Posturing
For several seconds, there was no sound.
The alleyway had gone unnaturally quiet, without even the muted hum of active magic reaching Twilight’s ears. Her eyes shot towards the source of the new voice, and she found herself staring at a piece of graffiti. It bore the shape of a draconequus, and Twilight instinctively waved it off as a foalish attempt at supporting Discord.
Then the graffiti moved.
“This is an interesting event, I must say…” Discord said, leaning out of the wall, paint bending into a third dimension. Both misshapen eyes focussed on Broken, who wore an expression of unbridled shock. Twilight felt the magic holding her dissipate, her horn freeing from the shield, and she hit the ground just as Pip began standing up again. She glanced at Broken again – still frozen in place, staring at Discord – before moving as quietly as she could to Pip. The stallion gave a glance at her, void of fear or pain, but when he attempted to talk his speech quickly degenerated into a sputtering of blood. Twilight held a hoof over his mouth, silencing him as she tried to examine his wound. Behind her, Discord spoke up again. “Well, Shining Armor, what have you done to yourself?”
“…How?”
“And scaring poor Twilight like that, oh, how dreadful. I say, you really must learn some manners, sir.”
As Twilight watched, Pip’s neck was healing. She’d assumed that he had healing enchantments on him in the same way as his sensory enhancements, but actually observing the flesh knit itself back together was a whole other race. The muscles above the esophagus had already reunified, and the veins and arteries were steadily dropping in expelled blood amounts. Twilight was aware that she should be disturbed by the violence of the injury, but her conscious thoughts were entirely on the perfection of the healing spell Pip had been imbued with. Its careful manipulation of his damaged body was beautiful, in its own way.
“Every little spell that helped a pony seal a cut, or reattach a limb, came at the cost of dozens of test subjects, all of whom were supposedly dangerous criminals.”
Her mind stuck at that. “Supposedly.”
“I mean, really, Shining Armor, I didn’t think that the Captain of the Canterlot Guard would stoop so low as to try to murder somepony in a back alley. It’s positively… mundane.” Twilight’s sight went back to Discord, finding him in a much more familiar form. Broken stared up at him, eye twitching.
“You… we killed you…”
Discord’s eyebrow rose at this, and he gave a laugh. “Kill me? No, Celly and Lulu just locked me in a statue for a thousand years. You really need to brush up on your basic history, Shin-“
Then his voice caught. His grin faltered, and he gave the stallion a more critical eye. Broken’s shock and wide-eyed stare had given way to a teeth-bared glare. His eye flicked to Twilight, his voice colder than she had ever heard.
“What. Did. You. Do?”
Discord leaned back, blinking. His grin returned.
“You’re not Shining Armor.” He twisted around Broken, leaning in close to his ear. Broken’s glare transferred to Discord, and his horn began to glow. “Which only begs the question of who you really-”
Then his head exploded.
There was a pop, then numerous small and large splatterings, followed by the sound of something wet-yet-solid hitting the ground. Discord’s entire body went limp, Broken quickly shrugging it off and letting it fall to the stone below. He stepped away from the body, eye still cold and refastened on Twilight.
“Broken, what did-“
“Shut. Up.” He took a step towards her. “I want to know why the fuck he was still alive.” Another step.
“Princess Celestia released him and-“
“LIES!” Broken roared. A third step, and a fourth. Broken’s eye was still cold, but his face contorted in rage. His voice flared between gravelled ice and burning fire. “The Princess would never be so idiotic as to intentionally release that MONSTER!” Five, six steps. Halfway to Twilight now. She hadn’t noticed how close they were before. “You released him, that I’ll believe, but how did you trick the Princess, stop her from sensing his presence? ANSWER ME!”
Pip stepped into the space between Broken and Twilight. Broken didn’t seem to notice. “Milady, would you wish me to-“
“SHUT! UP!” Broken’s horn glowed, and Pip flew upwards in a cast of rose-coloured magic. Broken swung him into the walls of the alley, each impact met with a sickening crunch of shattering bone and tearing flesh. Twilight watched, frozen, as Broken’s horn glowed brighter for a second, and every part of Pip’s body seemed to twist in a different direction. Broken’s horn stopped glowing, and Pip dropped to the ground with a wet slap, twitching slightly as his body attempted to respond to the trauma.
Twilight gritted her teeth, preparing to try to overload Broken’s senses and distract him enough for her to escape with Pip, when a shield once again slammed onto her horn. Broken stepped over Pip’s form, eye still cold.
“Broken-“
The slap caught her off guard; he had somehow bridged the distance almost instantaneously, and before she had said anything but his name he had brought his hoof to meet her face. She blinked, stars popping up in her eyes, and she realized he was talking again.
“I don’t give a damn what your reasons are for bringing him back. You’ve helped a monster. That makes you a monster. What I want to know now is what you did to the Princess.” Twilight opened her mouth again. “Ah-Ah-AH!” Broken bared his teeth in what appeared to be an attempt at a grin. “I don’t want your words, Dawn…”
He took one more step, lifting his head to stare down at Twilight, and already she could see in his eye, past the frigid cover, a manic glee at being in such a position against her. He brought his head down, the tip of his horn poking directly at the base of her own, and as she stared into his eye she saw a flicker of some other emotion, quickly smothered but still present. Then she closed her eyes, and waited for oblivion.
And waited.
And waited.
Slowly, she cracked one eye open. Broken still stood there, horn pointed at her, eye glaring. But nothing happened. Twilight carefully moved her hoof up, pushing Broken on the side of his head.
He fell over, stiff as a board, revealing a headless Discord standing behind him.
“He’s rather annoying, isn’t he?” Discord’s voice said. “I’ve never had a pony blow my head up before.”
Twilight’s eyebrows warred between furrowing and shooting up past her hair. “Wha buh heg amb-“
“Please, Twilight, let your mouth catch up to your brain.”
Twilight closed her jaw, took several deep breaths, then tried again. “What just happened?! Why is Broken frozen?! Why did you show up all of a sudden?! How are you talking without a head – wait, how are you alive without a head?!?”
Discord brought a claw up, rubbing it along a non-existent chin. “Well, I ‘showed up’ because I was visiting Fluttershy and I sensed several stray strands of chaotic energy coming from a hugely chaotic source: this little cycloptic unicorn on the ground here. ‘Broken’, was it? Broken is frozen because I removed all of the potential chaos from the area immediately surrounding him, inherently preventing him from making any changes to it. I am alive because I am a god, and it is very hard to kill a god, especially one as interesting as me. And I’d rather not explain how I’m talking, because that would likely be more embarrassing than funny. As for ‘what just happened’, my bits are on the probability that he was going to try to tear your mind apart to find the memories of you tricking the Princess into allowing my release.” He leaned over as Twilight blinked, seeming to watch her process the information. When she was able to focus on him again, he continued. “My turn. Why in Faust’s glorious flank does he look so much like your goody-goody spoilsport brother?”
Twilight answered rather detachedly, the majority of her brainpower still overpowered by adrenaline. “He’s from another universe. He used to be Shining, but-“
“Ah! Say no more. I’d much rather find out from the source.” Discord’s torso bent, leaning over Broken’s prone form. “Wakey wakey, whiney-Shiney!” He snapped two claws, and Broken exhaled, then took in a deep breath. Discord’s body leaned back a bit as the stallion coughed and gasped for air. “Oh, that’s right, mortals need to breathe.”
“Let me go!” Broken’s head moved, but the rest of him stayed prone. “Release me, you abomination! I need to help the Princess, we can kill you later!”
“Oh, but killing me would make everything so boring.” Broken’s eye twitched, and he began to swing his head around even more. “Besides, Twilight here tells me that you’re from another universe, and I’m ever so curious to find out just what occurred over there to make you willing to risk tearing apart the entire time-space weave just to do something about.”
“FUCK YOU!” Broken yelled. Twilight heard several sets of hooves galloping towards them along the road. Discord appeared to notice as well.
“Ah, Ponyville’s Finest make an appearance. Quite a response time they have, don’t they? No matter.” Discord raised an arm, slamming his palm into Broken’s head. It struck the alley floor, and Broken stopped struggling. “That problem’s done for now. If you’ll give me your hoof, Twilight, we can alight and escape the feathery pillows of the Equestrian justice system.”
Twilight raised her hoof, then brought it back down as Discord reached for it. “Wait. Pip.” She looked past Discord, at the stallion’s still-twitching form. “He needs help.”
“Who? Oh, that… thing. I suppose we could bring him as well.” Discord slid over, lifting Pip up under one arm, then moving back and doing the same with Broken under the other. “Now please, Twilight, I’d rather not explain to Celly why the guards found me in the same area as a pony with life-threatening injuries.”
This time, Discord grabbed Twilight’s hoof the moment it was off the ground, and she only had the thought when it was safely in his grasp. “Wait, where are-“
Then she was falling.
It felt to Twilight as though she was being rolled in a barrel, down a hill, during a hurricane, an earthquake, and a volcano eruption. With somepony shaking the barrel for good measure. She tried to move her hooves, turn her head, open her eyes, breathe, but she couldn’t do anything. She stood helpless for several seconds before the tempest passed, and she found her hooves on solid ground again. Opened eyes found her in a cottage filled with various animal paraphernalia.
“Fluttershy, dear!” Discord called, throwing Pip onto the couch (the impact of which caused a very-unsettling-to-Twilight series of wet crunching sounds) and nonchalantly dropping Broken onto the floor. “We have a patient here for you!”
“Oh my, what happened? Did somepony- oh my goodness!” As Fluttershy rounded the corner, her cautious worry gave way to open concern. She rushed over to Pip, gently prodding at every injury. He twitched again, and Fluttershy sighed.
“Discord, wherever did you find him? He needs to go to a hospital!” The pegasus turned, and by the way her eyebrows moved, she noticed Twilight and Broken for the first time. “Twilight? What are you doing here?”
For some reason, Twilight found this question funny. She began to giggle, struggling to get an explanation out through the laughter. “Hee hee Well, Fluttershy hehehehe ha ha I was taking Broken out for a walk when he hehehehehe ahaha he just started launching magic missles at a roof, and ahahahaa then Pip showed up and they got in a fight and Discord showed up and Broken blew his head off and then tried to ki-hehehe-hill me and why is the room spinning so slowly?” Twilight blinked, trying to make Fluttershy’s cottage stop moving (or go faster, she couldn’t really tell), and very suddenly she became aware that her head felt like a sack of rocks. She heard Fluttershy yell – well, talk sort-of loudly – but then her head hit the floor and she stopped being able to sense anything.
Twilight awoke to a white rabbit prodding at her snout. Blinking at Angel’s glare, she slowly sat up, bringing a hoof up to rub at her aching head. Angel leapt off of her, climbing onto the space of the couch she cleared and attempting to push her further forward. She turned, letting her back hooves dangle off of the couch. Sighing, Twilight began to think through everything that had happened.
Broken explains timejump. States Pip following us, launches magical projectile at Pip, knocks Pip into alley. I try to stop him, but he bypasses shield and injures Pip. Discord appears. Broken and Discord converse, Broken injures Discord. Broken injures Pip further, attempts to injure me. Discord freezes Broken, converses with me, knocks Broken unconscious, teleports us to Fluttershy’s cottage. Okay.
Twilight took in a breath, satisfied that she had recalled enough of a basic timeline of the rapid series of events to avoid being overwhelmed again. She shifted off of the couch fully, stretching her legs and looking around. Red light fell into the room from the window, and there was nopony else in the room with her, though there were several odd sounds coming from the upper floor.
Climbing the stairs, Twilight noticed a lack of animals. There were none of the events that typically occurred when Twilight or one of Fluttershy’s friends visited, no cautious squawking or pattering of rodents as they avoided ponies’ hooves. No animals rushing every which way as they lived their lives independent of the machinations of anypony.
Then the sound occurred again – a kind of wet cracking – and Twilight became focussed on finding out its source. As the upper floor entered her sight, one door rumbled slightly. Twilight stepped lightly towards it, quietly opening it and sliding her head in.
She was immediately struck with a gush of blood.
Twilight leapt back with a strangled cry, rapidly bringing up a hoof to wipe the offending fluid off of her face. As she rubbed her head into her foreleg, she heard the door slowly close again. A soft voice froze her movements.
“Oh dear, I’m sorry, Twilight.”
Twilight’s eyes shot to the speaking pony. She was a pegasus, yellow with a pink mane, three butterflies for a cutie mark.
She was also covered in blood.
“Fluttershy?”
The mare gave a serene smile. “I didn’t mean to get any on you, Twilight. Here, let me clean it off…”
Somehow Fluttershy was beside Twilight, and she began to run her tongue up along the unicorn’s face. Twilight blinked, unable to process what was happening.
“Wha… buh…”
“Oh, did you want some?” Fluttershy asked, her voice as soft, as kind as ever. She brought a bloodsoaked hoof up to Twilight’s mouth. “Here you go, there’s plenty more coming.”
Twilight took a step back, her hoof landing in something wet. Looking down, she found the floor slick with blood, a trail leading from under the door straight to her. She stepped away from it, and the blood moved, following her. She heard Fluttershy’s concerned voice.
“Twilight? Are you alright?”
“Twilight?”
“Twilight?”
“AAAAAAAH!”
Twilight gasped, her eyes shooting open. She tried to sit up, tried to get up and get away from the blood and the not-Fluttershy, but she found herself being held down, forced to stay still as the blood pooled around her, dragging her in, drowning her-
“Twilight!”
Twilight’s eyes found focus on two worried eyes, sky blue and framed by a pink mane. She blinked, her breathing fast and shallow, and she felt the couch’s cushions beneath her. She washed her sight over Fluttershy, and, finding no evidence of blood, proceeded to hug the pegasus tighter than she had anypony ever before. She heard a hitching sound, and Fluttershy began to slowly rock her back and forth. It took Twilight a moment to realize that she was crying.
“Shhh, shhh, it’s okay, it’s okay, shhh, it was just a dream…” Fluttershy whispered. For some reason, this served only to make Twilight cry harder. The two ponies held each other for a piece of time, until Twilight’s sobs lessened and her breathing slowed. Fluttershy gingerly extracted herself from Twilight’s grip, though she made sure to still match Twilight’s gaze. “Are you alright? Feel any better?”
“Y…yeah. Thanks, Fluttershy.”
“Oh, I really don’t mind. But would you be willing to explain what that was all about?”
Twilight’s mind flashed several scenes – Blood Fluttershy Tongue Blood – and she winced, rapidly shaking her head. “I think I was just… overstressed. An enormous amount of... stuff, for lack of a better word, in such a short time, I think, just kind of put me out of my limits of comprehension.” She blinked, mirrored by Fluttershy. The pegasus gave a small smile.
“Oh, alright. So long as you feel better.”
“And I do. Thanks, again.” Twilight screwed her eyes shut, rolling onto her side and opening them to stare at the door. Orange light came in through the window. “Wow. How long was I out?”
“Oh, just a few hours. You really seemed like you needed some rest, so I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“Hours? Really?” Twilight rubbed her head again, sitting up (An admonishment, “Careful, don’t take it too fast”, from Fluttershy) and stretching. A thought occurred to her. “Wait, where’s Broken? And Pip?”
“Oh, Broken’s still asleep. Discord said that he was easier to deal with when he couldn’t say naughty things.” Twilight gave a small snort, but caught herself before it could go further. Fluttershy glanced at her clock. “Oh, and I need to go break Pip’s legs again.”
And Twilight’s stomach caught a ball of ice.
“Wait, what?”
“Um, well, I’m sure you’ve noticed that Pip heals very quickly, and when Discord brought him in his bones were already starting to fuse back together, but they were in the wrong spots so I had to break them again and move them back to their proper positions, but I can’t move them too much at once because that could cause even more damage, so I’ve been needing to move them a few centimetres at a time and then letting them rest, but while they rest they re-fuse again so I need to keep breaking them again… again.”
Ice ball melted. “Oh. That makes sense, I guess.”
“He’s awake, if you want to talk to him. He’s very polite, and he’s even willing to help me with the bone resetting. I was worried about hurting him, but he said that he didn’t mind pain so long as you were okay.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty single-minded in that regard…” Twilight shook her head. “If he’s okay, I don’t need to see him, but tell him that I’m alright and that I want him to rest for a while. That should stop him from trying to come down and protect me.” Fluttershy nodded, quickly flitting up the stairs. Twilight gave another small stretch, then turned and walked into the kitchen.
Broken was asleep on the table. His hooves twitched slightly as she entered the room, though he didn’t wake up. Twilight looked around, but Discord was nowhere to be seen.
“If you’re sneaking up behind me, I’m not in the mood.” Twilight felt Discord stiffen as she spoke, then a sigh, and suddenly he was in front of her, head having apparently reappeared during her respite.
“Pooh-pooh, Twilight. Can’t a draconequus have a little fun?”
“Answers first. You said something about ‘stray strands’ around Broken? And him tearing apart the universe?”
“Oh, that. Pff.” Discord waved a claw through the air. “Me, Faust, and a few other beings exist in every universe simultaneously, independent of the differences between the universes. We’re the only beings that are allowed to do so regularly, because we technically live outside of the different universes. If a mortal tries to hop timelines, it’s supposed to cause his universe to implode from the pressure of… timey-wimey stuff trying to rush in to fill the hole he created, and to implode the universe he’s entering due to his presence being completely foreign to the timeline’s structure. Judging by the fact that this universe still exists, he’s found some way to subvert that system.”
“And the ‘stray strands’?”
“That’s part of why the universes are supposed to go away. Everything in a universe has its own spot in the universe’s pattern. Tear it out, and there’s a hole. You can try to sew it on to a different pattern, but it’ll look all out of place and probably do more harm than good. Broken there is basically a piece of a pattern that’s trying to be sewn onto a different one, and as such he has a different… stitch, let’s say, than ponies like you. Some of the ‘strands’ happened to wiggle away and bring themselves to my attention.”
Twilight’s brow furrowed. “Wait. Do you know about the Primary Line thing he was talking about?”
Discord laughed. “Of course. It’s wrong, obviously, but it’s closer than most guesses are.” Broken stirred, mumbling, and Discord’s eyes flicked at him. “Oh yes, I meant to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Well, given that Broken here was probably planning on destroying your mind to take your memories, I was wondering if you would mind if I did the same to him.”
“What?!”
Discord smirked at her incredulous stare. “I want to take a peek at what turned Shining Armor into Broken. Would you mind if I did that?”
“Yes! I mean- wait! Memory stealing is banned for a reason!”
“Yes it is. But I’m not stealing, just borrowing. They’re not even going to leave his mind.”
“But you’d still cause massive trauma to his psyche!”
“Oh, come now, Twilight, an extra kick isn’t going to make the clockwork thing that is this pony’s brain any more busted. He’s already been psychologically destroyed; I’d merely be… surveying the damage.”
Twilight stomped her hoof into the floor. “No, Discord. Remember your promise.” He blinked at her, then gave a theatric sigh.
“Fine. I respect your wishes, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight nodded and gave a small grin. Discord returned it.
Then he placed his claw on Broken’s horn, and there was a spark between them.
Both stallion and draconequus stiffened for half a second, then Discord pulled his claw away and Broken rolled off the table. Discord closed his eyes and brought his paw up to his head.
“Discord!” Twilight yelled. “I told you-“
“You said you didn’t want me to. I never asked if I could.” He held his claw up at her when she tried to speak again. “Shut up, I’m reliving a lifetime of memories in one minute. I need to concentrate.”
Twilight gave a small growl, but turned away from Discord and moved towards Broken. He lay prone on the floor, wide-eyed and blinking every few seconds, staring into nothing.
“Broken, are you alright?” The stallion blinked. His eye moved to her, but didn’t focus. He blinked again. “Broken?” Two more blinks. His eye seemed to focus slightly on her. She leaned in closer. “Bro-“
“Touch me and I’ll flay you alive.”
Twilight very quickly scampered away from him, watching with wide eyes as he slowly stood up and shook himself. He gave a quick glance around the room, focussing on Discord. His mouth twisted into a hostile grimace, but he made no move to attack the distracted god. A few tense seconds passed, then Discord sighed and opened his eyes. He glanced at Twilight.
“I must say, I’m rather impressed. And slightly terrified.” He gave a stretch, pointedly ignoring Broken Shield. “Those first two years look fun, but after that… yeesh. You have problems, Twilight.”
“You shouldn’t have done that, Discord.” Twilight and Broken both said. They glanced at each other in surprise, though Twilight recovered faster. “Broken was already dealing with… a delicate mental situation, and you tearing up his mind like that-“
“He’s been mapped before.”
This caught Twilight up. “What?”
“He’s had his memories checked before. I just followed those paths. No extra mental damage, I promise.” Discord blinked, and he gave a grin at Broken. “I must say, rather inventive way of getting rid of me. Kudos.”
Broken gave a dry laugh. “I want to know why that didn’t happen here.”
“Well, for one, these ponies aren’t crazy-“
“Excuse me for treating a murderer like a murderer should be treated!”
“I’ve never killed anypony, nothing’s less fun than a dead body.”
“Ponies have killed for you, that’s close enough-“
“If they have I’ve not been made aware-“
“That’s a load of horseapples and you know it-“
Discord bowed his head towards Broken. “If you want to check my memories, go ahead. I assure you that you’ll be seeing things in a whole different light.”
Broken took a step towards the draconequus, then backed away again. “Yeah, right. Take in a god’s memories, that totally won’t backfire.”
“Then I guess you’ll simply need to take my word for it.”
“Well, there are other memories that I could get…”
Broken’s grin rose as Discord’s fell. Discord’s eyes flicked to Twilight. Broken shook his head.
“I swore not to harm her. Never said anything about the other Elements.”
Discord bared his teeth. “Touch her, and I’ll make sure Dazzle has some extra fun to deal with while she’s growing up. Lots of it.”
This cut Broken’s grin. The stallion turned, walking out of the kitchen. He reached the front door, then turned to glare at Discord.
“If you need me, I’m going to go kill something.”
A pop of rose-coloured magic, and he was gone. Twilight turned to face Discord, who appeared to be deep in thought.
“What. The buck. Just happened?”
“Broken and I just reached an agreement. He doesn’t harm Fluttershy, I don’t harm his daughter.”
“Oh.” Twilight blinked. “And before that?”
“We were debating whether grinding my statue into powder, moulding that powder into a perfectly uniform cube, and then teleporting said cube into the centre of the sun was an overreaction to my actions whilst in control of Equestria.”
“Oh.” Twilight blinked again. She thought about it, and decided that she would rather avoid anything that could knock her out again. “I’m going to go see how Pip’s doing.”
“Have fun.”
Twilight walked out of the kitchen. She pretended not to hear Discord slam his head into the wall.
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Love this chapter. Love all these little hints that for all Broken is saying about their universes working out the same way, there's a lot he either doesn't know or isn't saying that works completely differently. At this stage I'll be very sad if you pull some Terminator 3 'doomsayers were right all along and it's all going to go to shit with no way of preventing it' thing, because this, the idea that a time traveller has switched dimensions and even with his extra knowledge there's still stuff he's wrong about because he can't possibly know certain things is FAR more interesting.
Broken continues to amaze me. The amount of hypocrisy he displays is just plain awful
'Oh no, you're a monster, now die!'
'Don't mind me, just gonna violently strip the memories out of this innocent Pegasus'
Seriously, Twilight needs to get help. She cannot handle Broken and she's going to end up seriously injured or worse if this keeps up.
Still waiting for somepony to smack Broken beside the head though, repeatedly if possible.
Also, Discord.
Yeah at the rate Broken is going he is going to create Dawn...
2135596
Yeah, no. I am NOT doing Terminator 3. Broken has probably already stopped Twilight from becoming Dawn (probably), and now he's just trying to nail down as many of the things that she could use to overthrow the Princesses as possible. He's definitely short on a mass of information. Both on this universe and his own.
But yeah, Dawn ain't rising anytime soon. Not Broken's Dawn, at least.
2135657
The threat was mostly an attempt to piss off Discord. Mostly.
But yeah, Broken's going to get some comeuppance. Have patience, adoring fan.
(oh jeez was that too presumptuous don't hate me)
2135686
As I've said before, self-fulfilling prophecy sucks. Broken's not going to create Dawn, but he's definitely not a good influence on our heroines.
(Sorry if that sounded rude
)
2136308 It didn't no worries! And if Broken is going to get karma to bitch-slap him I am ok with that.
lol discord is such a dick
2136308
Actually, that's an interesting little niggle — it's been established that Dawn is qualitatively different from Twilight, and Broken is unwilling to kill her until she turns into Dawn. Is it possible that a different being can turn into Dawn?
Because really, Twilight is smarter than Dawn. She has more resources available, isn't crippled by emotional stress and isn't trying to keep up a web of self-deception. Putting safeguards in place to stop Twilight from successfully turning into Dawn should be child's play. Hell, just install a pacemaker that Princess Cadance can control, then cast a memory spell so that Twilight forgets it's there.
But, Twilight isn't really the point, is she? Sure, she's important. But eighty percent of earth ponies joined the revolution. Sure, Dawn is a powerful figure, but it's not like there aren't a whole bunch of powerful figures in 60-80% of the Equestrian population. So, stopping Twilight Sparkle's Rising Dawn is just one part of the puzzle. They need to remove the need for the revolution in the first place, or a Rising Dawn is simply an inevitability. Twilight's Dawn had moral principles of some sorts — sure, Rising Dawn (α) was a Robespierre and that's terrible, but Rising Dawn (β) could be a Pol Pot...
Awesome Dr. Who reference.
fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/029/a/a/timey_wimey_by_lissy_strata-d4o14qz.jpg
2136401
Dawn's the head of the Revolution, the one that ordered all of the nasty things (such as Cadance's execution). Broken's solely focused on her as the central problem, out of a mix of blind antipathy and the belief that everypony was fine before the Revolution came around, so if she doesn't rise then there won't be somepony to inspire the negative feelings in the populace.
He's wrong, but it's not like he really cares, so long as the pony who murdered Cadance and Dazzle is dead. It's more personal revenge, no matter what excuses he uses, on both himself and others. That's not to say that he doesn't care about stopping the Revolution, but he'd likely be more willing to let the Revolution go if the Princesses (all four) didn't get killed.
And that little conversation between Pip and Luna at the start was actually a leftover from when Prevention had three perspective characters: Twilight (main), Broken (not used very much in the latest chapters because he's hard to write for without accidentally spoiling anything), and Luna, who was supposed to go undercover as a regular pony to see if Pip's claims held any merit. I cut Luna's perspective because her parts felt disjointed and out of place for how the story developed, but her actions will still influence the story (and make Broken freak the hell out, because buck him).
Oh, and Broken's Dawn being Robespierre rather than Pol Pot? Just wait. Just you wait.
2136451
I've been wracking my brain to figure out a spot to reference the Doctor, especially because Derpy actually plays a rather significant (though background to the focus of the story) role in the Revolution era. I just can't seem to work him in for some reason, which sucks.
2136308 Lol
, that's okay. I can wait.
'Sits patiently on chair'
Sincerely, your adoring fan
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It would be very hard to reach the level of a Pol Pot rather than a Robespierre, Pinochet or Islam Karimov without systematic, highly-organised killings of several races and large demographics, which would put paid to the concept that Rising Dawn is a 'totalitarian utilitarian'. It might just be me, but I reject the idea that a holocaust of any real size is carried out because the people holding the guns think it's necessary, rather than out of hate or petty cruelty.
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Unfortunately, I cannot fully go into depth about Dawn's actions without spoilers. However, I'd advise that you take a look at the wording of the comment around my 'totalitarian utilitarian' mention.
There are numerous records of German soldiers assigned to the concentration camps that didn't actively hate the prisoners, but appeared to genuinely believe that they were doing something that bettered the Fatherland. It was a kind of patriotism that blinded them to the horrific actions they were taking. Sure, the guys at the top were the most monstrous human beings to ever bring their pestilence to the face of the earth, but they couldn't have done anything without their supporters and collaborators, at least some of whom honestly, genuinely believed that they were doing the right thing to benefit humanity and lead to a better world for 'everyone'. These supporters, in kind, would never have aided these atrocities had the leaders not existed and manipulated them (which is what Broken thinks is going on with Dawn and the Revolutionaries). Even some of the higher ups were actually otherwise good people who nonetheless supported the atrocities because they thought it was the right thing to do.
They were wrong, obviously, but that doesn't stop them from having believed it.
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See, even then (with the germans), I don't buy it. It's like when rapists say 'oh it was so confusing, I was pretty sure she was into it, but we were kinda drunk and it's all a bit fuzzy and lol who can really tell with these things amirite?'
The kind of movement that causes death on a nazi/communist revolution level involves eliminationism. This takes directed, concerted hate towards a group or several groups of people. You have to work for it, you have to spread lies, tales of these 'subhumans' spreading filth, being involved in sexual deviancies, not truly being people. In the original Stanford Prison Experiment, the guards went to some lengths to make sure the prisoners were as dehumanised as possible so they wouldn't feel bad about the things they were doing to them.
You can have totalitarianism without eliminationism. You can't really have genocide or democide without eliminationism, so if Dawn wants 1/5th of Equestria in mass graves, that's a conscious choice from the start on her part.
This might just be me dorking out, I just don't like it when regimes turning evil and eliminationist is portrayed as a 'road to hell, good intentions' sort of deal. I don't like it because it's not how that shit works in real life, and it feels both insulting to resistance movements that ARE (or were) working to free people from horrible conditions and feels apologetic to the actual horrifying regimes, like the Khmer Rouge, the Italian Facists, the Nazi party, Stalin's communist party, Mao's PRC, the Rwandan genocide, because the horrors, the eliminationism, the choice to say 'these classes of people are not humans and must be raped, slaughtered and banished from the earth' was baked in from the start, even before they started up the camps and murders. From the earliest days, the Nazi party was about how shadowy groups of degenerates have stabbed the country in the back, and they must be destroyed so that Germany can rise like a phoenix from its ashes. The Hutu ten commandments during the Rwandan Civil war. The evil didn't seep in, it was baked into the bricks of these movements, it was the mortar that held them together.
Like, I've seen it as a dead common trope especially in sci-fi and fantasy, where the oppressed ethnic group becomes just as bad/worse than the oppressor the moments. And it does happen to some extent, but it's not a simple thing, and usually involves everyone in a group who's like 'yeah maybe lets not rape and murder entire tribes of people' being systematically murdered or exiled rather than the goodies in the group turning Greek-tragedy style into baddies. When the good characters turn bad, Anakin Skywalker style, it just feels kinda cheap...
(Not a dig on the Twilight/Rising Dawn thing, but there's a difference between being a violent revolutionary and coldly executing a genocide)
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Undoubtedly. I wasn't trying to justify the guards' actions during the Holocaust or anything, just pointing out that regular people can be rather easily manipulated into doing horrific things with the right kinds of justification. The general German populace was also unaware of the camps' conditions.
The majority of the populace of Equestria isn't aware of the extent of Dawn's actions, and there was actually some pushback against her around the time Broken left because a few of her dirty laundries were aired.
Dawn isn't precisely the most morally (or mentally) sound pony from the start, but she has a utilitarian endgoal (the equality of all ponies) that she's focused on. As time goes on, she becomes more and more willing to sacrifice ethical ideals in order to achieve that goal, and she becomes more and more able to manipulate herself into justifing actions that Twilight would have been aghast at.
Nopony's going to be "Oh this bad thing happened I'ma turn evil now". If a pony has a sudden shift in personality, they're either faking it, they've been through some extremely traumatic event that's actually damaged their psyche coupled with intense external pressure, or they're being forced into it. I'm hoping that the regular character change will at least look like its occurring over a period of time.
I can recognize that there's differing points between a revolutionary and a genocidalist. But France did have its Reign of Terror, and given that Equestria is rather culturally homogenous (every non-pony that's appeared more than once is... actually, other than Spike/Discord/Zecora, has there been a multiply-appearing non-pony?) I wouldn't be surprised if there was at least some ethnic tension between the different races simply due to the principle of ponies fearing what they don't know. Couple that with extreme social upheval and excitement, and you have a large group of ponies that could likely be made to do some rather ghastly things. When they realize what they've done, a little more manipulation can keep them quiet and out of the way from fear of ostracization by their community.
It isn't going to be a sudden "I'm in charge now kill all X/Y/Z". Dawn's been in charge for around 8-10 years by the time Broken comes back, which (in my mind, at least) is plenty of time to get a stranglehold on how to make the populace bend to her whims without them realizing what she's doing. Hitler only failed because he was an idiot, and he had armies messing with him for most of his rule, as well as a high command that wasn't precisely the most recognising of his absolute authority. Dawn had none of those things going against her. (She also didn't have nearly as real a victim card to play as Hitler did, but again, mob mentality is a funny thing, and crowds are often easier to push in certain directions than individuals.) Hitler's regime, to the best of my knowledge, only lasted 12 years, and the first few of those were rather 'good' for Germany. And Dawn isn't invading foreign nations, she's entirely focused on 'fixing' her own, which means that she can put her mind towards eliminating internal 'problems' without much fear of external retaliation. (Not to say there isn't such a threat, but [spoilers].)
So a large bit of the problem with Broken's narrative is that he's basically lived through the less-unhappy years of Dawn's rule, and decided not to stick around to see if things would improve for the anti-Dawnists on their own.
So let me get this straight, Discord was talking using his ass?
Didn't need to tell.
I feel random.
Giant tarts fucking lollipops!
Figure it out.
Not sure if I could be Discorded (ya know elemental opposites).
2140773 TLDR; wut? anyway 1/3 through current updates. Good story so far. Will comment every third. 10 Derps out of Rainbow Academy. I should really stop with the fragment sentences.
I'm starting to think someone should just blast Broken with the elements and default to the tried and true, ignore it for a thousand years method...
Discord implies that he transcends individually realities. But he also agrees that he was "killed" in one of those realities, in a manner that was actually efficacious. Granted that Discord may be lying, and granted also that Discord isn't really much concerned with following the rules, but still...
If Discord is a God proper, then really killing him should kill all instances of him in all existences. Because there is really only one of him.
7098785 or it locks him from entering that strand again.