In which they most likely kill some hellhounds.
Chapter 23
- Velvet, you didn't even know Pip in the stable. She was a nobody.
- Curiosity is a bad thing now?
- Breaking into a bank, eh? At least it's 200 years old and will surely be full of locked boxes.
- Gladiatorial bouts are a "more worthy goal"?
- One of these days, SteelHooves is going to collapse a whole damn building on top of them.
- Vault-crackin' time.
- Why would you find so many locked ammo boxes in a bank? Oh, video game, right.
- That's a big gun.
- Why is it that nearly every single memory orb in the wasteland, no matter where it is found, has something to do with the Mane 6? Were they not used for anything else but to sporadically record their lives?
- And the memory orb just happens so be SteelHooves? Talk about contrived coincidences.
- TMI, indeed...
- Applejack makes a good point. Why the hell would the only side of the war with armor build an anti-material rifle? It's just asinine.
- So that was the assassination attempt? None of this makes any sense. AJ was just about the only ministry mare not doing horrible things. Why does she have to have ponies out for her blood just because she's hurting their profit margins?
- You know, SteelHooves, you could have just told her that there was a very private memory of yours stored in the vault. She would have left it alone then.
- So they did have a reason to make the rifles. They still should have, you know, talked to the mare funding them about it. Of course, they wanted her dead, because they're stupid, so it doesn't matter.
- So there are Steel Rangers still around trying to uphold the Ministry? Sounds kinda... stupid.
- Well, Red Eye, Earth Ponies are stronger. It's just a fact of life. Cant argue against science.
- Oh, the Ponyity! (how the hell are you supposed to ponify "humanity" anyway?)
- Seriously though, you filled your floating weapons platforms with flammable gas? One slip up with your own weapons would kill you all, not to mention the ponies shooting at you.
- Hey, Pips friends do stupid things far more often that Pip herself does.
- Damn,SteelHooves.Damn.
Thoughts on Chapter 23:
So, Steel Rangers, eh? Their logic appears to be "hoard and protect tech, regardless of whether or not doing so will leave anypony alive to use it." Pretty stupid from the looks of it. The whole deal with Applejack in the past still bothers me, but only because I still can't imagine ponies being so stupid. War scaring ponies into doing stupid things, that I can understand. These ponies aren't scared, though. They're just greedy. The war has nothing to do with it aside from providing them with funds in the first place. It's simply baffling.
Chapter 24
- Why exactly is a dying soldier wearing a recollector?
- Yeah, Fluttershy, as awesome as a healing megaspell is, it doesn't exactly "end the war". You should have aimed it closer to your own lines. At least it's not WMDs, though. Still stupid, from a tactical perspective, as all the problems could have been avoided just by making it smaller and moving it back.
- Alright, first impressions of the Rangers doesn't peg them as evil. Yet.
- 20% faster. Ha ha.
- Oh, so they did grow food down there. They were never very clear on that.
- Well, for all you know, only two stables actually failed. Both due to freak accidents. They can't all be that unlucky, can they?
- So, everypony not a ranger is a "tribal"? That's a bit harsh. Even the slavers are above that.
- A colt and his dog. How sweet. Makes you wonder where the hell he could have lived, though.
- Another orb? This story just keeps dropping these like candy.
- No. Bad Rarity. Turning yourself into a Lich solves nothing. You're not even going to consult Twilight, the strongest mage alive, on this?
- Yep, Rarity's lost it. Souls do not work that way.
- Well, if it's really messing with her head, she's not going to let it go, is she?
- Quest chains? Yep. One of those days.
- A radiation engine? That's actually pretty cool.
- There are a billion different ways this plan could go wrong. Hell, the plan to rescue Jack was much more sound than this, and they wouldn't let you do it.
- Damn, that's brutal. Why would Zebras even invent a weapon like that?
- Rainbow Dash has a point. The level of technological advancement is simply stupid. They were, what, hovering between 1800's and 1950's tech, depending on the device, and within a few decades, they shoot up to sci-fi tech levels? That doesn't make any sense, magic or no magic.
- Granny Smith is still alive at this point? Dear lord, how old is she?
Thoughts on Chapter 24:
The Rangers aren't as bad as I initially thought, but their priorities are still all sorts of messed up. The rest of the chapter was heavy exposition, though. Rarity is going to do something stupid with her soul. Applejack is being intelligent, except for the fact that all of the ponies she's helping are going to stab her in the back. Rainbow Dash is being practical. Flutterhsy (and all of the scientists with her, for that matter) used the healing megaspell incredibly stupidly. All in all, more ponies sin the past not thinking things through.
Comments
storyyeller
Since: Dec, 1969
May 16th 2012 at 9:27:07 PM
The balloons never made much sense to me either. They had much better forms of transportation. Maybe they were just for intimidation purposes?
storyyeller
Since: Dec, 1969
May 16th 2012 at 9:28:43 PM
Also, when was Granny Smith ever mentioned?
PerpetualLurker
Since: Dec, 1969
May 16th 2012 at 9:32:32 PM
Applejack mentioned the possibility of kicking her off the farm after she sold it. Apple Bloom assured her that she could stay.
Sereg
Since: Dec, 1969
May 17th 2012 at 1:54:52 AM
It is possible to record a memory without using a recollector. Presumably that's what happened with Steel Hooves.
Fluttershy healed the zebras deliberately. It was her policy to heal all the injured, enemy or ally. She just didn't realise that that would just cause the battle to restart. And this is much closer to Fluttershy's original plans for the megaspells. (Though this is much smaller scale than what she was trying to acheive.)
PerpetualLurker
Since: Dec, 1969
May 17th 2012 at 6:01:50 AM
That doesn't make her look any smarter. Fluttershy is kind, but she's not stupid. Not to mention the fact that she had a whole team of scientists and advisors working on the project with her, and five friends who she should have been talking with about it. How did no one see the incredibly obvious consequences of that plan of action?
Sereg
Since: Dec, 1969
May 17th 2012 at 9:28:14 AM
This was actually the first case of megaspell use and also the first time anypony outside the Ministry of Peace knew anything about megaspells. As for healing enemy combatants while they're capable of restarting the fight, yeah, that was stupid but Fluttershy was really naive about how much the zebras wanted to carry on fighting. I'm guessing that her scientists and advisors didn't expect her to use the first megaspell in this way and those on the field were just following orders without question.
Seraphem
Since: Dec, 1969
May 17th 2012 at 12:40:52 PM
It's Fluttershy, of COURSE she will help ANYTHING that needs it, pony, zebra, animal, monster, anything. And yes this was what Fluttershy intended the megaspells to be, uber powerful healing and shielding spells.
As to the Steel Rangers, Most of them are Lawful Neutral, they are basically the West Coast Brotherhood of Steel, all they care about is finding any and all old world tech and keeping anyone not able to use it right from using it, and they think they are the only ones able to do so.
Steel Hooves is more East Coast BOS, Lawful Good, use the old world tec we alone really know how to use to help all ponies. That's why even though he is the first Steel Ranger he isn't in charge, and that's by his choice.
oh and as to and five friends who she should have been talking with about it that is exactly the single biggest reason the Ministries failed, instead of working as a group they were working as individuals.
And war can do more then just scare ponies, it's a proven fact that any sort of long term warfare can and will impact a society in very deep ways, even those not directly effected by the fighting. and ponies get hit by that far far far easier and more deeply then humans.
