Retaliation
"Are we in position?" Pharynx asked.
"Yes sir,” One of the changelings answered. “If any of those apes show their faces here, we’ll be ready.”
"It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ soldier. It's just a matter of when," Pharynx replied.
"As most of you probably know, I am an advocate for peace. You don't win the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing.”
As much as President Alexei wanted to only focus on his meeting with General Markov, he had to keep at least half of his attention on the television at the other end of his office.
“How fast can we get our battalion’s dispatched?” Alexei asked.
"Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of China - " Markov paused, "I mean Lian Meng on that. They estimate it will take a week at the earliest before we're able to completely clear it off the main door. However, we should be able to get some of our vehicles out with the door partially opened."
"Good,” Alexei said, his eyes still glued to the television. “Our efforts to subdue Equestria’s forces could take a huge hit if Olesia is elected, so we must begin our strike soon, before the USU can potentially elect her. Markov, due to the urgency of this matter, I am giving you the full authority to conduct this operation as you see fit as long as it fulfills our objectives: decimate Equestria’s soldiers, minimize civilian casualties, and most of all, emanate strength and rationality. Understood?”
"Yes, sir. I will not let you down," the general replied. “And if they surrender?”
That gave Alexei an idea.
"Actually, Markov, make sure you ask the opposing force if they wish to surrender before you engage,” Alexei ordered. “Make it extremely clear that this will be their one and only chance to surrender and that resistance is futile and will not be tolerated. If they surrender without a fight, bring them back to Utopia unharmed. If they do not, then engage.”
"It will be done," said Markov.
“Good,” Alexei said. “Be swift. Dismissed.”
“With that, this election is now in the hands of the ministers. Ministers, you have ten minutes to cast your votes. When we come back on UNN, Don Carlson and our UNN correspondents in the studio react to the speeches from both candidates and later, we will reveal the election results. We’ll be right back.”
General Markov and all world leaders that currently weren’t engaged in a presidential election, which was playing out on the television behind them, looked on to the main hangar behind a large stained glass window.
The hangar itself was busy, with Russian soldiers running around and preparing for the assault. From what they had seen through the eyes of their spy drones, Ponyville was quite well guarded, with around two thousand confirmed enemy troops in the area, though it wasn't as well guarded as one would expect for a settlement literally right next to the enemy's base. The soldiers themselves used medieval style weaponry, all of them using spears, swords and bows to defend the village. Their 'heavy' artillery consisted of a few dozen medieval style trebuchets alongside several dozen primitive renaissance era cannons.
The assault force was powerful but relatively small in size, with only five hundred Russian soldiers assigned to participate. Such a defense from Ponyville should not require that many soldiers to overcome. Plus, a smaller force meant a faster strike.
Once that occurred, however, the soldiers would need a way to hold the town and avoid any resistance, so Markov arranged for five heavy lift helicopters to be included as a part of the assault force, each housing a light tank that would be deployed on the front lines. Alongside them were ten attack helicopters and ten large transport helicopters holding fifty soldiers each.
His plan was simple; the attack helicopters would blow up their 'heavy' weapons so they wouldn't be able to shoot a giant arrow or a cannonball at one of their aircraft, then proceed with a ground assault so as to minimise the risk of civilian casualties. After that, they would land, deploy the tanks and troops, and commence the ground assault, killing any enemy combatants that stood in their way.
Once the town was captured, they would send out a second group to reinforce the defenses of the town and enact martial law, while simultaneously freeing any human slaves they came across and bring them back to Utopia. What President Alexei wanted to do with them, Markov did not know, but he imagined he would get those orders once fulfilled this current objective. Right now, time was of the essence.
"General Markov?" A man sitting at one of the terminals called to him in Russian, getting the attention of the world leaders as well. He pointed at the screen in front of him, "It's for you," he said, offering his headset to the general.
Markov looked to Alexei.
"Unplug it," Alexi ordered, and the man unplugged the pair of headphones, allowing everyone in the room to hear what was being said.
"Markov speaking," the general answered back in Russian.
"General, this is Sergeant Major Lev reporting. The maintenance checks have been completed, the tanks are in the helicopters, and the cargo has been loaded. Permission to begin boarding the helicopters?" The voice came from the other side.
"Granted," ordered the general.
"Yes, sir," the sergeant replied, before the call was cut off.
"You made sure to tell your forces what we talked about, Alexei?" PM Bjorn asked.
"I made sure to heavily emphasize it," Alexi replied. “Right, Markov?”
“Yes, sir,” Markov confirmed.
"Well, forgive me for having to remind you,” PM Bjorn told him. “ We cannot tolerate a 'shoot first, talk later' mindset in this situation. And given your country’s history…”
"Well, you Germans don't exactly have a history of being merciful as well, do you?" Alexi said.
"Excuse me?" Bjorn asked, getting agitated.
"Both of you, calm down for heaven's sake," PM Jack told them, "We only have so long to get this attack sent off before we could potentially be faced with a new USU President that will be in opposition to our engagement strategy. Now's not the time to be bickering amongst yourselves."
"Bjorn is right. Enough of this nonsense. There's no reason to get aggravated over nothing. Now, can we all please just attend to the situation?" asked PM Mateo.
"Yes, I completely agree. I don't see why you're getting upset over nothing, Prime Minister Bjorn," Alexi told him, causing him to clench his fists in annoyance, before taking a deep breath and calming down.
"Fine, let us attend to the situation," Bjorn relented, looking back out the window of the observation deck.
A few minutes later, the Comms came alive again, followed by Alexi, General Markov and Sergeant Lev having a short conversation in Russian.
"What did you talk about?” Aladeen asked.
"The Sergeant was just reporting back and asking for permission to take off as soon as the door was opened, which I granted," Markov replied.
"They're still waiting on reports from the surface to see exactly how much we can get the door to open without causing all of the rubble still on it to come raining into the main hangar," Alexi continued.
"Sir, the reports are in. We're ready to begin deployment," one of the men at the consoles said to Markov after an uneventful few minutes.
"Excellent. Open the doors," Markov ordered
"Yes sir," the man replied, before relaying his orders through the comms.
After a while, there was a loud mechanical whirring, alongside a lot of crashing and banging as the machinery came to life for the first time in a million years. Alexei would not be surprised if all of Utopia had heard it.
The entire upper level of the bunker began shaking as if it was a mini earthquake, before eventually everything abruptly stopped. After a few moments, a loud metallic creaking noise was heard, the sounds of the machines coming to life again as a sliver of bright light came through as the two massive blast doors covering the runway, several kilometres long, began slowly opening. This was the first time the Sun had shone upon Utopia in a long time. The doors continued opening, with small pebbles, sand and dust began raining down upon the runway. The doors opened to a length of about thirty metres before they stopped moving.
General Markov just stood and stared at the sky for a moment. From his perspective, this was the first time he had seen the sky in over a month, and he began to smile slightly. He snapped himself out of his trance after a few moments though, and began to refocus on the matter at hand.
"Give them permission to take off," he commanded to no one in particular, and one of the tech guys relayed his orders.
The rest of the world leaders watched as the helicopters began to rise above the ground, slowly at first, but gradually speeding up, until they finally left the confines of Utopia itself and began their flight, heading off in the direction of the town of Ponyville.
"Colonel," one of the ponies whispered to Shimmering Shield. He didn't hear the pony however, as he was focused on his work. "Colonel!" The same soldier whispered shouted at him again.
Colonel Shield removed the shovel from his mouth and held it with one of his hooves, followed by turning to the one who had addressed him.
"What is it, private?" He asked, exhaustion clear in his voice.
"You might wanna get a look at this," the private replied, and the colonel turned his head towards where the private was looking. He saw several helicopters, large and small, gradually rising up one after another. These ones, however, somehow looked more menacing than the other helicopters he encountered. Colonel Shield then turned his attention to the nearest human soldier and addressed him.
"Hey," the colonel called to him, and the soldier didn't reply.
"Hey!" He called to the helmeted trooper, and was ignored once again.
"Hey! Can't you hear me?!" He called to the human once again, and the human finally responded, turning his head towards him.
"What?" The man asked with a tone of irritation.
"What's going on?" Colonel Shield asked him, pointing a hoof at the rising helicopters.
"None o' your damn business,” the human soldier sternly ordered. “Now, back to work, horse.”
Colonel Shield turned his attention back to the pile of rubble and gravel he was shoveling into a wheelbarrow, taking a glance at the helicopters that were leaving the camp, as the sun began rapidly setting and the moon began rising in the opposite direction.
While he could not gleam any more information, Shield’s gut instincts were telling him this as bad. He said a silent prayer for his homeland as the sky above him began darkening rapidly and the floodlights around the camp were turned on.
Several kilometres away from Utopia, two battalions of pony soldiers stood alongside a battalion of changeling soldiers disguised as both pony soldiers and civilians. Both units were fully prepared to face off against the First Humans should they attempt to launch an attack against Ponyville. The ponies needed to defend and distract while the changelings infiltrated.
Even if only a quarter of changelings were successful, that would be at least two hundred and fifty traitors that the First Humans would have to find. It was a dangerous mission, but each and every single creature there knew it was necessary to put their lives at risk in order to protect their loved ones from this new monstrous threat.
"Hey, I'm here to take your shift. See anything interesting?" One of the soldiers asked another as they stared out at the open field ahead of them, where the forest stood a couple hundred metres away.
"Nothing but green," he replied as he peered out into the darkness. “You’d think that an assignment like this would see action a little more quickly. We’d normally be fighting on Day 1 when quelling slave rebellions.”
"So what if it’s taking a little longer?” the other replied. “What’s even the difference between the slaves and these weird alien humans, anyway? We're literal knights in shining armour! Nothing can stand in our way!”
His fellow guard took his eyes off his binoculars for a split second to give him a pointed look, "Technically not aliens… but that's besides the point. We've been here for days now. It’s not like the humans stand much of a chance anyway, so why can’t they just get here so that we can kick their butts and go home."
At that moment, the stallion noticed several floating, bright white lights in the distance ut of the corner of his eye.
“Well, looks like you’ve got your wish,” he quipped.
"What?” The soldier asked, looking back into his binoculars again. After a second of surveying the area, he found the lights his comrade saw.
“Finally!” he said, dropping his binoculars.
"Go get Agent Sweetie Drops, now! I'll alert Starlight," he said.
“Yes, sir!” the stallion said before going to fufill the order.
Spear then addressed his fellow perimeter guards as he began running to notify Starlight.
"Sound the alarm! We're under attack! Everypony wake up!"
"Look Out, how far off are they?" Agent Sweetie 'Bon Bon' Drops asked the pony on her right as she and Starlight quickly scaled the wooden stairs leading up to the battlements of the makeshift fortifications they had quickly erected all around Ponyville.
Look Out, a pony with a telescope for a cutie mark, raised up his pair of binoculars and looked through them once they reached the top of the wooden wall. "Roughly eleven kilometres, seven hundred and forty nine meters," replied Look Out.
"How long until they get here?" Starlight asked him.
"At their current speed…" Look Out stared at the oncoming lights and performed various way too complicated calculations in a matter of seconds, "Approximately three minutes and thirty seven seconds, give or take a few milliseconds."
"Logic Sticks, do we have enough time to load the catapults, trebuchets and cannons before they get here?" Starlight asked.
"If we run at peak performance, it'll take us about two minutes to load up all our defenses, and we'll be ready to fire once they're within three to four kilometres from our current position," the pony replied.
"Great. Everypony, you heard him! Load up the cannons, trebuchets, catapults, everything! And double time! The enemy will be upon us in a matter of minutes!" Sweetie Drops ordered, and everypony began running around and attending to their designated tasks.
"90 seconds!" Look Out yelled as he stared at the floating lights that were closing in on the town.
"Everypony, ready the artillery!" Sweetie Drops ordered.
"They're not within range yet, ma'am," Look Out informed.
"I know," Sweetie Drops acknowledged, before relaying her next orders, "Hold your fire! Fire on my mark!"
As everypony stared ahead at the impending mechanical monstrosities, far before they could get into the range of the ponies' artillery, dozens of smaller lights began streaking towards them, way faster than the other lights. They looked almost like rocket -
"Everypony look out!" Starlight yelled before immediately teleporting herself and Bon Bon to safety before the missiles could hit. The rest of them however, weren't so lucky.
"Two seconds…" Look Out whispered to himself in shock and horror as his wide eyes stared at the oncoming missile.
*BOOM*
Dozens of loud explosions reverberated throughout the small town as the battlements of the wooden fort around them exploded in grand spheres of flame that were targeted at every single cannon, trebuchet and catapult the lined the battlements, completely destroying the top parts of the makeshift fort along the top of the east side of Ponyville and setting fire to it. The flaming pieces of wood that had landed on some of the unlucky houses cause them to catch fire as well, and soon ponies were running everywhere with buckets of water trying to put out the flames of the houses that caught fire, and trying to put out the flames of the fort before they could reach the houses. The flames caused by the small pieces of wood were dealt with easily enough, but the ponies could not douse the fire that burned the fort fast enough, and the fire quickly began to spread to nearby houses.
Starlight and Bon Bon looked around once their ears stopped ringing and they had gotten out of their shocked state.
Despite Starlight's quick thinking, not having any time to charge the spell meant they could only be teleported a short distance, so the blast was still able to do a number on them. By the time they had, the flames were all around them, setting fire to house after house as it raged through the small town.
While Starlight ran off to use her powerful magical abilities to contain the flame before it could spread any further, Bon Bon looked out in the direction where the lights came from, but couldn't see if the enemy was upon them due to the obstruction of the flaming ruins of what used to be the fort. She soon received her answer as the flaming wooden wall in front of her blew up as a result of another explosion that, while much smaller than the others, opened up a considerably large hole in the wall and threw her back a considerable distance, where she hit her head on the wall of one of the houses that managed to stay safe from the flame.
Through the roaring flames, Bon Bon made out a very large shadowy figure that was obscured by the smoke that was coming through the breach in the wall. This was slowly followed by the appearance of smaller figures that approached beside the behemoth. Time seemed to slow down for her, and she watched everything in slow motion as she rubbed the back of her head, which was bleeding slightly.
Ponies ran by her with buckets of water only to high tail it out of there as they caught sight of the mostly obscured figures. The guards and changeling soldiers that weren't busy helping put out the flames approached her position to see what the source of the explosion was.
That's when the first part of the behemoth came into view. Through the smoke, emerged a long, slim barrel, before the abomination abruptly stopped moving with a creak. As the smoke gradually cleared away, the object in question was slowly revealed… and what an object it was. To Bon Bon, it pretty much looked like a small house on wheels, although it was far more menacing than any house could hope to look. Beside the object, several dozen bipeds that were lined head to toe with thick brown clothing and blue helmets that emitted a dim light, with metal beams lining their frame.
"Attention soldiers of the Equestrian military!" the tank seemingly spoke with a strange but menacing accent that Bon Bon didn't recognise, "That was a warning shot. This will be your only chance to surrender. Do so, and you will not be harmed. Resistance will be futile and result in the deaths of all military combatants. You have three minutes to make your decision.”
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You stubborn and stupid ponies. Just take it and leave it! Or you will all regret it.
I think I’m starting to realize something. The humans are underestimating equestria, which is bad. They seem more focused with fighting with eachother than equestria.
A good chapter, looking forward to what happens next.
Good chapter, looking forward to the next one
11226660
I don't think so. The humans have every possible advantage. The humans have overwhelmingly superior firepower and technology. They are all but immune to magic which nullifies equestrias biggest advantage. They also have Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy on their side. Chrysalis and Cozy have probably been studying equestrias weaknesses and military capacity for Years. The humans enough nukes to glass any fierce resistance. Once the First humans and their war becomes known, the ponies and other species will face simultaneous slave human revolts which will cause chaos and spread the ponies armies too thin. The ponies have also lost Discord's power will the humans now have their own draconiquus.
Honestly the biggest treat to the humans will be internal sabotage by changlings, but considering how high Utopia's security is and not to mention the Chrysalis will probably advise them on how to avoid Changling infiltration, it probably won't be that big of a threat.
11226698
That’s what I mean. With all these advantages they have they are starting to think they’ve already won.
11226706
Unless the humans are stupid enough to pull a 'Covenant' and start a civil war when already in a war, they should win.
Yes!!! Finally! Great chapter by the way.
The pieces of wood starting a fire is a the least of the problem
Fun fact, even wood splinters would probably be deadly like bullets and kill ponies.
The same how once, in naval combat, with wooden ships, etc not only cannonballs were dangerous but special cannonballs made to throw around pieces of wood of your ship that would either puncture you like bullets or worse if you get hit by bigger ones
11226698
Yeah , changelings will be completely useless again humans
They completely and absolutely, can't pretend to be any of Utopia's humans, soldiers, or others.
There are id checks and rotating passwords
There is a need for minimal general knowledge and specialized knowledge of technology, infrastructure, army structure, etc
There are needed clothes, phones, ids cards, and other equipment everyone has
And for example, they can't fabricate fake IDs (With the rest of the equipment, like phones, they can't even try to do it) , because everything probably is digital and handled on secured servers too.And obviously they wouldnt know what each number or word means even on normal,non digital IDs.
Humans already know about changelings,so it wouldn't be hard to be prepared for them or create devices for them.
And many more
And obviously the AI we know about, and probably many more AI and security systems not shown yet.
Oh and one thing that just wipes away any doubs, Utopia is a place with no magic, even the air,so...Changelings would reveal themselves.
11226712
11226722
Yeah, but this situation is either you win or you will be nothing but a slave.
Completely different from other civil wars and infights from reality or fiction.
You only infight if you can gain something, but there is nothing to gain.The rare no other allies,you are ALONE vs them. So you suck it up and fight with bigger problems.
11226660
Not really, they know their advantages and their disadvantages, the same for what Equestria has
Its essentially better than being completely blind with your overconfidence or being completely paranoid, too scared to make any move or for retaliation from your actions
11226712
Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me. Despite them working together there seems to be some tension between them. Also, what’s covenant?
11226717
Interesting.
11226722
The Covenant from Halo. They were a super advanced mega alien empire that almost destroyed humanity before they got into a civil war which eventually caused their downfall and resulted in human victory.
11226730
Oh ok
A NEW UPDATE LETS GOOOOOOO!!
Here's what I know so far (spoiler free)
MLP: FiM as a show does not exist, or someone would have mentioned it already
The Equestria Girls dimension probably doesn't exist because humans are slaves to ponies
The Ethics Committee does not exist
But that's just a theory! A-
Yo what do we call this?
idk fic theory?
A fic theory! Thanks for reading!
11226760
Ethics committee? What's this got to do with the SCP universe?
11226760
11226773
I think that's SCP reference and joke XD
Reference :
The O5 Council is a powerful council but the Ethics Committee is the people who sees the O5 Council and make sure it is on the right path, it determines if a high ranking personnel un-ethical actions.
The Ethics Committee always tells everyone in the foundation that is new that "The Foundation is cold not cruel."
The Ethics Committee to the lower foundation personnel is pretty much jokes, the only one who knows about the Ethics Committee is people in the Committee, people with level 5 clearance and O5 Command. Anyone in the Ethics Committee has Level 5 Clearance. The Ethics Committee also reviews SCP's and check if everything is okay.
The joke:
Everything Dr. Bright Is Not Allowed To Do At The Foundation
There is no Ethics Committee.
Why SCP ? Well there are similarities to Utopia ,like they are underground and fighting for humanity survival
You know what, NoobMaster69 should add an SCP Fundation for this.
It's has a reason to be created by the United Nations here.
It would be very useful , now, in this war and after winning the war, in a period of peace.
Not counting dangerous anomalies on the levels of Discord or Alicorns, there probably will be anomalies that in themselves are peaceful,etc but their abilities make them very dangerous to others and themselves.
Think of something like SCP-166 Teenage Gaea, she is completely peaceful and wouldn't hurt a fly, but her abilities if they got out of control or if someone uses her, could be very dangerous to every civilization,even other races. Her powers make everything that wasn't natural, essentially made, fall apart, for example. So even something as simple as apple pie, or a spear would be affected and fall apart.
Again SCP Fundation would also protect anomalies, especially because some attempts to destroy every SCP or non-harmful SCP could create something worse or make them dangerous.Like what happened with SCP-2950 Just A Chair
Essentially this is why SCP Foundation just doesn't eliminate every dangerous SCP.
Oh yeah, they also don't destroy SCP because they study both creatures and objects,artifacts to learn and gain something from them too.
Of course, Equestria doesn't have anything even one least dangerous of SCP, so it wouldn't be a priority but still a possibly for weird magical creatures and artefacts .
ayyyyyyo
Of course, a cliffhanger... I should've known of this, you are quite fond of them are you not? Oh well, on to the debates below.
11226786
Unless it's the GAC.
11226717
11226660
To add my own two bits, this is essentially a delicate balance of compromises between paranoia, overconfidence, underestimation, and everything else. There is a sweet spot, but it's hard to find. Each compromise has benefits and cons, so it's very situational, on in this situation, I feel like humans are right to take the overconfident path, even if it's been taken a bit too far.
11226722
Yeah, I noticed that too. I think politics might be their downfall, as of now, they are no more than several semi-unified governments trying to fit in one seat of power.
If they want to truly be unified, they need to stop this whole, "I'm American, your German," thing. That was unnecessary as if they can't understand that their children are not responsible for the actions of their forebearers. They're more of a dystopia, and they keep bringing old history that should've been resolved decades ago. Hell, it was either the UN or Nato that forced countries to work together to build relationships, pretty sure Germany worked with the U.S. on a prototype Abrams that didn't go much of anywhere.
But anyway, it's like they've thrown away nearly a century of work, mending relationships that their forebearers did after WW2 and ripping old wounds. Doesn't help that the people who are in power are majorly separated into stereotypes, such as the peace lover, and the warmonger. None of the are unified, and they are so adamantly stubborn to not even bring up the idea of a compromise.
While the humans may win, they've done the despicable and thrown away all of their ancestor's work bringing the world together, to throw petty insults from history at each other, and having the gal use that as 'evidence' for their causes.
Anyways, I went on a rant. In conclusion, humans are not unified, they are held together by tape, glue, and hopes. And they've disregarded so much of what their ancestors worked for just to make some infighting, they took people to the moon, they made world peace(semi world peace disregarding current real-world politics), we literally have all of humanities knowledge at our fingers tips, and they came together to create Utopia. And all that work did not translate through.
Damnit, I got overly wordy again.
11226717
Interesting
11226934
What you say holds some truth to it, however do they know where that sweet spot is?
I’m pretty sure politics would be anyone’s downfall. Compare them to equestria, despite them being different species they get along just fine. You have ponies who are friends with yaks, dragons who are friends with changelings, etc. meanwhile you have the humans ready to tear each others heads off. I’m honestly waiting for a backstab at this point, because there’s no way it won’t happen. I’m honestly placing my bet on germany.
Someone bake Sweetie Drops and Starlight an “At least you tried” cake. I honestly thought for a brief moment they might get lucky, but sadly once again the humans have shown they aren’t stupid. I’m definitely hoping the cost of the war starts putting pressure on ponies and their alleys to consider the unthinkable…. Peace. If only to prevent complete economic devastation. War is only good for the economy for so long, eventually it starts putting increasing pressure on people.
Also still hoping for AJ to have an ending like that slave catcher from RDR 2. Losing everything because they simply couldn’t adapt to the new reality. Being such a family mare, I think it would be an ironic punishment. On top of that, I’m wondering if the Wonderbolts will survive this, I think it’s a matter of time before the academy gets hit, of course their ineptitude could also be their down fall. “We’re paying how much for a glorified stunt team?!”
Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie seem the most likely to adapt to things. Fluttershy seems to be more sympathetic to the plight. Rarity might not have any love for humans, but if you start messing with her coin purse then she’ll stop supporting the war. As for Pinkie?…. She might just want to end it for the entertainment archives they have.
Finally Twilight, honestly it could go either way. She’s hard headed because of her mentor. But she’s also smart, she might see where the war is going and begrudgingly push to end it. Alternatively she could push for it to continue until they are pushed into an untenable position. Her biggest issue is not being able to see the humans as equals, having different standards for her own and them. It’s alright when ponies attack, and threaten perpetual enslavement/genocide. It’s wrong when humans warn them to back off, and then respond when the warnings are ignored. If she can’t deal with this… the alicorns might be finding a threat to the rule…. And not just from their “enemies”. Along with the other rulers.
11226955
Again you don't backstab when you can't gain from it.
And even when you or some invidual who doesn't care or is blind, will ignore that and do that for some stupid reason, other people with a similar opinion won't be on your side/their but will look at you/them and say "what the fuck is wrong with you" then throw you in jail or whatever beceuse you just caused only trouble without gaining anything for that.
11226934
I don't see how they threw away their ancestor's work really, everything seems like how it was.
We should also remember that it's individuals with their own individual opinions. That doesn't mean that there are tensions like that real and can grow into something bigger or that they are somewhere else, maybe with certain individuals in certain situations and that's it.
Also even if you don't like someone or have a certain opinion about someone like here,in a professional workplace or on the job you throw that away to do your job
Especially in the army, I'm pretty sure they fucking drill that to your head and that you can bitch about what you don't like about someone on your free time in a bar or home
That's why I used SCP-2950 Just A Chair as an example
The only thing that the Equestrians and others have for a slim chance of victory against Utopia is their rinky-dink trebuchets and ballistae to take out Utopia's supply helicopters and starve those 500 of ammo and... that's it, but they were just destroyed so there's that.
Well, there is another, let's say... costlier way for them, but I doubt they could pull it off. That is after Ponyville falls, they need to organize +30,000 professional soldiers(keyword on professional not recruits or conscripts or levies) and strike Ponyville quickly before Utopian reinforcements arrive, 500 can't possibly fight 30,000 at the same time even with vast technological superiority. Sure, lots of casualties, but hey Ponyville retaken, and... the Utopian reinforcements arrive and they lose Ponyville again, shame.
But I doubt it would work. First, Equestria can't mobilize 30,000 professional soldiers that quickly and if they can, I doubt they will be an organized force which the 500 will take a good punch on them for that. Second, Utopia will definitely spot that large army the moment they mobilize and would make haste with the reinforcements, which is possible due to technological superiority and seasoned military.
To summarize, Ponyville is lost and to surrender is better, unless the leadership there thinks it's utterly shameful to surrender to a bunch of slaves and doomed the whole Ponyville garrison.
11226987
So you’re saying they wouldn’t gain anything?
11226934
How? They were attacked each time they encountered Equestria and the rest of the world. Plus, they have notdeliberately killed civilians (although they earlier threatened to kill Twilight and co., and maybe the destruction of the fort inflicted civilian casualties), only soldiers. I fail to see why they're the villains when the rest of the world has enslaved humanity. From a purely secular viewpoint, if Utopia falls then humanity is doomed to perpetual enslavement. Whatever Utopia's faults, and whatever national boundaries exist, it's better they fight and establish a free zone for now ex-slaves.
11226987
(Reminder: I do not claim to be an expert on real-world politics)
Perhaps the wrong idea came across, point is, especially after ww2, all the nations(most) had come together to make sure nothing like that ever happened, and yet they've used old history to bring out pretty insults which while they have a place in that age to remember and never repeat, they have no place bringing up for such insults, considering the how much it affected the world.
A hard example would be when Alexi said, "Well, you Germans don't exactly have a history of being merciful as well, do you?" in response to Bjorn's reminder of not using a shoot first, ask later mentality with a slight implication of her country's history.
While the retort was deserved, both of them were bringing something that honestly held no right to be in such a place and time in that way.
Considering that so many of the world's superpowers had come together setting aside their differences, I feel like this disharmony among them ruins what their ancestors built. Each head of each nation has such a different mentality that leaves a lot of tension, and in a room where they decided the fate of Utopia, I don't see that as a good thing in any way.
Of course, I'm terrible at debating something I can't clearly put into words myself, but I hope that clears up or helps a bit?
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Oh yes, I completely agree with you here, I believe I have said something in past comments that Utopia truly is the last of humanity, which I can't emphasize enough how much of an enormously big deal that is. But I think you missed the point, while their actions toward the ponies and responses have been reasonable and understandable to anyone who's read/remembers the perspectives of the previous debate's on the morally grey actions, it's not the ponies I'm referring to.
It's Utopia itself, as so far we've soon tons of infighting. The heads of Utopia are in one way or another, mostly against each other. Even if they begrudgingly work with each other, they fail to compromise, and as they are mostly representatives of their nation, they compare each other to their nation's previous history.
As such, not only are old wounds irrelevant history being brought up, but there isn't much of any compromise, and almost everyone in a position is readily able to abuse the strict construction perspective view of the law, rather than a loose construction perspective. I hope that answers your question, maybe? If not, then well I'm at a loss then, as this is as much detail as I can get into myself without losing myself in the old friend I call the madness that comes about from the debates in the story.
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While you have the right idea of what I was trying to convey, I'll have to agree with Mithril on the backstabbing part, I don't think we'll have any heads to roll. Especially since... well, hell, I wrote quite a large comment sheerly to express how final it was that they were the last of humanity deep in the comments long ago, but I'm too lazy to look for it.
Simplified point is, that they are the last of humanity. Even if they have such infighting, they should at least act like the professionals they are. Probably, I'm a little shaky on this part myself so I'm open to other opinions.
Hilarious story when I saw I had a story update. I was actually hoping it would be any ACCEPT this one. Becuse I was super tired fron work and wasn't in the mood to feel the rush of adrenaline and emotions I get from this fanfic.
(I'm not expressing grief or trying to get the author to feel bad. I just thought this was funny and wanted to share it.)
Utopia beats it's chest way too much. They could really learn from these Sun Tzu quotes.
If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. Sun Tzu
Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak. Sun Tzu
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I mean... Sun Tzu never had fifty thousand nuclear warheads. I'm pretty sure if he did he wouldn't mind appearing strong when he was strong...
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My favourite debaters are back!! Let's gooooooo!!!!!
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I actually thought about adding the SCP Foundation into the story, and I still plan to, but not until a little later. What I'm thinking about now is whether I should add the GOC instead since I think that might be more interesting.
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Yes the changelings will be completely destroyed if they tried to infiltrate in any realistic scenario.
Though if I do decide to have the changelings succeed in their infiltration, I will have to give them some degree of plot armour to give equestria a chance. I'm sure most people actually want the nations of Equs to stand somewhat of a chance against Utopia since I think the story might be a little boring if it's just a straight up steamroll...
But just to confirm, whoever sees this comment tell me if you want Equestria to stand a chance or you just want them to get utterly obliterated cuz I could go either way. (By stand a chance I don't mean being able to fight against Utopia in any major way... I mean that they would just be a massive inconvenience to deal with)
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Humans: Haha yes, die trash
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Lmao... That's more of a complement really... That means this story is actually having an impact on its readers.
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Nah
GOC just kills, mostly
SCP Foundation researches and uses anomalies to improve
This is more fitting with human ideology. Discover, research, adapt and then get stronger
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But the Equs leader's whole plan was to lose to Utopia tho... So there won't be any pony retaliation to the humans retaliation which will be followed by a larger human retaliation
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Maybe try without giving them plot armor because that would be just annoying .Lets just try to keep realism.
Let races try to fight in their own way, the stupid choices will get them punished, like changelings where they completely fail and are stopped at the start line.
Other less stupid choices will probably still leave them bleeding but at least they won't be turned to dust and have a chance to retreat
They would still be an inconvenience but without plot armor protecting them, so they would still get killed
So the races would only succeed in minimally slowing down Utopia while greatly bleeding out doing that, while at the same time without being successful at hitting anything Utopia's related
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Honestly I would like to see Utopia face more challenges, but I don't want Equestria to be unrealistically buffed just to provide a forced challenge to the human military. I would like to see them confront other challenges, like how to organize and up lift enslaved humans, how to reconcile humanity's ideals of equality and democracy when a large portion of the human population are undeniably and unequivocally inferior in every possible way, how to prevent uplifted human slaves from committing genocide of their former masters, how to organize puppet governments and decide what to do with former leaders, how to lead and pacify a rebellious and resentful conquered population, how to deal with vengeful and human supremacist elements in their own population. I think that Utopia trying to deal with these issues would be a far better story than increased pony resistance or some forced factional conflict in Utopia.
Also,I really hope that in the next chapter, when everyone is ready to vote, they will play what the main 6 said on each candidate speech and on every TV
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For enslaved humans, I have an idea
For the first liberated ones,they could be permanently or temporarily brought to Utopia,for testing,etc.
Then later they and new liberated could be brought to create villages/strongholds close to Utopia.
But they wouldn't be trained to fight, because that's a huge risk in giving them weapons that other races could steal.Thew same for other modern equipment.
I think, they should be taught, organization,government stuff, modern construction building, and semi basic military training to at least make them stronger and teach them at least how to help out Utopia's humans oir what to do when there is is a fight.
And they would also get information from freed humans ,secrets and rumors about their owners,etc
"Magic is only as powerful as the caster but guns are as powerful as the general wants them to be." - Sun Tzu
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That's what's going to come in the final arc of the story. The first arc was just the two major factions getting to know each other and the Utopians getting the lay of the land, now the second arc is gonna be mostly conflict, and the final arc will be an aftermath chapter and a lot more political with minor action such as quelling pony rebellions and stuff... And trust me, once the humans are in power, with what I've got planned, there's gonna be more than enough reason for the ponies to rebel. It's not gonna be anything as major as humans enslaving ponies or anything but... You'll see.
Oh hey, you're back. You were recovering from surgery right? Good to read you're doing better. Again, if you get writer's block you could just write filler/side stories for some of the other characters to get their perspectives on the events. You could even make it non-canon so there's no risk to screwing up the story and could springboard some ideas forward to enrich the experience.
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I think an initial steamroll followed by fierce partisan resistance could be fun. I could imagine large groups of ponies wouldn't be content to give up the fight even if their leaders are gone. Maybe the ponies adapt to the occupation/puppet government with IEDs, sabotage and other acts of guerrilla warfare.
Hell, maybe Celestia is forced into a humiliating peace and a civil war with multiple factions starts. Utopia could try to influence the factions around them with military aid and volunteers. Weapons get captured by hostile neighbors and they reverse engineer them
Just spit-balling ofc
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That's why they wouldn't give them any weapons
Even in "peace", you wouldn't do that
even to freed humans, they wouldn't
And you can't steal it when everything is centralized with Utopia.
Leaders and military would know that their technology is much more valuable unlike before with conflicts between each other, because now there is a great gap between Utopia and the rest
Also if you get an AK-47 you won't be able to reverse engineer it,for maaaaany reasons,Especially for them.
And even then,no infrastructure for factories specialized in weapon production, ammo,etc. And the weapons are built for humans,they would be pointless for ponies,it's like giving them shoes
Yeah,not gonna work when they would do it for the first time while Utopia has so too many experiences with that.For both using and defending against guerrilla warfare.
They know what to expect,etc
And there isn't much of possibility for IED's when you can't build them,without blowing yourself, for example with no fingers for precision,etc
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okay maybe they don't send them weapons. Maybe the ponies salvage a handful of grenades after some future engagement 🤷. considering they have trains and radios, it's very believable that the ponies could easily make a replica grenade, C4 or artillary/mortor shells. given time ofc
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also, at what point during this story have you read what's going on within the leadership and thought 'oh yeah they seem like a reasonable bunch of lads'
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They already noticed a cliche and kicked a president that was planning to becoming a dictator and risking whole human race
That pretty big example of, "hey that's cliche mistake and we won't risk our whole race"
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"Yeah,not gonna work when they would do it for the first time while Utopia has so too many experiences with that.For both using and defending against guerrilla warfare."
Hypothetically, lets say the Utopias install a puppet government. There are Billions of ponies and slaves and only a few 100k first humans. They couldn't possibly defend against any guerrilla insurgency
"They know what to expect"
The ponies don't yet know how they can fully utilize magic against the first humans, much less the humans themselves. who knows what they'll come up with combat magic. It's dumb to think they wouldn't be able to adapt any aspect of it
"And there isn't much of possibility for IED's when you can't build them,without blowing yourself, for example with no fingers for precision"
Magic. Also, these guys are capable of producing radios and trains. It's not hard to believe they can easily start making IEDs. Fuck, even Molotov cocktails can pack a nasty punch against any modern army
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Not really
Humans have also all the media and fiction,etc at their disposal
And look at that, with that it's pretty easy to understand how the magic works in Equestria and what to expect on the basic level.Magic working in Equestria isn't the complicated kind like in some media, stories I know about, or like in some D&D games I heard about where magic is just math XD
Probably even more than some unicorns
Hell some things we created in fiction, like some fictional and cinema magic, would be a wet dream for them, something unimaginable, even for alicorns and Discord
So they know.
They couldn't fix their economy and were constantly defeated by villains or armies that just needed a little effort to prepare for but they didn't. It seems that they won't leave their own comfort zone or admit anything,even when dying
That's why they should use freed humans for that, and maybe ponies that are easy to buy on their side, and easy to manipulate and threatened to stay on their side or else.
All Utopia needs to do it to train humans in basic way so they would have generally good cardio and strength.
Then, using their extensive medieval, and past medieval knowledge they should build with their mass-producing machines armors and weapons, and later taught human blacksmiths how to do them and repair to lessen the possible strain and waiting time.
These weapons would be falsely perceived by ponies as the same as armor and weapons they use, medieval-like.
But in reality, it will be something of greater quality of proven reliability and effectiveness, than races armors and weapons, because these were designed and perfected by humans back then and even more now for the new purpose
IEDs are also explosives,but they don't know how to make real ones
The same cocktails,where you need alcohol and other stuff
Their way of thinking makes them unable to reinvent stuff or produce that stuff
Also while they are capable producing radios and trains, they don't know how they truly work, how the laws of the world make them work.Hell they never improved on the designs and instruction they were given.