In which all the villains give you jobs.
Chapter 30
- Um, Red Eye didn't exactly outsmart you, Pip. He had a combination of Alicorn Hax, and the retcon of New Appleoosa's loyalties to put you in this bind.
- Those weren't your choices, Pip, those were necessities brought on by the situation. The whole "corrupted kindness" deal here is more or less bullshit.
- What could be suicidal enough to attack Alicorns here? And Velvet has yet another spell?
- Oh, Hellhounds. They're that strong? Damn.
- Yeah, still suicidal, regardless of how strong they are.
- Her spell absorbs magical energy bolts? Where the hell does she keep getting these things?
- That's a nasty hole.
- If the Hellhounds are so smart, what exactly do they plan on gaining by harassing The Goddess?
- Why is Pip always the one to get shot? That's a good question. The story seems assume that it's because she puts herself in danger, but she always seems to get shot even when everyone is in equal danger.
- Taint makes for some nasty monsters. At least they're flammable.
- Good Thing You Can Heal... as soon as you get to that hospital.
- Taint: For when normal status effects just aren't enough.
- You didn't listen to the Magical Negro? I give this plan five minutes until it backfires.
- Ah, Conservation of Ninjutsu at it's finest. Only facing one? It nearly murders you. Several dozen of them? They go down like Mooks.
- Wow, Velvet. Really? You're going to click into pacifist mode now? You just killed one!
- You know, if it was such a big problem for you, Velvet, then you should have said something when Pip made her decision. You really aren't very smart.
- A unicorn Steel Ranger?
- Once again, how does doing the only thing that won't get you and your friends killed corrupted Kindness? I fail to see the logic here.
- You know, I would be able to give the Zebra beliefs more credit if there was even a shred of evidence behind them. Why do all Zebras somehow know that the stars are alive and malevolent, but not even the likes of Celestia did?
- I wouldn't call killing one of the Goddess's Alicorns taking a life. They have no life of they're own, because they more or less all share one.
- There have been others capable of a Sonic Rainboom since Rainbow Dash? So much for the stuff of legends.
- Dog whistles. The perfect defense.
- Steel Rangers and Enclave scientists in the same place? Just what is in this town?
- If the locks are made of clouds, how do they hold things shut?
- Wait, so Alicorns can't interact with clouds? Even though they're part pegasus?
- And once again, every memory orb in existence proves to be about the Ministry Mares. Big surprise.
- That's just great. The very existence of the Shadowbolts is only to make the Zebras even more convinced that you're evil.
- A Stasis spell? I wonder who they're going to pull out of one of those in the present day.
- Well, now you're screwed.
Thoughts on Chapter 30: This chapter attempts to introduce the concept of Corrupted Kindness for Littlepip, which it has utterly failed to do, as far as I can tell. All of the examples it tried to come up with have been of scenarios with no alternative. You can't fault a pony for a choice that wasn't really a choice. The Zebra beliefs continue to make little to no sense as well. As for the rest, there were plenty of things setup for later, so we'll see how that pans out.
Chapter 31
- Well, that was an... interesting divergence into waxing philosophic out of nowhere. Did Pip just think of all that while staring at the army of Hellhounds coming to eat them?
- Her whole leg? Ouch. No way they can heal that. There just has to be a limit to Good Thing You Can Heal in this fic, right?
- Who designs weapons that are useless without the targeting interface?
- Now is not the time to be embarrassed or to make jokes like that. Really.
- The drugs make sense to be in a confiscation box in a hospital in a mining town. But an enchanted knife? Zebra Infiltration Tactics? Random loot strikes again.
- Addiction troubles again. Joy.
- So that's what Taint does to a pony. Nasty.
- No way. The Stare? Don't tell me that Fluttershy's people fucking reverse engineered it an weaponized it! It's not a magical ability! It's just normal intimidation!
- What is that? A malfunctioning medical bot of some sort?
- Yep, a medical bot.
- Ah, so that's the origin of Taint then.
- So now we get to see what was on the other side of that call from way back, in yet another conveniently found memory orb of the Ministry Mares.
- You know, as stupid as the idea was, under normal circumstances MAD would work. Too bad the Zebras have degraded to fanatic mysticism driving their decisions.
- Wait, how is Necromancy supposed to repair broken friendships? At least, that's what I assume Rarity's "special project" is.
- The Goddess can't speak to or read a Zebra mind? There's your ticket.
- Rule 1 of being an RPG character: Loot everything. Xenith needs to get her head in the game.
- About time Pip noticed the Fridge Logic of these memory orbs, though she isn't seeing quite as much of it as I am.
- And... timeskip?
- Wait, you used the mint-als to boost your persuasion abilities to pull one over on Red Eye? How does that even work?
- This is getting creepy.
- A Memory Gambit? Interesting. That can only mean that they plan to trick the Goddess somehow, and Red Eye in in on it. Early guess: They're going to use Xenith, who the Goddess can't sense, to sneak Red Eye's Balefire Bomb into Maripony while Littlepip distracts The Goddess, with no knowledge of the plan she had already set in motion, meaning that the Goddess won't be able to figure out what's going on. Note to commenters: Please don't even hint at how close/off I am with this. I'd like to be surprised entirely.
- Yes, Pip, you do ramble like that. It seems to be a protagonist thing.
- Wow, Pip is pretty great at predicting herself.
- Okay, looks like the reasons for the Memory Gambit were correct. Now to see if the planis at all similar... after they complete another quest.
Thoughts on Chapter 31: Exposition mixed with action in this one, and I actually really liked it. the backstory here made sense for the most part, and I like science explanations. They make so much more sense than characterization explanations.
Now, since I'm feeling a little OCD, I'm going to do another chapter to get back on even numbers.
Chapter 32
- Oh come on. You would have done the same thing and you know it.
- The statues are affecting her mind now? That can't be good.
- Awkward to the max...
- Yep. More awkwardness.
- And it keeps going...
- ...and going...
- ...and ends in the most awkward way possible. That's not funny. That's painful.
- And I thought it was over.
- Velvet is down to earth? I... don't think so.
- It would be nice if those memory orbs just happened to not have anything to do with the Mane 6. I doubt it, though. The only ones in existence are probably Littlepips and the "confessions".
- Wait, Rarity teleported. How did she manage that?
- Spells don't work like that, Rarity. Everyone knows this.
- About time Applejack fired all of them. Too bad I doubt it will work out.
- Hoops?
- Wait, the fact that they're fighting in the war at all and equally with the other races is what's angering the pegasi? That's just stupid!
- Wow, Pinkie and Rainbow didn't even have the courtesy or common sense to let the other heads of the ministries in on their little covert op? What kind of awful disconnected government is this?
- You know your life is messed up when the first thing you assume when you're abducted is that they have a quest for you.
- Gotta have an Omniscient Council of Vagueness.
- You know, you could just look at any one of her memories right now, and not the private ones she has stashed away. Life Bloom is with you, right?
- More stupidity regarding the Zebra religion. If you know about it, that's your diplomatic angle of attack. Of course, I guess tey were past the point of no return at that point. I still can't figure out how such an important cultural quirk would be lost on Celestia of all ponies.
- For there to be any truth to the Zebra legends, you have to give the historical evidence to support it. Something this story doesn't seem to want to give.
- More guesses: Red Eye is drawing back as part of Pip's plan, in order to move the bomb into position for deployment against The Goddess.
- Finally we get to get moving...
- ...Right into another memory orb.
- Wow, this is an early one. About the Mane 6, of course.
- You don't talk to the Buffalo to prevent a war. You talk to the damn Zebras about their religion that is making them want to go to war in the first place.
- That was Ditzy's memory? Interesting. Why would she have an orb of this made anyway? She can't view it.
Thoughts on Chapter 32:
All of the relationship stuff at the beginning dragged on way too long, and honestly, I didn't see the purpose of it. Show, Don't Tell. Show us why those two are together. Don't dedicate a long awkward scene to telling us why. Past that, there's some more mildly annoying backstory, but nothing too offensive. I'm still not buying the legitimacy of the Zebra religion based on what we've been given so far, though.
Comments
CrimsonFlameKnight
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 7th 2012 at 11:16:47 PM
Yeah, the Calamity/Velvet relationship felt sort of...off for me. The idea of them becoming an item makes sense, but I feel there should've been more buildup to it. Admittedly, I have a similar gripe with Pip/Homage too (even though I love their relationship).
DeathCloud
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 8th 2012 at 1:18:07 AM
Memory Gambit is point where fic become really awesome.
And Zebras, more I learned about their believes more they are unsympathetic to me.
Sereg
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 8th 2012 at 3:38:47 AM
Okay. At this point it's REALLY obvious that you have a different view on show canon than kkat and I have.
But let's see:
Littlepip thinks she's corrupted kindness. Whether or not she's right is a matter of debate among the fans.
Okay. Kkat believes that spells can be learned. I've always believed the same thing. You believe that Twilight is the only one who can. But the show makes no sense unless kkat and I are right. There would be no magic schools if Twilight was the only one who could learn spells.
Okay. Zebras. First of all theay DO have historical evidence fo their beliefs. Even if it wasn't for that, they still had more evidence for their beliefs than the ponies do. Nightmare Moon tried to kill everyone TWICE. Then immediately joned the government. Do you have any idea how suspicious that is?! It was something that the first episode of the show confused me wih because that reaction is completely abnormal! The burden of proof lay on the ponies. NOT the zebras.
RD could not POSSIBLY have been the first to perform a sonic rainboom or it would have never become a legend in the first place.
"•Wait, so Alicorns can't interact with clouds? Even though they're part pegasus? " This i actually a good point that I didn't notice, but it actually makes sense later.
"It's not a magical ability! It's just normal intimidation! " Word Of God disagrees with you.
"What kind of awful disconnected government is this? " This is the point. They fell apart when they stopped working together.
Have to agree that this part of the plot really picks up.
As for Calamty/Velvet. At least that was popperly foreshadowed. Unlike Homage/Littlepip.
kimba90
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 8th 2012 at 5:47:11 AM
Yep, I too believe that every unicorn can learn spells, not just those with speciality in magic. I think that the latters makes the spells stronger whe using them (for example, every unicorn can use telekinesys but Twilight seems the only one who can levitate millions of objects or giant ones; or the spell that can search for gems in the ground: Rarity can see only the nearest ones, while Twilight can see them at long distances).
As for hystorical examples in zebras culture, I think we'll see them in later chapters.
PerpetualLurker
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 8th 2012 at 7:35:08 AM
Of course any unicorn can learn spells. The stipulation is that they can only learn spells directly related to their special talent. This is something that is spelled out quite clearly in canon and this fic.
As for the burden of proof laying on the ponies for Nightmare Moon, yes it did. Unfortunately, it has been made clear that before the war, all ponies were completely ignorant to said beliefs. Even Celestia, somehow. They can't exactly prove anything when the Zebras' don't even make it clear that Luna is a problem until ''after' they go to war.
I'm not against more ponies being able to perform a Sonic Rainboom. It's just that Calamity implied that the Enclave had multiple on hand at any one time, when RD had been the first to perform one in centuries.
kimba90
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 8th 2012 at 8:28:24 AM
Nah, if unicorns are only able to learn spells according to their cutie marks, than there would be no need of hundreds of books about different spells (plus there won't be any common spell, like telekynesis). I think it's more like some unicorns are better in certain spells than others.
Also, perhaps RD taught to more than one pegasus about how to perform a sonic rainboom, that's why it became something more common.
kimba90
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 8th 2012 at 12:20:03 PM
By the way, is chapter 30 the one with the (un)famous "Velvet's Shotgun Massacre"? Boy, I haven't thought it was so early.
Seraphem
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 8th 2012 at 4:18:20 PM
Again, was not a retcon, New Appleloosa DOESN'T follow Redeye, at all, and only the leaders..possibly ONLY the sheriff..even know the town has ties to him, they weren't giving him the bomb because they support him, they were giving him the bomb because they were trying to stay on the good side of a pony that could wipe them off the map if he wanted.
Agreed, it's pretty much the consensus that The Goddess was just fucking with her head.
The reason behind the Zebra's fear of the stars IS reveled later, it involves something that happened at the dawn of Zebra society that nearly wiped them out.
just like the A-Bomb, with the SRB the hard part is proving it's possible.
WOW, you just twigged to a MAJOR plot point foreshadowing many people missed with the whole "Alicorn's can't manipulate clouds"
As to "the Stare" it's never tied into having anything to do with Flutershy, or even said to be the same thing, could just be something similar they developed on there own.
becuase what he convinced Redeye to do wasn't a trick or ploy, he just reasoned with him.
There does come some historical evidence, or at least a reason in there history why they fear anything from the sky.
And once again it is NOT a religion, at all, in any way.
It's not a whole lot, from what we've seen it's possible the number of SRB cabable pegasi is in the single digits
The Pegasi were pissed that they were the ones taking the highest losses and being the ones doing the heaviest fighting. they served as Equestria's shock troops until the Steel Rangers got going.
And there ARE limits to how much a unicorn can learn, but they aren't hard and fast, it varies on a personal basis, and there could be some spells that are uncategorized and free for any unicron with enough magic and skill to use them, all we have is a very very loose ideas, no firm rule book
And once again as to the "Corrupted kindness" yeah everyone agrees it's bull and is just the Godess fucking with Lil'pip and Lil'pip being a self flagellating idiot.
kimba90
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 9th 2012 at 3:30:19 AM
Well, let's not exaggerate here. Let's just say that, in this point of the story, Pip is very confused about if what she's doing is good or not.
Speaking of unicorn magic (again XD), here's the response Lauren Faust gave to me about this question:
"I went to art school. Everyone there was a talented artist, but we all had our "specialty." And even though I was better at life drawing, I still attended design classes. And though I was no good at painting, I still studied painters, and doing so helped me with the kind of art I wanted to focus on."
Sereg
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 9th 2012 at 6:17:20 AM
Okay, that respons makes more sense, but I still agree with Kimba here. It's less that unicorns can only learn spells related to their talents and more that that's all that most unicorns do because those are the easiest for them. Velvet has also had an EXCELLENT teacher as you'll learn later.
As for zebra beliefs, the members of the upper government DID know about them, but were unsure about what to do with the information.
anamizukib
Since: Dec, 1969
Jun 15th 2012 at 12:39:54 PM
It's really good to remember that when Kkat wrote most Fo E, only season one was out.
Plus, the characters in Pre-War world are much older than in the show. Equestria changed during that time a lot, hence the high tech and later war.
