flogging!
No what Luna did here was not only Uncalled for, but something I would expect from Celestia.
Did he fuck up? yes, that's far from Debate. but did he fuck up enough and KNOWINGLY put everyone in danger? Enough to be brought up on extreme charges? No, in fact Given how long he has been in Stone and exposed to Equestrian magic? I would be surprised if the PRINCESSES would have even expected this to happen.
On that note, not all the fault falls to Skyline either! He has been awake HOW LONG? Why has no one been teaching him of his new Environment and it's Dangers?! He has spent HOW MUCH TIME with Luna? Yet she has not even given him ANY information. limited as it might be, on things that to the average pony would be Common Knowledge!
No far as I am concerned, Skyline not only got the Raw end of the Deal but also got Fucked over by someone who calls him a so called "Friend" and with Friends like that, Who needs Enemies?
10450330
Ignorantia juris non excusat or ignorantia legis neminem excusat is a legal principle holding that a person who is unaware of a law may not escape liability for violating that law merely because one was unaware of its content.
Sure, he didn't intend to put Equestria in danger, but his ignorance/neglect led to it happening regardless. THAT is why he was on a court martial. Had he not been part of the Equestrian military, it would have been a grand trial to the same effect. If I accidentally made a mistake and some nuclear launch codes got leaked, or the nukes themselves got stolen because of a decision I made, I am the one held accountable for it. It's called responsibly for your actions.
While not against the law to expose someone to poison joke, had you listened in the actual trial, you'd have learned it was standard procedure to make some aware of, and offer a cure for, anyone who comes in contact with poison joke in the gardens. He did neither of these intentionally.
Others have left plenty of good comments and reasons explaining why things happen the way they did, and I'm inclined to confirm and agree with allot of them.
You on the other hand, are simply repeating your previously stated opinion with different wording, offering nothing new to your argument. You are at the equivalent of "I have nothing else to back up my argument, but I'm going to keep on saying it alright anyways."
It boggles my mind how people can come to the conclusion you have come to (not just you, others as well). I'll end this comment the same way I started it.
Ignorance of the law does not excuse liability from breaking it.
Mmmh, to see a ways into the future is a very helpful ability; so long as it doesn't become a crutch.
The ability to see a blow coming doesn't mean you have the ability to stop it. The future visions also are less likely to work against experienced opponents in combat, as they will probably see you trying to counter them and either change their plan or give a counter of their own. Such a fight, between a person who knows your next moves and a person who can read your next moves, would come down to who can react the quickest. A unicorn who trained many years to have the magic skill to see a small part into the future-for example-would fair poorly if they lacked the strength to avoid the sword strike they saw. A moment much like how in this chapter Null saw himself in his vision block the enemies blade, but still ended up eliminated because it would have broken through his defenses and "killed" him.
If it were me, I would focus on strengthening my body and reflexes after this duel. A tool is only useful when put in a competent hand.
I eagerly await the next chapter.
10449408
10449459
10449508
10449560
10449599
10449638
10449888
10449938
10450002
10450231
10449972
Regarding Nulls newfound ability, I feel I should clear things up a lil (will probably include it in the next authors note). It's similar to precognition, not it's not exactly that. Precognition, implies you are predicting what will happen. Very good at it, but not technically seeing the future, which is what null is doing. What null has is the ability to see into the future for a (currently) inderminant amount of time. It shows him what he himself would do had he not looked into the future, and what everyone else will do.
However, there a trick. See, every time you look into the future, it changes. Because you looked at it. So say if you look at the future and you're in front of a red and blue door, you see yourself enter the blue door. You following along and watch, seeing you come to a dead end. The vision ends, and you're standing in front of the doors again. Now immediately look at the future again, you'd see yourself make a different decision (in this case the red door). Because the vision of yourself you're seeing knows what you know now from having seen the future.
With an ability like this, you could watch the future over and over again until you find what actions lead you to the outcome you desire, then take those actions for yourself.
The key difference here is that precognition is more akin to very good deductive reasoning, and reacting accordingly, with no change to the future itself, because you're merely guessing what will happen. It's weird to explain, but there are very big differences between actually seeing the future itself ahead of time, and simply deducing what will happen.
10450381
Ah, yes. You sorta commented while i was writing my most recent comment, but in it I explain it a bit more. You are 100% correct, but the key difference is if you look into the future over again over again, you could find the outcome you want, because it changes every time you look at it (because every time you look at it, you know what doesn't work, therefore if you look at it again, you see the you who didn't look into the future again trying something new as if he didn't have that ability.) It's allot more specific then just seeing what goes wrong the one time, it's watching yourself try different outcomes each time. you could still fuck up an find yourself in a situation where nothing you do can stop something from happening though, like you said.
I'm probably rambling at this point, sorry. I just find it really interesting.
10450345 Thank you!
To they whom it may concern.
The judge has giving their verdict, and the case is now at rest. Take what you've learned and go forth a better being.
10450393
Give Null a reset, load, save abbilities and he can play 😈
This way he can kill Celestia how many times he wants, before forgiving her
Screamed at the heavens
"This is not how it ends!"
Then I woke up like from a dream
In the garden again
I could experiment
So over and over I died
But with determination
I could come back alive
Friends I made
Happy ends I gave
But I'd always predict
What they'd do, what they'd say
I believe
In curiosity
"What'll happen if they die?"
"Well, let's see!"
It liberates
To be this way
To kill just to see
How the world can change
10450345
Oh don’t get me wrong, I could back up what I am saying. I just didn’t and don’t want to drag real world law and examples into what amounts to a Centralist monarchistic Power structure.
That way lies madness!
On a side note, how can either sister charge another of a crime when they themselves are guilty of a crime? A bit hypocritical no?
Sorry if I am a bit dug into my arguments, but I am a firm believer that not all cases of ignorance should be persecuted. It’s even more relevant in this case when all depiction of the results of exposure to Poison Joke has not gone to such extreme as it did with Null.
Anyway, enough about that! How close is this to Sherlocks Mental abilities? It’s what my mind jumped too instantly.
intresting chapter man now for the dream madness! jk wonder what might next happen i wonder
10450410
As do I. Your explanation does answer a question I had been thinking though.
I had wondered what type of future-sight Null had. If Null could see the future constantly then what he would see would either: change like a fluid as his actions affect them; or he would see ALL possible futures, thus making it harder to even see which action to take since his vision would be flooded with visions of his possible outcomes. But now what you have said and what the chapter shows makes more sense. Null's ability for future sight is like a bat's echo-location, a single ping that shows the viewer an instance of what's around them in that moment. I'm sure once Null gets stronger he could look at multiple futures at once, kinda like Nicolas Cage in the movie Next.
10451049
You know, that movie is exactly the same one that gave me the inspiration for this lol. I've toyed with the idea of precognition or future sight, but no matter how I sliced it, it didn't feel right to me. I don't wanna half ass something as technical as future sight. After remembering that movie and rewatching it for a refresher, I thought it was a perfect representation of the ability, and decided to replicate it. That, and now I'm finally a bit more comfortable with the state the left eye is in, as all the other previous abilities were pretty strong, but not world domineering strong. I might give him a few more abilities, but I'm saving a few for other ideas. They just don't feel RIGHT , if you catch my drift. Can you say foreshadowing? /)^3^(\
10450452
I really like this idea. Not necessarily so that Null can be a giant bastard all the time with no consequences, but because he could get out his aggression in a safe way, so that he could experiment with how to live life again, and so that he can live more than the tiny 70 or so years he has left without really being trapped by immortality.
Precognition’s kind of an iffy ability. If a character is supposed to actually be able to see the future, that means the author had better also figure out how they want time travel to work in their story because time travel is exactly what it is -- information about the future going “backwards” into the past (from said future’s point of view), which means deciding whether the past can be changed (opening the door to all the usual paradoxes...including that the vision itself might not be from the observer’s “own” future in the first place) or is actually fixed (in which case the observed future is effectively already set in stone as well and all the forewarning won’t help the precog do one bit to avert their vision coming true). So that’s actually one power I’m personally very much inclined to stay away from unless I want to spin a narrative precisely about the practical issues with it.
On the other hand, someone just “magically” taking in a lot of information about the present and then extrapolating from that...that’s a lot less fraught with headache. In that case the character can of course still simply be wrong every once in a while since here they don’t actually know the future and are simply taking their best stab at guessing -- but then, the only form of being certain about what THE future holds would be the “It’s already locked in!” form of foresight, anyway, and I normally tend to find that one just a bit too depressing to consider.
10451344
10450452
yet another idea I've toyed around with. however, I just couldn't see it fitting the theme of the eye. not to mention, the infinite possibilities, it would seriously change a person. imagine if you will, saving, then killing a bunch of people, just because you can with no consequences. even if you load and make it so it never happened, you still have to live with the fact that you experienced it. that you made a conscious decision to commit such an atrocity, and even if it never happened, you still remember the faces, and they'd haunt you. (maybe thats just me.) you wouldn't be able to look those people in the face again without being reminded that you, in another time, did something horrible to them. even if it never happened, YOU still DID IT, and experienced it. it's the same dilemma that undertale had. it made you conscious of your efforts to do the bad stuff, and for what? just to see what would happen? just because you could? it made you aware of the morality of what you're doing. it's not exactly something I feel confident in playing around with.
plus, with Null's newfound ability to see the future, it just seems like a cut from the same cloth really. might be worth a thought in a different story though, one where it would be the focus of it... hm, I'll think about it... (nobody steal that idea from me! though im sure someone's already attempted it... XD)
10451446
i've stated this in previous comments, (probably read them next time?), but what null has isn't exactly Precognition, he's not guessing what will happen, he's actually viewing the future itself. however, every time you look at the future, it changes; because you looked at it. read some of my previous comments for a better understanding.
10451460
Well, then as I wrote, best figure out how you want time travel to work in this setting because you’ve just established it exists. Also, if merely the act of looking at the future already invalidates what one has seen, doesn’t that make the ability fundamentally useless (which was already the main problem I tried to point out above with regard to the nondeterministic version above -- if the future can change at any time between “now” and “then”, how does anyone ever know whether the character saw the “right” version to begin with?) since one only ever gets to see what actually won’t happen?
10451479
i wouldn't call it time travel... he's not going back in time, or going forward. time has come to a stand still(or you're interpreting it so fast it seems instantaneous), and you are watching your current future unfold with the knowledge you currently have. the only reason the future changes, is because you now know things you didn't before, thus, you'd behave differently. if you do exactly as you saw the future do, it doesn't change, because you followed through with it. you can't go back and take it back once it's done. so, if you watch the future once, and don't like the outcome, you stop, and look at the future again. the reason it shows a different outcome this time, is because you NOW know that the previous future would lead to a less desirable outcome, meaning you'd do something different.
it only invalidates the future if you decide to do something different from what you saw if you didn't like what you saw. (who wouldn't?) there is no right or wrong version of the future. you're not seeing all the possibilities from the first glance, you're seeing what you'd do with the information you currently have, having looked at the future. if you look at the future once, you'd do something different from what you saw. but if you look at it twice, the second time you'd see yourself doing what you'd have done had you only looked once.
i know its difficult to understand, im having difficulty explaining it. it's not time travel, and its not infinite possibilities at once. you have to watch it over and over to continuously learn, not just "i know all possible outcomes and i want this one". its, "this is the conclusion i come to knowing what i know now, given the ability to approach the situation with an infinite amount of attempts, progressively learning what works and what doesn't each time i try it". it doesn't give you the experience from it either, just the knowledge. you could watch yourself lift weights over and over again, but guess what, you still ain't gettin past maybe 10 or so reps no matter what you do differently each time because you haven't actually done anything yet; your body hasn't improved at all.
i think this will be the last i touch on the ability in the comments for now, as i feel like im repeating myself at this point... hopefully you understand better now, if not... oh well.
10450393
got it, :)
10451449
As far as other people trying it goes, Rick and Morty actually did it with the episode, "The Vat of Acid Episode," but in a sciency, shallow kind of way. That doesn't mean that you couldn't write that if you wanted to. Whether or not someone else did something first shouldn't be the major determining factor.
I wouldn't want to see Null become genuinely horrible through the use of the eye because that would actually justify what Celestia did to him. I just really want to see some form of justice for the guy and I'm grabbing at straws trying to figure out how Null might get it that is in line with the apparent direction this story is headed. Just getting to live a relatively happy life after everything he went through just seems pointless to me.
I'll join if you have one.
10451160
Knowing what happens in the future can have complicated consequences as time travel itself; both are a double-edged sword feared with caution.
I will look forward to the circumstances you create for Null and those around him. They are bound to be interesting.
Noooo not a dang cliff hanger! To be fair a MLP undertail cross over is an interesting idea. Please do more.
10451520
It's not. In fact, it's perfectly straightforward: iterative short-range prediction*, is what I'd call it. The only thing amazing about it, considering all of the powers out there, is that it happens quickly enough to afford you multiple tries before you have to act.
As an aside: I assume time actually flows at some rate during all this? The human brain, even accelerated, doesn't have the physical processing capacity (think: speed of electrons) to actually "freeze" perceived time entirely, even hopped up on magic. So I assume there's a proper limit to this ability - at some point the circumstances will have changed sufficiently that the number of possible predictions begins to converge on just the one: getting your ass kicked, because you stood there like a muppet. :D
In fact, having it limited this way sounds like a very neat and logical wrap-up: regardless of how OP this ability is, it's still limited by a) the length of the prediction (again, "short-range" being the key), and b) the events which are still happening, albeit in slow-motion. If you keep 'casting' one after another, it'll still converge on the certainty of you getting your ass handed to you because you actually failed to act (which would've broken the iterative loop). It sounds like something the Universe would do, all things considered... it accepts iterative rules, but does not allow infinity**.
A more 'linear' version of this is having a constant prediction running a fixed amount of time 'ahead', like seeing a version of you from 2 seconds into the future (and it obviously changing as you change events). I assume it'd be taxing as all get out (as opposed to these 'glimpses'), but could be hella useful for stuff like running a gauntlet with an avalanche*** (which is something I can easily imagine him doing, if - say - he has to save the CMC from their own stupidity again :D).
* being a programmer helps
** it also clearly doesn't allow recursive loops for this, considering he didn't see himself casting the 'glimpse', like in an infinite camera-on-screen delay loop
*** or an erupting volcano (since he can 'blink' out of the way), I'm not picky :D you work out why he can't just 'blink' to safety in one go
To be completely honest, this power feels like the Z.E.R.O. system used in the Wing Zero and Epyon gundam mechs in the Gundam Wing anime. In that anime the Z.E.R.O. system used for the Epyon would show Zechs all of the possible options that would be outcomes of the battle, even the ones where he lost. He would have to sometimes even give up on his desire to win in order to actually win a battle in some scenarios. They do a good job of explaining it in the Tigerzord vs. Gundam Epyon Death Battle episode.
I just can't compare that eye with anything I have seen before.
10465980
isn't that a good thing?
10466127
It means you were able to create an original power, all on your own, now all it needs is a name.
10466180
Myeyebleedomancy