29 — Out of the Frying Pan and into the Lake
Chapter 29:
Out of the Frying Pan and into the Lake
It wasn’t often that Twilight found herself in a situation where she was unsure of what to do; where she didn’t have an answer for everything. She was, after all, the personal protege of Princess Celestia. She was her star student. But right now, in this moment, she felt like a helpless filly in front of a panel of keen-eyed judges all gauging her performance. Except if she failed this test, she wouldn’t just be told, “Sorry, better luck next time,” she’d be putting her life, and the lives of her friends at risk. There was no easy answer to this pop quiz.
As Twilight surveyed the scene before her, time seemed to slow down. A few dozen feet away from her, lining the shore of the glassy lake, stood twenty or so armored seaponies wielding cruel-looking tridents. They moved with liquid-like smoothness into a readied position with their tridents raised against the charging ponies. Two in the middle had their weapons pointed at the necks of two prisoners, namely a very angry Rainbow Dash, and a frightened Spike.
Twilight’s heart raced as she watched in grim terror as Rarity and Applejack, their mouths open in primal screams, galloped at full speed towards the line of tridents. Recklessly they kicked up dirt and lowered their heads in preparation for ramming into the seaponies. Twilight racked her brain for an answer, a solution, but nothing worthwhile came to her.
If she acted now, she could quickly pull back Rarity and Applejack, but for what? They still wouldn’t be in any better a position. It was still three against twenty. On the other hand, she could attempt to teleport herself and her friends out of harm’s way, but that was potentially more dangerous than doing nothing. Between the fact that she’d be spreading her magic across a large area and over multiple objects, and the fact that doing this in a split second, even under the best of circumstances, would be near impossible, she didn’t really see how teleportation could possibly be the answer. Another possibility would be to join Rarity and Applejack in their charge and hope that they could fight off the seaponies together. But even with her magic, Twilight wouldn’t be able to dispatch the seaponies quickly enough to be assured that neither her nor her friends would be harmed. She briefly entertained the idea of simply teleporting herself away so she wouldn’t have to deal with this problem, but that was obviously out of the question since she wouldn’t abandon her friends even if it cost her her life.
In this moment of desperation, Twilight, oddly enough, found herself wondering what Trixie would do. It seemed a weird thing to ask herself, but she asked it nonetheless. When Trixie was faced with the Ursa Minor, she didn’t run away despite the fact that she was facing a foe she knew she couldn’t defeat. She stood her ground and fought. Granted, it was still in vain, but it still sounded somehow appealing to Twilight. She could stand her ground here and fight, even if she knew there was no way she could be assured of victory.
As she was resolving to throw herself into battle with her friends, a thought occurred to her. There was no way to know this plan was going to work, but neither was she sure of any of her other plans and at least this one stood a somewhat better chance of success.
Acting quickly, Twilight combined several of her plans into one and scooped up Rarity and Applejack moments before they clashed with the seaponies while simultaneously fishing a certain object out of her bag and teleporting herself forward. In the blink of an eye, Rarity and Applejack landed on the ground where Twilight had been a split second before, and Twilight appeared in front of the seaponies that had captured Rainbow Dash and Spike holding a familiar-looking coin in the air in front of her. Her eyes were hard, and her face serious, as she stared at the pair of guards.
“Here,” she said, moving the coin forward, “take this.”
The seapony hesitated a moment, then his eyes went wide as he saw the coin Twilight was presenting to him. He quickly held up his arm and yelled at the others to halt. Gingerly, he reached forward and plucked the coin from Twilight’s field of magic. After taking a moment to examine it, he nodded to the guards holding Rainbow Dash and Spike. They nodded in acknowledgment and released their prisoners.
Spike quickly ran over and hugged Twilight’s leg while Rainbow Dash followed close behind him.
“Twilight,” she whispered, “what the heck did you give him?”
Twilight kept her eyes on the seapony holding the coin. “Trixie’s coin,” she explained. “I remembered I had it and what Rarity had said about it. It seemed like a longshot, but I was hoping it would mean something to them.”
“Sheesh, well I guess you were right.”
Suddenly, the seapony holding the coin looked at Rainbow Dash. “Yes,” he said, “your friend here was right. This coin does mean something to us.”
“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash recoiled a bit. “You guys can talk?”
The seapony raised an eyebrow. “You’re surprised by this?”
“I mean, I guess it makes sense. I just wasn’t expecting it for some reason.”
The guard grinned, revealing sharpened teeth. “Is that so? Then you’ll be even more surprised to learn that this coin was stolen from us nearly a year ago.”
Twilight’s eyes went wide. “What?”
The grinning guard turned to her. “That’s right. A pony, much like yourself came here almost one year ago and stole this coin from us. I’m sure his highness would be very interested to learn how you came into possession of it.” He looked to both sides and motioned to the guards. “I’ll ask that you come quietly and save us all some trouble. If you refuse, we’re more than prepared to take you by force.”
Twilight cursed herself. Had she known where this plan would lead, she never would’ve gone through with it. Of course, it was the only real plan she had at the time, so it wasn’t like she had much choice. She turned back to look at Applejack and Rarity who had been inching closer all the time.
“It’s okay, girls,” she said. “I’m just going to go explain what happened and everything should work out fine. You girls wait for me up here.” Twilight turned back to the seapony holding the coin. “My friends stay here. You only need me.”
The guard chuckled. “I don’t believe you understand the concept of leverage. You see, you have none. We’ll take all of you to see the king, and not a one less.”
Twilight smirked. Her horn flared up as she waved it menacingly at the guard. “I do have some leverage,” she said.
The guard recoiled, his face contorting into a grimace. “Horns,” he muttered. “Fine. The two standing back there may stay, but you, the blue one, and the little dragon are coming with us.” He pointed to each subject in turn.
Twilight considered this for a moment, then nodded. She faced Rainbow Dash and Spike. “You’re okay with this, right?”
Rainbow Dash made a face that seemed to indicate the answer was obvious. “Uh, duh,” she said. “Like I’d leave you to go down there by yourself.”
Spike nodded in agreement, thumping his chest. “Yeah! Same goes for me!”
Twilight smiled. She turned back to Rarity and Applejack. “I guess Spike and Rainbow Dash are coming with me. You girls stay put until we get back.”
“Horseapples ta that!” Applejack shouted. “I ain’t gonna sit around waitin’ for you to come back. I’m comin’ with ya.”
Rarity, with a flick of her mane, said, “And I would feel terribly awful if something were to happen to you. I will accompany you too.”
The pair made to follow Twilight, but before they could even get a few steps, Twilight held up her hoof. “No. You stay up here. I just need to explain how I got this coin and everything should be fine. I don’t want to unnecessarily drag you girls into this.” She smiled softly. “Trust me. Everything’s going to be fine. We’ll be right back.”
Applejack pursed her lips. “Hmph, if you say so. C’mon, Rare, will stick it out up here. If Twi’s right, shouldn’t take ‘em long to get back anyhow. Plus,” she said, leaning in towards Rarity and whispering out of the corner of her mouth, “we ain’t just gonna sit here. Soon as they’re gone, we’re gonna follow ‘em.”
Rarity smiled. “Oh, how devilish. A ruse then,” she whispered. “Yes, Twilight,” she said, turning to Twilight, “as Applejack says, we shall wait for you up here on dry land.”
“Good,” said Twilight. “We won’t be long.”
“My left hoof you won’t be,” muttered Applejack.
Twilight turned back to the seaponies and said. “Okay, we’re ready. Let’s go see this king of yours.”
The seapony guard nodded. “Yes, I’m sure he’ll be very pleased to speak with you. Oh, but you’ll be needing these,” he said, handing Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Spike each a small necklace. “Wear these or else you’ll drown, and that won’t be good for anyone.”
Twilight took the necklace and examined it with a trained eye. The chain was thin and seemed easily breakable, but the pendant that hung from it was something else entirely. It was a small, but thick, chunk of coral shaped to look like a series of interwoven lines probably meant to represent something, though Twilight wasn’t sure what. Cautiously, she slipped the necklace over her head and waiting for, well, something to happen. At first, she didn’t notice anything, then suddenly she felt herself gasping for breath. She saw Rainbow Dash and Spike doing the same thing and quickly ripped the necklace off. Her breath restored to her, Twilight sucked in a big mouthful of air, then looked at the necklace again.
“There’s some kind of enchantment on these, isn’t there?” she asked.
“Wouldn’t be much good if there weren’t,” said the guard.
Twilight inspected the pendant again. A faint glow faded away just as she held it up. She squinted her eyes, but nothing in particular stood out to her. “Hmm,” she mused. “Is it perhaps some kind of breathing spell? It must affect lung function in some way.”
He nodded, impressed. “Quite right. It modifies the user’s oxygen intake so that they can more easily extract it from water. Of course,” he added, “that also means it doesn’t work out of the water. Essentially, you become a fish, or a seapony I guess, out of water.”
“I see,” Twilight mumbled. She furrowed her brow. “How is that you can breathe both out of and in water?”
He reached towards his neck and pulled out a necklace from beneath his armor. It was identical to the one Twilight held in her hooves.
“It works in the opposite fashion for us,” he explained. “Though, it is possible for us to breathe out of water. The problem is that it requires we expend a great deal more energy, so it is not very practical.” He slipped the necklace back under his armor. “But that’s enough talk for now. My king will be waiting for you, and though he may be patient, his daughter is not.”
Twilight cocked her head to the side. “His daughter?”
The guard grimaced, but said nothing. Instead, he turned to his companions and jerked his head towards the water. They nodded in return then began to file into the lake. Twilight barely had time to slip the necklace back over her head, and see that Spike and Rainbow Dash had done the same, before the guard gave her a smirk and said, “Time to go for a swim.”
Twilight shot one last look over her shoulder at Applejack and Rarity. Neither of them were smiling. They were whispering back and forth though. From this distance, however, Twilight couldn’t make out what they were saying. She just hoped they weren’t planning anything risky. She was sure she could resolve this situation non-violently.
Twilight turned back to the lake and watched as her friends cautiously entered. Before long, their heads had sunk below the surface and she and the guard standing next to her were the only ones left. He nudged her forward. Instinctively, Twilight took a deep breath before entering the water.
As soon as she broke through the surface, she instantly felt the chill water wash over her. It wasn’t frigid, but it certainly was no hot spring either. Twilight held her mouth shut, still afraid of breathing in the water. Eventually though, lack of oxygen forced her to open her mouth and breathe in the cool lake water. She expected it to feel like drinking water, though she wasn’t sure why. Instead, however, it felt more like breathing, just… wetter. It was difficult to explain and Twilight feared that if she concentrated too hard on thinking about the logistics of breathing water, she may drown herself. So, she pushed those thoughts out of her mind and focused on finding where Rainbow Dash and Spike had gotten too.
While the pendant may have allowed her to breathe underwater, it certainly didn’t allow her to see any better. The lake was dark and murky, and the lower she descended, the harder it was to see. However, if she strained her eyes, she could just barely make out Rainbow a dozen or so feet ahead using her wings to propel herself forward. Twilight considered telling Rainbow Dash that the upward motion of her wings would create more drag than the downward stroke was worth, but then she remembered that she couldn’t speak underwater either. Perhaps these pendants weren’t so great after all.
A little behind Rainbow Dash, she saw Spike paddling his way forward. His method may have expended less energy than Rainbow’s way, but it was a heck of a lot slower. Clearly dragons weren’t meant for swimming. Twilight decided to see where the seapony she had spoke with was and looked to her left and right, but he was nowhere to be found. Then, she looked up, and there he was.
It was amazing how at-home they, the seaponies, looked in the water. Though, Twilight supposed, it wasn’t that surprising given their name and all. On land, they had been somewhat sluggish, and their movements, practiced as they were, didn’t look normal. But here, under hundreds of gallons of water, they moved through the water like Rainbow flew through the air. Their fins propelled them forward at great speeds, though it was clear they were purposely moving slow so as to not lose track of their prisoners.
Twilight then realized that she was moving awfully slowly. She had been so focused on gathering information on her surroundings, that she hadn’t even realized she was barely kicking at all. Ponies, as anyone can guess, weren’t exactly made to be water-faring creatures, but Twilight had done some swimming before. She wasn’t particularly good at it, but she was able to flail around enough to propel herself forward at an acceptable speed. She wished she had had more time to develop some sort of transformative spell to give her more hydrodynamic limbs specifically for this purpose, but she knew it was just wishful thinking. An explosive spell would’ve also worked, but she had a feeling the other ponies, and seaponies, and Spike, wouldn’t appreciate the concussive blast she would’ve had to create.
As it stood, Twilight had to be content with slowly doggy-paddling her way towards, well, now that she thought about it, she didn’t know where they were headed. She was just following Spike and Rainbow Dash, who were following the seaponies ahead of them in-turn. Without anything else to do, Twilight resigned herself to following blindly for the moment and she was rewarded for her patience not too long after.
It started off as a faint glow, just a sort of vague light in the distance, but as they got closer, that glow became brighter and brighter. It was only now that Twilight realized how far down they had gone. It appeared that this lake was a lot deeper than she had previously thought. They were now approaching what appeared to be a building. It had a few lights hanging around the entrance that were made of some sort of bioluminescent material, and as they got closer, Twilight realized that there were a pair of guards hanging around the entrance. The entrance, by the way, was not a hole in the rock as she would’ve expected. In actuality, the entrance was beneath the rock-face. And as they got closer and closer, she noticed that the seaponies leading the pack were diving beneath the wall of rock and disappearing.
She had only begun to suspect that perhaps they were entering some sort of underwater cave when it was her turn to dip beneath the rock. She looked up. She could see the surface of the water where Rainbow Dash had just broken through and was helping Spike up and her suspicions were confirmed.
With a few extra-powerful kicks, she pushed herself towards the water’s surface and broke through into a damp, though well-lit, cave. She attempted to take a deep breath when she realized she was still wearing the necklace and her deep breath turned into a gasp. As she was busy struggling with removing the necklace, she felt a pair of hooves, and dragon claws, grasp her flailing limbs and pull her up.
She felt the necklace being torn from her neck, and oxygen was restored to her lungs. She inhaled deeply, feeling a wave of relief wash over her. As she attempted to regain full cognitive function, she felt a hard pat on her back. Coughing, she looked up. Rainbow smiled back down at her.
“Not bad, Twi. Never figured you for much of a swimmer. Did better than Spike though, heh.”
Spike frowned. “Dragons weren’t made for swimming. It’s not my fault I have these stubbly little arms.” He waved his arms around to show their stubbliness.
Rainbow chuckled. She gave Spike a playful noogie. “I’m just messin’ with ya, bud. No offense meant.”
He pushed her hoof away. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He looked around. “Hey, wait,” he said suddenly. “Where’re all the seaponies?”
Twilight looked around. He was right, there were no seaponies to be found. It was odd. It was like they had just disappeared without a trace. Before Twilight could offer an explanation though, the guard from before clambered out of the water and into the cave with them. He looked down at Twilight.
“The king is right through here,” he said. “He’s waiting for you.”
Twilight nodded solemnly. “Let’s go meet him then.”
Rainbow Dash nodded too. “I’ll tell him what’s what.”
Spike sighed, mumbling, “My gut tells me it isn’t gonna be that easy.”
The seapony motioned towards the tunnel leading away from the pool they had exited from. “Shall we?” he said.
With a collective intake of breath, the pair of ponies and singular dragon gathered themselves up and followed the guard down the torch-lined hallway.
Meanwhile, up on the surface, Applejack glanced over to Rarity.
“Welp, I think we’ve given ‘em long enough. Whaddaya say, Rare?”
Rarity, who looked even more restless than Applejack, nodded firmly. “Yes, it’s been quite long enough indeed. Let’s go get them.”
Applejack chuckled. “Heh, yer more fired up than I am. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for gung-ho, but mind if I ask what’s got your bridle in a bunch?”
Rarity’s lips tightened. “Spike, he…” she trailed off. Her eyes drifted to the lake, then hardened. “He told me something earlier,” she finished. “But let’s not dwell on the past. Let us look to the future. The future where we rescue Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Spike from villainous seaponies that is.”
Applejack grinned. “Now that’s a future worth fightin’ for. Well, heck, we’ve kept ‘em waitin’ long enough. I think it’s about time we head after ‘em, don’cha think?”
Rarity simply stared at the lake, unmoving. “Quite,” she said.
With that, they pair headed towards the lake’s shore. As they were about to dive in, Applejack held up a hoof.
“Hang on, a sec. I was just thinkin’ about somethin’,” she said. “How’re we supposed to, y’know, breathe down there?”
Rarity stopped in her tracks, all her previous conviction suddenly vanishing. “Uhh…”
“Well, shoot…”
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Welp, it's finally here. The
long-awaitedvaugely-anticpated 29th chapter of my increasingly long story, Letters From a Friend.Man, sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I know I usually try to release chapters every 2-3 weeks, but this past week and a half has been ridiculously busy. Between extra hours at work and both my and my roommate's family coming to visit, it's been hard to find time to write (apparently not that hard though since I did release a new story). Anyway, enough with the excuses, let's talk about this chapter.
As indicated by the coloring of the title, and the fact that there's seaponies and Twilight and Co. are involved, this takes place after Washed up on the Rocks. Yes, as it turns out, that coin actually did mean something. Now, as for what exactly that is, well, guess you'll have to wait to find out... or, y'know, speculate in the comments. That's always welcome. Anywho, I'll do my best to get the next chapter out in a more timely fashion, though if you've followed me this far you know that that's an empty promise. Still though, I will try.
Until next time. I'm alexmagnet, and your reading this story (for some reason).
See you lemon tarts later...
3181648 I knew the coin would come into play sooner or later!
Hooray for basic reading skills, I guess.
It's nice to be back with Twilight and the gang after so many chapters on mind-blowingness with Trixie, and I'm looking forward to hear from Aria and the king whose name I can't remember.
Also, Rarity worring over Spike.
D'awww...
Until the next chapter!
I read half of the first chapter and will read the rest when I can find time. But really nice work, not many stories take this approach with Trixie, at least non that i can find.....
3181648 For me it was long awaited
Technically, she wants hydrodynamic limbs, which would be very different
Too bad Fluttershy couldn't be there for them.
Also does Rarity have a spell that allow to breathe underwater?
3182030 yOU MEAN TWILY???????????????????????????????????????// HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM XD
3181789
If I recall correctly, I don't think I ever gave the king a name. He was just "The Seapony King". That being said, I'll have to reread the chapter where Trixie meets him to be sure because I will be naming in the next Twilight chapter.
3182017
This is true. I was blanking on "hydrodynamic" for some reason while writing this and just went with "aerodynamic". I'll go ahead and change it though. Thanks for pointing it out.
This is awesome, read 29 chapters in a single solitary sitting! Keep up the awesome work!
3182748 King Evil Carnivorous Monster Of Pure Evil That Should Die Slowly Sliding Down A Pike In the Blazing Sun If He So Much As Harm's A Hair On Twilight's Mane?
We'll call him KECMOPETSDSSDAPItBSiHSMAHAHOTM for short.
3181648
)
More chapters, faster!
In seriousness, I'm enjoying the story thus far, I hope it continues through to the end (unlike so many other fics I've read but never did
Well done. Let's hope that the King is understanding and that the daughter doesn't botch things up, but she will. Until then!
3182030
Apparently not. And no Gillyweed either.
3184948 just ignore that. i have that when i was a new fag but now that i have lurked more i see that it was the wrong word
3181648 Cool story. Personally, I like the somewhat unpredictable nature of each chapter (though given the last ten, the next chapter is Trixie Flashback, since this chapter was Twi and last chapter was Trixie Present) and I think it works well to tell the story. As flashbacks should be, they aren't always connected or consecutive, and it really works for the story. Good luck with the writing time (I know that feeling).
3185039 What is the immortal is a ghost?
THEN BY DEFINITION THEY CAN'T DIE!!
*crazy logic is best logic*
3182748 The only reason I knew it was a thing is because of Spongebob
Yay! Glad to see this updated! Though the coin probably wasn't the best method. Twi's very adapt with magic, and the seaponies were not expecting any magic casters, so if she was quick enough, the easiest solution would've been to magically swipe the tridents away from the seaponies. Most of the seaponies would likely be caught off guard and let their weapon slip, and the few that would've had a strong enough grip could probably be shaken off, or at least had their spears locked in position enough that they'd be ineffective.
Twenty vs five would still be a very uneven match, but the land ponies would have all the weapons, the maneuverability on land not afforded to seaponies, flight, and magic. At that point, numbers really don't matter nearly as much when you have absolutely no other advantages or leverage over your opponents.
3185039
I don't even know what that is.
I am glad you enjoyed the story though. There's plenty more where that came from.
3186789
A good a reason as any.
3187501
It's true. Trusting her safety to a vague hunch probably wasn't the best idea, but in my (and by extension, Twilight's) defense, I needed the coin to come back, and I needed it to be in such a way that it resolved some conflict, if only temporarily. On top of that, Twilight was pressed for time. No plan was the best plan. I did try to make it clear that she wouldn't be able to perform large acts of magic under such stressful and time-constrained conditions though. She could've probably defeated them with magic, but it would've been neither clean nor efficient.
You used the same word twice. Twice.
Something tells me this chapter received a smidge less effort than other chapters. You spent a lot of time describing Twilight's thoughts on an awful lot of things that were pretty inconsequential, and even some of the brief dialogue in here sounded a little wordy and out of place. You also forgot the line break when cutting to Rarity and Applejack's scene, which was the most interesting part of the chapter.
I do hope our heroes do some damage to those seaponies. They're such jerks!
The coin, I imagine, will be a treasured historical artifact to the seaponies, probably something that ties into the creation myth Tiamat described earlier (or is it later? Arrrgh, so confused!). I find it likely that the seaponies' mythology/history will be something of their own conception, but it will have distinct parallels to the dragons'. I may have said this in a previous comment, but the underlying connectivity between all mythologies is what the third StarGate movie - had it become a trilogy - would have been about.
3188789
Ah, thanks for pointing those out. I'll change them.
With regards to effort put into this chapter, that may well be the case. There wasn't a conscious effort on my part to put less effort in, but given that I was worried about having not updated in nearly a month, it's quite possible I let myself get carried away with the inconsequential stuff in an effort to artificially lengthen the chapter. That being said, I'll make a conscious effort this time to make the next chapter be better. Oh, and I'll fix that line break, too.Thanks.
As for the coin's purpose/history. Well, I obviously don't want to give anything away, but let's just say you may or may not be on to something there.
I was also wondering how they were going to follow with being able to breath under water.... I guess that answers that.
At the end, I think a F
ck was in order.
great chapter
By the way, how long do you plan on keeping this story going? Because from what I can see, it's going to be pretty lengthy. Not that that's a bad thing, I just wanna know how much time I have before I have to say goodbye to Letters
Yes, it's so very impressive how Twilight was able to make the simple conclusion of the necklace being enchanted after being it being implied already that it's enchanted to deal with water breathing.
Spike the T-Rex?
3200102
Yes, it was rather irresponsible. 'Course, maybe that was the point? Maybe I'm just making shit up so I don't sound like I accidentally made Twilight do something really irresponsible? Maybe it's been so long since I wrote that chapter I totally forgot that happened? Maybe—I think you get the point. Thanks for the comments though. Seriously though, that probably wasn't the best thing to have Twilight do, but I wasn't really thinking about it at the time.
3201193
Oh, I don't think it'll be done anytime soon. By my rough estimate, I'm a little less than halfway done, and since it's taken me nearly a year to get this far, I wouldn't expect this to end for at least another 6-7 months, probably longer than that honestly. Glad you're enjoying it though.
3202691
Heh, glad you liked it.
3207269
Yeaaaaaaaaaah...
Maybe he's just, like, really easily impressed... or something.
3210446
My assumption was just that he had really low expectations of non-seapony intelligence.
3210446 Yay!
this is going to be an adventure 
And caught up with one of my favorite stories. Ah, Applejack and Rarity. A for effort, F for results.
Shoo-be-doo, indeed.
I'm saddened by the fact that Twilight's abilities (both mental and magical) vary so much fiction-to-fiction. Diversity is great, but it's strange to read about Twilight being a complete badass in one fic, then having what would be just slightly above-average magic. Some even compared her to Celestia or Luna in magical ability, if not stronger. I believe the one episode that expressed her true ability was in which she lifted the Ursa Minor, the water Tower (Which was sheet-metal, most likely riveted iron, mind you), the water inside that tower, while manipulating all of that. I'd say that attests to her being quite a bit stronger than presented here. Idk.
Some part of me half expected Twilight to go all Rambo and yank the tridents out of the seapony's grips before they even knew what hit em.
Or perhaps engulf them all in telekinesis, holding them in the air, flailing around like [PUN REDACTED FOR STUPIDNESS].
As for teleportation,
Teleportation is argued wildly among fans as to its difficulty. Some state that teleporting is essentially not that against the laws of nature, it's just moving from point A to B, but a bit faster. Generally, we assume the difficulty increases with 1: Distance from what you're teleporting (excluding yourself, of course) 2: Size/Weight of the object being teleported 3: Distance from the place you are teleporting to.
Some theorize that you can't teleport to an area you aren't familiar with, and aren't concentrating on. Some stories show long-distance multiple mile teleports as being possible under the right conditions, even to unknown areas.
Goddamnit. I need a thread somewhere to discuss magical teleportation theory.
3223993
The goal was for Tiamat to be kind of a hardass, but not unduly cruel. I hope that's the effect I achieved. Also, yes, choice vs. destiny is kind of a big thing in this fic. You'll see a lot more of it as the story progresses. Oh, and in regards to Anvil... well, let's just say you should find out shortly as I'm planning on having the next chapter up this weekend.
3227157
It's true. I never really thought about it, but Twilight does have wildly different abilities depending on whose fic you're reading. I always thought of her as a somewhat skilled unicorn who knew more magic than the average pony, but wasn't god-tier in her skill. 'Course, this was started before her alicornification, so I didn't take that into account. Now I might be more inclined to make her more powerful, but really, where's the fun in her just stomping all over everything she comes across just because she's crazy powerful? Plus, I needed her to not kick the beejezus out of the seaponies for a reason. A reason which you will see later. I did, however, try to keep her abilities consistent at least within the context of this fic, and I hope I've done that.
And as for teleportation, well, I sort of took the Jumper route with it (even though I hate that movie), in that only some people/ponies can do it, and you can only teleport to places you've been to or have seen somewhere. Plus, the fact that I specifically said it was difficult and required concentration heads-off any questions about "Why didn't they just teleport straight to Trixie? Wouldn't that have been easier?" Yes, it would be easier, and absolutely boring to read. The whole point of the this fic is the journey, and if you shorten that by throwing in arbitrary teleportation, then it sorta ruins the vibe.
However, all that being said, outside of this fic, I usually think of her teleportation ability being as good as it needs to be. If she only needs to teleport short distances, then that's all she can do. If she needs to appear in Canterlot suddenly, then so be it.
One helluva ride.
I started reading this fic, like, yesterday....and here we are now on chapter 29. This was one i simply could not put down (for more then a few minutes at a time, and that part where i went to bed last night, anyways). It has humor, which i always love, and it has mystery. It has suspenseful action-packed adventuring and a JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE WORLD!
You can't beat a good JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE WORLD! They're epic and we need more movies about them.
I can say, without a doubt, that this is the best written and most interesting Trixie-based story i've seen to date. Granted i've only seen about 5 or 6 total, as of now, but this one really stands out. I've never really cared for Trixie all that much. I haven't out-right hated her, but i certainly didn't go out of my way to read works about her. I'm really glad i checked this one out, though, as i love how she is portrayed here.
This is a well-written story insofar that, so far, i've cared to some extent about the fates of each character presented so far. Such is a very rare occurrence, but i always find it a good thing wondering what will become of Mary Sue, or pondering on what Joe Schmoe will do next. It's a nice feeling.
What i really like about this? It has Spike. It doesn't have all the members of the Mane 6, but it has Spike. Plenty of other adventuring fics, even ones along the lines of a JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE WORLD!, have all the members of the Mane 6 or random background ponies and such along for the ride and doing stuff of import....but they don't have Spike. He's one of my favorite characters from the show and has always seemed a bit under-appreciated, both on the t.v. screen and off, and he's never really allowed to quest with the girls. I will almost always be impressed by stories and authors who change that fact and flip that script.
All in all, this is a most excellent fic. I'm really looking forward to more.
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Sheesh, how do you people do it? I've gotten many many comments from people who marathoned this fic in one or two days, and it blows my mind. 90k is like 200~ pages... who has time for that?! Anyway, that's incredibly flattering, and I'm sincerely glad that you've enjoyed the ride up to this point, and I hope you continue to do so. Oh, and thank you very much for all the compliments. It means a lot to hear that you cared at least somewhat about all the characters presented so far. That's sorta the goal of any author really, but it seems as though very few manage to hit that mark. So if I'm one of those few (at least in your eyes) then I'll take that as a major victory.
And also yes, Spike doesn't get near enough love. I'm hoping to make him suitably badass by the end of this fic. Well, as badass as a baby dragon can be anyway.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and keep your eyes peeled for new chapters. I release them on a semi-regular basis (roughly every 2-3 weeks, give or take).
I don't always like Trixie Lulamoon, but when I do, it's in this fanfic. Congrats, man. This is so far the only place I've liked Trixie.
RIP Applejack and Rarity
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I read this comment before reading the chapter and got really worried for a minute.