Edited by Pilate. By now you should all realize that he is, in fact, a swell zebra.
Twilight stepped off of the train platform, feeling a strange combination of excitement and sadness. She attributed the excitement to the simple fact that she was back in the city she grew up in—it was a natural reaction to have—the sadness however, she felt because she was away from her real home where all her friends were. Canterlot may have been where she grew up, but it hadn’t been her home for years, not since she had moved to Ponyville and discovered the magic of friendship. Ambivalence aside, as she walked down the familiar streets of the gilded city-center she became genuinely curious as to what the princess could want. She had already decided on the train ride that the princess was not going to deploy her, like her brother. There was no way the princess would even consider such a thing.
Right? What if the war is worse than I thought? What if she's deploying all operatives as a last resort?
Shaking her head free of those rogue thoughts, Twilight focused on her hoofsteps upon the perfectly smooth cobblestone. Still, more disturbing thoughts began to encroach upon her already buzzing mind. She had to focus on something, anything, to distract herself. To that end, she found herself examining the scenery on the walk to the castle. The buildings of Canterlot were tall, regal, affairs. White marble and expensive wood was visible everywhere, though in many places it had been painted bright colors instead, or even inlaid with gold. Twilight was sadly lacking in knowledge of architecture, so her observations were fairly limited, besides noticing the incredible opulence saturating every square inch of every building.
Finished with her observations on the buildings, the lavender mage turned her attention toward the ponies themselves. She disliked what she saw almost immediately, there was more than one reason she had never socialized before going to Ponyville. The ponies of Canterlot carried themselves with an arrogant smugness that practically screamed I'm better than you, and I know it. They turned their noses up at everything, literally. It made Twilight wonder if a chiropractor would do good business here, she was pretty sure they would with all the neck problems these snobs must have from spending all day with their noses in the air. Particularly of note was the fact that almost everypony in sight was a unicorn. There was no race discrimination in Equestria, technically, it just so happened that ponies who worked on farms or any other kind of manual labor somehow never ended up living in Canterlot. The result was that Twilight saw virtually no earth ponies, and an extremely small number of pegasi.
Realizing that these thoughts were only putting her in a bad mood, and that she was nearing her destination, Twilight focused on the task at hoof.
First stop, quartermaster. I'll need to report in, and receive my dog-tags and equipment.
Now with a plan in mind, Twilight approached the castle. After passing through the outer wall, she immediately turned off of the main path, instead opting to head straight towards a squat rectangular building with few windows, none of which were on the ground floor. This particular building lacked any of the opulence of the other Canterlot construction, it was built for utility, and defensiveness. With three stories of the strongest reinforced, spell-interlaced stone, the only building that could withstand more punishment was, perhaps, the central keep of the castle itself.
This was the headquarters of the Equestrian Armed Forces.
Most soldiers would be outfitted from the armories adjoined to the barracks, but all graduates from the operative division of The Academy were given the rank of lieutenant in the EAF, just as the handlers were given the rank of captain. Even though operatives generally moved outside traditional military circles, this meant that Twilight was technically an officer and was treated as such, including being granted the use of the armory at the HQ. She wasn't about to complain.
The guards at the door recognized her immediately, and snapped a textbook salute at her approach, "Lieutenant Sparkle, ma'am." Twilight was used to this, for the year between her graduation and moving to Ponyville, most guards at the castle had insisted on treating her as the superior officer she technically was. "At ease, and please call me Twilight."
The mare and stallion on guard duty went back to their previous stance at her first command, and then the mare promptly ignored her second. "Would you like us to direct you anywhere in particular ma'am?" She asked with the tone of somepony who had repeated a phrase innumerable times.
Twilight had expected this question. "It's fine, I know my way around, thanks anyway."
Both guardsponies nodded, but the stallion provided a verbal reply as the mare opened the door. "Our pleasure ma'am, permission to speak freely?"
Twilight sighed slightly, before nodding and speaking in a deadpan tone. "Permission granted." She didn't enjoy ordering ponies around.The stallion seemed undeterred by her tone, and started to grin. "You're a living legend ma'am, if you’re finally reporting in for a mission then I look forward to hearing what you can accomplish in the field."
"Thank you soldier." With that, Twilight entered the building. What the stallion had said stuck with her though, she had never really thought of how the rank-and-file of the Equestrian military viewed her. She was a dedicated mare where learning was involved, and she had seen her time at The Academy as just that, learning a new subject. As a result, training had become her life, and she quickly became number one in her whole class. She even held the school-wide record for win/loss ratio in hoof-to-hoof sparring.
Hoof-to-hoof was a fighting style in which the pony would stand on their hind-legs, allowing for attacks with the forelegs. It had replaced the instinctual method of 'bucking' with one's hind legs, which left the pony completely open after each kick with their back to their opponent. Twilight had focused heavily on mastering it during her training, because for all her magic, she knew just how unreliable it could be, the explosion at the library was a perfect example, she had lost her magic for nearly 24 hours with only a slight head injury. Crossbows were an option, but she had never done as well with them, she was good of course, as good as one would expect from a member of an elite military group, but it was nowhere near the level of her close quarters combat.
"Can I help you?" The gruff voice broke her out of her extremely tangential thoughts, and she realized that she had walked all the way to the entrance of the armory, two levels underground, and was now staring blankly at the quartermaster, who was sitting behind a desk next to a large metal door. He was an older stallion, but it was clear that he had aged in that way that only makes one even more tough, his dark green coat was stretched tight over an average sized body that, from what Twilight could tell, was made up entirely of muscle, his head was topped with a jet black mane streaked with grey.
Twilight shook her head clear. "Sorry about that, I was lost in thought. I'm lieutenant Twilight Sparkle, REAMA operative division. I'm here to be outfitted."
The stallion's face remained impassive as he nodded and stood up, retrieving a key ring from under his desk somewhere. "Right then, come with me." He walked over to the door and inserted a key without even glancing at the key ring. The lock clicked, and the heavy door opened with only a small noise on well-oiled hinges. "Seeing as you're an operative, I'm instructed to allow you access to pretty much everything in here."
Twilight entered the room, and immediately stopped, staring slack jawed at row upon row of weapon racks. The cavernous room was long, very long, though only about a quarter as wide. The weapon racks were lined along either wall all the way to the end, and there was another row running lengthwise through the center. Looking over them, Twilight could see every kind of weapon imaginable, she focused on the ranged ones however.
There were the saddle-mounted ballistas and light cannons favored by earth pony troops, colloquially known as 'heavy weapons'. There were hundreds of foreleg mounted crossbows, which tended to be used primarily by pegasi, as having one leg occupied by a crossbow made it fairly hard to get around unless you could fly. Yet another section contained something Twilight had never gotten enough experience with, Spell Matrices.
An average unicorn would tire out extremely quickly while casting combat spells, which were very mana-intensive. So to solve this, ponies developed the Portable Mana-Infused Spell Matrix, or just Spell Matrix for short. Each one could hold a single combat spell in an orb about an inch and a half in diameter. The spell could then be activated at any time with only a small magical pulse from a unicorn. Usually they were used to hold combustion spells, earning them the lesser used nickname of 'mana grenade' among the non-unicorn members of the EAF.
Twilight had received training on how to arm and detonate a Spell Matrix, she even knew the method of performing a timed, or impact, detonation. Creating and charging a Matrix however, was a mystery to her, it wasn't the kind of thing that was taught to the actual soldiers, as it required special facilities, and was really more of a factory worker level job anyway.
Seeing all of these killing implements in one place brought her mind to a clattering standstill, two gears caught moving in opposite directions as she stood disgusted and repulsed, but strangely attracted to each weapon as her training came rushing back to her. Twilight attempted to vocalize her conflicting thoughts, but failed horribly.
"Weapons..." She shook her head, and gathered her thoughts as best she could in order to speak something more insightful. "Lots of weapons..." Giving up, Twilight mentally sighed and resolved to just let it run its course. "Whoa..."
Luckily, she was rescued by the gruff voice of the quartermaster piping up from next to her, kicking her brain back into gear. "S'really something isn't it?" He looked on with pride, smirking slightly, not noticing the purple mare next to him snapping out of it. "I've worked here 20 years, and there ain't been one pony who didn't have the exact same reaction you just did. So go ahead, I'll stay here if you don't mind, but you can go look around, take what you want."
As the stallion leaned against the wall, prepared to wait, Twilight began the search for what she would need on her assignment. Of course there was one minor detail, she had no idea what the princess actually wanted her to do.
I guess I'd better just prepare for the worst then, Twilight thought with a grimace, before noticing an area of the armory that had escaped her initial assessment. Sequestered in the left corner of the room, on the side closer to the door, was a collection of items that performed pretty much the opposite task of the rest of the things in the room. This was the armor section.
Twilight spent a moment being disgusted at herself for noticing every weapon in the room and somehow missing the entire section devoted to stands of various life-saving armor. That done, she began to pick out a set that would suit her. She didn't want anything too heavy, she would probably need to do at least a little sneaking, but at the same time she didn't want to go without protection. In the end she settled on a set of semi-flexible black armor with dark green metal sewn onto the shoulders, and over most of the body, in end, most of her was covered by the thick material and metal plates, but for her head, and her hooves.
“Impressive, ain’t it?” Seeing Twilight marveling at the flexible armor, the stallion spoke up from his relaxed position by the door. “It’s similar to the leather armor the griffons use.” When Twilight looked like she was about to fling the armor off, he held his forehooves up in a placating gesture. “Now now, don’t worry, it’s completely plant-based, but it has all the same attributes as leather, but with far more flexibility. Should protect well enough, and those plates will stop anything but a straight-on hit, and even then they’ll slow it down.” The stallion looked almost proud as he told her this, making Twilight wonder how much he had to do with its design. “We offered the design to the griffons, but they refused, claiming that ‘the hunt’ was half the point.” He made a disgusted face at that, and returned to his silence.
Now that she was properly protected, Twilight walked over to a rack of crossbows. She had already equipped her Academy graduation knife, so she was all set for close quarters encounters. She might need something to fight at range though, the princess could ask her to do anything. It didn’t take long for the older stallion to break his silence when Twilight approached a rack of crossbows. “So what is it exactly you’re planning on doing? You don’t seem like most that come through here.”
Twilight paused in examining the presented weaponry to answer. “Well, frankly I’m not sure.” She smiled sheepishly. “This is the first time, I’ve been sent on assignment, so I guess I don’t really know what to expect.” When she turned to see if he had an answer, Twilight noticed him staring intently at her with an appraising look. Seeing that the conversation was apparently over, she returned to choosing a suitable ranged weapon.
Maybe she really does want me to run obstacle courses. That thought lasted all of one second, before Twilight shook her head and reached for a large crossbow. It was one of the models that wasn’t meant to be mounted on a foreleg, instead it was meant to be held in both forelegs and braced against the shoulder, usually while lying down, and came equipped with a high-zoom telescopic sight. This was long range killing at its finest. Unfortunately, in order to maintain maximum power, it didn't use the drum shaped 'bolt magazines' that smaller crossbows used, instead it would need to be reloaded after every shot.
Or, better idea, I could just not fire it at all. Yes, I like the sound of that, it involves 100% less killing.
Even as she thought it, Twilight realized how unlikely that was, but she pushed her fear down and focused on attaching the holster of the long-range crossbow to the back of her armor. When she glanced over to the quartermaster, she saw, for a brief moment, a strange look of concern on his face before quickly transitioning back to his standard blank expression. Checking one last time that her crossbow was secure over her shoulder, she walked over to where the Spell Matrices were stored. From there she filled a pack with 10 simple combustion Matrices, attaching it to the right flank of her armor. Finally, she stopped by the ammunition area, grabbing a full quiver of the slightly-larger-than-average bolts for her crossbow and attached it to her left flank.
Giving herself a once over and being satisfied with what she found, Twilight turned to leave. She was stopped at the doorway by a hoof on her shoulder, and a voice that had lost a bit of its gruffness, and was instead low and concerned.
"Listen filly, I've seen many a pony come through here, some of 'em have been fresh faced, looking almost eager to kill something, others have been older and smarter, resigned to the fact that they would have to kill, but taking no joy in it. They all had one thing in common though, they were all killers." The aging stallion looked her dead in the eye, the grip on her shoulder tightening reassuringly. "I can see clear as day that you're no killer, please don't let this damned war turn you into one."
Twilight couldn't say for sure what was going to happen to her, but realizing just how much death she had equipped herself with, and seeing the pleading look in the stallion's eyes, she suddenly became terrified at what she might become. She pushed that fear down with the rest before answering.
"I won't."
She only wished she believed it herself.
--{MoW}--
The friendly quartermaster's words echoed in her head as Twilight approached the inner portion of the castle, where the throne room was located. She was getting strange looks from the ponies she passed, who gasped at the amount of weapons she had when the guards rarely even had a spear, she didn't care about the looks though, she was just trying to hold herself together.
Am I really going to become a killer? I don't want to, but I may not have a choice. What if I have to assassinate some zebra commander? I guess I am kitted out for it. Should I have taken a grappling hook?
Twilight shook her head before she could get lost in thought again. As she did so, the doors to the castle loomed ahead, guarded by two ponies on each side, none had any distinguishing features of high rank. She approached one at random, a pegasus stallion. "Lieutenant Twilight Sparkle, here to see the princess." The guard simply nodded, apparently less talkative than the guards at the HQ, and after a glance at the dog tags around her neck—given to her by the quartermaster on her way out—he opened the door.
The four guards saluted, which Twilight returned before nodding in thanks and entering the castle. The entrance area of the castle was incredible, with gold inlay on everything, beautiful marble pillars everywhere, and a ceiling that even pegasi agreed was high. Twilight ignored all of it, she'd seen it all before and, besides that, her stress was continuing to mount as she got closer and closer to the throne room. Next she found herself trotting through the Grand Hall, below her hooves was the most luxurious red carpet she'd ever seen, and above her on both sides were pictures of her and her friends defeating Nightmare Moon and Discord with The Elements of Harmony. That brought a strange thought to mind, but before she could be bothered too much by it, she found herself before the looming door at the end of the Hall.
It was extremely large, half of it silver and engraved with the moon, the other half gold and engraved with the sun. There was not a single guard on the outside of the door, but Twilight knew that this was by far the hardest spot to get through in the entire castle. Enchanted by both princesses themselves, this door was not going to move unless they willed it, and there really wasn't anything anypony could change about that. Knowing this, Twilight knocked twice.
The beautiful piece of craftsponyship was enveloped in a golden aura before slowly opening inwards. Once the door was fully open Twilight saw that the princess was alone in the room, not even the honor guards were present, making this the first time Twilight had seen the throne room without them.
"Ah yes, my faithful student. I've been expecting you, please come in, we have much to discuss." Princess Celestia's voice was serene, and carried an almost motherly tone. It didn't put Twilight's mind at ease, but it helped a lot. Twilight strode forward then stood at attention before the princess, and performed a near perfect salute. "Lieutenant Sparkle, reporting for duty ma'am." It would have been a lot more impressive if not for the waver in her voice, and the fact that her hoof had begun to shake.
Celestia looked from the shaking hoof Twilight was still holding in a salute, to the scared look that was visible deep in her eyes, despite her best effort to hide it. Her heart went out to the filly, for that was all she was in this situation, a filly in the deep end, trying desperately to stay afloat, knowing that she was going down, and that she could do nothing to change it This thought only lasted a fraction of a second, but it was enough to make her feel bad for not dispelling her student's fears that much faster. "At ease Twilight, and stop worrying, I'm not sending you to do anything against your will."
That was it, at that statement Twilight finally broke. Throughout everything that had happened she had just pushed down all the stress and fear, just like her training taught her, but now it all erupted back up, culminating in Twilight collapsing on the floor in a sobbing heap. Seeing this, the princess rushed forward, laid next to her beloved pupil and draped a wing over her suddenly much smaller figure. After a couple of minutes of wordless crying, Twilight decided to attempt to speak with her mentor about it.
"Princess I'm s-sorry." Twilight took a deep breath. "I was just so worried that I'd have to go kill zebras, and the library burned down and the girls didn't know about the war, and I attacked Rainbow Dash, and I almost broke her wing!" Tears once again threatened to break through. "I w-was prepared t-to break a p-pony's wing! Even i-if it wasn't Dash, they c-could have never flown again!" Once again the princess simply laid there and listened to the purple mare sob loudly, doing her best to comfort her with a wing.
After a few more minutes of this, Twilight had finally vented everything that had been bothering her. She shakily stood up, smiling sheepishly at the princes, who also stood, albeit with far less trouble. "Um, princess? Sorry about that, I kind of lost control there."
Celestia smiled, and it warmed Twilight's heart just to see. "It's perfectly alright my student, to be honest I'm sure that was just what you needed."
Twilight smiled appreciatively, but then switched to a confused look. "Wait, if you don't have a mission for me, then why did you activate me?"
Celestia looked almost as sheepish as Twilight had a moment ago, it was one of the most bizarre sights the young unicorn had ever seen. "Well you see, I do have a... request to make of you, but it's perfectly within your rights to refuse, and in any case, will require a bit of an explanation before it is made. Shall we retire to a more comfortable location?"
A short walk to the princess' study later—during which Twilight was once again given a strange feeling as they passed the Great Hall—and Twilight was sitting across a small table from her mentor, both on plush sitting cushions. She had calmed down after her previous breakdown, and was now sitting up straight, prepared to hear just what the princess could require of her. For some reason, Princess Celestia requested that all guards leave the room, and even cast a sound-proofing spell to prevent outside eavesdropping. Before Twilight had a chance to question her on the extreme secrecy, Celestia spoke. "Twilight, this is about the spell you created."
The student paled, "Oh, did I mess something up on the diagram? In the notes? Please just tell me, I'll fix it!"
Her teacher held up a hoof to silence her. "There were no mistakes, at least, none that any of my top unicorns could find, actually this is about the significance such a spell could have. I'm not sure you have a full grasp of what you've created here my faithful student."
Twilight was just happy she hadn't messed anything up, then she processed what the princess had said. "Wait, what kind of significance?"
The princess gave her a level stare, before speaking in a low tone. "I am not even going to ask if your calculations on the spell's power are correct, I know you well enough to know that they are, and that is what scares me. Tell me Twilight, have you actually given some thought to what this spell could do if put in a fully charged spell matrix?"
She hadn't, other than the fact that it would be big. With a quizzical and somewhat worried tone, she spoke, "I expected that if you wanted to pursue that avenue of research, you had battle magic technicians for that sort of thing. I'm sorry, was I supposed to?"
"No, it's fine, and you're right, I do have technicians for that sort of thing, they had this to say." With a glowing horn, Princess Celestia pulled a scroll from her desk on the other side of the room and began to read aloud from it. "We have completed the analysis of the spell you sent us. From what we can determine, based on its potential power output, this spell would win us the war," Twilight gasped, but Celestia kept going. "Giving us the ability to destroy entire armies, bases, or even cities with a single timed Spell Matrix. However we do not recommend deployment without proper testing, as it would be too great a risk if it failed at higher powers than what your student has already tested at. Despite the spell's low power consumption, it is beyond the ability of any unicorn on staff to cast simply due to its complexity. For the same reason, creating a Spell Matrix of it would take months of work, even if we dedicated the whole team, and right now that is a risk we cannot take without proper testing."
Twilight just stared, mouth agape. One part of that letter had jumped out at her, so she decided to ask about it. "Princess, what did they mean when they said the spell was beyond the ability of any unicorn on staff to cast?"
"Just that," The princess' reply shocked the young mage to her core. "You don't give yourself enough credit Twilight Sparkle, you are the element of magic, is it really a surprise that you are capable of such a thing?"
Twilight mulled it over before speaking. "Okay, so I may have created the most powerful weapon ever to exist, but it's not worth pursuing unless we can know for sure, but we can't know for sure unless we test it, but I'm the only one capable of casting it..." She trailed off as her train of thought reached the logical conclusion. "You want me to test the spell, don't you?"
The princess nodded gravely. "However, as I said, I will not force you to do it." After years of mentoring, she could read Twilight like a book, so she was able to preempt the next question the second her student opened her mouth. "Before you ask, no I cannot cast the spell myself. This may come as a surprise to you, but my sister and I lack the fine control unicorns like you and your friend Rarity have over your magic. Certainly, there are none who match us for power, but in this case, power is not what is required, we require somepony capable of the most complex spells known to pony kind." The princess hated herself for what she said next, but it was for the good of Equestria. "We need you my faithful student."
As Celestia knew she would Twilight only took a moment to think about it. "Of course I will, princess. Where do I need to go?"
"You will be going to Zebranistan—we don't exactly have massive weapon testing sites in Equestria—but you needn't worry, you're going to a base within the Equestrian controlled part of the country, it will be perfectly safe. Besides I think you know the pony in command of this particular base, a certain Captain Armor."
Twilight, who had been looking forlorn at the thought of the trip, now looked extremely excited. "What? Why didn't you say so? I wouldn't have needed any further convincing." She was now smiling broadly.
This is now basically a short vacation, a short vacation where I get to see my brother. This is great! I guess I'll need to send Spike and the girls a letter, I hope they don't mind—
Her thoughts were cut short when the princess cleared her throat, a look of amusement on her face directed at the dumbly smiling unicorn in front of her. "Yes well, there are a couple regulations that must be fulfilled before you leave, this will be an official mission."
Twilight nodded, her excitement only increased at the idea of finally getting her first mission, her first chance to contribute to the war effort, and she wouldn't even have to kill anypony. Well, not directly anyway, becoming the destroyer of worlds via her new weapon was a problem for another time, she was going to see her brother!
Celestia stood, motioning for Twilight to do the same, they stayed in their previous positions facing each other, while the princess began to speak the words spoken before any operative left on a mission for the crown.
"Lieutenant Twilight Sparkle, you are volunteering for a mission of grave importance to Equestria. If you are caught or killed, all records of you will be destroyed, and Equestria will deny any involvement in your actions. If you are successful, you will not be celebrated, you will receive no thanks, and nopony will ever know just how much you have helped them. You are to be the unseen hoof in the shadows, your actions will never see the light of day, and you will take the knowledge of them to your grave. Do you understand and accept?"
"I do," Twilight did not hesitate.
"Then go, in the name of Equestria, in the name of the Sun and Moon, and in the name of all ponykind. Sol iustitiae illustra nos."
"Sol iustitiae illustra nos," The young mare saluted as she returned the phrase, her hoof steady as a rock.
Celestia allowed her posture to become a little more relaxed, her speech ended. "By the way, I recommend you keep the equipment you've chosen, my student. I am aware that you will not need it, but it's best to be safe. The sky chariot is outside waiting, seeing as it's still morning I thought you wouldn't mind leaving immediately rather than staying the day and night. Also, I will have the proper letters sent out to friends and family, as you might have noticed when I sent you your activation, I have given the other Elements all a bit of security clearance, I felt it only fair that they be kept in the loop."
Twilight nodded appreciatively, but at the mention of The Elements the thought that had bothered her in the Grand Hall came right back, she decided to voice her concern.
"I have a question." It was a statement, but Twilight was clearly asking for permission, at which Celestia nodded. "Well, seeing the stained glass portraits has gotten me wondering, why don't we just use The Elements of Harmony on the Zebrans?"
Celestia blinked, but then chuckled at her star pupil's naïveté. "Twilight my most faithful student, The Elements could never be used for such a purpose, as it is against their very nature." Twilight leaned forward, listening intently. This was new information to her, and new information was good information. "You see, The Elements can only be used to restore harmony, against forces of disharmony. In other words, they can only be used for the sake of 'good', against something which is 'evil'."
Twilight looked confused, "How does that mean that we can't use them?" Only after the question did she realize the answer, immediately looking to the princess for a sign that she was wrong.
Instead, Celestia sighed, before confirming Twilight's realization. "Because in this conflict, ponies are not 'good', nor are the zebras 'evil'. This war is different from fighting something like Nightmare Moon or Discord, they both wanted to destroy all semblance of harmony in the world, and The Elements reacted accordingly to restore peace and safeguard harmony, such are The Elements' definitions of good and evil." Celestia looked downtrodden at the next thought, and for the first time ever since Twilight had set eyes on her, the purple mage could fully see just how old the princess was. "In a war like this, I am not attempting to save the world from chaos, I am only trying to protect the lives of those residing in my portion of it, and in the end, General Kwaad is only doing the same. I wish there was another way to accomplish this, and I still hold on to the hope that the General will someday accept a peaceful end to the war, but I know that wont happen. We have the same goal, him and I, we both desire an end to this war, but an accomplishment of this goal on either side will not bring harmony, only destruction of one side, and harmony only for the other."
Twilight's mouth was hanging open now, she had never heard Princess Celestia talk like this before, but the princess wasn't done.
"This is why war is terrible, my faithful student, it lacks any of the clear definitions that ponies normally take solace in. There is no good, there is no evil, there are no heroes or villains, there is only chaos and death, and in the end, the ones in the right are simply the ones left standing."
1667474
Oh that sucks.
Wait... what's the sun doing?
... OH SHI--
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It's funny to think of Twilight as a lieutenant. I'd think that RD would fit that role better.
As for the bomb she created... this is almost like an explanation behind the Megaspells in FoE fics.
So if Twilight is the only one capable of testing this weapon, that would make her an obvious assassination target.
"Okay, so I may have created the most powerful weapon ever to exist."
And that's why we love you, Twilight.
Yay Twilight gets to test nukes in Afghanistan er... Zebranistan, or something... oh well, you have explosions... I'm interested.
on a more constructive note, I really like your personification of Twilight, believable yet humorously analytic.
also... she only takes a few minutes to vent... I'm envious I'd probably take at least fifteen
Who wants to see what Twilight's weapon does?
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I have to say that this is one of the best fics I've read in a while. Keep it up, dude!
1703360 In theory operational security would keep the zebras from knowing that the weapon even exists at this point. But Rainbow Dash is obviously a zebra spy, so they know everything.
let the wasr commence
1703374
My Little Oppenheimer.
So Twilight created a nuclear spell?
Is it fission or fusion?
1703602
Honestly, it's magic.
If I had to choose though, I'd go with fusion. This fits with the general lack of radioactivity from the spell, as well as the fact that the spell was originally intended to boil water instantly, accounting for the high pressure / high heat environment required for fusion (Twilight really overdid it). As for the high energy, while the spell is said to take a small amount of mana to use, it could still produce the appropriate energy for fusion because the way I see it mana is not directly translated to energy, it is just used to manipulate energy in the world, and with ingenious application, one could influence a massive amount of energy with little magical cost.
So.. yeah... fusion.
Hope this answered your question!
1703602
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1703790
So magic is a catalyst? It could use a small amount of energy to fuse a couple of atoms, using the rest of the energy to lower the rest of the material's reaction requirements enough to undergo fusion using the output of the original explosion and create a exponential chain reaction within the magic's area of effect.
Sorry about that mess of a paragraph. I'm typing on my phone...
1703947
It makes a grenade size explosion with a thimble size amount of water. We don't need to know how it works besides that it does with a big bang!
Twilight, Mother of the Equestrian version of a tactical nuke.
My my.
Why does it feel like this is going to become Twilight creating zombies and nukes?
Also, please carry on good writer...
Subject: Twilight Sparkle
Suffix Title Obtained: "The Legend"
Preview: "Twilight Sparkle, the Legend"
-Minty
And the spell goes
BOOM!!!
I'm still not quite convinced of the swellness or zebra-tude of this Pilate fellow.
We gun see sum big booms soon mutha...
It would have been more interesting for it to be an anti-matter explosion. 1 molecule of matter and anti-matter would have the same boom as the water explosion. super effective weapon then.
I'm really getting into this.
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This type of story is my 100% absolute favorite ever. I wish I knew of more like this
Ah yes, the ancient rule. Any problem can be solved with the careful application of high explosives.
I think of this metamorphically, but in this case... literally is more accurate.
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See?
Those things are neither swell, nor Zebras.
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i.imgur.com/LQhep.gif
Top of the list, eagerly awaiting more. About as awesome as it gets.
Ending was perfect. It's not a philosophy, nor an opinion; that was the cold TRUTH.
Did Twilight discover Cold Fusion? Or maybe Micro-Singularity control?
It must be so hard for her knowing that she holds so much power in such a dilemma
At least doesn't sound like anything radioactive. Good.
...
What? Isn't the REAMA marginally secret - as in, the operatives and members' identities are supposed to be secret. So how does Twilight justify wandering around an area open to civilians, wearing distinctively non-standard armour, carrying weapons, and _not hiding her identity in any way whatsoever_?
Let's put this in context. You're in London, doing the tourist bit, and oohing and aahing over the Royal Guards. Suddenly, you spot someone walking from the MOD building, through Horse Guards and into St James' Palace. Nothing too unusual there. Except this person is not wearing a suit, no2 dress uniform, or even no1 dress. They're wearing combat dress, with combat body armour. And they also have an assualt rifle over one shoulder, a sniper rifle on the other, and an SMG in hand. It doesn't take too much thought to realise there is something a bit unusual about him. And if you, an uneducated civilian can come this conclusion, it's a safe bet any spies in the crowd will have recorded it for further analysis.
Even if Twilight was walking through a non-public section of the Palace, that's still a pretty big risk she just took.
As for 'erasing all records of her' - they _can't do that_. Twilight is _too well known_ to just disappear. She has been honoured at public awards ceremonies at least once, she was the Princesses _personal student_ for at least a decade, and she is a _national hero_. Even the lowest ranking zebra soldier would recognise the name 'Twilight Sparkle', in much the same way any enemy of the United Kingdom would recognise the name 'Henry Windsor'.
Even if Celestia erased all internal records of her existence, and managed to bribe her friends into silence, every other nation in existence would easily be able to look at their own records, and call shenanigans.
That said - why on earth does she even need all this secrecy, anyway? She is a personal friend and subject of Celestia. She is also likely well known in academic circles. Simply invent a research project to justify sending her out there, and, boom, none of this cloak and dagger stuff is necessary. She carries weapons and armour because, well, it _is_ a warzone. She is being sent to a military base so they can provide protection, and if she _is_ captured/killed, the records can show 'in the year X, whilst gathering field data, the renowned scientist Twilight Sparkle tragically lost her life to an attack by zebra forces'.
Sure, it all needs to be kept quiet _before_ she goes (so the zebra don't try and nab her), and after she has gone, she probably won't want the _real_ reason she went out there to ever become public knowledge (I reckon Oppenheimer would have been slightly happier if he had never been accdedited with his most famous work, either), but that's a good few levels of paranoia below what we currently have.
I love the detail in this, and like rick astley once said...
NEVER GONNA GIVE CHOO UP!
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Firstly, REAMA isn't technically a secret, though it's not common knowledge, it's just passed off as a special forces group (With absurd amounts of training), which is honestly not too far from the mark. This is similar to real life, when a government performs black operations they can use regular soldiers to do it. On top of that, cloak and dagger is only one aspect of what an operative would do, they also execute perfectly normal missions, just far better than anypony else. This means that ponies are allowed to know Twilight is a soldier. Even if she is better equipped than most, they would just attribute that to a small bit of favoritism by the princess, which happens a lot to be honest.
Second, she only walked from the HQ to the throne room, which passes through a courtyard, but never leaves the castle grounds, so the ponies that saw her were all palace staff, Celestia's palace staff are very tight-lipped. It can be attributed to whatever you want, loyalty to a great ruler, extremely good pay, or even a consensual spell that forces them to keep secrets.
Just know that they would never let anything leak.
As for the secrecy and records:
Celestia does it this way mostly because it's her modus operandi (in my story), and she considers it the safest way. Even if she was under the guise of a researcher, Twilight would still be a prime target for the zebras, better that she's in and out before they know what happened.
That's exactly the kind of thing that would happen if she was caught or killed (The distinction between the two is null). They would erase all records of her being involved in a military operation, passing her off as a simple researcher. Well, not simple, but just a researcher nonetheless. They would certainly not try to pretend that the mare 'Twilight Sparkle' never existed, they would simply skew the truth about who that mare was.
Realistically though, Twilight would normally be the absolute last choice for an operative, the princess knows just how hard that cover-up would be, and would never send Twilight on a mission that had even a small amount of risk involved. This mission literally takes place entirely within Equestrian controlled territory, no risk of anything going wrong. Of course, the princess must not have heard of Murphy's Law.
Keep up with these comments, I enjoy getting to explain the reasoning behind ponies actions that gets left out of the story (Mostly because I'm trying to keep it as subjective as possible, so no reading Celestia's mind).
Another great chapter. But I can tell this mission won't be as easy as it sounds.
PS
Congrats to Twilight for founding the Manehatten Project
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Twilight: "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
I can't help but see in my head Twilight coming back to Equestria in a panic. She demands to see each and every scientist involved in the spell and then flat out mindwipes them of everything they've done for the past month.
When Celestia catches up and asks her what the hell is going on, she's gathering up and burning her notes. "Noone else can ever be allowed to cast this spell. Ever. Even the knowledge of its existence should be suppressed."
The other main scene I see in my head is Twilight standing at the edge of a desert beside a cadre of military officers and her brother, her horn shimmering with a modest nimbus of light. "I am become death, destroyer of worlds." Then everyone is slammed to the ground by a shockwave just from her casting the spell at a distant point, three seconds before a column of flame a mile wide punches a hole through the sky. Shining Armor shields everyone, and when the blast finally settles down minutes later, they're standing in an unbroken circle of glass ten miles wide.
What is Twilight's range anyway? If she can't cast the spell at a distance of a mile or more, any significant use of this spell is sort of suicidal. Also, I wonder if that "Two Liters' comment from earlier implies there is a hardcap on the spell, or if that was a theoretical limit on water that could be safely boiled like this. In which case, could she just scour the planet clean of life, liquefying stone ten meters deeps and blowing half the planet into space if she just gave it all she had?
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The way I see it, more range simply requires more energy, which is really not a problem for Twilight.
And the two litres was based off of her predicted maximum energy output of the spell, but she was pretty far wrong in that regard.
"I am become death" is five syllables.
Suddenly: Haiku!
I sundered the world
The unclefts togethermelt
I am become death
Or many other similar variations on a theme.
1703244 Was thinking the exact same thing
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"Well thank you. I do what I can...because I can" -DR. FeelGood
If you find out where I'm quoting from I'll be amazed.
1711274 Alas I have failed you. Besides referencing the song "Dr. Feelgood" by Mötley Crüe I have no idea what you're talking about. An FoE spinoff character? I've only read FoE and FoE PH as well as some of Murky Number Seven.
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He was a radio broadcaster in Deadpool's comic book "Dark reign" or more specifically "Bullseye part two: let the healing begin"
I'm not surprised that you didn't know. It was very obscure.
"Best. Pirate. Evaaarr!"
"This is...A public...Service...Announcement! With guitars! -Deadpool
(normally it's yellow but that's too bright on the screen)
EDIT: just found a better quote to use
"I wanna make a meat suit! An' then fight in it! Yaaaaahh!"
2nd EDIT: I'm not coloring the quotes for attention, all of Deadpool's lines are in yellow.
1711520 hahaha Deadpool? I've been wishing i 'd gotten into that comic since hearing about it. A mentally unstable super merc that has a habit of breaking the fourth wall? Sounds pretty badass to me
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He's like an anti-hero, mercenary version of pinkie!
Also Deadpool's first appearance was in 1991.(For those of you who are too lazy to Google it)
Yes Deadpool is awesome. I own six graphic novels and he dies in almost every one of them. (I think that's what you call a comic compilation book, though I'm not sure.)
1711683 I looked at the wiki. Unfortunately wikis on comic books always end up giving me a headache because of all the multiverse crap plus crossovers... ugh
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I don't look at wiki for Deadpool stuff, I have "Deadpool Secret Invasion" and in the back of that particular comic book compilation is a history of deadpool.
1711734 Well for those of us who don't have that wiki is pretty damn useful haha. Also I've seen some pics of Deadpool and Fluttershy that are pretty funny... just thought i'd throw that out there
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Searching for a fitting Deadpool quote...
"mmm...I love the smell of 372,844 pancakes in the morning. Smells like victory!"
Just thought that I'd throw THAT out there.
(FACT: he actually does cook that many pancakes...I don't know how either, so don't ask. Accept it in the way you do with Pinkie Pie.)
1711773 hahaha not gonna lie, that's about the same amount of search results I got when trying to find that Dr. Feelgood quote
I am absolutely loving this story, I really like how you incorporate some bits of humor into it so as not to depress your audience too much. I must say I saw the Pinkie thing coming, how she goes and cheers up everypony else but is depressed as hell herself. I sincerely enjoy the fact that Twilight is not being sent into the front lines or on any assassination missions or whatever, it far better suites her character. You've done a brilliant job incorporating the show and keeping it realistic. Keep it up, I can't wait for more.
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Thank you so much.
Comments like yours never fail to brighten up my day. It just makes me feel so good to know people are enjoying my story.
The next chapter is nearly done, it will be the longest one so far, so look forward to that. It still needs to be edited once I finish writing it, but expect it mid next week.
Prepare yourself, Twilight is about to play poker with some army ponies.