Chapter 74
Amie woke in an infinite, featureless wasteland.
Unbroken gray stone extended as far as she could see in all directions, covered only with a thin layer of swirling mist. She stood awkwardly, barely stable on four legs. "Hello? Is anyone... there?"
The nest was gone, along with Tailslide, Mrs. Sobol and the mine. Where am I?
"The end," said a voice. Amie recognized it, though she had only heard it once before. She turned and found a towering figure looming over her. The Alicorn was even more frightening the second time—her mane filled the sky, with stars and swirling nebulae drawn along in invisible currents. "The evil you brought to Equestria ends tonight. Justice will be done."
Scale was meaningless in this place. Amie was less than a child compared to this being, dwarfed by the irresistible might of her magic. She didn't avert her eyes, didn't bow or submit herself to the mighty being. If the princess had already decided to kill her, she would die on her feet.
"There's no justice in murder. You can't end an evil that never happened."
The princess's eyes cut sharper than any knife. Her horn glowed brighter, a heat that could boil her away, or scorch her from the earth. "So many wicked creatures profess before the hammer of judgment falls. But Equestria is not a domain of chaos—here harmony is sovereign.
"Meaning... you?" she asked, defiant. "You're perfect and impartial and you've already decided I should die."
The Alicorn stiffened. Her mane blazed, stars burning as bright as noon sunlight. "I judge you not, queen of evil. As you say, there is no executor that can be trusted with the power of life and death. But spellcraft is no judge—it is naked mathematics. Your guilt will arbitrate. Your sorrows and fears and failures will execute your sentence. Never has it erred."
Amie glared up at the princess, spreading her wings to be as big as possible. But no matter how big she looked; she couldn't protect herself from this magic. More importantly, she couldn't protect Stella Lacus from the consequences of her death.
"I was so close, princess. I united them without bloodshed. I was... building understanding in your citizens. Bridges of diplomacy. You don't have to do this—there's another way."
Her rage cooled, and the light dimmed from her mane. "I know better than most creatures, young queen. There can be no diplomacy with evil. If it's any consolation, no blade swings in solitude. I will witness your judgment. By three blows it comes—in failure, sorrow, and guilt. By three you are convicted, and by three condemned."
Her horn flashed, blinding Amie. She closed her eyes, shielded her face with a leg, but it made no difference. The light pierced her, leaving wisps and shadow behind. It burned, searing every part of her. She opened her mouth to scream but lacked the strength to form words.
Sirens blared in her ears. Amie perched on the edge of the passenger seat, watching Portland's midnight streets blur past outside. There was little traffic on the roads so late at night, but what cars there were parted ahead of them, clearing the route to their destination.
"Don't be so tense, Rookie," the driver said, his voice calm despite the noise and racing speed. But for all his calm, his hair was already half gray. "We'll just be there to wait around until the fire department does their job. Easy shift, easy life."
Amie wasn't a bug anymore, but she wouldn't know it from her clothes. Even the smallest size of stiff blue jacket was too big for her, puffing up whenever she moved. "Y-yeah," she said, laughing nervously. "Sure. Easy first night."
"Didn't take this job because it was easy," Simmons said, nudging her shoulder with one hand. He shouldn't be taking his attention off the wheel, but the distraction didn't faze him. He had perfect control over the ambulance, just like everything else. "You're here to save lives, Rookie. Whatever's waiting for us tonight is your first chance. Just keep breathing until we get there, alright? Don't want my rookie passing out."
The vehicle seemed to slow, as though they had passed into a wall of solid honey. Headlights out her window stretched, leaving luminous contrails behind them. "I do not understand. This place... is not Equestria. It is no secretive burrow. Where is this memory?"
Amie glanced over her shoulder and found Princess Luna in the back of her ambulance. She passed through the gurney as though it weren't there, and her glowing horn pierced the roof. She was insubstantial, while all the world around her remained solid.
"My first night as an EMT," Amie whispered. "A few months before camp."
Up ahead, flashing red and white lights signaled an already waiting fire engine, flanked by police and other support vehicles. "EMT. You are assassins, perhaps? Or soldiers."
"Not exactly." Amie didn't need the vision to show her what was coming. Her heart raced, and her skin paled. She clutched her jacket so tight her knuckles went white. "Simmons—what if he jumps?"
The driver didn't react, except to pull them in right behind the other vehicles. Maybe he couldn't hear her—he couldn't see the glowing horse. "Get the kit, Rookie! Sight and sound. Just think about that nice warm bed when this is over."
She moved by rote, springing out of the side door, then securing her “kit” over her shoulder. The medical bag was heavy enough to slow her down—half as heavy as she was. She kept under control, passing through a scattered crowd of stunned onlookers.
Simmons cleared the way in front of her, with his stocky build and monumental confidence. "EMT. Out of the way, please. Coming through."
Soon they were past the police line, to where several firemen stood, clutching an oversized beige trampoline between them.
Far above, a pale figure perched on the edge of the highest balcony, standing barefoot on the metal railing. Firemen and police were only dim shadows in the hotel room beyond, as close as they could get to the troubled teenager.
"He has no wings," Princess Luna said. "This is not a flight."
It was, in a way. Seconds later, the teenager flew straight down. Amie looked away, but there was no hiding from the sound, the splatter mixed with hard crunching. The firemen missed.
"Blythe, with me!" Simmons didn't hesitate for a second, darting past stunned onlookers towards the crumpled body.
Amie was powerless but to obey, going through the same motions she had that night. She ran for the stretcher, helped load the broken pieces of a kid into it, and spent a ten-minute hospital ride struggling in vain to fight the bleeding.
Amie sat on the curb, clutching the fiery embers of a cigarette. She didn't smoke, hadn't really known what to do with it. But she held it anyway. It was either that, or clutch her bloody knees, rocking back and forth.
"Kid," Simmons called, approaching with a pair of steaming cups. "Don't worry, it's not coffee. Stimulants are the last thing you need right now."
She took it and sipped. Creamy hot chocolate, warm enough to scald her tongue. It did little to fight the cold. Amie tossed her cigarette, smeared it out with one black boot. "Easy shift, easy life," she repeated, wiping tears from her cheeks.
"Hell of a first night." He settled down beside her, nursing his own cup. Its contents were blacker than hers and smelled sharper. "Bastard shouldn't have done that. Not to his family, not to his friends—and not to you." He clasped her shoulder, squeezing firm through the jacket. "Wasn't your fault, kid. He made his choice up on the balcony. What happened after—as inevitable as the tide. Nothing you could've done."
She sniffed, fighting to keep her voice level. Memory or not, it hurt as much as the first time. Crushing heartbreak, the empty cold of dead eyes staring up from a broken body. "How can you be so... calm? Don't you care?"
He released her shoulder. "Of course I do, Blythe. Why do you think I keep this god-awful job? You have to care, or you won't fight as hard as you should. The people who call us—they're one wrong decision away from joining that kid. Make the right ones, and more of them get to go home."
He reached down under his collar, exposing a little wooden cross that hung there. "Greater love hath no man than this, Rookie. I saw you fight like hell back there. Services need more people like you."
He stood, slipping the necklace back under his collar. "Take another minute if you have to. Then we've got to get you out of those. Shower's waiting." He left, vanishing into the dark hospital behind them. Another figure appeared in the parking lot, heedless of the flow of traffic.
There was no traffic anymore. They were frozen, in shimmering amber streetlight under a bright red cross. "Your greatest failure. No failed conquest, no revenge unseized."
Amie tossed the cup aside, turning out her hands. She was still crying—the pain of this moment came as raw as the last time. "There's still blood. That's what you wanted, isn't it? There's death on my shoulders, like you wanted. I lied."
She couldn't sense the horse's emotions, or even see her face through her tears. Her voice remained unreadable, firm. "EMT is..."
"Emergency Medical Technician," Amie finished. "If they thought the kid would jump, they would've sent someone else. Was supposed to be... an easy shift. Didn't want to scare me off." She laughed, her voice stretching past pain to madness. "Thought I would quit, they all did. They were wrong."
The princess spread her wings. Yet the regal confidence that had previously filled her was gone. "Failure does not cut so deeply as the others, even for the guilty. Your sorrow will dig deeper into the wicked soul." Light flashed, and the parking lot vanished.
Amie hid behind a rock. She was thin from hunger, breathless with fear. All the worse since those feelings would draw her attackers to her. They had the same powers she did, after all.
“Run, Wes! Get as far away from here as you can!”
Tears streamed down his face. He rushed towards her, embracing her in the silly horse-way she was used to, resting his head on her neck. “I love you, Amie. You gotta live through this.”
“I love you too, Wes.” She shoved him back as hard as she could, ankle-deep in the river. “Now run! We’re out of time!”
He scampered away into the darkness, leaving Amie to cower in the cold.
"I recognize this place," said a voice that didn't belong there. The princess stood ankle-deep in the water, where she would be in plain view of Amie's attackers. They were getting close now, struggling down the slope. "This is the border of your mountain. Your sorrow—it's here. The night you killed a loyal soldier of Equestria, and almost slew another."
Amie let the shotgun rest in the mud. She already knew she wouldn't need it. "This is the night," she agreed. Fear surged in her, the same desperation that had filled her that night. It was like poison, flowing despite her knowledge. This was only a memory—she already knew the outcome. Yet still she feared.
“It won’t work!” someone yelled, from the other side of the river. “You could try that back on Earth, maybe! But this is Transit! You might as well glow in the dark!”
She crouched lower, curling up against the rock. A few shots went just over her head, whizzing uselessly into the distance.
“I don’t want to fight you!” she yelled back. “Just let us leave!”
It hadn't worked the last time, and it didn't now. The violence of their assault attracted attention that none of the bugs could've seen coming. "For Equestria!"
Then came the battle. Amie hadn't seen it then, and she didn't see it now, keeping her head down and away from the combatants. Luna watched in silence, her spectral form leaving no ripples in the river.
They shouted and raged at her, slaying Gale. But in the end, Tailslide was victorious. He stumbled to the riverbed, pierced with buckshot and leaving a bloody trail behind him.
"They gave no warning," the princess whispered, barely audible to her over the memory. "Attacked on sight."
"Commander Path's orders," Amie muttered back, bitter. "We're monsters. Giving us a chance to talk might let us use our mind control on them."
She hadn't left Tailslide to die once, and she didn't now. She emerged from behind the rock, moving slowly. "The shot must’ve grazed an artery. You’ll bleed to death unless we can close it.”
He spun on her, and his dagger tumbled to the ground. “K-kill me then… monster. Like you killed… Guardsmare Gale. Murder us for protecting our home.”
She set her gun down. "Easy. I don’t want to kill anyone.”
The memory replayed exactly as she remembered. Unlike the last one, Amie didn't lose her patient. She finally stitched up the person she was working on, leaving the first aid kit mostly empty. Only when she was finished did she make her way back over to the river, where the corpses still lay. One fallen pony, and the remains of bugs caught under the water.
"This is your sorrow," said the moon princess, indignant. "Why?"
"Those assholes—the ones who came after me. Could've gone different for them. They thought they were saving their camp. Gale here—she was the same way. But because both of them thought killing was the only way to keep their home safe, they're dead. Because... because of me. Because I wouldn't let them hurt Wes. If I stayed, they would all be alive."
She couldn't know that, of course—she couldn't know how different camp would be if she remained. She was still the one to run, the reason they fell.
The princess finally stood, striding out of the river. "I fear I have... this may be a terrible error, Amie Blythe. Yet I am powerless to turn the blade aside. One strike remains, the swiftest judge of every soul. Your guilt awaits."
Light blinded her one last time.
She was back in camp, a world and a week earlier. She held a microphone in hand, singing to some folk melody or another. Marcus played his guitar, Beth was on the drums, and a few of the other kids did their best to contribute with cowbell, maracas, or whatever other nonsense they could scavenge.
It wasn't the worst performance in the world, though it was pretty bad. But none of the other kids packed into the assembly building seemed to care. They were all terrible, she wasn't guilty about that.
She glanced to both sides, searching for one of her campers in particular. Wes wasn't on the stage—he lingered just behind the curtains, clutching his own guitar in shaking fingers.
Amie didn't think—she passed her microphone to Lily, and stepped off the stage. She rested one hand on his shoulder, urging him towards the stage. "Come on! Everyone performs on the first night!"
Wes pulled forcefully away from her, retreating. He replied in the same hushed whisper, muffled by the performance behind them. "No, Amie. I hate it here. I don't have any friends, I hate the bugs, I hate the sleeping bags, I hate it all." He released the guitar, which hung loosely from the strap. "Called Mom. Said I can get a ride home tomorrow."
Amie barely even saw the ghostly princess. If there was ever a memory she wanted desperately to change, it was this one. But no matter how hard she fought, she couldn't force the words she wanted to say. 'Do it! I'll help you pack! Get as far away from here as possible! I shouldn't have pressured you to come with me!'
Her lips moved against her will. "Lots of kids feel like that on their first night, bro." She wrapped one arm around his shoulder, squeezing tight. "You're not the first one to get overwhelmed. But I think you can do this—you can make friends!"
He was silent for a few seconds, looking back at her. "You... really think so? I've never been very good at it."
"Here you will, promise. There's something special about being stuck somewhere awful with people. You bond over shared suffering. Like you could do right now, by getting up onto the stage with us." She let go, grinning mischievously. "I promise to do the whole last verse out of key, watch!"
He followed her back onto the stage. She sang awfully, truly terribly, so badly that the front row gawked and stared in disbelief. Her own group was so busy laughing that even Wes forgot his anxiety.
Then the music stopped. The audience froze, drifting out of focus like a distant cloud. Only Luna remained, towering over her even while Amie had a stage to stand on. "I do not even understand this moment. I saw... nothing. No monsters."
This time, the tears were new. Amie had only left that night feeling satisfied, and relieved that her little brother would give Stella Lacus a second chance. "He shouldn't be banished here. My brother—he's only in danger because of me. All I had to do was let him leave. He doesn't deserve to be hunted. He didn't hurt anyone."
The stage vanished, taking her memories with it. Amie was on four legs again, weak against the uneven black rock. She was still crying, though.
The spell burned past her again, bringing a fresh wave of heat and pain. It faded rapidly this time, gone before she could blink.
"Neither did you, Amie Blythe. This judgment is concluded with your innocence. May Harmony forgive me."
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Yeah we all have things we could change even if we weren't at fault and did our best according to our knowledge. Luna needs to tell Celestia the truth about the camp and stop the war whatever it takes. If both sides aren't willing then it will be war and for peace and harmony when peace talks are knocking on the door you should take it. Luna will hate herself if she ruins a chance for peace. I always wondered if maybe when they first came to this world the changelings tried peace but ponies are not big on getting to know other species and instead created the problem to the point where the ponies would have mend the bridge of trust to get peace. Generations of changelings being hated for what they were might have convinced them that peace was a dumb idea and stood no chance. Sure they hope Amie will be able to pull it off but they will be watching to see if she gets anywhere.
Huh. Luna having to do the dirty work again. Celestia is something eh?
Much as I hate to say it, Luna doesn't deserve forgiveness here. She's hunted down an innocent, offered no quarter, and cast a spell she has every reason to believe will kill her target without so much as trying another way. Whatever guilt she may or may not feel due to this incident is richly deserved. If Amie survives this, she'd better get an apology. At least.
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From Luna's perspective, she had no real reason to assume changelings were innocent, based on her previous experiences. And it likely would have been easier to use a spell that kills without checking guilt, but even against a target that she assumed was evil, she still made sure first.
I find it hard to believe a spell that weighs guilt as a metric would bring down the axe after that - and if it did, then that's proof it should never, ever be used again, because its idea of guilt is enough to execute anypony who's ever felt regret. Which definitely includes both Celestia and Luna, before they get any ideas of moral superiority. Mathematics indeed... not a great metric to base a justice system upon.
If anything, what's been explained of this spell seems kind of backwards. The more truly, genuinely evil a person is, the type that's irredeemable enough to deserve death, the less sorrow and guilt they'd feel. Many horrible crimes wouldn't even rate for this spell to pick up if the person committing them just didn't care at all.
But honestly... even if Amie did somehow die here, Luna's already seen enough to realize that she made a horrible error in judgement, and I expect Equestria to attempt peace after this either way. Might cause Path to go off the handle, but the Princesses are going to feel an obligation to reach out after this - they've just been out-Harmonied by a changeling queen. It's really not great that it took this level of paranoid lethality to achieve it when Amie has been trying so hard to extend goodwill at every opportunity... but the way it happened now, Luna got a front row seat to the proof. Literally the worst thing Amie has ever done is fail to save lives, and not for lack of trying.
I'm especially interested in her surprise that the Equestrians attacked first, and her assumption that Amie personally killed Gale and tried to kill Tailslide. It makes me wonder if Path has been feeding back misinformation and that's why Luna's been so hostile - not just prejudice, but because she's getting military reports claiming that the changelings are attacking ponies and preparing for war.
At least Luna knew she was wrong, at the cost of Amie's emotional torture. I hope she recovers fast. Luna on the other hand, for mind-raping an innocent to prove a point rather than talking and trusting Amie—though I understand her reasoning, reliving painful memories is still torture—better be fighting tooth and nail to fix this mess before things get out of hand.
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Luna also used a spell that is implied to be unstoppable, even by the one who cast it, so she went into this intending to kill Amie from the beginning. The only difference being, now she will feel guilty for murdering an innocent, as opposed to vindicated for assassinating the evil leader of an enemy species before it could establish a firm foothold.
I'm not really seeing how Luna has the moral high ground here. She could have also tried talking before casting the death spell, but instead just casts it and ignored the consequences. Could she be acting on bad information? Sure. But as the co-ruler of the country, the responsibility still lies squarely at her (and Celestia's) hooves.
Exactly how we all thought it would go. Aside from the those among us who were convinced the world was nothing but racism and betrayal of course. Here is to next week's awkward conversations and trying to make Commander Path back down.
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No, Luna says that the spell only kills someone based on their guilt, failures, and regrets. She passed all three tests the spell does, so it didn't kill her.
Luna you came expecting to pass judgment on a monster and found the only monster was yourself
i wonder if this spell can backfire on it user, if the one targeted is found innocent does the wielder pay the price?
I hope we get a Luna POV after this. Either as part of the next chapter or the beginning of an anthology-style sidestory series running alongside the main story that covers alternate POVs for notable moments in the story.
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The way Luna's acting - "you did nothing wrong, may Harmony forgive us", "I fear I have made an error, yet I am powerless to turn the blade aside" - implies the spell might still kill Amie, though. I sincerely hope not, but Luna seems pretty horrified about something. Perhaps she's just horrified because she realizes the position she's put herself in, 'righteously' smiting an innocent who's been pleading for peace all along. If the dreamblade is trying to quantify and judge a pony's experiences, then Amie's certainly off the hook. But if it's just a three-strikes-you're-out looking for failure, sorrow, and guilt, then Amie's all out of strikes.
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Then I may have misinterpreted the last few lines there.
It took an cold, unbiased spell to prove Amie's intentions but the claims cannot be ignored now. Especially when a princess was the one who witnessed everything. We'll have to see if word can get around fast enough to stop Path. There might be a situation where the zealots claim Luna was compromised, but it seems the whole situation could be defused as quickly as the one with Albrecht. Still, it won't be smooth since Amie has a connection with Kaya but a sneaky hive would be a tad bit more tolerable than a hive that's actively invading.
I don't think the spell killed Amie. It was meant to judge her, and if the equation for the spell is something akin to "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth", I don't see where the math adds up to her dying. Sure, she feels guilty for the suicide kid, but his death wasn't her fault; the guilt is because she couldn't save him.
Of course, maybe it did kill her. If that's the case, then may her death be the catalyst for peace and understanding.
Great chapter. I hope math will rule supreme, no unnecessary deaths needed for it to work, and I blame you for vague phrasings and a cliffhanger : ) Nice job!
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A spell so unyielding would make for a poor judge. As failure, guilt, and sorrow is a part of life, the spell would be indiscriminate except possibly the most evil of people, ironically. If that was the case, Luna went in with no intention in taking the trial seriously and already deemed Amie guilty.
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I think Luna is referring to the whole situation with the mountain changelings, as well as putting Amie through her worst experiences again. She realizes ponies had made a grave error.
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Yeah, I also thought that - that Luna's horrified because she realized she'd been the villain all along. (Again. Oof.) That's what I'm leaning towards myself, because it'd feel pretty strange if Amie died after everything, but I'm not as secure as I thought I'd be after this chapter that she got out safely. Next week can't come soon enough.
I am curious to see her side of things, though, because maybe I'm expecting too much, but Luna's sheer adamance that Amie was evil feels like it goes beyond just prejudice and earned distrust of changelings.
awesome chapter.
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I'm hoping after she recovers she talked to the Queen and basically says "I survived *my* way, you can't judge me now"
Too little too late, Luna. You chose the path of blind hatred and murder. Now you get to see what your hatred has wrought. Even if you order something to mitigate the damage, the military will not back down and will continue with their murders. Congratulations you genocidal self-righteous, bigot.
I am reminded of the Scales Of Judgement from Osiris. The weight of your guilt vs. the weight if a feather.
As expected. If she still has doubts despite the first time she visited Amie, perhaps this will finally quell them.
Disappointing it seems she did not also visit some of our other key players (yet).
Equestria owes them so very much for this and other injustices, if Luna herself does not come we shall be quite unamused.
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Oh, very much same. I understand where Kaya's reservations come from; it's the way things have always been, passed down from her mother and hers before, and her tribe no doubt has a long history of unhappy relations with ponies. But her skepticism of Amie has since become open contempt. I want things to end well for the orange tribe, and they have been very helpful to the camp, for all that their ways can be disagreeable. But I want Kaya to realize that there was wisdom in what Amie was doing, too. Things don't ever change unless you try to make that change happen.
Oh now here it finally is, the big chapter. Where Amie finally gets a proper confrontation with one of the Equestrian Princesses. The payoff of all the built-up hostility we've observed all this time.
I hope you can forgive me if I make this chapter the staging grounds for what I think is my harshest critique of this story, maybe applying some impossibly high standards for what's just fanfiction. Although before I do, let me just say I really love this story, it's managed to occupy my mind like an especially aggressive earworm. Nearly every chapter had my imagination racing with the possibilities of what could come of this, or how I would've acted in Amie's place.
At its core, this is a story about misunderstanding. Ponies not understanding what Changelings need to survive, established Changelings not understanding the fears Ponies have about actual predators. And those misunderstandings leading to this cycle of violence that traps both of them.
There's beauty in a story that establishes such misunderstandings and clears them up, but I fear this story falls short of its potential here. Clearing up misunderstandings is really about communication and a little bit of trust, but there was barely any communication here and certainly not the least bit of trust. Magically viewing somebody's memories is honestly just a cop-out in those situations, and those memories did all the heavy lifting of diplomacy between warring species here.
Granted, you built this story up to a point where such a memory-viewing was basically the only way to resolve this conflict, what with the looming lethal threat of the dream knife, but you didn't have to raise the stakes and the tension that high. Could've gone another way with how Equestria would act and what it could even do. I'm with the other commenters in that if this spell really was in an alicorn's repertoire and it works the way the dialogue implies it works, it really doesn't seem as infallible as Luna makes it out to be, it looks like something that should never actually be used as a matter of policy.
Yeah, I'm gonna join the pile of people who really hate Luna's behavior here. It's not just that she's an antagonist who takes overly hostile actions, it's also that her dream knife diminishes the story, steers it away from a path where it could have become genuinely beautiful to one where it's just decent. Make magic the biggest problem and at some point magic becomes the only solution, I guess. But magic doesn't bring value to a story, it's characters and what they do with each other that does.
It's kind of an amazing coincidence that I can make this connection right now, but I saw the movie Nimona recently. I don't want to spoil it too much, but it's also about people coming to learn that the monster isn't so evil as they all believe. The movie's got plenty of flaws, too, but there's no magical cop-out to make everyone or anyone suddenly understand. No one except the audience even gets an explanation of what the monster is about. It's just about witnessing what it actually does, like how Tailslide and Ivy Path in this story witnessed that Amie didn't act like a threat and thus came around to believing that she's not a threat. If only this story could've gone further in that direction.
Anyway, I'm still looking forward to the epilogue next week, where we're gonna see the consequences of Amie's death, now that her failure, sorrow and guilt have been firmly established by naked mathematics. Never has it erred.
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Man, I was typing up a big ol' comment and you beat me to the punch. It's a bit of a "Starscribe Staple" that the Princesses are either outright antagonistic or refuse to effectively communicate as a source of drama to heighten the tension. It happens in a lot of the author's stories. Luna's behavior sucks in this and comes off as wildly hypocritical considering Nightmare Moon, and to be honest I don't expect it to be effectively addressed based off previous stories from the author. She'll be "sorry" and the story will conclude. I'd like to be proven wrong.
Awesome chapter
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Ha, that’s what happened with Harlequin.
I'm cheering for the possibility that Amie survives this. She's a Queen next to her Pony lover/husband feeding her love. I got hopes she's strong enough to fend this off.
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I am more interested in how if she does everything we've read seems to point to her dyeing Even the caster Luna seems to think she is gonna die
she should be able to put it together and believe what she finds out aka the different worlds wonder if she will push for peace talks or if that is not possible now after all one side just got their leader assassinated and the other ponies might freak out at the idea of a world full of there hated enemy
Tfw you make an automated system to morally judge and execute villains, but you make it lock on to two emotions a sufficiently awful villain may not have, and a measure that a sufficiently successful one may not have either.
The main reason I expected it was supposed to be a bluff playing to superstition to keep Path from doing something dumb was because actually having it exist and function as advertised would be unbelievably stupid and raise more questions than answers about why so many villains including Chrysalis herself are still around.
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And to unvoke it with little r
Evidence. No Harmony show never forgive them.
I so want an exterminatus on this equestria
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No she had no evidence. Its like nuking Canada because they are next to the USA. Something LIKE THIS NEEDS MORE PROOF TO EVER BE INVOKED
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It is a failure of luna to not double check. Hell why not read tailsudes dreams and memorirs to get his side
The hurdles we have to go through to get dead penalty here are extreme and that is with all the proof of in the worldto show it. Amy didn't even get a trial. The other lings are right. They are barbarians.
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From the sounds of it the nobles pushed for this. The fact they caved dhows they cannot rule.
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Then she needs to fix her writing if this is a common complaint. Sorry alone is not enough. Learn from the errors of previous works and improve.
Again its stupid that such a spell exists nevermind using it with so little prove. She is relying solely on the word of one pony even though your own agents one who does have a beefeith changelings gives contradictory report.
AND WHY IS HAD THIS NOT BEEN USED ON CHRSYALIS!?
Starscribe serious talk. Minus the dreamblade issue this writing is good but you introduced rhis spell and not only does it break story but lore for it was well. Why has this never been used on other villians? That is the can of worms you opened.
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The thing is everypony expected her to die. They alrrady judged her. The only plus of this spell it said no.
Like many previous commenters stated there are a lot of issues with the dreamblade thing. There's no reason it hasn't been used on other villains but they are still alive and the reasons for using it Amie or very bad. I expect that Amie will actually survive this but that still raises the question of what the point of it all was.
can you literally taste the hypocrite, ore did luna just hamp up the acting to 13
how i detest this mightier than thou attitude
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This is correct. The spell judged her innocent and ran its course. It won't kill anyone now.
This is probably before the events of Equestria Girls… And I doubly doubt this mirror portal will lead to Amy’s home.
I love this story so much
And this is my favorite chapter so far. Now the wait for the next chapter begins.
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The "sorry" was not about Starscribe; it's about Luna. Luna is clearly remorseful and apologetic about nearly killing a teenager/young adult over her holier-than-thou self-righteousness. It took an inordinate amount of time to get there and it reflects poorly on her. I really don't get why Luna is the crutch character for this behavior considering her past as Nightmare Moon. If that spell was cast on her Tantabus-spawning ass, it would sure-as-shit body slam her through the guilt table. Or why something like this has not been used on actual villains. But the dreamknife doesn't exist logically in-universe of the story.
It's a narrative device so the readers can see Amie's backstory. Luna is just the facilitator and gets some token "Oh no, I fucked up!" lines that make her out to be a horrible person and reverse her characterization, but she's not the focus of this moment: Amie is. I'm sure Luna will apologize in upcoming chapters, and I suspect it will be rather limp and swept under the rug so the story can move on. Again, I'd love to be proven wrong and this moment gets treated as the cold-hearted, attempted assassination that it was.
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yeah the dreamblade should be removed from story, it breaks so much.
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exterminatus is world-ending levels of death and destruction I think we can bring it down to some light orbital bombardment after all there are other races on this world not on the get fucked list well at least for me
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note I said Equestria not the planet
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weird that spelling wording should make it work like that I am happy she won't die but unless the spell got the ability to think and go oh no innocent which raises more questions
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oh ya true but to be fair that class of weapon is something I am pretty sure you cant bust out without a world dyeing or at least serirs damage to its habitability
You know how this is going to end, right? Despite Luna witnessing Amie's memories, despite the spell declaring Amie innocent... someone is going to say that the changelings have corrupted Luna, that they've found a way around the spell or that the spell was faulty, because biggotry works like that. Ponies cannot see beyond their hatred, particularly ones like Commander Path. Even if he hears orders from the princesses on this matter, he won't stop his actions.