“General Ivan, report!” President Alexi ordered as the world leaders entered one of the drone control rooms, where pilots were controlling the mini drones that were still observing Ponyville, having remained undiscovered. Ivan was the first one they had spotted, and rather than go to their generals individually, the leaders thought it more convenient to just listen to one of them explain it to them all at once.
“President Alexi!” He said, saluting. “The reason you have been called here is because something disastrous is afoot. The Equestrian forces have begun rallying a large number of their troops in Ponyville. At our current count, there are approximately seven thousand pony soldiers gathered in the area, with more soldiers coming in as we speak. They have already begun getting into attack formations, with their formations being similar to the ones used during the medieval era. Their weapons and armour are primitive, with most of them being clad in gold, or gold painted armour, along with spears, swords, and bows being their main weaponry.”
“And I assume you and the other nations’ generals have come up with a defensive plan?” Alexi asked.
“I apologise sir, but that’s not all I have to report. There’s more,” Ivan said.
“Well, go on ahead,” Alexi replied.
“There are also several undiscovered species of other (presumably) sentient creatures among them, along with three additional ponies with protrusions similar to that of the pony princess Twilight Sparkle. From the information that we have gained from the pony sergeant currently in our custody, we have learned that these ponies are a combination of all pony types, having the increased strength of ‘earth ponies’, the flight abilities of ‘pegasi’, and the magical capabilities of ‘unicorns’, although the power of an alicorn is vastly superior to that of almost any other living creature. The alicorns are apparently the most powerful creatures alive that… as he put it, ‘aren’t evil’,” Ivan explained.
“Okay, and what of the other creatures, what are they?” Alexi asked.
“Well, there are several types of other creatures, but due to their smaller number, we believe them to either be diplomats sent by these other creatures, or their leaders themselves. It appears they are not part of the army, but rather observers,” Ivan explained, “And as for the creatures themselves, they consist of what look to be a combination of animals and fictional mythological creatures that exist only in the realm of fantasy, and I’ll show you a photo in a while. These creatures include zebras, yaks, colourful bug-like quadrupeds, mixtures of horses and birds that a mythological expert identified as hippogriffs, actual griffins, real life minotaurs, and what we can only describe as… dragons.”
“Dragons?” Felix asked.
“Yes sir, that’s exactly what they look like sir,” the general replied.
“So, what have you and the other generals come up with? What is our defensive plan?” King Osas asked.
“Well, we currently have two different plans to choose from. The decision on which option to use will be left up to all of you,” the general said. “The first option is that we use our jets to launch a preemptive strike against their forces, completely wiping out their army, along with their leaders in one swift motion; it is the safest, easiest, and most cost-efficient solution to our predicament. The second option is that we don’t attack them, we let them attack us and we defend ourselves accordingly. This option is the less efficient and cost-effective solution, because the only way we could defend ourselves from their soldiers, without risking any lives, would be to retract our soldiers and let our medium drones swarm them and do the work for us. Depending on how effective they are at combat, they might manage to eliminate hundreds, maybe even thousands of our drones. Then we have room to launch a counter attack and capture the town with little to no resistance,” General Ivan explained. “The first solution would be best if you want to go to war with these people, while the second would be best if you still wish to take a diplomatic approach. That way, once they inevitably beg for us to come to the negotiation table and talk things out, we will be able to take the moral high ground by claiming that they attacked us first, while we only acted in defense. If we attack them however, they could easily claim the moral high ground, which might significantly restrict our ability to make demands and impose sanctions upon them once this conflict has concluded,” the general added.
“Why can we only use drones?” Xi Mingzhe asked, confused, “Don’t we have heavy artillery? Missiles? Tanks? Even a few jets?”
“Well yes, we do. We can’t get the majority of our war machines out however, seeing as all of our artillery, the majority of our tanks, and the majority of our jets are still within the main hangar,” Ivan replied.
“What about the missiles? Surely we could launch them and utterly decimate our opponents?” Xi Mingzhe asked.
“That’s another problem. The rubble from the mountain we had just demolished are currently burying all of the launch points of our missile silos,” Ivan explained.
“Missile… silos?” Mateo asked. He didn’t know what those were; he wasn’t a military man after all.
“The little holes in the ground missiles shoot from,” Ivan replied.
"Well, I think I speak for all of us, or at least the majority, when I say this, but we simply cannot attack them first," PM Jack stated.
"What? Why not?" President Alexei asked, "A preemptive strike would eliminate the threat without them even coming near us."
"Because, if we strike first, they'll see us as the villains of this conflict. I do not support the fact that they are enslaving the rest of our kind, but they are doing this out of fear for us, and that fear is very much well placed seeing as the rest of the human race apparently went berserk one day and started killing everything. That's also the reason they're attacking us, out of fear… or at least, that's what I think," PM Bjorn told the rest of the leaders, "But even if we aren't, what do you think is gonna happen if we strike first? Considering their relative stupidity, they might not even realise it was a preemptive strike that we launched so they couldn't attack us. They might just think that we're simply a hostile alien species that's attacking them."
"And what's the problem with that?" Aladeen asked, finding the thought of being thought of as a hostile alien race quite appealing.
"Utopia is currently undergoing its first impressions, and it looks like we're going to be stuck with these creatures for quite some time. We are entering the new global stage of this world, and I don't think I need to tell you why it's in our best interest to not be thought of as hostile aliens," said Felix, "Even if they aren't a threat to us, attacking them could have disastrous consequences. Whether we like it or not, these are the new countries and governments we are going to have to deal with. If we attack them, the news will spread throughout the globe. Imagine what everyone will think if we attack them first. We'll just prove to be the 'barbaric, primitive savages' that the ponies in our custody currently believe us to be for some reason, despite it actually being them who ate all those things. Hypocrites, really. From what I've seen from these creatures thus far, I completely and utterly despise them, but we're gonna be stuck with them for now. At least until they either give up slavery, or we are forced to launch a full scale invasion against their country and take over Equestria. But for now, launching a preemptive strike would only do us more harm, especially on the political side of things. And if we do end up having to invade, doing this will only make it much harder to keep control of the country since the creatures would no doubt try to rebel with much more ferocity if we did attack them."
"I think we should put it to a vote," King Osas suggested, “It seems we have differing opinions, and in this situation, we must all act as one. That means that we can’t just go and do what we want using our own authority. For the time being, Utopia must act as one nation, rather than several independent nations.”
“Osas is right. We must act as one body, and put this to a vote,” PM Bjorn said.
“I agree. We shall have to vote,” Felix said, before thinking of something to add that would hopefully convince the others to participate and honour the results of the vote, “Of course, all of you are still the completely independent rulers of your individual nations, which means you have the final say on whether you wish to participate in the vote and honour the decision or not. Since we act as independent bodies, there is no law that states that we must vote on an action together, and I want to tell you that by participation and honouring the vote, you are not being stripped of any authority over your nations.”
“Of course, if you don’t honour the vote, you and your entire nation would look like assholes, but you have the right to do so,” King Osas stated.
“Well, as much as the Russians would hate to agree with the Americans, I must say that our best course of action is acting as one body,” President Alexi stated.
"Very well then, since everyone else is agreeable, my main will agree to participate in and honour the final decision made as well," Xi Mingzhe agreed.
"Hispanica will join in this decision making as well," said Mateo.
Everyone then looked towards Aladeen. "What? You expect Wadyia to - " he stopped himself mid sentence as he noticed the stern looks he was receiving. "Fine, Wadyia will honour the vote as well. Whatever," he relented.
"Excellent," King Osas said, "Now, who here votes for the preemptive strike?" Only one of them raised their hands, and that was Aladeen.
"Well, it's settled then. We will let them come to us, and we will mount a defensive assault once they have clearly trespassed into our territory. Which means, they'll have to be right on top of Utopia, or at least very near it. If they aren't, they could twist this into an argument against us, saying that we still attacked them first, which might restrict our ability to make demands as well," PM Jack advised.
That was when Keifer burst into the room, running in a panicked state. "World leaders! World leaders!" He said, followed by stopping in front of them, panting. "World… leaders. We… we've overlooked s- something," he said in between pants. "T- the ponies… they h- have the ability to destroy us all," he said, recovering.
"What?" Felix asked, confused, "Doctor, I mean no disrespect, but what is the meaning of this intrusion?"
"We've overlooked something that could spell the end for us all. Remember the draconequus project?" Keifer asked.
"Yes, what about it? The project was mostly a failure, and we know next to nothing about the only survivor," PM Bjorn replied.
"Well, we know a lot more about subject Discord now thanks to the princess," he said, handing them a tablet with a detailed report of their conversation.
The world leaders read the report. It detailed Discord's apparent ability to do whatever he wants with pretty much near unlimited power. It detailed the fact that he was able to shift the location of the sun and moon on a whim. It told of how he was able to manipulate the entire planet and warp it into a chaotic mess, seemingly on a whim. But the most worrying thing was the fact that Discord apparently played a crucial part in defeating the rest of humanity during the war.
"You're right. This… warped version of the former Tom Brady could very well end us all," PM Mateo stated.
"We must find Tom, capture him, and bring him back to Utopia as soon as possible. And if it isn't possible to capture the subject, we must terminate him," PM Jack said.
"Yes, but how exactly are we going to go about doing that? From what we understand, he's basically omnipotent," Xi Mingzhe stated.
"Yes, but not omnipresent or omniscient. We could attack him by surprise, without giving him any time to react," PM Bjorn suggested.
"But if Tom Brady… or rather Discord, is about to attack Utopia with the Equestrians, we must go with the preemptive strike instead. We have to eliminate him immediately; if he manages to reach Utopia, it could be game over for all of us," said Felix.
"World leaders!" General Ivan suddenly addressed them.
"Not now general, we're - " Alexi was cut off as the general quickly addressed them.
"It's the leaders of all the creatures. They're convening. I thought you might want to listen in on what they have to say," the general replied. This did pique their interest.
"Show us," Alexi ordered, and the general directed their attention to the largest screen present, which was in the middle of the drone room.
"Are we ready to attack?" King Steel Horn asked.
"In a moment, we're still awaiting the arrival of five thousand soldiers. But, what do you mean 'we'?" Celestia asked, confused, "Are you going to be participating in the assault?"
"Yes, of course I am. Not doing so would be a show of cowardice," Steel Horn replied.
"But… you don't have your army with you," Celestia said, "Just ten minotaurs as an escort."
"Yes, and together, we are the eleven strongest minotaurs alive," he stated in a cocky tone.
"Yeah, me and my escort are gonna be joining in as well," said Ember.
"Cadence and I will join you as well, though you've probably already expected that," Said Shining Armour.
"There are already a thousand changelings hidden among the ponies," said Thorax, "If we don't win this battle, the changelings will foalnap and take the place of whatever First Human soldiers we can. We'll infiltrate their ranks and relay any necessary information back to you, and we'll bring them down from the inside if possible."
"Hmmm…" Celestia put her hoof to her chin, assuming a thinking pose, "As much as I would like all of you to stay safe, being the leaders of the other nations and all, your participation in the battle will be extremely helpful. The help of the strongest minotaurs, along with a few dragons fighting with us during the battle will be invaluable. And the changelings would be able to tear them apart from the inside if this battle doesn't go according to plan."
"But we can't get cocky either. We must fight this battle as if it's the last thing we'll ever do. Even with our numbers, the Vega Corporation… or whoever that is, will be able to mow us down with their guns. We already know those who are on the front lines will be completely slaughtered, but once we flank around behind them and surround them, we'll have the upper hand… hopefully," said Shining Armour.
"But we can't forget that the First Humans have explosives at their disposal as well. Although their explosive weaponry are small in number, a few well placed missiles or artillery shots could allow them to kill us," she gestured to the leaders present in the room, "And knowing them, they'll probably immediately target us to plunge our nations into chaos."
"And that's not even mentioning the fact that they have these things called tanks. They're essentially indestructible, moving, buildings. If they employ even one of these war machines, we'll be completely defenseless. We can't even scratch those things, they'll pretty much be able to freely murder us," said Ember. Now that the battle was nearly upon them, she was worried. "We should've thought this out better."
"Actually, thanks to me, we do have a defense against them. I've given several pegasi carriages full of barrels of gunpowder, which they'll drop on the tanks if the First Humans employ them. This will essentially allow us to match the strategy of the 'bombing runs' that the humans used against us during that one battle. It immediately shifted the tides of that battle," said Luna.
“So, how long until we attack?” King Steel Horn asked impatiently.
“Patience, King Steel Horn. We shall commence the attack when the last of the soldiers arrive, which should be very soon,” said Shining Armour. “For all the participants, be ready to leave in approximately ten minutes,” the other leaders all vacated the room, leaving only Shining Armour along with the other three princesses.
Cadence sighed. “What if this doesn’t work? We don’t even know if these First Humans are remnants of the Vega Corporation. They could be the remnants of one of the First Human nations for all we know. If they are, peace might be an option,” said Cadence.
Celestia sighed. “If Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow didn’t steal Discord’s magic, then maybe we could’ve approached them diplomatically. But without Discord being able to put them down if they proved to be aggressive, it’s too much of a risk. Once we lose the element of surprise, it’ll be much harder to attack them if they are aggressive. Not only that, but they have, in fact, already proven to be aggressive. They’ve foalnapped the elements, killed dozens of guards in ponyville, and an additional one hundred ponies from the scouting party we sent. If we could make peace with the humans, I would. But I can’t,” said Celestia.
“And even if the humans do make peace with us, the rest of the pony population would never approve of us abolishing slavery. Remember that Celestia did try to do so while I was banished, three hundred years before the war. Luckily for her, she saw that Equestria could no longer sustain itself without the use of slavery before she did so. Our economy would crash, our people would starve without anycreature working to produce any kind of goods, and our nation would probably be plunged into a civil war," Luna explained. "I know nopony in this room is an active supported of slavery, but we no longer have a choice. Stopping slavery would doom our nation," she added.
"Well, that's that. We have to get ready," said Shining Armour.
Cadence began getting up from her chair, alongside the other princesses and the prince. "Oh!" Cadence suddenly called out as she came face to face with a fly and smacked it away.
"Allow me," said Luna as she tried to grab it with her magic and toss it out. It didn't work. She was now staring at it intently, trying to grab it again, but to no avail.
"Umm… Luna? You okay?" Cadence asked.
The final nail in the coffin was when the fly immediately tried to flee, further arousing suspicion. As the fly was exciting through an open window, Luna quickly closed it at the most opportune moment, smashing it to bits. Her suspicions were confirmed when rather than seeing blood and guts, she found a small, nearly unnoticeable, sparking metal object. She felt around the room with her magic, feeling up to twelve more objects devoid of magic.
"Luna?" Celestia asked, "Why did you do that? It was already leaving."
"We're being watched," Luna replied.
"What?" Celestia asked, confused.
"Feel around with your magic. We're being watched," Luna replied. "We're being watched!" She exclaimed in a panic, followed by her and the other princesses running out in a panic.
"Attack! Attack now, before they can prepare their defenses!" Luna called out in the Royal Canterlot Voice, "Now! Attack, post haste!"
"What?!" President Felix asked, "Who was piloting that drone?!"
"We can either berate the pilot now or later, but there are more pressing matters at hand," said Alexi. "But rest assured," he raised his voice so the whole room could hear him, "That whoever that was will be dealt with appropriately!"
"We have to talk about what we've just witnessed," said Xi Mingzhe, "This changes everything!"
"They've had an encounter with us before… well, not us, but I think we'll all be able to connect the dots considering the Vega Corporation was mentioned," said PM Jack.
"No wonder the owner of the corporation didn't invest in the creation of Utopia. He was too busy creating his own Utopia behind our backs!" Said Mateo.
"Yes, whoever was here first might have messed things up, but that's not all we had to take from their conversation. There's something else that, although helps us immensely now, is rather… concerning," said PM Bjorn.
"Yes, of course," King Osas and most of the others already knew what it was, "The fact that 'Discord' lost his magic, and that it was somehow 'stolen' by Tirek, Cozy Glow and an unknown individual."
"Yes, and also the fact that they are most likely criminals. For all we know, them 'stealing' Discord's magic could mean we now have to deal with three omnipotent criminals," said PM Mateo.
"Yes, so what should we do about them?" Xi Mingzhe asked.
"There's nothing we can do," said Felix, "If we had our satellites online, we might be able to track them, but we don't. The best we can do is be prepared in case they really do show up, and try to put 'em down the moment their heads pop up."
"There's another thing. What exactly are 'changelings', and how have they hidden amongst the ponies? And how exactly are they going to infiltrate Utopia?" Osas asked.
"They're probably experts at subterfuge or something, and they've probably used camouflage techniques to hide themselves for some reason. They're most likely not a threat; we can easily differentiate between humans and aliens," said Felix.
"I guess that's that for our meeting then?" Aladeen asked, getting impatient.
"Actually… there's one more thing," General Ivan spoke up, "It's about the subject of taking prisoners when they attack. Or should we just kill them all?"
"Well, we now know that the other creatures besides the ponies are the leaders of the other nations, along with their escorts. Killing a nation's leaders would definitely be terrible for PR with the rest of the world, so I believe I speak for everyone when I say their leaders should be taken as prisoners of war rather than killed," said Alexei, receiving agreement from everyone else in the group, "And we have to take their 'alicorns' prisoner as well if it's possible.
"As for the subject of the other ponies, I would say taking fifty of each kind would be enough for us to study them and learn more about them. We can't take very many prisoners anyway, we have nowhere to house them," said PM Mateo, and the rest of the leaders agreed with him.
"Now then," Alexi addressed the general, "Begin pulling our troops back into Utopia and ready the drones. Instruct the other generals to do the same."
"Yes sir, we'll be ready. At their current speed, they should be here within approximately eight hours. I trust you'll be here to observe the battle?" Ivan asked.
"Yes, though I think we're all gonna have to catch up on some much needed sleep. It's been a rather hectic few days," said Felix, and with that, the meeting was adjourned.
This is gonna be the massacre of Alnus hill on steroids.
im pretty sure there is a quote for it but if their civilisation canot work without enslaving humans then they proberbly shouldnt have a civilisation.
Man after all this build up, this battle better pay up...don't pussy out on me author, it's time for a damn massacre
Wouldn't the changelings be detectable via the harmonic/keifer radiation they have? Given the circumstances, Utopia should be keeping a close eye on radiation levels present in both the bunker, and in individuals who have been outside. Also, I thought that VEGA only had gunship style helicopters, how did they do a bombing run? Anyway, aside from those points this was a solid chapter.
i.imgflip.com/3gn5us.jpg
I feel bad. Either there's no actual protocol for drone pilots, explaining the incompetents we've seen from them, or the drone pilots are not good at following protocol in which case punishment for this failure is understandable, or the original protocols no longer apply, in which case I feel bad for them getting punished for something, not their fault.
Can't you mount nuclear bombs to aircraft? Or has utopia only packed nuclear missiles?
Then you don’t deserve to have one. If you put your economy that hard on one thing you’ve failed.
Oh those ponies and their allies are walking into a major curb-stomp battle. Especially if they don't heed most likely warnings when arriving to the kill-zone of human weapons.
Damn, speaking about super conservatism and unwillingness / impossibility of any social and economic reforms. Why do we need to develop physical sciences and economics when we have magic and slavery?
After these words, I am sure that Equestria will be mired in chaos and complete collapse of all branches of their "economy" when slavery is abolished (they will do it themselves or they will be "convinced", it will be inevitable. But this is for the future)...
Of course, if there are no collaborators. They can be given hints (but again, for the possible future)
Oh wow it didn't happen before but not it happened,wow,how unlucky that it happened in this situation and time, wow 😐 (sarcasm by the way)
Ok for real now, you are destroying this fic with Idiot Ball trope ,Out of Character trope and Third Act Stupidity trope😑
10978337
Equestria is basically Detroit's automotive industry taken to a perverse level.
10978322
She meant like launching missiles not from aircraft, but directly from silos. And there are only a couple of jets they can actually use, and even then they won't have enough missiles to kill them all using just their jet drones.
I mean why they did nothing all this time?
Clearing the debris and launching satellites?
This is infuriating because this inaction isn't even comical or funny
10978294
10978337
Wow, just wow!!! If Faust or even the Tree of Harmony were here. They would be super disgusted, and just let Equestria BURN!!!!
I mean, I don't want to offend everybody. But, when America FINALLY abolished slavery long ago. The civilization didn't get destroyed. ( Sure there is that nasty American Civil War. But luckily for everybody. The right kind of people won. )
And despite that Slavery is finally abolished, our Economy gets improved by Industrialization. And look at us now in present day.
And for some reason? Equestria isn't that smart or clever enough to find another ethical way to improve their civilization WITHOUT slavery???!!!
That's just f******** sad! The ponies doesn't deserve to save their nation!!! After all this is done. They will be the ones to say "super, duper sorry", and BEG for US ( Humanity's Utopia ) to "help" them receive redemption.
10978384
Yeah, I agree. we ( Humanity's Utopia ) are NOT that stupid. Unlike the ponies themselves.
10978392
just a reminder that ponys and the other races did and likely still do have the tec from humans and have only used some of it. to make that clear they think that computers and things like pens, pencils and anything more advanced then quills and radios wernt worth the effort
10978397
Nothing is compatible for them to use anyway.
Everything would have been destroyed by time anyway.
They wouldn't have been able to preserve items because they wouldn't know how to and the magic way wouldn't work too even if they knew spells for that at the time.
Even if they tried to surround it into a cloth and bury it, that wouldn't work for 100 of years and don't even start on 1000+ years
Even these method available to normal human citizen wouldn't work for 100 years
https://www.backwoodshome.com/bury-a-gun-and-ammo-for-15-years/
10978309
Yeah that was my first thought too, probably set off the radiation detectors as soon as they step through the door.
The changelings don't know that's a thing though.
10978399
10978309
Also, they will be immediately spotted thanks to
They would be immortally spotted
10978398
At least we ( Humanity's Utopia ) are smart enough to keep and preserve our best tech. in the house. So, we are still powerhouses of advanced technology in our own right.
I am a communist and advocate diplomacy and moderate violence but ... If they cannot exist without slavery, then SLAUGHTER must begin! (and yet I hope for a diplomatic outcome)
My guess is that this war is more about maintaining the status quo then about humans being savages. I actually kind of like this trope of ponies being apposed to “creative destruction”. Celestia is probably only thinking in terms of short term, Because yes giving up slavery is kind of like giving up a narcotic. It seems like such an easy solution to all of your problems, but it actually makes things infinitely worse for you, and giving it up is incredibly painful. It wouldn’t surprise me if she was still operating on the concept of mercantilism, That there’s a set amount of pie and it’s all about fighting who gets the bigger piece. My guess the combination of magic and slaves has allowed them to maintain economic dominance, so hearing that slavery would have to come to an end would at the very least threaten that standing.
To better explain it, she’s operating under the mistaken ideas of Karl Marx who also assumed the economy’s size was a constant. When in fact advances in technology and business practices allow for rapid growth in the over all size of said economy. Her policies are very likely holding back her countries economic development along with the development of the rest of the world. However, keep in mind that giving up slavery was very painful for the south, it took several generations too recover. Simply because their economy had become dependent on it, while it had stagnated them badly, most of their investment capital was placed into the existing system. My guess is that things are very similar here, giving up slavery is like torching half of your economy and salting the other half.
10978398
im talking about in the past that they didnt bother adaprting all they could
10978416
Maybe a few things like gunpowder, but the problem with slavery is that it often offers a very simple solution to most problems. You just keep throwing more and more slaves at the problem until it gets fixed. Maybe it’s not efficient but chances are they don’t see any other solutions because they don’t have to. They did mention some armored chariots to but I have to wonder if they are fully metal or just some thin metal plates on wood. Chances are they have to take into account the weight, and even then they’re probably not the most graceful.
Wait ....Thorax just killed his changelings by announcing that they will pose as human soldiers XD
Guess what is your sentence when you are a spy and wear an enemy soldier's uniform while posing as them and end up captured by them?
Execution by a firing squad, you are not even taken as a prisoner.😈
The only exception would be to take some of them purely for experiments and that's it, unlike with ponies and other races they won't take 50 changelings prisoners.
10978412
To be clear at least part of why the south took so long to recover is at the north did somewhat punish them for the Civil War. They did eventually recover, but they lost the majority of their investment capital with the abolition of slavery and just the sheer devastation the war brought. Additionally the economics of the time we’re already moving away from agriculture, so it kind of was a perfect storm for them.
Yeah the drone operators need a psychological eval in this fic tbh, first they lose the advantage of there advanced fly drones that could hear anything now magic scans will be done around the clock, and before this they got a supersonic jet knocked out the sky by a branch giving allowing the unicorn to run her mouth to celestia about utopias location in the first place.
i already know how the story is gonna end
random guy: supreme leader aladeen, do you wish to launch 32 nukes at the ponies?
aladeen: aladeen
If they are already attacking then I would say it would be okay to launch a preemptive strike
10978450
I don’t think I was a jet that was knocked out of the sky but one of the smaller drones
10978392
Nothing is better than having a superior come & vibe check them
Love the helicopter scene from the dictator in author notes
Luna you obviously have no idea how armour works. Good luck trying to pierce the armour without AP rounds. Try dropping barrels of gunpowder and blow them up won't pierce the armour it'll only blow on the surface and it won't damage the interior. Worst case scenario is that the tank will be disabled for a moment. Maybe it'll work on APCs, armored cars and IFVs but not MBTs due to their armour thickness. Also, with infantry support those pegasi will be shot down before they can drop their payload.
Perhaps this war can change the perception in slavery since they were so eager on keeping their status quo, might as well break that thought by annihilating the armies that were lead personally by the immortal, pro-slavery alicorns that were thought to be indomitable.
10978412
About the whole slavery would cripple the economy. Honestly, I don't know how to remedy that without suffering an economic downturn. Apart from not abolishing slavery right quick which will collapse the economy instantly and drive the whole world sans Utopia into stagnation. Maybe by slowly giving native humans rights to survive and live happily while still working for them(dunno if the native humans is up for that since they were treated like slaves and are probably eager to be free and not work for ponies, maybe with some manipulation on the ponies side and Utopia helping could manage that front. For example, native humans will receive 1000 bits for free and a decent wage so you can build your life if you continue to work with us, we promise we'll treat you like normal people).
They could also introduce wages, so the native humans could have a source of income if they continue working with the ex-slave owners and began treating the native humans like free people rather than like slaves by giving them the freedom of choice and giving them proper care as a worker rather than a slave(of course this sounds easy on paper since the treatment of native humans is usually subjective so any law you enact might not be obeyed, a Utopian police force will be needed to keep those resentful slave owners in check). This process would undoubtedly take a long time maybe two or more generations to be frank.
Utopia can also help by introducing mechanization and industrialisation to the ponies so they would need less workers and laborers to manage their industry, agriculture and construction. Sure the economy would suffer a downturn but not as bad as abolishing the system right quick. By slowly passing bills and rights to the native humans and slowly pushing those laws from partial emancipation to total emancipation, this could work.
As if gunpowder would work on the tanks, at most it could potentially kill the crew inside from the shockwave rupturing their internal organs, but it doing anything will depend on if they mean throwing the entire loaded carriage at the tanks or just a gunpowder barrel at a time
10978423
Yeah without legitimate IDs, codenames and insignia, detecting changelings will be like shooting fish in a barrel.
10978524
It wasn't a manned fighter jet, but it was a highly manuvarable drone modeled after a jet capable of supersonic flight.
10978555
The problem with those ideas is that in practice we have seen just offering someone money doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to spend it in your economy. Even when people are getting their Covid relief checks (and earlier then that, the Bush stimulus), a pretty good number of people simply sat on the money. Additionally there’s no guarantee they won’t just take the money and then leave them high and dry. Also while the author hasn’t said it one way or another I feel like it’s at least implied Celestia is a bit of a Luddite, maybe not to the extremes of the TCB universe, but enough that she would see mechanization as a threat to a lot of ponies livelihood. I mean how would you feel if your cutie mark and cottage industry was made obsolete. Sure Cotton Weaver makes some nice fabric, but the machines can do it just as well faster and cheaper than she ever could. I’m not saying they wouldn’t be better off, but it definitely wouldn’t help your self-esteem to have your cutie mark look like something that belongs in a museum. So I would say they would at least have a slightly higher predisposition to be hostile to it.
Beyond that it feels like a bit of a stretch that utopia would give up one of its biggest advantages even if it was just for textile and agriculture. I’m kind of getting the feeling that they’re going to be backed into a corner of either letting the slaves go and having their economy go into a depression, or they’re going to have a Civil War scenario where they try to fight back to keep the status quo and end up losing everything anyway. More importantly there’s also the potential that the continued slavery is part of her revenge on them for all the lives lost during the war. On top of that, if word spreads that utopia is on the plane board there’s a pretty good chance they’re going to start dealing with a lot of uprisings. That’s why they’re trying to squash it right now, because those uprisings don’t necessarily have to win, they just have to further weaken their war machine until they’re forced to the negotiating table.
Also for those of you commenting on the gun powder, it really depends on what they’re using. If it’s just black powder at most it’s probably going to scorch the paint, but many tanks are insulated so it’s doubtful the shockwave will really be felt by the crew. If it was guncotton then it might be able to do more damage if properly deployed. But it sounds like they’re just going to drop a barrel on top of them and expect a miracle.
As for a more transitional approach to ending slavery, I’m willing to bet there’s a pretty decent population of wealthy individuals who have invested heavily into the industry. Compensating them probably wouldn’t be too easy, and even if compensated they would probably still resist it since it is likely it has been a cash cow for them for centuries. It’s generally hard for entrenched individuals to see any other option to what they are currently doing. More importantly such changes open the doors for a lot of economic restructuring which can be very messy for the old guard. I mean what do you do when someone has newfangled ideas meanwhile you’re still trapped in the thinking of the last century? Just look at what happened when the first steam trains came into being. There was a lot of pushback from farmers, cart manufacturers, and horsebreeders. In the end they lost but they certainly caused a lot of ruckus, which wasn’t always harmless
10978587
I know it wasn’t manned but I also thought it was a smaller drone
10978401
I can imagine a changeling who SOMEHOW managed to infiltrate Utopia gets a gun to defend themselves and tries to shoot, only to not know they need to click the safety off and Utopia security just tackles them. Bam, here's a changeling prisoner.
10978603
Yeah, the whole "giving them money" doesn't necessarily work well, but it does give them a job right off the bat, jobs are hard to find, it gets harder if you're an ex-slave living in a recently slavery-abolished country with resentful former slave owners. But that depends on how smart the native humans are at making choices it's up to them to pick whether to follow their emotions of not wanting to associate with ponies ever again and head to Utopia to search for work which might not be available due to Utopia having just woken up from a million year slumber and haven't organised many things apart from defense, RnD and some businesses which is worked by Utopian humans or be practical and start working with them and probably gain a stable income to build a life. It's entirely up to them.
Maybe a worker exchange with different estates and institutions could help. I bet many of the native humans are quite resentful of their former slave owners for treating them like dirt so maybe exchanging them with another former slave owner that they don't have any quarrel with could create a better working environment.
Yeah, I can see that Celestia is part Luddite with her always sticking to tradition like the noble unicorn estates and a pony who really depends and looks up on "prophecies and destiny". That is gonna be a problem for Equestria. For that to not happen, Celestia needs like a self-evaluation on her point of view of the current world and needs to see that the world is changing and she has to move on or be trampled by time. That problem can only be solved by Celestia herself.
I can assure you that one advantage that the humans have besides technology, is innovation which is something the other creatures lack. There could easily be remnants of the weapons or captured weapons from Vega Corp, yet none of the countries managed to duplicate it or replicate it. Maybe it's because of the lack of spare parts. But there should be a gist on how it works but they still didn't adopt it, they didn't experiment on the theory, they still used swords and spears, for all we know they might not have invented the more accurate crossbows and they're still using the standard bow and arrow.
When the Hittites came to the Middle East, bringing their new technology of chariots, the idea was immediately copied by other nearby civilizations. But when Vega Corp came with their guns and technology, few or none of the non-humans copied or replicate their idea(Refrigeration and steam energy was given to them by Vega Corp before they went ballistic,so they didn't copy it). It shows that the humans have a magic of their own, the magic of innovation, the possession of sapience greater than any other sapient creatures we encountered as of yet.
When humans invented steam trains and discovered steam energy, technology exploded like crazy. In a span of 300 years we have progressed from a society that thinks flying is impossible to a society that harvests solar energy and a society that thinks too far and ambitious like Lunar and Martian colonization, Dyson Spheres and flying cars.
The ponies however, still stick to the good old steam energy introduced by Vega Corp before they went ballistic. They even have refrigeration to help them progress. But for a thousand years they still haven't pushed past steam energy and they haven't even invented telegram even though they have electricity at the ready. They still rely on the pegasus express mail and magic scrolls. So it's safe to say if the ponies gets those technology they would stick to it until someone else gave them a new technology to use(Flim & Flam may be an exception but their invention was scorned by the community, specifically the Apple Family which shows how much they hated progress).
Even if they do begin innovating, Utopia will still be a thousand steps ahead of them and will usually beat them if they picked a fight with Utopia.
10978645
It was moderately sized, still had no business getting swatted by a branch by a unicorn with only knowledge of minor spells that the majority of unicorns know unless the operator had a stroke at his keyboard.
10978668
Or better yet, a regular health checkup reveals the ruse. I doubt they can mimic the internals nearly as well as they'd need to.
10978674
The issue is would they actually wanna work for them? I’m willing to bet a lot of ponies would try there hardest to pretend things haven’t changed. When slavery was abolished a lot of plantations attempted to reword it as “apprenticeships” which was more or less the same thing. It was a rather pitiful attempt at pretending like their system didn’t lose, but in the end it was ended too. A lot of ponies might just end up pushing humans away because of there inability to let go of the “good old days”. Leading to a massive migration, which I sure they would try to stop, only to make things worse.
Actually the labor shortages would work in utopias advantage, a country in crisis has difficulty maintaining a war effort. Especially if they can’t feed their supply lines properly. Utopia could easily handle the influx by offering the humans land for which they can farm. In fact farming might be a great way to introduce them to technology without overwhelming them. As many agricultural technologies are fairly simple to understand. A tractor for example is literally a Diesel engine on large wheels, even the engine is fairly easy to learn how to repair even without education. Irrigation is much the same way in this respect, along with the introduction of fertilizers and pesticides (the earliest being based off of Tobacco). As a bonus it would allow them to form the basis of future trade routes. While they set up more advanced industries, and help ensure food security for the new population.
Also if your worried that they would try to isolate this new country, keep in mind the soviets hated the us, but they still traded with us for grain to feed their own people. With the shortage of labor it’s going to take awhile for agriculture to stabilize again in their countries. Especially as some might either consider it beneath then, nevermind the low pay that would come with it.
10978143
u wanna get doxxed retard
u litrelaay pulled a bs card and did crippeled humanity
10978839
An astute observation. Progress was always hampered by the people who still thought they were living the good old days. That will be hard to crack. Honestly, I don't know how beside than letting them see what happens if you're stuck on your good old days but we don't have a time machine.
I don't know if Utopia has designated jobs for native humans since they expect that all humanity except them had died. So that might be a problem to find a job there. Second, I don't know how much native humans living in the whole world but I can guess that it's a lot. If the majority of them moved to Utopia, it might cause a refugee crisis akin to the refugees from the Middle East and North Africa swarming into Europe.
Then, there's the food question, for all Utopians know are that the entire humanity sans them are dead, so they would stockpile food only for themselves so they might not have extra food for the native humans. It gets worse if every single native human heads to Utopia. Can Utopia feed them all while feeding their own population with their current food storage? How long will it take for the native humans to construct a stable food source since agriculture takes months maybe even a year before it bore fruit. Maybe they can if they ration the Utopian food stockpile or if they import food from other nations, but they can't import food since they haven't adopted the universal currency which is probably the long-abandoned gold standard which Utopia might not have adopted if they go 100% paper bill Utopian dollars and invisible money which are worthless to Equus sellers and traders who wants bits that are made of gold. Searching a gold mine is gonna be hard as it depends on the geographical location of Utopia.
If the situation gets worse, the Utopians might look at the native humans like some of the xenophobic european and american population look on migrants and would advocate to kick them out. Let's say that the native humans from Equestria, Minotaur Kingdom, Griffon Kingdom, the Changeling Hives, the Hippogriffs and the Yaks have approximately 500k maybe even more, the housing space would be enormous and costly. Since Utopia is located at Tartarus which the surrounding areas might be hellish(with lava cracks and stuff), arid and dry like the grand canyon, sources of water are gonna be hard to find and fertile land even harder.
But then again, the majority of the Equus society sans the Crystal Empire still wants slavery to go on so the treatment on native humans might not improve without supervision. Maybe move them all to the Crystal Empire where the population would be more understanding since areas around Crystal City are quite fertile and green. Ah, this is so confusing...
Anyway, a good thought, makes me move my gears a bit.
Without tanks or artillery, I hope the humans make generous use of bombers, followed by mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. If they can cripple the enemy force before they encircle Utopia, the Equestrians will have to stretch their ranks very thin when they do carry out their plan, at which point it would be easier for the infantry to dispatch them. Chucking a nuclear weapon at them would be a terrible idea, as I'm sure nobody wants an enormous radioactive crater right next to humanity's only bastion.
It would be foolish for the humans not to question the prisoner about changelings and their capabilities.