A Letter from a Princess
Dearest Black Jack,
The last conversation that I had with my sister Luna, before the darkness in her soul overtook and her she became… something other than my beloved sister, was one of casual dismissal. A thousand years have passed but it is still a day that brings tears to my eyes and poisons every one of my dreams. Even Luna’s return has not eased the constant guilt on my heart and the bitter knowledge that I sent my younger sister to a place of loneliness and isolation. I have tried to convince myself that I had no choice. I have stared at the mirror for days on end and assured myself I made the right decision. I remember it like it was yesterday.
It was the morning after Equestria’s first lunar eclipse. I was still so very young at that time, so new to the responsibility of raising the sun and watching over the day. I was so burdened with the work of keeping order in a kingdom filled with bigotry, tension and confusion. I am sure that you have suffered crimes at the hooves of pegasi or unicorns, but what is seen now is nothing compared to the hatred that filed every stallion and mare’s heart. How I reveled when some new tyrant popped up and my sister and I were called to fight. If I could, I would actually thank King Sombra for his tyranny or Discord for his insanity, because doing battle with them broke the endless monotony of government duties and keeping foals in line. I was young and I craved adventure and battle, not trivial matters such as the nature of the harvest or the growing animosity between the unicorns and the pegasi.
I had just raised the sun and trotted tiredly into the throne room. There were meetings to attend, decrees to be made, documents to plant my hoofprint upon. I sat at my throne and began the tired, endless work. I was not even aware I had company until Luna gave a weak tug at my mane.
“What?” I remember asking. I didn’t even take my eyes off the scroll I was reading, which documented the encroachment of earth walker settlers onto unicorn land. I would have to settle the dispute, as usual.
“Sister,” Luna said. In public, her voice could make the stars twinkle with life but whenever she spoke to me she could barely raise her voice above a whimper. I was always annoyed about that. “Sister, yesterday was the lunar eclipse.”
“And?” I asked.
“The moon was blocked by the shadow of the planet. It disappeared from the sky.”
The earth walkers said they needed more land to support their booming population. The unicorns said that was intolerable. The land the earth walkers sought was one rich with magic. The earth walkers said that was why they needed it: their crops would grow plump and fat quicker than normal. All I could think about was how to make both of the tribes of children happy.
“A great celebration was had, to celebrate the moon’s disappearance. It was a festival!”
I remember thinking, perhaps they could share the land. During the growing season, the earth walkers could dominate the land and grow their crops. And in the off season, the unicorns could cast their spells. That would never work. The two tribes were like foals bickering. They did not know how to share.
“So… I was wondering if maybe… maybe you could go set the sun and I could raise the moon? Just for today. I can make the moon very, very bright, I promise. It’ll be as if the sun is in the sky, but everyone will be able to appreciate my moon like they do your sun every day. I mean, it’s just that… Maybe if the citizens saw it, they would want to stay up in the night and see it again.”
“Luna,” I said sharply. “We have been over this at least a dozen times. The earth walkers need the sun to grow their crops, the unicorns need the sun so they can read their spells, and the pegasi need the sun to keep the weather in order. I’m sorry no one came to your little night party but this isn’t the time for trivial matters.”
I stared at my scroll, reading it over again and again, sure that the answer was there between the lines. I decided the land rightfully belonged to the unicorns. I would just have to find more land to make the earth walkers happy. I heard low crying somewhere in the room and lifted my head just in time to see Luna attempting to push the door to the throne room open. Her magic was sparking little black blobs as she struggled to remember how to open the enchanted door. Before she could open the door, the sadness in her heart overtook her, and she started to sob openly, unable to stop the wails. Do you know, for a moment, I actually wondered what she was crying about?
I called out to her, but she managed to open the door and rushed away. I tried to give chase when I was suddenly blocked by a representative of the earth walker tribe who demanded my attention. My thoughts waned. Luna was an adult. Luna was strong. Luna was mature. Every few weeks, Luna got like this. When no pony stayed up to see her meteor showers or her constellations, she sobbed like a filly but she was fine the next morning. Tomorrow she would be fine. I was sure of it. After a moment, I was no longer thinking about Luna, but listening to the trivial whines of the representative.
The next day, Luna was no longer my sister. She was a cruel mockery of the pony who I loved so dearly. Her fears and insecurities had been given shape and she had taken a form that better reflected her nightmares. Nightmare Moon became what she believed all saw her as. Nightmare Moon was how she believed I saw her… I had to fight her. I had to banish her to another world, unsure if I would ever see her again.
The days that followed were actually the easiest. The battle had been far worse than the legends speak of. For the days that followed, my body was absolutely racked in agony, although I did not mind. The physical ache in my bones and the burns in my skin kept my mind off the simple fact that I had banished my own sister. I had failed to protect her, and been forced to take action against her. Then the toil of raising both the sun and the moon, of governing a society laced with tension and fear, kept me from focusing on what I had done. By day, I needed to be strong for the empire. I pushed my tears and the sickness in my stomach far down and never let it see the light. I assured my empire that, someday, my sister would return. I promised all her friends that one day they would see her again. Even as they withered and died, I promised them each that in the next life, they would see her. When the next generation rose, I allowed Luna’s memory to fade into obscurity in the hope of sparing them the burden that I alone was tasked with carrying.
It was only years later that I could bear to enter Luna’s wing of the castle. I had never shed tears over what I had done. That is not to say that I was callous of my sister’s fate. I told myself, again and again, that tears would solve nothing. If I allowed myself to cry, I would be admitting my own weakness. I had done what I had to do, I told the mare in the mirror each and every morning when I woke. Perhaps it was even Luna’s fault. She had broken under the pressure, and selfishly left me alone to carry the weight of the empire on my back. I found blaming her was easier.
I thought that cleaning out her room might somehow prove cathartic. It would be a chance to say goodbye to my sister. By this time, I had learned of a way to free Luna, but it would not be for a thousand years, and I wasn’t sure I could last through the following day without doing something, anything to ease the constant guilt I felt. I stepped into her room with hesitant steps. I felt weakness wash over me, but I beat it back with the same fury I used against Discord or Sombra. I used my magic to illuminate the darkness of Luna’s room, the darkness which had never subsided despite its mistress’ absence. And suddenly I found myself staring into a mirror, and for the first time I realized tears were rolling down my face. My eyes were so puffy and my face was twisted into a look of shame and sadness. Had I been crying all these years and just never noticed? I felt weak and ashamed but I did not care. The reflection was of a mare but I saw only a filly, confused and scared and all alone in this world.
What if I had put down my scroll and listened to Luna’s concerns? What if I had gathered Luna into my arms and assured her it would be alright? What if I had chosen that moment to tell Luna about the big surprise I was planning, that I was trying to perfect the solar eclipse where the moon would block the sun? Or what if I had been stronger? What if I hadn’t been forced to use the Elements of Harmony, but could have restrained my sister with my own magic and found a way to purge her of the evil in her heart myself? What if I hadn’t been so weak? A thousand questions rushed through me all at once. I was a filly faced with an eternity of loneliness, and I allowed myself to cry as if I had never cried before.
I am older now and better accustomed to the threats that encroach on my empire. The tension between the three tribes has been eased and although there are occasional hostilities, it has been years since I was called for arbitration. Luna has returned to my side. The burden of raising the moon is no longer on my back. In fact, Luna is strong enough to raise the sun, and I have actually managed to sleep in on some mornings, like a lazy colt who does not want to go to school.
When I look at the conflict with the humans, however, I am once more that little filly, sobbing in her lost sister’s room. I feel like I have failed not only my citizens, but these creatures who I want so badly to help. I always wonder, when does a situation slip out of our grasp? Had all the anger inside Luna swelled in that one night? Or had it been building for so long and I was simply too blind to see it? Was the eclipse the final straw that broke her frail heart in two? Or had some sort of nightmare entity corrupted my sweet little sister into something monstrous? Whatever the cause, the fact remained that one moment Luna was before me and the next she was gone from my care. One moment we are blissful in our dreams of helping the humans, and the next we are forced to put them down like rabid dogs.
I am quite aware of the unflattering portrayals that have sprouted up in recent months. They call me a tyrant and a puppet master. They claim that I have somehow orchestrated the entire war effort, for some insidious goals, or simply for my own sadistic amusement. Glamour spells are well within my abilities, and frequently I slip out of the castle and into the cities and towns to learn what is said about me over pints of cider. My heart weeps at the accusations, but I never allow any to see my tears, because that is unbecoming of a princess.
This war, which was not even thought of as a war when it began, has swelled into a monster that consumes all in its path. My days are filled with planning but my nights are filled with dread that the humans might somehow discover a portal to our world and inflict the same pain and misery that we have done to them. Every night I am haunted by my crimes and the sins that weigh on my heart. I would seal every portal between our world and theirs and banish this dark chapter of our history to legend, if only I could. We have passed the point of no return. I must hold out hope that an end to this conflict is in sight. Perhaps tomorrow. Perhaps the day after that, or the day after that. I must hold out hope that the conflict can be resolved, and both the humans and us ponies will be better for it.
Perhaps I am a tyrant. Perhaps some part of me seeks to rule over the humans just as I rule over ponies. Or perhaps I am just an idealistic filly who cannot recognize when to give up. I cannot give up now, though. Even if I must carry on with the war, I must continue, or all that has been lost will have been for nothing. I must hold out hope that an end is within sight, and a better day will soon be dawning.
As I look at all I have put down, I must admit I doubt this letter shall ever escape my desk. The citizens look to me for strength. I am the light in the darkness, I am the sun of the world. You a soldier of the empire, but you can drop your spear and remove your armor, and return to your life as a workhorse. How I envy you. I cannot remove my crown. The weight upon my back is great but my body has been conditioned through millennia to endure it. Someday, I shall step down. Or, more likely I shall finally confront the conflict that I cannot settle. Luna shall take my place, or Cadance, or Twilight Sparkle and her many friends. Or perhaps you shall rise, and take your place as a king of an empire. If nothing else, I can take solace that there are ponies like you, who are willing to question my motives and who give me a reason to fight. An eternity in this world, I forget... certain things. Bless my sister, and bless Twilight Sparkle and her friends. They remind me of why I raise the sun each day.
I thank you, Captain Black Jack of the Ninth Lunar Battalion. If nothing else, it has been cathartic to put these emotions, housed so long inside me, down on paper. Perhaps I can seal them away and continue forth.
With love in my heart, for you and all my children,
And infinite gratitude for all you do,
Princess Celestia
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This story has potential, I am hoping it grows into something great. :)
I would like it if this series continued, it's really good.
2249299 If I think of another idea, I will post another chapter. Perhaps Luna sending a letter to Celestia.
2249642 If I think up more ideas, I would be happy to.
brilliant
excellent work. would be interesting to show the human perspective
2251208 I was playing with an idea. I like the language barrier aspect, but some unicorns can translate do to their psychic powers. So I had the thought of the humans capturing a unicorn and then forcing her to write a letter to Princess Celestia. I just wasn't sure what could be said.
I like this, but I'd like to point out, unless Celestia vaporised everyone, we would win on force of numbers alone. Planes go higher than Pegasus can fly, we have firearms, we are bigger. This is of course, discounting the possibility we learn to use magic with technology, through experimentation on unicorns. (plot point lol?) yeah if we didn't want them, I doubt they would kill hundreds of millions- perhaps billions in the name of "helping us". Especailly if they were smart enough to realise that we are not so different after all.
2253934 Numbers and size aren’t exactly clear. We’ve only seen a small number of population hubs in Equestria, and even those are remarkably densely packed. I would actually say that, if the entirety of Equestria was taken into account, the numbers might be somewhat comparable. And as for us being bigger, I assume you mean physically? I’ve actually always assumed that the ponies were just that, the size of horses and ponies. Black Jack is the size of a draft horse and physically strong enough to stop a bulldozer in its tracks. Pegasi can fly significantly faster than planes. I’m not totally sure what flying higher has to do with anything. Pegasi such as Rainbow Dash have also shown enough endurance to survive mach 10 speeds and crash full force into a pillar of rocks with little more than being dizzy afterwards.
I always write them as balanced. Black Jack is a draft horse who is wearing enchanted/heavy armor akin to what the palace guards where. A significant amount of his body is protected. Certainly, if nothing else, center mass is protected. At first, the armor would be able to stop the 5.56x45mm NATO round. Black Jack would be able to rush a group of soldiers and knock Humvees over with a shoulder ram or turn humans into jelly with a buck of the back leg. However, as Black Jack mentions, the humans started using armor piercing rounds. While they don’t always penetrate, sometimes they do.
Pegasi, such as the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash, and Mai Valentine (one of my OCs,) are fast enough to out fly several jets. They don’t require expensive fuel or as much start up. They could certainly zip in, do some damage (perhaps even dodge bullets), and then zip out. Unicorns, similarly, have various powers. One of my OCs, Dew Drop, has control over water. If another unicorn had the power to amplify his abilities, he could conceivably lift a flood. Then there are natural abilities, such as teleportation and telekinesis that could easily translate to offensive abilities. That’s not even getting into the princesses. Luna (who is handling the war effort while Celestia remains in Equestria) could pull the moon closer, effecting the tides and causing hurricanes and flooding. Lastly, there is the fact that their magic portals can most likely open anywhere, allowing quick attacks and quick retreats.
That’s not to say that the ponies would curbstomp us (this was actually written to be more realistic.) Like I said, to combat the pegasi’s speed, humanity would simply fill the sky with missiles and bullets (a tactic utilized during WW1 against fighter planes.) Bullets bounce off armor, so they make stronger bullets. Unicorns have various magic abilities, so humanity starts employing snipers with iron bullets to take the threat out before its even away its in danger.
As far as killing hundreds of millions, Black Jack vaguely references that in his first letter. I think that would be a one time thing of Luna casting some sort of super-spell, but like dropping the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, it would certainly have an enormous impact on humanity’s will to fight until they were able to bounce back.
So, at least in my view and how I have written it up, I think they would be pretty evenly matched, with the war shifting back and forth.
the speed of pegasi is probably closer to mach 1, the angle of the cone (which indicates mach 8) is most likely a quirck of the animation. (notice how there are no repeated booms?) and just eyeballing it, when rainbow dash does a rainboom, the speed is nowhere close to mach 10 .the hieght of the ponies-I could see them bieng that big, I was thinking of the female ones, they are like, 3 ft tall. also hieght is important because planes that go high enough would be impossible to defend against, they could shoot missiles and you wouldn't hear or see it coming untill you were red mist.
I still like the story, btw, how long do you plan on keeping it going?
2257906 The inconsistency in the show does make it a bit difficult to figure out. I think Rainbow Dash might be a special case in terms of speed, but if the pegasi were actively training, I think they could reach top speeds. As for the height, I usually imagine the average sized female (Rarity for example) being around 5 feet at eye level. Twilight would be a bit smaller, AJ would be a bit larger. The males, probably anywhere six to seven feet. Of course, assuming characters like RD are meant to be thoroughbreds and Big Mac are meant to be draft horses, their size is inconsistent, since Big Mac would be much, much bigger compared to RD.
Anyway, just for argument's sake, they are (relatively) even in terms of military power. They go back and forth, with science vs. magic, natural abilities (ponies) vs. technological argumentation (fighter jets, tanks, etc.)
As far as continuing this, if I can come up with additional ideas for the letter format, I will continue writing. I haven't got any ideas right now though.
2259641 look as long as a pony cant kick over a tank no one is OP.
3590982 Yeah. I have seen people's OCs who can do that effortlessly. Or effortlessly stop a nuke with magic. Or effortlessly avoid a flurry of bullets. Key word: effortlessly.
Take a character like Big Macintosh, or my OC Black Jack (both are draft horses with above average strength.) If in a situation of extreme duress, such as one of their friends is pinned under a tank, they might, MIGHT be able to lift it. This is based on reality: a normal body only uses 10% of it's potential strength to avoid hurting itself. If the full strength is utilized, vital systems of the body are shut down, along with you risking extreme damage to your muscle and skeletal system.
Speaking of Black Jack, both the narrator of this fic and my personal OC: he could technically kick over a tank, if he braced himself, used both legs, and his entire system was being flooded with adreniline. If he did manage that feat, at least one of his legs would be shattered and he would be out of the commission for several months. In other words: it is no where even approaching a logical tactic that the ponies would employ. Black Jack dragging a tank on the other hand, is logical, but it would slow him down a great deal. And, you know, there would be all the other tanks he would have to worry about. With armor piercing bullets. And tank cannons. And his magic armor can only take so much.
2254487 Mach ten? what the fuck are you on about a sonic rainboom is mach one and she is one of the only ones that can do it. modern plains do mach seven easy and the faster ones go at 9 - 12 if this is durring ww1/ 2 then i am sorry for the useless facts but we are also forgetting predator drones as well as cruise missiles. it would be a slaughter.
Also we are forgetting that we have far superior weaponry. Also kicking over a tank. you mean a vehicle that weighs anything from 30 to 70 tons. a draft horse can weigh anything from 1000 to 1500 pounds. There is no comparison. Also remembering that we have flash bangs. that would not only disorientate a pony but make it a target for a bullet. Also from what we have seen there is no Equestrian military they have exposed flesh parts in the army, throat, legs and muzzle. tanks 40-60 mm weapons would shred ponies regardless of shield. you see when something hits something else it causes friction. Not only would it exhaust the unicorn with the shield but would quickly start to exhaust them. This is why they could not survive flame-throwers. The heat from it + the heat from the friction would cook them alive. Horses can be crushed by regular cars if going fast enough. I doubt humvees used to survive bullets and RPG's would be knocked aside by a charging horse. Maybe an elephant. We also forget attack helicopters. designed to survive missiles and emp attacks they would make red paste for all ponies. Military ships test there guns by targeting one seagull out of a massive flock and shoot only that one there guns are meant to shoot down far faster and deadlier targets jets and missiles. Pegasi would be crushed by a fleet of ships.
3635944 The World War 1 comment was simply that weapons evolve to meet the needs of the time. That’s all.
As I explicitly pointed out: the large, super strong stallions could conceivably kick over a tank just as a 100 lbs. woman can lift a car during a time of extreme duress. I think it’s common knowledge by this day and age: humans only use something like 5 to 10% of their potential strength to avoid harming themselves. Considering Big Macintosh can drag a house without any lasting damage, it’s not hard to accept that stallions possess strength far in excess of that.
Now, as far as the Equestrian Military: the closest we have seen is Royal Guard, people who are keeping order in a city that is firmly within their control. Basically, they’re the police. Just as the army has drastically superior weaponry and body armor to regular police, why does it baffle you that we simply haven’t seen the pony military? Seinfeld took place in New York City. Does that mean that in the world of the show, there is no military? Or have we simply not seen it? I think it should be obvious, but the Royal Guard are not the same as an actual military presence.
So, considering that we haven’t actually seen the pony military, we don’t actually know what they have, or how their powers can be used militaristically. There is no evidence how much shielding exhausts unicorns, considering Shining Armor was able to keep a shield up over an entire city for excess of several days, and that's being extremely conservative. I think the episode implied he had been doing this for several weeks, if not months. Chrysalis chose to use subterfuge instead of brute force, despite having a massive army of mooks. That says something.
What I dislike is when people compare Equestria!Ponies to mundane horses. While I certainly base some of my assumptions on mundane animals, considering we know nothing about pony anatomy, you can’t actually say X can kill a mundane horse, so X can kill a pony. The fact is, the ponies may very well have drastically different anatomy that allows them to endure blunt force trauma better than mundane horses.
All of this also ignores the fact that the ponies simply learn to adapt, just as humans have throughout history. If a sniper’s bullet can penetrate a pony’s cuirass, than they either enchant the cuirass or make it thicker. If bombs are being dropped, they bring in ponies who can support powerful shields like Shining Armor, which as explained above, we have no means of measuring how much a shield can actually endure. We have no possible idea of pony anatomy, which makes figuring their physical limitations difficult to calculate.
The fact that we haven’t seen pony military leaves a lot up for interpretations. In my personal lore, griffins tend to have more technological advancement than ponies, and have discovered gunpowder. Also, ponies would learn “long metal stick = bad.” But we don’t know how powerful magical spells can become, possibly with ponies such as Twilight Sparkle or Trixie (whose special talent seems to be magic) may be able to reach levels of magical output comparable to nukes. Armor may have the capacity to be enchanted and drastically increase the brute strength of stallions.
Dismissing these possibilities doesn’t make you seem smart or further your point, because it just shows a lack of critical thinking.
As pointed out in the story, Black Jack is also interacting with humans, to the extent that ponies are most likely living in human settlements/cities/etc. That means humans can’t simply nuke entire parts of the continent to kill the ponies without causing horrific causalities. Granted, it seems like no one is actually bothering to read the story any more. They just like complaining about the comments that are made, but the fact that the ponies at least claim to want to “civilize” the humans, they’re not going in and slaughtering people, humans may very well not want to go in and slaughter ponies, recognizing that they are sentient creatures. Invaders, yes, but sentient nonetheless. Because the narration of this fic is (purposely) so narrow, nothing about this world has been revealed. Heck, it’s entirely possible that the ponies are badly losing this war, but Celestia is keeping that under wraps for the time being.
I mean, I could go on, but the rampant whining of people who say this is illogical is just getting boring. If things like the Royal Guard being police, not military, isn’t painfully obvious to someone who has spent more than thirty second thinking about this, I really can’t do anything more. It is, tragically, the age of question of when does the creator’s responsibility end and when does the consumer’s responsibility begin? All the stuff that I keep having to outline should be obvious. We haven’t seen the pony’s military. We haven’t seen limitations in their speed or strength. Hell, we don’t even know if they are the size of tanks, and significantly larger than mundane horses. The number of unknowns means this fic is far from unrealistic, and I wish more than anything people would actually think before going on these pointless rants, especially since this is my fic, and my account, and you are a guest posting your opinions on it.
I didn't write this fic to get into debates about the merits of pony and modern warfare. I wrote this because I was tired of all the "benevolent invader" pony angles people were fawning over. That's really what the story is about. Problem is, no one reads the bucking story.
3636469 But the difference in weight between a tank and a horse is nearly 100 times greater also if we take gen one ponies then they are only half the size of humans and I doubt they got much bigger. Tanks are made specifically to be sturdy and not flip over. Where were the military when discord and chrysalises attacked. They knew they had been infiltrated and the fact that Celestia and cadence were hurt shows just how crappy they are. They still use spears and swords as shown they are not a artillery nor a gun fairing race. they have cannons but that is it. We cant just assume that ponies race is able to match us in military powerless because you want them to there has to be reasoning and facts to support these accusations.
You bring up the whole enchant armour thing. Enchantments require a constant power source to be effective other wise once the magic that was used to create it is spent the enchantments and spells would become nule. keeping an shield spell up as well as well as fighting would quickly drain the pony as was shown with shinning armour and cadence. Though both are unique cases as they are like twilight unnaturally strong. But it was shown that once drained enough simple head butting the shield could make it crumble. we are talking tanks mortars, 30-110 mm cannons, machine guns and so on. For an average pony that would quickly drain the user. Now your character seems to be quite a strong unicorn so I would assume that like shinning armour he could take blows like this. But what about the rest of the unicorns that are significantly weaker when compared to the ponies mentioned above. They would have to rely on there leader to keep them safe draining him faster.
Bullets are used to focus energy into a small area to make penetration easier.
2.2 kJ/mm^2 = ~2.2 MJ/m^2. That is for a 9mm pistol. A bullet focuses that level of energy on approximately 1 square millimetre.
That much force hitting such a specific part of the shield would crack it like an egg. If a bomb hit the shield since it is more finally spread the shield might hold but a bullet hits such a small but that if the shield is used to protect all parts equally meaning that something that rather than striking the whole area like a sword or a magical blast would be so small that the shock alone would probably kill the pony. imagine we invented armour that could stop a grenade from killing you. it would still kill you, whilst the shrapnel and blast may not kill you the force alone would break your ribs and most likely puncture all major organs. The reason for this is that force hits the armour and the armour does the damage for it.
Now if ponies are smart they would have second unicorn casting a cushion charm that if the bullet hits the shield it would stop the force from killing the pony but that leaves pony number two vulnerable and greatly reduces the unicorns that can be deployed to fight as well as giving humans a kill first target. That and the ponies would have to be strong enough to cast a cushion charm that would stop multiple or in some case dozens of bullets in seconds.
This is why your logic is flawed because you don't compensate for the science behind damage and weapons. Though ponies have the advantage of retreat but even then if they can what's to stop a human knocking out a pony secretly strapping C4 to there backs then leaving them to wake up and retreat to an outpost. Also I am slightly confused about the nuke thing you do remember that we dropped bombs on Japan on innocent civilians to force the japs to stop. hell S.A.S and navy seals as well as the Russian and Chinese special forces are revered as the best soldiers in the world, trust me they could clear a town of ponies with little trouble. Snipers first then flash bangs then send in the main team to gun down any stragglers. Sniper rifle bullets are even more powerful.
38,000 foot-pounds (51,521 J) of kinetic energy, the 20mm round that is nearly 25 thousand times the strength of the 9mm this would not only crack a shield open but would decimate any pony behind the user. Also no mater what armour the ponies used the power alone in the hit meant that if it didn't puncture a feat nearly impossible it would liquefy the unlucky sod. The force would crush the bone to powder and the organs would be reduced to jelly. Not pretty. As I have said doesn't matter how strong they are if a bullet was to hit a luckily powerful shield then the friction from the power of the bullet would most likely snap the horn in half if not out and out kill the pony. Trust me when I say magic is great but it has massive limitations. An Alicorn would fair better but even they would have there limitations. Regarding that a changeling that had fed off of shinning armour for roughly a month had the power to over power her and beat her. Morter or missiles if one hit an alicorn it would be over. They are of the chart crazy in regards to kinetic energy they would fry the poor alicorn into a kebab if she or he was unlucky enough to block it with a shield. literally cooked alive it is horrifying though.
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3640215 So, did you like, even read the whole post or did you jump at the chance to continue dweebing me on my own account?:
I didn't write this fic to get into debates about the merits of pony and modern warfare. Sorry, but you're months late to the party. I've had to go over this again and again and again and again.
I am tired of having to deal with this time and time again when I actually post fics hoping to have them commented on, not some dweebs beating dead horses about warfare because they saw some special on the History Channel and suddenly they're experts. I mean, I can't even get into your stuff anymore. I am literaly that exhausted trying to explain things to people like you.
Enchantments require a constant power source to be effective other wise once the magic that was used to create it is spent the enchantments and spells would become nule
Uh, where was that in the lore? The only time I can even remember something being enchanted was the Smarty Pants doll. Shining Armor and Cadance were naturally strong? There is no evidence that the Alicorns can put out any more power than a regular unicorn (the whole Physical God thing is purely fandom, and actually refuted repeatidly in the show). Shining Armor is also not an alicorn.
I mean... I can't stress this enough: you clearly have a great understanding about military warfare, but you back nothing up with lore on the magic. You just say that magic wouldn't work. Again, the show doesn't give us any real scale. It doesn't really show how much magic exerts ponies. It doesn't show limitations. You can't scale this stuff without that, so you saying that a mortar would cause damage, you don't know! You can't know, in fact.
The picture you posted alone is a tesiment of your inability to think crticially. There's no human in the picture, there for you don't have any concept of how tall they are. If the entire world is made to scale, scaling them based on their world doesn't give you anything. You would have somehow have an item that is explictly from our human universe thrown into the pony world, and then viewed alongside them. If you would like an example of scaling illusions, the Teletubby suits from the children's show were close to 10 feet tall. They built the entire set to scale to that ten feet, and brought in a special breed of rabbit that were enormous, so that they could give the viewer the illusion of the Teletubbies being smaller. Bottom line: you can't scale aliens.
I mean, hell, post a pic of Rainbow Dash sleeping on a cloud. The cloud is about her size. In the human world, clouds are usually huge. BY THE MOON, that must mean ponies are actually the Brobdingnag!
Now please. I didn't put this fic in Humans in Equestria group. Someone else did. I didn't ask for an influx of people who feel the need to defend humanity with their dying breath. If anything, this fic was meant to defend humanity and portray humans and ponies as more even.
In the name of Celestia: stop beating this dead horse going on and on about warfare, bringing up "magic rules" from other lores that have no bearing on this show. You can't apply the rules of Discworld or Harry Potter or anything to this lore, because this lore is in and of itself. You can post all the science about modern warfare, but the fact is, we don't know anything about the limitations of magic in this particular lore.
3640519 So in other words you are going with FUCK YOU its magic they are super mega powerful approach. And we can from the crown in Equestria girls and doing maths has shown that ponies are about ft tall at maximum. So there. Also its not magic rules its fucking science.
3640526 No. In fact, this fic was meant to show magic in a more realistic light. The ponies aren't curbstomping humanity. It's a brutal, slow, painful war for both sides. Not that you read the fic of course. Even the person who put this in the "Humans In Equestria" folder clearly didn't read the fic, since there are no humans. This is an inversion, with the ponies going to earth.
To answer your crown comment: the fact that the ponies transform into humans shows there is transformation during the portal trip. It's possible, indeed logical even, that the crown simply takes the shape that would be most convient for whatever form the travelers take. Again, just five additional seconds to think. How would the crown fit snuggly between ponies and humans otherwise, considering they have completely different craniums?
I dislike writing magic specifically because people too easily go "it's magic, shit happens." I have been told about fics where Pinkie Pie's PInkie Sense somehow allows her to sense bombs are being dropped. That's a case of "It's magic." This fic isn't. The Equestrian military has clear limiations, the characters have limitations to their abilities. I didn't write about it because that's not the goal of the fic. The fic is meant to be a quiet reflection. The humans aren't even that important. I chose humans because so many fics do the "it's magic" argument, and have humans get steam rolled. if anything, this fic was a struggle to to portray humans as competant, and fully capable of holding the line, beating back a group of invaders who have abilities and powers that humans have never encountered. It could just as easily have been a war between the ponies and griffons. And considering the response, people not even paying attention to the story but using this as a rallying point to rant, I really wish I had gone with that.
3640751 How is it realistic in any way? Ponies that can kick over tanks magic that can stop bullets it is bullshit. You have no theory behind how they do magic it is your story so give a fucking reason for them being able to do it then I can tear it apart logically. But at the moment your only argument is we don't know what magic can do. Well from what we have seen from the show not much. The ponies are weak and cowardly they are facing a foe that out number them massively as well as weaponry being superior in both war and intellectually. We can sit here and argue until we are blue in the face but how can ponies be our equals when there most advanced items seems to be the fucking camera. ones from the 19 century. Trains are pulled by ponies and they have no guns. Magic does not equal superior. But I like this fic regardless I am just concerned that it seems to be in favor of ponies which is ridicules
3641215 OK, against my better judgment, I am going to rehash the points I have been making, or that should be obvious. Regardless of that, chance are you’re going to continue trolling me. But it is my hope, you’ll finally leave me alone, because as I have said again and again: I am tired of having to rehash the same bucking points again and again and again. Since this fic has been up, I have had people going on and on about the absurdity, and I keep having to make the same points again and again. I shouldn’t even have to explain this since it should be obvious, but here goes. Once more:
1) Black Jack could damage a tank. I said conceivably knock it over. Black Jack, who is a draft horse, has a superhuman level of brute strength. Big Macintosh, who is a draft horse in the canon, has been shown with a near superhuman level of brute strength. As I then pointed out: it would require Black Jack to be under extreme duress, akin to a 100 pound woman lifting a car. The fact is, when adrenaline is flooding your system, you are capable of doing things that seem super human. That’s not magic. That’s science. Science that I assume everyone already knows about. Black Jack couldn’t normally tilt a tank. I even said that: it’s nowhere approaching a viable military tactic for him to go around bum rushing tanks. Congratulations leaping on a small point and screaming about it, though!
2) Magic armor. Thick enough materials are capable of stopping bullets, even without magic augmentation. Magical augmentation, either making the armor stronger to deflect bullets or, based on Kevlar: more flexible, would be able to stop bullets. I never said tank cannons. I never said if a mortar fell directly onto a pony, they would be able to be perfectly fine because they are wearing a magic hard hat. Bullets can be stopped by a lot of things though. Shields are different. Magic shields, as have been demonstrated, are capable of stopping blunt force impact. The shields aren’t going to remain up to a continued barrage, but the ponies also aren’t just going to stand there while the military wails on them. Keep in mind: wars are two sided.
3) You can list all the various number of technological advancements, but the fact is war is still fought on a person to person basis. When I said humanity couldn’t just nuke their own cities, that’s based on fact. America could level the entire Middle East and turn it to glass. They would kill millions of innocent people. Even if a city is known to harbor terrorists, their go to response isn’t to decimate the entire city, killing thousands of people just to (hopefully) kill three-person cell. Most of the combat would be going on close range, which is why things like super strength, super speed, and magic armor would be more applicable. If the ponies can close the distance, it would be an enormous advantage. As again said in the fic, Black Jack and the other ponies are occupying human cities. The human military doesn’t necessarily want to level whole cities.
4) Sizes are no where approaching clear, as demonstrated multiple times in my posts. Even your argument of the crown is easily refuted. It must change, considering both ponies and mutants with gigantic heads can wear it comfortably. And I was being generous, considering the Equestria Girls were not explicitly calls humans. I have no idea what humans have anorexic bodies and heads three times out of proportion.
5) The ponies are rarely portrayed as weak or cowardly. Big Macintosh, Cheerilee, and Applejack all display superhuman levels of strength. Rainbow Dash is physically powerful enough to hammer a nail through wood with one hoof thrust, and also shows incredible boosts of speed. Other pegasi and earth ponies demonstrate similar physical abilities. Several background ponies are shown strong enough to drag wagons. Ponies are also brave, and willing to go out of their way to help them. Again, something I have pointed out repeatedly: we have only seen civilian ponies. It is stupid to claim ponies are cowardly based on the actions of civilians during a panic. That’s like watching a Seinfeld and saying that it’s a testament of human cowardice and selfishness. The show is just a small portal to the world grander, and the world grander is the world that I write in. Black Jack even mentions how he’s grown as a soldier, to the point he doesn’t recognize his civilian self. Human soldiers aren’t bred in a vat. Why is it impossible to believe that the ponies have trained in addition to their difficult life as is? And, speaking of which, if you want to start talking about species that are weak and cowardly… Sure, militaries are full of tough guys. Do you think the average human is going to do shit outside of make signs and protest? Hell, most humans would probably be fine with it.
6) The train from Ponyville to the Crystal Empire is a normal locomotive. The train they rode when traveling to the baking contest was also coal powered (Fluttershy was shoveling coal). Their technology is not all that primitive. Far from the level of modern 1st world countries, but in some ways superior to 3rd world countries. This is also a society with significantly better standards of living, either universal healthcare or no need for healthcare. The ponies are going in with both physical advantages, as well as health advantages.
7) The fact that they don’t have guns is more the fact they can’t normally carry them (hooves), so they use other methods. They do have fireworks, which means they understand combustion, and spending time with humans, examining their weapons, interrogating prisoners, talking to sympathizers, there is no reason they couldn’t engineer their own weapons, assuming they can figure out methods of utilizing them. That being said, for the early days, ponies could probably rely on their physical power and presence to physically beat humans into submission.
8) Humans are going into the conflict without any prior knowledge. As mentioned, the ponies had been watching humans for some time. They have been learning about the humans. Black Jack explicitly mentions this (further evidence you haven’t read the fic). During first contact, the ponies have been preparing for this, humans haven’t. Humans don’t know how to deal with a 7 foot tall draft horse with magic armor, charging at them full force. Various accounts of soldiers is that what they fear most is close quarters. It’s entirely possible, indeed logical, that during the initial invasion, the ponies were winning a great deal, but things balanced out, and is now a stalemate.
9) Staying on that point: human weapons are designed to combat other human weapons. Human armor is designed to protect from human weapons. A soldier’s body might stop the small impacts of bullets, but it can’t stop a shoulder ram from a one ton draft horse. Rocket launchers are designed to take out hovering helicopters, not fast moving, agile, small pegasi. Humans could certainly adapt their weapons, which was actually the point about the WW1 thing. But the initial conflict is going to be firmly in the pony’s favor.
10) WE HAVE NEVER SEEN A PONY MILITARY. Back to the Seinfeld analogy: what we have seen in the canon takes place in a small village without even much of a police force. Royal Guards are, again, a police force. Considering the even mundane threats that ponies have to deal with on a daily basis: dragons, griffons, changelings, wendigos, to say nothing of demons like Sombra or Gods of Chaos like Discord, ponies must be fighters. What we see now is also shown to be a cheery world, but before it was established, the world was much harsher, as evidence by the Hearth Warming Episode. Ponies came from something tough, and fought to make the world what it is now. Because we haven’t seen their military, it’s up for debate how it is, but since the ponies had been watching humans for a fair amount of time, at the very least they built their military up specifically for this.
11) Population balances are not clear. For a village, Ponyville is remarkably densely populated, as is the Crystal Empire and Canterlot. Also, something to remember: just because humanity has a population of 7 billion, doesn’t mean humanity has 7 billion soldiers ready to go. It doesn’t mean that suddenly humanity will stop fighting itself to unite against the pony invaders. It also doesn’t mean that all 7 billion people could converge on one single spot to fight off an invasion. The logistical nightmare of moving large amounts of soldiers place to place needs to be considered. The simple fact is: we have absolutely no idea how many ponies there are, but considering their significantly better standards of living, they would have many more able bodies.
12) Your purely scientific examination of human military fails to consider human failings. Most conflicts fail because of human error, not technological errors. The Vietnam War, for a laundry list of reasons, should have been a curb stomp. The war, along with many others, was just so poorly handled, and lacked home support, it severely hurt the operation. This, coupled with the fact that in the early days of the war the humans have absolutely no idea who or what they are fighting, and the unfortunate fact that generals are always “fighting last year’s war,” this again swings the advantage to the pony’s favor during the early days of the conflict.
13) While it may look like the story is favoring the ponies, as repeatidly stated, it's evenly matched. The magic is far from "can do anything." In fact, despite wearing armor, Black Jack was severely hurt by a rock a youth threw with his face, which just happened to hit his eye. The armor, with a mixture of thickness and magic, may stop bullets, but the ponies are not all running around with personal shields. To keep it balanced, to some extent, ponies can dominate up close, humans can engage from long range. In an urban setting, with civilian which neither side wants to hurt, there is going to be a lot of both.
I could go on, but I really don’t see the point. I don’t believe for a minute you’ve even read this fic, since Black Jack either mentions or implies a lot of these points in his original letter. Please, by the moon, just leave since you are not helping anyone by trolling me.