For his hard work to the Crown, the Royal Engineer of Equestria has been honored with a retinue of VIP bodyguards who protect him everywhere he goes. Their ordinary, everyday adventures together wind up being anything but ordinary.
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Politics!
I'm right there with you sister, so much exposition and new plot points in one chapter. Looks like Anon's dream of a truly united Equestria is further away than he thinks.
I wonder if the Reverend mother will just continue to use Anon or try to make him her ally, that would be an interesting development.
Whoa, that was super Ragyo of the Reverend. Would not want to meet her in a dark alley.
ohshit.exe
Getting some serious Rodrigo Borgia vibes from Carmen right now.
Edit: If we're going by canonical events in the show.
We got ourselves a Big Bad Evil Guy now! The main antagonist has been revealed!
F#@kin YIKES
Well, there was certainly some tongue lashing going on of a kind.
Lily must be overeating again...
... The plot thickens
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Just because she's got some junk in the trunk doesn't mean she's fat!
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Perhaps. It may be that I’m just a little too used to ‘man behind the man behind the man...’ setups in sufficiently long-running plotlines from elsewhere, but while Carmen is certainly ambitious, ruthless, and actually pretty clever (that last trait being one I happen to approve of in politicians, even if it’s grudgingly at times, just because it’s all too often all too rare in their ranks), it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that the real main antagonist is still someone else.
And of course that assumes there even conveniently is just a single “primary” Big Bad who needs to be taken down to basically resolve the conflict. But that doesn’t seem to be the way batpony society with its assorted internal rivalries and philosophical rifts is even set up in the first place, now does it? No, I’m reasonably convinced that our dear Reverend Mother Superior is just the first -- if possibly the most obviously prominent, given all the pomp and circumstance of her position -- big-name schemer we’ve met so far and that there will be a fair few others yet who may well be even worse. That’s just politics for you.
1000 years of indoctrination and blind loalty to the dark side dont go away just over night.
This is one of the most intriguing and interesting chapters in the whole story so far. Carmen's whole intentions are apparently made crystal clear, yet we're barely given a glance into the full extent of her Machiavellian plans.
We also get a new look into Ebonshield's reputation in the Moon and the Rookery, as well as that of her Stellar Temple. It's not just the borderline heretical beliefs of the Stellar Dance that has given her and her whole creed a bad reputation among Bat Ponies, but their whole nature as well.
To a regular Star, a Stellar Dancer is nothing but a contracted killer, a mercenary rogue using underhanded, dishonourable means to murder their enemies, and they do this not out of loyalty to a House or to their Phase like the rest of the Stars do, but for coin and for themselves.
To the simple Rocks and Dust, Ebonshield might be the closest thing to the physical embodiment of a death sentence on the Moon. I have no doubt that seeing her at your doorstep might feel to them like having Death itself come for your soul. No wonder the bat ponies in the market where so quick to bow, and why Mr Esautomatico was so horrified when he saw Ebonshield at his front door with the Royal Engineer behind her.
And if this chapter and Ebonshield herself are to be believed, that reputation is not without merit.
Throughout hundreds of years ever since their founder made it so, the Stellar Dance has been an organization that eagerly takes in the coin of others in exchange for ending the lives of their enemies, but unlike Stars who fight for House, School, and the Children as a whole, the Stellar Dancers do so only for money and their heretical beliefs.
Nowhere was this made more clear during this recently revealed historical event: The Day of the Dancing Blades.
That day, two years ago and a few hours right before the return of Nightmare Moon, while everyone slept, Pureza Ebanoscudo and her band of assassins murdered the Reverend Mothers of every House in the Moon but that of Cadena de Vapores, who's own Reverend Mother was behind the orchestration of the massacre. When Nightmare Moon returned and found Carmen as the highest-ranking, sole representative for Batponies on the moon she elevated her to the rank of Reverend Mother Superior, fulfilling Carmen's plan. This is the event that Alcazar, the ex-Colonel of the Howling Wolves and current owner of a Horchata establishment, alluded to when he said Carmen owed a debt to Pureza, and most probably it's the event that Pureza herself alluded to when she mentioned that violence in the Lunar Sanctuaries was not 'unheard of', which our Reverend fluffy-tufted Sister was so horrified by.
And Marcos too! To think that this Chapter would hint onto the reasons for his hatred for his own sister so.
It seems that as part of whatever deal Carmen made with his father right before his conception Marcos was to go to live to his Father's house instead of Carmen's own Cadena de Vapores. This would mean that Marcos was raised on an entirely different city-state than his (potentially half-)sister Pureza and under the rule of an entirely different Reverend Mother. And this late-Reverend Mother Teresa? Is there a particular reason for Carmen to have to use the word 'beloved' when referring to Marcos feelings towards her? Who exactly was she to Marcos that her death at the hooves of his own sister, Pureza, apparently infuriates him so? A devoted leader and ruler? An adoptive mother-figure? Maybe even a lover? To Marcos, his sister might not only be a heretic and an honourless, murderous mercenary but maybe even the one who took the life of someone who was very precious to him. No wonder Marcos' hate for her is so strong if that's the case.
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Considering how she seems to be willing to treat her own children as nothing but tools to be used and discarded when they're not useful anymore, I doubt that her Reverence even sees a difference in either proposition.
Galling isn't it, you pull off the greatest political coup in a thousand years, spend the greater portion of your wealth to do it, and then the entire business is rendered moot when some other pack of idiots scrag it all up. I wonder it she's heard yet that the Great Mother essentially lost to a bunch of rock caste mares and a neophyte lunar, to apply the bat pony perspective.
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if someone were to ask me I'd say Nightmare Moon is the Big Bad of the story since the current main conflict seems to be Carmen's plan to restore her to power. If that's the case Carmen wouldn't be the Big Bad as much as she'd be The Dragon and The Heavy; if you may pardon my TvTropes.
LOL.nope/JPEG
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As always should be
...WELP, my money was RIGHT about 'mother superior' true intentions after all, but to think she would go so far for it...
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And it WILL blow on her make-up face in the end, R.E. is open-minded, not naive, and so does Equestria(minus the 'open mind'), true, there is corruption here and there, but we also saw true-righteous on many positions as well, that can go sour faster than she believes.
...this is my mind right now trying to make more connections on the lore:cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7d6e7e3-165c-4252-80b7-54e6436fd95f_480x304.gif
So we're all talking about Carmen's scheming and Marcos' backstory and more worldbuilding. Nobody's going to mention the implications of Carmen shoving her tongue down her son's throat?
Aye dios mio!
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She's a foul one,
Mister GrinchMother Carmen.10687142
I'm with you there on that, remember the news talking about Nightmare Moon becoming a giant blob...thing after separating from Luna, that MIGHT BE more accurate to the true...and that's terrifying
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Considering how much we know about her schemes...that passed as light, but yeah...
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Here's a mystery for you.:
Who exactly are these Equestrians of limited morals, who chafe under the benign and benevolent dictatorship of the Sun?
Spoilers cause potential spoilers:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/9/17/100301.jpg
While it is understandable that the thestrals were created to be Nightmare Moon's army and to hate Equestrians, then to lose her and their main mission. There would definitely be a high group that would still want to keep the "true" mission alive and going.
If it continues it will cost the thestrals even more dishonor and deaths for both sides. With Anonymous and his guards caught in the middle of it.
Oh politics! First we start with only one, politics!
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YUP, my first assumption was that, but not the ONLY one...my head is spinning a bit
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I'm thinking she'll try. However the Engineer is proving so far that he's nobody's fool and rarely makes the same mistake twice. I'd be willing to bet that Carmen will end up overestimating her hold on him and make mistakes as a result.
I remember being gobsmacked by this back when it first came out. It’s one of the best parts of the story, and really illustrates just how masterful a writer TMFAT is.
Is Alcazar going to sound like Sir Anthony Hopkins from 1991?
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Well, there might a reason Sister Lucretia has been named so by the author...
Pureza did mention that she had many brothers and sisters back on the Moon, and that many of them had joined the Lunar Phase, as well. Could it be...?
Huh. I can see this ending with Purity's blade going 'splish splish splash'.
Awww. Her being vaguely decent would have been way too much to ask, I guess.
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I think one of the few things we definitely know about Carmen is that she views sex as a very useful weapon. While it may be disgusting, it's not entirely surprising that she would try to use it even against one of her own children.
In the worlds of military and economic strategy, there is a concept known as the zero-cost tactic: Something which may not necessarily have a very high chance of success, but still has SOME chance of succeeding and costs you absolutely nothing to try. I suspect Carmen view sex appeal as such a tactic. Maybe it works and maybe it doesn't, but if it does then she makes valuable gains at no real cost and if it doesn't, then she hasn't lost anything.
What's concerning is shes still planning on going throug with the plan, albeit in a slow manner
Of course the Reverend Mother could have always been stringing the Sixth along. There is no necessity that she told him the whole truth or any truth whatsoever. She could even have him killed if he fails to take the justice of his house. Heck it could even be a test within a test. How much of a fool is he?
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That is very true but I was thinking more along the lines of her at first just using him. Then after a while possibly falling in love with him or seeing how beneficial he could be then trying to make him an actual ally.
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Yeah I highly doubt Anon would become her ally but I definitely want to see her try and fail. There are so many ways that plot could go and it would be fun to see what will be played out.
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Made worse by how we learned that she is the kind of politician who will change her plans on a dime should the situation call for it. In many ways this makes her the most dangerous of all Lunars, even moreso than the late Reverend Mother Teresa. Because even though Teresa espoused a war of extermination, she was consistent in that belief, and could be fought as such. Carmen is the kind of politician who will flip-flop between genuinely trying to help you and burying a knife in your back. Which sucks, because you really do need that helpful Carmen, but you'll never know which phase she is in until the moment you feel a sudden stabbing pain.
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What's really concerning is that she's discounting several very public heroes as being a threat. Given the time frame, it's not long before Discord is released and rehabilitated into being an ally. Or for Twilight to ascend to Alicorn status. She's playing the game by the old rules; things are going to explode in her powdery face.
And so, the plot thickens.....
Nony better watch his back, because as any Star Trek fan can see, The Reverend Mother has some serious Vedek Winn vibes.
Somepony understands the Elements and Luna only by word of mouth and presumption at a distance. I suspect that a successful reconquista at this point forward would find themselves at the wrong end of their own goddess' blades.
Luna's got her sister back.
I don't think Luna'd take well to losing her again.
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If she even attempted to disable the elements, it would work. Only two of them are fighters, the rest, not so much.
Amazing chapter! Really eager for the next!
Reverend Mother Superior Carmen doesn't yet understand what a double edged sword this is.
She only sees bat ponies working on the surface as a large boon for the eventual takeover of Equestria.
She doesn't see that with far far greater exposure to Equestrian culture and society, the Rocks who would run that foundry would begin to see that the merchants and builders have far greater power and freedom in Equestria. They will see the freedoms and opportunities that Equestria provides as great benefits to their caste. No Lunars or Stars making demands of them that they cannot refuse. They could have far more control over their own destiny.
The Lunars will need to keep an EXTREMELY tight leash on the Rocks in order to prevent them from learning that their lives would be better if they lived in Equestria under Equestrian laws and culture. They are already getting a small taste of the benefits in the form of the "contraband" they have been smuggled. Liquor, tobacco, and various foods are just the start. Once the lower castes see that they have been getting the shaft on the moon there might be a bat pony civil war.
It reminds me of the Grey Council in Babylon 5. The Minbari had 3 castes; Worker, Warrior and Religious. Each equally represented by 3 people on the Council. This gave the Warrior and Religious Caste incredible power as they only made up a small portion of the entire Minbari population. When the Council was broken and later reformed there were 5 representatives from the Worker Caste and only 2 each from the Warrior and Religious Castes. This shifted the majority of the power to the majority of the population. I'm thinking something similar is going to happen with bat pony society. The Rocks, Dust, and Shadows are going to shake off the shackles the Lunars and Stars have put on them.
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Another comment that should be mandatory reading. Definitely would have missed ALL of the context if not for this comment.
Well, this has been eye opening, and more than a little sinister. I knew that Carmen couldn't be trusted, but I vastly underestimated her. Instead of trying to position herself in a place of greater power, she's after the same thing that Marcos is: Nightmare Moon's return.
There's also a question implied here that could make the whole thing even darker: Do the batponies know what Nightmare Moon was? How many of them know that their Great Mother was Luna, at best influenced and at worst utterly controlled, by her own dark reflection? The Eclipse elders outright said that these entities are irredeemably evil. Is it possible that their society at large knows what she was, but followed her nonetheless, because regardless of her nature, she molded them into what they are?
Now, even if the average smith or horchata maker on the street doesn't know, I'd be very surprised if the Reverend Mother Superior doesn't. I'm sure the Eclipse phase are secretive about the source of their power, but given the influence she wields, I'm more than willing to bet that she's in the know, both about the existence of the Accursed Shadows, and their part in the birth of Nightmare Moon. This means that she's aware that she's, in effect, attempting to restore what appears to be, for lack of a good equivalent, a demon to power. A demon she most likely understands is evil to the core, if Ignacio and his ilk are to be believed.
Man. . . I almost miss rich asshole Bitmount and sleazy douche Kilfeather now.
Ha! Incest.
Also super tactical and patient villain who sees the main character as an opportunity for power.
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Glass Canon. Also, don't underestimate Twi. Tirek can confirm "HER POWER LEVEL IS OVER 9000!!!"
Wow. When I made that innuendo about Purity and her mother two chapters ago, I didn't think I was actually on to something.