I understand that this chapter contains lots of evil clones and none of the main six. This sounds like a good thing to me because the good guys are assholes.
I cheer for the whalers when I watch Whale Wars.
We start out with Slivertongue, angry because he's not beautiful any more. Suck it up man! You still had a better run than most of us. Okay, so he is still beautiful, he's just missing an eye. And now the socket is filled with an unidentified black stuff.
It's always a good sign when your empty eye socket is filled with unidentified black stuff.
Especially when the unidentified black stuff is wired into your nervous system so that you can still see through it.
Oh, it seems Evil Twi has something to do with this. Same aura, and it reacts in her presence.
Just to warn you Silvertongue, unexplained but obviously evil magic phenomena like this tends to come with some pretty hefty side effects. It's like cancer. Magic, soul-consuming cancer. That gives you superpowers. You have supercancer.
Good luck trying to control it. I estimate you have a • chance of short-term benefit, and 0 chance in the long term.
And now Commander Jetstream is there to personally tell Silvertongue how he didn't stop the main six from leaving the city. Considering Silvertongue's wildly varying reaction to failures such as this, I estimate p chance that Jetstream will survive the initial encounter, @ chance that he will regret it in the short term, and ™ chance he will regret it in the long term.
Wait, according to Silvertongue all nine of them were using false passports? That's not how I remember it.
Ooh, Silvertongue isn't happy that Jetstream wasn't subtle in his actions. You hypocrite Silvertongue, you employed Shadowstep and never curbed his enthusiasm until it was way too late.
So far, Jetstream is doing a bang-up job of calmly and clearly explaining why he made the choices he did, and Silvertongue hasn't tortured him yet, so it must be doing some good. Let's see if that continues.
“It was all three unicorns, sir,” Jetstream added, “They combined their magic somehow. I... I didn't know unicorns could do that, or I would’ve focused my attention on them sooner.”
“It is a rather advanced spell, yes, but certainly not out of the limits of a unicorn with the drive and talent to learn, which I’m sad to say is a dismally precious few. That is rather interesting to learn, however. I shall keep it in mind for future reference. If they already know how to do it, then perhaps... ahem.”
Also, Silvertongue, you really need to leave these sorts of decisions to your HR department. Because you totally suck at employee management. Seriously, you're far to erratic. None of your employees know what you want from them beyond the surface tasks. You don't reprimand employees with a history of spectacular failure one day, and the next you decide to kill one with a spotless record simply because 1. He didn't stand out from the crowd during his previous work years, and 2. His failure had the bad fortune of being detrimental to your plans. At this rate, you're going to loose all the valuable people who don't seem to do anything, but in actuality keep the system running. You're going to be left with only generals and no privates in your army.
I dub Silvertongue the Pointy haired boss.
Oh wait, he's saving Jetstream for something else instead of killing him. That's sort of the smart thing to do. Points for showing restraint, but I still call shenanigans on his management style.
Oh wait, Blatsauger is here. I guess that means it's a test of the evil clones instead. Either way, I expect this to be spectacularly bloody. And I don't think Shadowstep is gone forever.
And now we get to see the first of the evil clones. (There's got to be a better name for these girls. What do the rest of you call them?) Who is it? Who is it? Who is it? I'm gonna guess...Applejack. Because Doctor Horrible likes to do things in alphabetical order.
Oh, I was wrong! It looks to be Rainbow Dash. Naked, evil Rainbow Dash. This is gonna be good.
Also, Jetstream; this isn't just Genre Blind. You're downright fucking stupid for not taking this more seriously.
Wait, he's having more assault her and she's flying out of reach. Maybe it's not area of effect then, but targeted. Makes it a little less game breaking, but still... Or else she's trying out all her moveset in order so she can get a feel for all of them.
This battle calls for some ranged weapons.
Okay...now that I've got that out of the way, let's move on. Oh look, ranged weapons.
And ERD attacks. Time to see what our beloved girl can do. >:D
Sonic Rainboom! Sort of. She was subsonic and there wasn't a rainbow mushroom cloud, but it still did a number on his soldiers.
Aww, why'd you make her stop Silvertongue?
Jetsteam is starting to realize he's not putting on a good show and resolves to do better against the next pony. He's gonna die in the last round of this fight.
Fluttershy! Are you mean? Are you mean? Are you mean?
I really hope Ganon keeps mentioning their colorings, because there's no way in hell I'm going to remember that they're different from the mane six unless he keeps driving it in.
Wait, this is Rainbow Dash? But the other one had her cutie mark!
The kindness in her eyes is going to be significant down the road isn't it?
Red says she doesn't want the other one's (Fluttershy I guess?) loserness rubbing off on her. Gotta be Dash then. Maybe. Still confused and upset.
The other one had a cutie mark that indicated Dash, and her powers, while a little odd, made a lot more sense for Dash than for Fluttershy. Whatever. If you're not going to make it obvious who's who, then you should at least give me some names to identify them by Ganon FLCL!
New Probably Dash charges! She's not very effective! The robots are holding their own against her and I'm getting suspicious.
Hey Jetstream, you familiar with the name [1]? Because that's the level of trouble you're calling down on yourself with your overconfidence.
Fireball!
Surprising and definitely not normal for a pegasus, but so far New Probably Dash isn't game-breakingly overpowered like Old Probably Dash Possibly Fluttershy.
Ooh, they've almost hit her with their ranged attacks. Shit's coming down.
Bigger fireball. Impressive, but kind of a one-track mind there.
And Slivertongue ends this battle. Like I said, impressive, but not the "How on earth is a mortal pony supposed to fight this creature?" level of freaky powers the other one had. She could still be theoretically taken out by a non-magical pony.
New Probably Dash has quite the mouth on her, doesn't she?
We have a unicorn next. I'm guessing Rarity, because Silvertongue will probably want to save Twi for last.
Black, filthy, yup, this is opposite Rarity. I forget, was evil Twilight still purple? I'm pretty sure her color has already been established. Also, her cutie mark, a trio of coals, is reminiscent of Rarity's.
Is evil Rarity a goth? Because that would be awesome.
The pegasus laughed, “Heh heh, right, whatever los-”
The unicorn reached out a hoof and jabbed it into the red mare's midsection. She yelped in what sounded like severe pain, and jumped away as if she'd been touched by something wholly unpleasant. The unicorn was left in a brief red glow, but it slowly dissipated.
“Don't you ever touch me!” the red one snarled, “You touch me again, you're a dead mare, you got that? Hey! I’m bucking talking to you, punk!”
“Yeah, yeah, what-ever,” the unicorn said distractedly.
Evil Rarity seems to have some Valley Girl speech tendencies. I find that endearing.
Okay, surround the unicorn. I guess that's a valid first move, but considering the unexpected powers the others have displayed, I would have gone with sending a single unit up against her to sniff out her abilities before committing your forces.
Ooh, Rarity can use other ponies' powers! She's like Jean Grey! Only she doesn't have to touch them first!
Aww, no turning the robot back on its master? I'm disappointed. And that's the end of the fight. So, we've established that evil Rarity is an extremely flexible spellcaster and can make good use of the Imitate skill. I was hoping for a little more though. She could still be beaten by a normal pony.
Definitely Pinkie Pie is next. And she has a cupcake cutie mark. LOL.
“Is that an invitation?” the pink pony drooled.
“Like, ewww, no!” the unicorn replied.
Ooh, he's bloodied Pinkamina Diane Pie. Good job with that Jetstream, and good luck surviving the results.
Oh...oh shit. Pinkamina is a bloodbender. Oh shitty shit shit.
The quality of writing has been taking a dive in the last little bit. Not going to give any examples, but I just wanted to note it for reference.
You know, somehow bloodbending is always more effective and versatile in fiction than anything else that should be comparable. You never see waterbenders impaling people like that.
And she has regeneration too. This is starting to put her in almost the same weight class as Old Probably Dash Possibly Fluttershy. Regeneration is always a game-breaker, but it can be countered with clever, and usually non-lethal tactics. The regen guys always seem to forget about the non-lethal tactics.
She's going after Jetstream himself now. And he's panicking appropriately. The bloodbender is bloodthirsty!
“Ahhh!” He leapt into the air a little and turned around. But she wasn’t there.
“You seem nervous...” He turned back to the rest of the field. She was back where she’d been before. “Maybe you should... take a rest?”
Power ranking as I see it so far.
1. Old Probably Dash Possibly Fluttershy. Unassaultable.
2. Pinkamina Diane Pie. Probably unkillable and possibly unstoppable.
3. Evil Rarity. Versatile and powerful, can copy others' powers. Unknown if she can copy the game-breaking ones like regen and time fields though. If she can, she jumps straight to number one.
4. New Probably Dash. Fast and can cast fireball and empowered fireball. Not much to say there.
Wait, Twilight is fifth instead of sixth? What's going on here? That is not dramatically appropriate!
Evil Twi is passingly good at provoking the wounded pride of idiots. A useful skill for any troll. That's bad use of dialogue there though. I had a difficult time figuring out who was speaking.
Sending in melee fighters with ranged support? Good job man! Your tactical thinking has leveled up! You're still horribly underleveled for this encounter though.
Just saying Jetstream. If you were to actually manage to kill one of these mares, I wouldn't be in your place for all the gold and superpowers in the world.
Ah, Twilight takes the "metal tornado" route, with firepower added in to boot. Always a good classic. I think this puts her above Old Probably Dash Possibly Fluttershy. She definitely has a much higher power level, but the other's actual abilities are more inherently dangerous. Twi's danger level depends on how clever she is, but has a lot more flexibility and possibility.
Now you're just showing off Twi. Keep it up.
LOL, she teleported one of the robots into who knows where? Now that's a game breaker.
[[quoteblock]]And all of this was done at once. He knew simultaneous spell-casting was possible, but limited, difficult, and exhausting. She had just torn through most of his forces, technically all of his forces, since he could consider his two remaining troops to be of no worth now, in mere seconds, using some very complicated magic and not looking at all the worse for wear from it. She looked uninterested if anything.
Twi, your trash talk is lame. Your confidence is warranted, but your talk is lame. You're like the polar opposite of New Probably Rainbow Dash.
I'm getting the impression the evil Twi is going to rely more on her brute power and spam ability than on cleverness and sound thinking. I hope I'm proven false in that regard, because it would be boring. Now if she were to make everything into a Self-Imposed Challenge...
Yes! Applejack is a French shapeshifting ninja? Perfect for the opposite of the element of honesty! I totally take back what I said about Twi going fifth.
Is this where Jetstream dies? Aparently not. Silvertongue just ended the test. Let's see their scores. Here's my power level estimate.
1. Twilight
2. Old Rainbow Dash Possibly Fluttershy
3. Pinkamina Diane Pie
4. Rarity
5. Rainbow Dash
6. Applejack, with the caveat that she has the highest potential to become a Difficult, but Awesome Lethal Joke Character.
So, Rarity and Applejack seem to be in a relationship, and AJ is totally a manipulative bitch while Rarity is completely obvivious. I only have one word for this. Yes.
Everypony except Twi is uncomfortable around Pinkamina. Makes sense. And they ignore Possibly Fluttershy.
Applejack is Curaçao. Got 96. Could have done better if she hadn't sat out the whole fight.
Possibly Fluttershy is Grayscale Force. 99. Ooh, her power is gravity manipulation, not time? Remember what I said about her being unassailable? I think she may have just jumped back into number one spot on the power scale.
New Probably Dash is Havocwing. 84. Yeah, you kind of sucked compared to everyone else. And Silvertongue is right, you were stupid.
Rarity is Insipid. 95. Nope! 96! I like her style! And I was right on her ability. She's a mimic. If she can mimic Grayscale's and Twi's powers, that puts her in the new number one spot. If she's creative, she'll be by far the most dangerous.
Is Insipid really as oblivious to Curacao's lying as she appears? I'm starting to think she's putting on an act too.
Pinkie Pie is Red Velvet. She got 98. Silvertongue is skeptical on if her powers are actually beneficial to her. Come on man, she has regeneration! It doesn't matter! Why does she keep looking at Jetstream?
Jetstream, you should leave. Right now.
Twilight is Starlight Shadow. 100 points. Okay, it was impressive, I'll give her that. But I got a definite feel of "I'm superpowered so I don't have to put real thought into this," from her.
So, Silvertongue is claiming that the main six have committed some sort of crime against the evil clones? I'm more than a bit skeptical that they would buy this.
And now Silvertongue is turning his attention to Jetstream. He's not impressed with Jetstream's performance, much like me. He's probably going to get fed to Red Velvet.
Oh, nope. He's feeding him to Starlight.
And she's giving him to Red Velvet. I think that actually qualifies as a failure on her part because Silvertongue was testing her willingness to kill. It doesn't matter the reason why you didn't, the fact remains that you turned the opportunity down.
I approve of Curacao's use of her shapeshifting ability to mock her teammates.
Oh, it looks like it is teleportation for Red Velvet instead of just throwing her voice. A sort of offscreen teleportation I think. Fourth-wall powers?
Wait, is that a pocket dimension? Holy shit! Red Velvet has a reality marble!
- SNAP*
“Auuuggghh!” he screamed.
“Ooh that’s good! Provide a nice little chorus for me. Where was I? Oh, right. Ahem- ♫The pelvic bone’s connected to the... spinal bone.”
- SNAP*
“♫The spinal bone’s... connected... hey. Hey! Awww... shoot, there goes another one. I’m never gonna finish that song...”