Smith looked around the corner to the interior of the workshop. They’d been arguing since before he’d showed up, and he had no idea how much longer it was going to go on. Then again, it wasn’t often he saw his boss and a member of royalty fight.
“Your highness, the answer is no!” Ironshod turned away, the grey earth pony trying his best to keep calm. “I will not be known as the stallion who endangered his princess!”
Luna sighed. Half an hour of arguing and she was still getting nowhere. “My sister and I are not made of glass, Ironshod. We have lived for millennia, and faced foes the likes of which exist no longer. I personally fought half the demons sealed in Tartarus to this day. And I did so in armour crafted by a master smith, your predecessor. It is presumptuous of you to tell me what I can and cannot do.” As Ironshod paused for a moment, Luna struck. “You would be the first to create a set of armour meant for a princess in generations,” she added, trying to appeal to his sense of pride and ego.
“I’m already responsible for every set of armour the guards have used for the past ten years. Personal glory isn’t important to me,” he argued back. “Besides, I’m already responsible for the dozen suits of Knight armour, the most magically advanced personal protection Equestria has ever seen.”
“Yes, I am aware of that,” Luna cut in calmly. “I personally went over the designs myself to make sure that it was viable. I even added the retractable hoofblades some of them have.”
The blacksmith blinked. “Oh. I thought the prince was being vindictive when he showed me that.”
“No, it was me being practical. Sometimes, blunt force isn’t enough in a close quarters combat situation.” Luna looked around the workshop for the tenth time. “And surely it wouldn’t be a challenge for a stallion of your skills to use the materials here and make me something.” Her eyes stopped when she caught sight of a beaked head poking around a frame. “You there, griffon, what is your opinion?”
“You ain’t bringing Smith into this,” Ironshod interjected angrily. “He’s only my assistant - ”
“And his input is just as valuable as anyone elses’,” the princess countered.
Smith nervously stepped forwards and looked between his boss and the alicorn. “Well, your highness, um...” He took a deep breath. “The soldiers would no doubt be honoured to have you grace the battlefield with your presence and fight beside them. What’s more, you have centuries of experience, and that’s a resource we’d be stupid to ignore.”
“Exactly. I may be out of practice, but my experience shall more than make up for any shortcomings.” She turned to the earth pony, who groaned.
“I can’t see any way out of this,” he grumbled. “Smith!” he barked. “Get the measuring tape!”
“Measuring tape?” The princess watched as the griffon disappeared into a store room.
“If I’m gonna be making you a set of armour, your highness, then it’s gonna be a good set of armour,” he stated. “Smith! Hurry up, boy!”
“It’s not in here!” the griffon yelled back.
“It should be!” Ironshod shouted. “Look harder!”
“After this, I wish to spar with several griffons,” Luna calmly stated.
“You sure about that?” Ironshod looked at her worriedly. “They won’t go easy on you.”
“Which is exactly what I want. There is no point in fighting if you are given a victory,” she said, glaring at a wall.
“Are you sure you’re not a griffon, your majesty?” Smith asked jokingly, stepping out of the storeroom with his goal in his clutches.
“Seeing I was partly responsible for helping the warchiefs of old unite, I am in fact an honorary Aerie Reckoner.” Luna sighed before going on. “A shame this title is no longer recognised.” She calmly held her wing out so the pair could go about their work.
Luna dresses awfully frilly for being an old war veteran. Or is that just what her role as princess required of her?
2171001
Being a princess requires a lot of worrying about appearances... Of course, she may also enjoy a chance to be girly once in a while.
A bit cliche but the Moon is a harsh mistress indeed.
2171008
Bah. Luna is girly too often. When is she going to get in a bar brawl and lead a shanty?
*recognized
-And yes, we do like our 'z''s
2171037
That's not how it is spelled in Australia.
I'm glad I checked my favorites before I went to sleep. Hope I get to see Thomas in the next chapter and is he going to be in elite riot gear.
2171042
EXACTLY. You Americans and your weird spelling...
Well, excuse me if we prefer our "s" sounds to be of the hard variety. There's a reason "z" sounds like that.
Also, ignore the third word in the second sentence. "Reazon" just looks silly.
I wonder if Celestia will feel inclined to requesition a suit of knight armor after this. I'm also curious as to how terrifyingly powerful Twilight would be if they got her into one of those suits.
i.imgur.com/x3zBL.jpg
This pretty much sums up my thoughts.
2171107
I was looking for a good picture of Luna in armour. Thanks!
2171031 When Blueblood sleeps with Cassandra.
Nice little chapter, I can see Luna as a warhorse.
By now i'm itching to see "War Horse" again.
P.S. If this scene is indicative of anything, it's that there's going to be a large scale battle somewhere in the future. And I am SO excited for that!!!!
2171210
If she's drunk enough...
If you want Luna as a warhorse look up Stories in stone it's a bit length but GOD DAMN!!! Luna is so mother bucking BADASS!!. Like I'm-a-gonna-rip-and-tear-your-guts badass.
NYES.
Small thing
Otherwise, not bad. Bit filler-y, but it is an interlude.
2171048 I'm American, and I've never understood why we spell recognised with a 'z'.....
Im imagining luna using the moon as a weaponized bowling ball on the enemy armies.
Another way of looking at it is that the world used to be a lot more harsh and dangerous, and the sisters had to be tough to protect their little ponies. As the world became more peaceful over the centuries Celestia mellowed out somewhat, but Luna, having skipped a thousand years... hasn't. We know they fought at least one battle (against King Sombra) around the time of Luna's banishment.
sees new chapter
narwhaler.com/img/4q/8/fuck-yes-spiderman-4Q8hYg.jpg
sees incredibly small number of words
25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4l6j31avr1ruyupoo1_400.gif
2171210>>2171292
Who the fuck is Cassandra?
Does Luna know any AoE spells?
2171031 Heh, go read Wild Card, you won't be disappointed
2171576
That is essentially what doomed the Fallout: Equestria universe. That, and the zebras thinking that Luna was going to eat their bones and torture their souls for eternity or something.
2171087
Just tell her the enemy are a bunch of illiterate philistine book-burners. Raging Insane Librarian Twilight won't need armor then.
...and all the armor in Equestria won't save those book-burners either.
Yay it's always nice to see Luna out there kicking ass
2171682
Nopony insults Fallout: Equestria
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9wmxu0xLL1rcrscgo1_400.gif
2172323 I'm calling it, Fallout: Equestria made absolutely no sense, and the oerson who wrote it is really, really mean and pessimistic. I don't see how Fallout: Equestria could ever happen, especially since the TV show portrays the Equestrian nation as really peaceful, even after the Changeling's attacked.
2172377 Racism
2172488 Racism?
2172551 Never mind.
Racism was just the first thought that just popped into my head because of all the "Better wiped then striped!" posters.
When I was thinking of a reason to answer you I found several counter arguments that could contradict what I was saying.
BUT
The reason the war WAS started was several zebra pirates captured pony civilians and held them hostage, and the result for getting them out were many deaths. Tensions just increased after that.
I think Little Horn Massacre was the breaking point.
http://falloutequestria.wikia.com/wiki/The_Little_Horn_Massacre
2172605 Hmm, I guess so. I really don't delve into Fallout: Equestria that much, and I sure as heck couldn't of gone any farther than I had in the story. All in all, my opinion of the story still stands, but it is only an opinion.
2171660
Your mom.
I've got a bad feeling about Luna's willingness to go to war.... Nothing happens in a story for no reason, so either this is a very very bad thing for the Diamond Dogs, or Luna is going to get injured or killed or captured. Unless something else completely unexpected happens, those are the only two ways I can see this going.
2171660 I think they might be referring to the wife of Ethan Smith, the Lone Wanderer from another Fallout / MLP crossover. In that 'universe', she is the Courier in Vegas and Blueblood has been magically turned into a mare for treason. I don't know, either.
2172377 That's why it's fan fiction. It doesn't have to make sense with the canon. Also, yeah, racism and dependency on foreign goods helped a bit. And by a bit I mean it's the whole reason the war started, no matter how much of Celestia's fault it was. Similar to the actual story of Fallout, Equestria and the Zebra Empire were disputing for some time over energy- not the last reserves of oil, like in the human version of Fallout, but coal. Zebras had the coal that Equestria needed, but they weren't giving them enough, and Equestria had the magical gems that the Zebras needed, but they weren't trading either. War started, but it was a small thing. Surely it couldn't end the world, right? Suddenly, Littlehorn happened (it had the effect of a terrorist attack, similar to 9/11 leading America to war in Iraq) and both countries began throwing every resource they had at wiping their enemy out. Celestia couldn't handle being leader after Littlehorn, and gave the keys to Equestria to Luna. THIS IS WHY THE WAR GOT SO BAD. Luna had a much more industrious, hostile approach to the war than Celestia. Though we don't see her starting wars in the show, she's still a wild card. She has had nowhere near enough screentime for us to get an accurate reading of how she may react to things like war. Now, Equestria was fighting a war not only for survival (their entire system pretty much relied on coal- which the zebras weren't giving them, anymore, and there was not enough in Equestria, remember) but for revenge. Luna's new attitude of industrial advancement made the technologies that let the war escalate to such a level. Basically, the author played up the fact that we know next to nothing about Luna to have a pretty solid reason for everything to have gone south... Also, yeah, once Luna took over, the Zebras for the most part still saw her as Nightmare Moon. Star-cursed demoness come to bring an end to all prosperity. That certainly didn't help prevent the apocalypse.
2172939 Which is why I said Opinion, not fact. Also, TL;DR, but read anyway...
EDIT: Zebra's don't really get enough screen time either, so they're a wildcard too. Also, really? Not trading resources? If they had a surplus of each item, they could've just given them what they wanted, and the war wouldn't of started in the first place! Not saying that this is a realistic view, but really. A simple transaction could have prevented the war. In my opinion, that's what makes the story stupid. Equestria , from what we've seen in the canon TV show is far to friendly to ever withhold resources from a neighboring country in need, or at least that's the idea I receive from watching the show early on. While not canon, you still need to have a rather good back-story to have a good story in general, or at least, that's my opinion on the matter.
TL;DR? I think the reasons for Fallout: Equestria are stupid.
Edit>Edit: Its like the Griffon speculations all over again.We see one new character who is either perceived as good or bad, and apply that logic to the REST OF THE WHOLE DANG RACE.If that's not generalization/racism, I don't know what is up anymore.
2172939 Blueblood has been magically turned into a mare for treason.
No, he just got his balls cut off.
2172975 Heh, BlueBlood > BlueBalls....
Castration is always an option!
2172323
I was not insulting FoE. Hell, I may have accidentally named the unique Balefire Egg Launcher for the total conversion mod people are making. I was just giving a ridiculous summary of the zebra's beliefs.
2172377
FoE was started before Season 2 even began, so of course there would be a fuckton of things that don't mesh. You don't like it, fine.
2172939
I thought it was her near-assassination at Broken Hoof Ridge that made her hand the reigns over.
Now the most important part of this reply: Stop it. I do not want to see this devolve into an argument into why FoE is/isn't good. I do get the feeling, though, that FyreGhost hasn't even touched it and is Complaining about Shows You Don't Watch.
2173380 It's only an opinion. I appreciate that you realize that, and thank you for not presenting evidence as to why "Fallout:Equestria is TOTALLY AWESOME".
2173394
I can be perfectly reasonable when I want to be! It's just more fun to be belligerent sometimes.
On a side note, have you read it?
2173414 I've only read a little bit of it, not delving in to far. To me, I really just don't see the appeal as much as some others...
Wait, how did his predecessor create Luna's last set of armour?
She's been gone for a thousand years, and even said herself that Ironshod would be the first to craft a princess's armour in generations.
2172948 Yeah, sorry 'bout the brick of text. You make a fair point, though.
2174413 Also sorry for the wall of text. got caught up in the moment there... Also, while I may not endorse FoE, it present some rather in depth point that could be used in many fan fictions, such as political strife, tensions, and resource management. So, all in all, we're both 'right', as right would have it!
Luna's a certified badass!
YES. ALL OF MY YES.
I have a feeling this isn't going to end well...
2174270
Predecessor =/= Father
Predecessor could mean his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, or what have you.
2171660 That would be an inside joke.