Thirty four more letters from Thestrals had been waiting for me when I returned to Canterlot, all of them along the same lines.
Keeps the illusion up at all times in public, most of them hiding it from their friends too. Afraid to be discovered.
More than a hundred ponies had answered so far. I didn’t know how much further that number would grow, but I suspected it would. Maybe not by a lot, most ponies that would write to me would likely have done so by now.
Was it one percent that wrote to me? Ten? Half? All?
It didn’t matter, it was way too many in any case.
But what could I possibly do about it? Celestia was right, just ordering ponies to accept thestrals wouldn’t work.
A sound of frustration reached my ears and I looked over to Tempest where she was practicing, “Don’t worry,” I told her, “You’ll get it.”
“Yes, sir,” she answered before she lit her horn again and continued slowly and carefully picking up grapes one after another, moving it from one bowl to another.
One.
Two.
Squish!
Tempest gritted her teeth but continued.
She had power to spare, she might actually be stronger than Sunset thaum to thaum. But not having needed to use her magic normally since she was a little filly had played hell with her control.
I watched for another couple of seconds before I returned to my notes. What do we do? What do we do?
Did I even have the right to decide something? Just because I ended up with wings and then had them changed by Discord by all beings? Did that somehow give me the right to decide the fate of hundreds of ponies?
Of course not.
But things couldn’t just remain like they were either. What do we do? I needed better numbers, but so far it didn’t look like the ‘assimilation’ idea would work. Even if it was only ten percent like I guesstimated that mailed to me so far, that’s still a population of only a thousand ponies. Among how many millions?
It wasn’t enough. Not by a longshot. That’s barely the population of a small vill-.
I frowned at the notepad. Would that work? Start a village and invite every batpony in Equestria to move there? I wasn’t poor, but I couldn’t afford to build an entire village, it would need to be sponsored by crown money.
Buildings built, infrastructure put into place.
It likely wouldn’t help with pony reactions, but at least everypony would be able to live without hiding themselves.
But would ponies even want to move there? Move away from where they grew up?
Even if they did, was it even the right move? Setting up an area where specific people were allowed to live had some really bad connotations to history back on Earth.
No. Have to be something else.
I sighed and closed the notebook, dropping my quill back into my satchel after cleaning it and closing my ink. I’m not cut out for this kind of political social stuff.
Give me a pen, some paper and somewhere to write and I’m happy. Preferably close to Luna and Sunset.
I’m just not cut out for this.
Even if the village idea worked, it wouldn’t last. Like Luna said, there was less and less even a thousand years ago, in five hundred years they might be completely gone. The curse was fading.
Which objectively was a good thing, no more ponies that needed to hide, be forced to keep hidden. But it still felt wrong. It wasn’t a curse, not anymore, not since it was changed from blood to fruit. For thousands of years ponies had lived, born and died as themselves.
Thestrals were a people. A tribe almost. A small one maybe, but one that was slowly fading away. The curse might be messing reproduction as many thestrals had pegasi foals or at least a majority of pegasi foals.
Maybe if it is stabilized for real…
Was that even possible? Everypony would have to be volunteers of course, but if that was possible, it opened up possibilities that didn’t exist before.
I would need to run the possibility of that past Sparks or Midnight later and without giving away that Fluttershy was a batpony.
Squish!
Tempest sighed miserably and I looked over to her,
“How about we stop here tonight?” I asked, “I’m getting hungry and then it’s about time for Luna to raise the moon.”
She shook her head, “I would like to keep practicing for a bit longer if you don’t mind, sir?”
“Go for it. I’m going to go raid the kitchens.”
Thanks for the new chapter! Looking forward to the update!
This Tempest chapter made me think about Storm King. What is this bastard doing right now? He just accepted defeat and loss of his Dragon? That would be so weak for him as villain.
Hmmmm..... maybe Page can write a new book with a thestral protagonist????
(Seriously, he can’t just stop at Star Wars.)
“That’s it! A breeding program!”
Cadence emerges from the bushes “WHERES THE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE?!”
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Page, Luna, and the guard whupped his attack force in 30 seconds and captured (and turned) his most powerful subordinate. Then Page dream-whammied him, threatening him with endless nightmares. When he sent an representative to demand he stop and Equestria surrender, Page gave them The Sovereign speech and all but made the rep wet herself. It's possible he's bidding his time, but more likely he's looking for greener pastures. Equestria has shown itself to be a FAR tougher nut to crack than he initially thought.
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I mean, experiencing literal hell every time you went to sleep is hardly easy to deal with
And the fact that this series follows the major plot-points of the show means that the Storm King is probably going to make a return
Page was definitely distracted so we didn’t get the full picture of what was going on...
Tempest lifted another grape with her magic and “clumsy” popped it on her coat.
“Oops, Commander could you?” She asks in a sultry manner.
“Hmmm? Oh, yeah sure.” He then proceeds to lick the spot on her neck clean. “Now, how to help the thestrals.”
-Pop-
“Oops, I did the other side of my neck now.”
“Don’t worry Tempest you’ll get it.”
“Could you?”
“Yeah yeah. -lick- now helping thestrals.”
-pop-
“Goodness I am so clumsily I got it all over me now.”
“We can quit for the night if you want.”
“N-No!”
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I think even Page might notice that one
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Oh yeah, we need to replace Chrysalis in the Trio, don't we?
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I think Page swore off the possibility of ever writing Twilight, but considering the cultural effect of those books towards the mainstream perception of vampires it could be argued that whether he wants to or not, he needs to write Twilight.
A stupid idea but.....
What about cloning?
Of course not the one where everyone is the same and trained o to be a soldier like in Star Wars
Start with the first batch who will age faster and when they become legal adults(in physique and mind), they start aging normally
The second could be like the first or have accelerated aging cut in half or just make them age normal
And the rest normally
The clones would also have fixed reproduction problem
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Pretty certain he also did Terminator along with a few others.
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I personally believe, that he is preparing for second strike, but this time he will make (himself) sure, that he win next time and will probably use more subtle methods as preparation. He is damn mega-powerhungry megalomaniac, that get stopped, while being really advanced on his road to practical godhood. Such guys don't resign from their vision after one setback. Also I don't think he forgived Tempest her "betrayal" and will probably try to make her pay.
Apropos Tempest, I wonder about her mindset here. She never get betrayed (which was reason for her reformation in canon), she simply found better and more generous master, to which she had undying debt. Page is working on her morals or maybe no? Reforming bad girls is nice, but having very powerful Dragon, that is completly loyal and obedient, and who will follow ALL orders is simply practical .
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We also need some additional 3rd player, as Tirek is dead here.
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The redemption of vampires well predates Twilight, if anyone gets credit it would be Anne Rice.
They must havea battalion by now to keep the kitchen fruit baskets save from page... Keep on fighting brave guard of the kitchen!
Lets list things to worry about... :
-Fruit Vamp Ponys about to go extinct
-Midnight might have to stay permanent ( depressed Alicorn )
-Storm Kings head still attached to body
-Changeling race in turmoil
-To many Waifus for Cadance and Discord to micro manage
-Not enough Changeling cuddlebug moments
-Grogar later on
Thats a lot to cover...
But more important:
How will Page survive the next heat season when all his Waifus invade the castle for some Snu-Snu ♡
Maybe another open letter. This time signed by every alicorn.
It would be a very frank "shame on all of you" mixed with elements of "as thou doth to the least of mine ponies, so thou dost to me" that describes the universal bat pony situation/experience, without naming any particular names or describing any particular situation--on either side--that makes it clear to all of Equestria exactly what their beloved princesses (and that riff-raff Prince Consort fellow, but who's counting him? ) think of how they've treated an entire tribe.
I though one of the best things he could do is let them meet. Make friends.
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My solution would be to spread their stories anonymously. Give ponies a perspective that isn't their own and show them what it means to be on the receiving end of oppression.
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You'd have to be really careful to remove any information that could potentially identify the individual.
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Page is a writer so he could just make a story based on real life events
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Get the boys. The power of enough (male) friends in a room is often underrated. Together they should be able to survive…
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Surviving is nice, thriving is better.
One thing I learned from Civilisation V & Anno games:
All starts are difficult, there is never enough necessary tools and financial support, no matter if one runs smoothly or more commonly keep getting setbacks.
Good the Elements are no longer any concerning point holding Fluttershy for example back.
Batpone and Snuggelbug central, two awesome races made for dawww moments ♡
The book that Page needs to write is "Batmare," starring a real batmare. If it's successful, then ponies would want to look like batponies in public.
Just my two cents.