Chapter XXXII
Servaal slowly tapped the console in front of him, his eye ridge furrowed in concentration. “Let me see the code again, Aliz,” he said to the computer.
“Very well, Decedent,” Aliz said, before displaying the encoded message that the traitor Ilisk had sent before his death. Servaal slowly ran through it for the hundredth time, trying to glean some order from the random encoding, to break with a living mind what the ship's computer could not.
It was difficult, if not downright impossible, though. The message had been thoroughly encoded, and had passed through several machines before The Purpose had picked up on the transmission. This meant that they didn't even have an emotional imprint to 'cheat' with, and were forced to decode the message the old fashioned way.
Without the cypher, though, this was next to impossible.
Nevertheless, Servaal would not be dissuaded by something as trivial as 'impossible'. He saw it as a challenge, and since the scientific expedition had been cancelled, he had very little else to occupy his time and talents. True, code-breaking wasn't exactly his forte, but there wasn't anyone else on board that was even remotely competent.
The message had already been passed along to the quzin homeworld as well, so it wasn't like he was the only one working on it. If he were being completely honest, no one expected him to succeed, and it was more than likely that someone else would beat him to it. However, if he managed to decode it, honor and glory beyond measure would be his, and for a no-name soulsmith like him, that was an exceptionally huge matter.
"The krin number system uses base-sixteen, but it's entirely possible that they encoded using a different base. Begin running all known krin encryptions that use different bases, and see if that changes anything."
"I already ran that one before, Decendent," Aliz gently reminded him. "It was one of the first we tried."
"Oh, yeah… well-" Servaal began to say, but stopped when the intercom in front of him began to blink. Servaal quickly pressed the button, hoping that whatever it was was minor. "Servaal at your disposal."
His heart nearly leaped into his throat when, instead of the archmage of the expedition, it was the ship's second voice, Jedon. "Soulsmith, you are ordered to gather the tools of your trade, including your forge, and report to the Priestess's ready room in an hour. You will be briefed when you arrive."
Where once there had been nothing but a somewhat bored soulsmith and his equipment, there was now a flurry of activity as the now flustered member of the Arcanum rushed to answer the call of the ship's void knight. He quickly stuffed his tools, his personal tablet, and randomly a few half-eaten pieces of food and a few blank pieces of paper into the pack, before fixing the forge to the whole thing and slinging the heavy load onto his back. The forge in question looked like an oblong box with a number of knobs and buttons on one side, as well as a single door on the end. It was an older model, but it had been passed down through Servaal's family for at least seven generations.
And in Servaal's line of work, an ancient piece of equipment like that was more of a boon than a hindrance.
"Aliz, save my current project. I will return to it later," Servaal said before he slithered out of the room.
"Very well, Decedent. Be safe on your journeys," the computer said before it powered down the soulsmith's computer and shut off the lights. "Return safe…"
Servaal didn't hear him, though. He was too lost in thought, and was already several meters down the corridor when Aliz spoke, muttering to himself about what he possibly could have done to attract the priestess's ire. It took him about thirty minutes to reach his destination, and it had taken him fifteen to gather his gear, which meant he arrived at the priestess's office with time to spare. Servaal liked to be early; he liked the time to prepare mentally for whatever meeting or job he had to do.
Unfortunately for him, the priestess was also there, standing outside her office, impatiently flipping her tail from side to side as she waited for him.
"Uh…" Servaal said intelligently the moment he caught sight of the void knight. He was a little too slow on the uptake, however, as the priestess had spotted him as well, and was quickly slithering towards him.
“Good, you’re here. How quickly can you forge an artificial soul?” Priestess Akitesh asked, skipping any formalities that their differing ranks and castes would usually necessitate.
Servaal tried to gather his thoughts, but found it quite impossible, as his very being seemed to be pierced by the priestess’s strikingly clear grey eyes. “Uh… I… I could not, I do not have the necessary shards aboard this ship. There might be a few aboard The Bastion due to their recent struggle, but-”
Before Servaal could finish his protest, he was cut off by a single, cutting gesture from the priestess. “That is not what I asked you. I asked how long it would take for you to forge a new, artificial soul.”
“I-If I had the necessary shards, I could do it in a matter of days. One day, if I hurried,” Servaal stammered out. “But I must impress upon you that without those shards, I cannot do what you ask. Surely whatever you need an artificial soul for, could you not use Aliz?”
“We will need Aliz aboard our ship, and what we require the soul for is down on the planet,” Akitesh explained. “However, you could do it by the end of the day?”
“Certainly not. I said it would take a full day, and the day is already half-way gone,” Servaal said, not liking where this conversation was going. “I could have it finished by tomorrow morning, but I would need to work during the night…”
“Then the rest of your day, and night, has been planned. Come, we have work to do,” Akitesh said, before nodding once. “Jedon, link up with the beacon we left with the natives. Alert them of our arrival, and teleport us to the surface the moment they allow us access."
Servaal could feel his neurons fry as he tried to make sense of what the priestess had just said. "Wait, natives? Surface? Ma'am, forgive me for my insolence, but what precisely am I being pulled into? I'm just a soulsmith. What could possibly be so important that it requires an artificial soul now?"
"The preservation of all of our lives, Mage Servaal," Akitesh said simply, right before the world around them disappeared in a flash of white light.
* * *
One would think being cut off from experience would be absolutely torturous. No sensation, no vision, no hearing. Everything an empty void, with nothing but the half-remembered memories of hatred and vengeance to keep one company, and normally, that assumption would be correct. However, for the remains of the fragmented souls stored within the arcanite rods, it was actually an extremely peaceful experience.
Certainly a whole lot more pleasant than trying to pilot a small robotic cat with only part of a soul, and the borrowed knowledge of your host. Every movement, every attempt to speak, to feel, was like the jagged edges of two open wounds being scraped against each other. Compared to that, the void was a soothing release from experience, and wasn’t nearly as lonely as such an existence would first appear.
The only company that these fragmented, tortured souls had was the siren whispers echoing through the void. They were just out of hearing, barely perceived; but what they whispered was sweet relief, of an existence free of toil and suffering, of loved ones long gone, reunited at last, for an eternity of joy beyond the woes of the material world. The call was enticing, too, and each of the fragments could feel the temptation to slip away, to follow that call, and leave this world forever.
They did not, however. It would have been so easy, too; to leave, and never look back. To cross into the hereafter, and let go of the rage, the pain, and the horror.
But that was precisely the reason why those fragmented souls persisted. Vengeance is a powerful motivator, and unbeknownst to those fragmented souls, almost all soul shards remain on the wrong side of the veil for vengeance’s sake. They seethed against those that had turned them into monsters, screamed into the void for retribution, and would continue on, unheard and uncared for, if not for the one that had survived. He was the reason they did not slip into the veil. He was their vengeance made flesh, and if it meant helping him achieve that goal, they were willing to undergo any pain or horror, if only for a chance to drag their tormentors into hell with them.
And so, as these six sets of fragmented souls continued to seethe in a state meant to sooth, they were quite surprised when their souls were touched by an unknown entity. It spoke to them in a way that transcended language and intelligence, seeking for information that all six, without ever talking to each other, agreed as one to not share. It seemed to withdraw for a moment, and each one huddled inside the arcanite rods they called home, hoping that Alex would return, and repel this invader.
Then it returned, more insistent this time. It spoke of understanding for their desire of vengeance. It spoke of sorrow for the lives lost. Most importantly, it said that Alex was a friend, and that it was here to help them help him.
They were more suspicious at that, but those notions that this creature meant them harm was quickly washed away when she appeared. She was the first friendly voice that they and Alex had heard since the one survivor had crawled from the wreckage. Alex trusted her implicitly, and because of this, they also trusted her. She said that the new entity was here to grant their wish. To forge them into a tool, a weapon, that could finally bring justice to those that sorely deserved it.
She said it might hurt, as if pain were a problem to these tortured souls. She told them that they would lose their individuality, as if they had been capable of independent thought since their death. She warned them that the change would be permanent, and that it might be some time before they could finally answer the sweet, clarion call of the veil.
In the end, it really wasn’t a hard decision to make.
* * *
Servaal let out a sigh of relief as he set down his hammer. It was a lot of material to work, and the soul fragments inside had not been the most pleasant to work with, but it was finally finished.
The quzin sat down on one of the short, equine-made chairs, and took a few seconds to admire his handiwork. It wasn't the most beautiful piece he had ever made, at this point resembling nothing more than an oblong hunk of metal, which if one were being polite, could have been called a blade in the making. It was still covered in the black scale of the forge, as it hadn't even touched a grind wheel yet, and it had no bevels to speak of.
That was okay, though. Soulstone was a horrible material to make a blade out of, for as tough as the material was, it didn't keep an edge well, and was too rigid to serve as a sword for long. A knife might have been a better choice for the material, but that wasn't the point. The appearance of such a piece was purely aesthetic, as the real purpose of its construction was to forge together the soul shards within into something that was far more useful than a blade ever could be. The bladed aspect was merely a vanity thing for the soul within. Had Servaal just forge welded the whole thing together into a bar, that, in theory, would have been enough. The problem with that theory was that the soul was a fickle thing to work with, and more times than not a freshly-forged soul would reject its new container, simply because it was unhappy with how that container looked.
Luckily, this soul had not been as finicky. It had been fairly resolute in its demand to be a weapon of some kind, but it didn't seem to care if it was cleaned up, or even made functional. It had grasped the fact that they were short on time, and had chosen itself to forgo the beautification process that would usually make such an effort take a LOT longer to complete.
It had, however, forced a promise out of Servaal that, once the danger had passed, he would finish his work, a promise that Servaal readily agreed to.
"Second Voice Jedon, are you there?" Servaal asked as he activated his comlink.
"I apologize, noble soulsmith, but the second voice is unavailable," an unfamiliar female voice answered. "This is Steward Corval. What is your situation?"
Servaal took in a deep breath, before slowly letting it out. "The... priestess told me to alert her the moment I had finished my work, regardless of her state when it is finished. I understand if it is too late to wake her from her sleep cycle, but-"
"No, you are correct. She'll be overjoyed when she hears of this. Please wait; I will wake her now," the steward said, her voice sounding excited.
Servaal waited patiently as he stared at the piece. It might have been unfinished, but even in this state the rough metal had a strange beauty that nothing else could match. It spoke of things that could be, but weren't, a potential not quite realized, but still visible through the imperfections.
Servaal was so lost in his own thoughts that he nearly jumped out of his skin when Priestess Akitesh appeared next to him in a flash of light. She had a disheveled appearance, as if she had slept in her uniform, but Servaal wisely chose to ignore her appearance in favor of reaching out, taking the piece, and presenting it to her. "It is finished, my priestess."
Akitesh looked at the rough hunk of metal, her bloodshot eyes not pleased with what she saw. "Are you sure? I thought that such a work would look… more finished."
"As much as both of us would have liked that to happen, it isn’t necessary for the artificial soul to function,” Servaal said, inclining his head slightly. “That being said, Edmond has extracted from me my word that, once the danger is past, I will refine his container.”
“Edmond?” Akitesh asked curiously as she took up the rough, unfinished sword. It still felt warm in her hands, its surface rough and uneven despite it’s metallic composition.
“It was the name he chose for himself,” Servaal said with a deep bow. “I know not its meaning, only that it comes from one of the cultures of his home planet. He is ready for duty, my priestess, and quite anxious to begin.”
“Thank you, Servaal. You may return to the ship. I will deliver Edmond to the rulers of this nation. I only hope we were able to finish in time…”
Servaal nodded once more, before activating his comlink and notifying the ship of his desire to depart. Before the world disappeared in a flash of light, though, he couldn’t help but notice the look of hope on his priestess’s beautiful face.
I only hope that you may keep smiling like that…
* * *
“My princess! The snake alien has returned!”
Princess Luna looked up from the paperwork she had been signing. It was the dead of night, the sun wasn’t scheduled to rise for another five hours, and the only ones up were the princess herself, as well as her Night Sentinels. Having anyone come to see her was a joy, though knowing it was one of the aliens in orbit tainted it somewhat with worry and fear. “Show her in,” Princess Luna said as she sat up and put down her quill.
Sergeant Fair Weather bowed to his princess, before pushing the door further open, revealing the alien on the other side. She looked like she had been awoken during her sleep, which was understandable, as it was the middle of the night. In her lower arms she gripped what appeared to be an unfinished, unsharpened blade, its blackened, crusty surface an ugly sight to behold.
“What is that?” Princess Luna asked, hoping that the alien had her translation magic working.
She did, and her first answer was to give the Princess of the Night a tired smile. “It not look much. Not… finished, but done. Work. Is human soul, many forged one. Ready when you ready, ready to start.”
Luna stood up, excitement breaking through the mask she wore. “Are you sure? It’s ready!?”
“Am certain. Where Alexander? He disappeared. Need tell, show friends become, show new soul,” Akitesh asked, her expression remaining one of hopeful enthusiasm, which only served to make Luna’s heart plummet.
The truth was, they didn’t know what had happened to Alex. The wayward human had walked through the portal, with his disappearance immediately followed by the sounds of something small and fast impacting Shining Armor’s shield.
They had expected that, as it was the reason for the shield in the first place. What they hadn’t expected was an hour to pass with no word. This was followed by another, then the whole rest of the day, and no sign of the lone survivor.
No one wanted to say that their friend had met his untimely end and that help wasn’t coming; but with no evidence to the contrary, the defense of a world to plan, and no desire to enter a world without magic and get shot, the assembled diplomats had to unfortunately leave the mirror alone for the time being. There was still a pair of guards on watch in the mirror room, as were the Elements of Harmony, but until they received word to the contrary, they had to assume the worst.
However, Luna had been a statesmare for centuries, her experience overshadowed by none but her sister, and knew how to best avoid giving more information than was necessary. On top of that, a small part of her still held out hope that Alex was coming back, and wasn’t too keen on counting out the human just yet. “He is currently busy on something special that should turn the tides,” she said as she stood from her desk. She then walked to the door, before gesturing once towards the open entryway. “For now, let’s take the soul, and put it into the omniscope. The device has been completed for quite some time, all that was needed was a way to control it.”
If Akitesh suspected anything amiss with Alex, she did not show it. Instead, she merely nodded, and followed Luna out of the room. It was a fairly long walk from Luna’s study to the wing that held the omniscope, and during this time, Luna couldn’t help but feel her hopes rise with each step. She finally had a way to ensure her people’s safety, and while it really was a stopgap measure at best, she had a feeling that there would be few who were willing to take a star to the face in order to assault this world.
Before they knew it, they had reached their destination, and without much ceremony, Princess Luna pushed open the door to where the omniscope was being kept. “Here it is: the Omniscope. The last great work of one of the greatest minds Equestria has ever seen.”
The device in question hardly looked the part for something to carry that kind of lofty title. It looked more like a mishmash of wires, tubes, and random objects. There were metal dishes pointed towards the sky, globes of pure crystal which seemed to glow with an inner light, and in the center there was a stone basin with a pool of the clearest liquid ever created, with a carving of an alicorn overlooking it.
The most important part, though, was the small metallic frame near the bottom. The frame formed an oblong box, inside which could be seen the metal plates that Alex had created, along with the socket that used to house the golem cores that Alex had also made. “Insert the soul there,” Luna said, gesturing with a hoof towards the socket. “If it works as intended, the action should activate the Omniscope, and with it, allow us the chance to defend ourselves.”
Akitesh nodded once, before quickly slithering forward and inserting the tang of the blade into the indicated socket. The tang fit like a glove, though the blade itself stuck out awkwardly, and only served to further make the whole device look like somepony had piled a large assortment of junk in the center of the room.
Princess Luna briefly worried that the extra weight of the blade might break the socket and the plate it was attached to, but that worry was quickly banished when the unfinished sword began to glow a deep, beautiful gold color. Runes all over the omniscope began to glow as well, and soon, a low, ominous hum began to fill the entire room.
Then, a voice began speaking. The voice sounded metallic, but at the same time, it also sounded warm, like a father who had just seen his children enter a room. The language it used wasn’t Equestrian, but rather English, a language that Luna was only passingly familiar with, and a barrier that she knew she should have seen coming.
Fortunately for her, and her planet as a whole, it seemed like one of her scientists had foreseen this exact problem, because after a few seconds of the device babbling in English, it suddenly switched to Equestrian. “Start up translating… active. Greeting Princess Luna, Good see, Good know. Am Wealthy Protector, good see with own eyes. How are you being today?”
Before Luna could answer, one of the glowing globes began to glow brighter as a face suddenly flickered into existence within the depths of the crystal. It was a human face, though since Luna’s only experience with humans was with Alex, she had no way of telling if this was how humans were supposed to look. The face had a long, almost hooked nose, and big bushy eyebrows, though it had no hair on the top of its head. Instead, it wore a large, bushy beard, and all over its exposed skin she could see a maze of glowing, golden symbols.
Princess Luna briefly inclined her head towards the crystal, silently thanking her scientists for having the forethought to put a translation rune into the Omniscope. “I am quite well. Thank you, noble Wealthy Protector. Do you remember what your task was?”
“Do remember. Look in sky, look for enemy. Many thing here, much look, much see, give moment to get used to sensations. Please hold. Please wait.” Wealthy Protector’s face took on a troubled look, as if he were busy with a particularly difficult puzzle.
Akitesh leaned over towards Luna, a question in her eyes. “What he say? Translation through translation very bad.”
“He said he needed time to get used to the Omniscope,” Luna said quietly, not wanting to disturb Wealthy Protector from his task.
After a few seconds, Wealthy Protector’s eyes suddenly went very wide, and another one of the globes began to glow brighter. “Princess Luna! Danger! We need act now! Look!”
The globe began to swirl, before it slowly resolved itself into something that Luna could recognize. In the center, she could see Canterlot castle, its ivory towers gleaming faintly in the moonlight. This view quickly pulled back, giving Luna a sense of vertigo, until she recognized a beautiful green and blue sphere suspended in the darkness of space. This view pulled back even further, until she could see the moon as well, and while she might have had intimate knowledge of that particular celestial body, this was the first time she had ever seen her moon in such a way.
There were other objects in orbit around her planet as well. One looked like some kind of arrowhead, its whole body covered in a number of glowing runes, while another looked like some kind of metallic bird of prey, with its forward sweeping wings and beak-like nose. The third object looked… broken. It was clearly some kind of wreck, as most of the metal showing was all jagged edges and shredded metal. It was hard to get a feel of the size of the things, due to the scale on display, but if Luna had to guess, she would have said that each of the ships were around the size of Canterlot Castle, but smaller than Canterlot City.
“That my ship, The Purpose, and that friendly krin ship, The Bastion,” Akitesh clarified as she pointed towards each one. “Third is wreck of The Aurora. Still not know much about destruction.”
Princess Luna had heard about what had happened, but seeing it now made her blood run cold. “I am not an expert in the workings or designs of your vessels, but she truly looks destroyed…” she said sadly. Luna then turned back towards Wealthy Protector, a frown on her face. “Wealthy Protector, those are our allies. They aren’t here to hurt us.”
“Was worried, but thought that be case. Not real concern. This real concern,” Wealthy Protector said as the view started to pull back even further.
Now they could see the sun, with the planet Equuis only a tiny speck in the infinite cosmos. It was truly a humbling sight, one that she would have to worry about later as the view seemed to swing around, and close in on a seemingly empty patch of space. Luna looked at the view for a few seconds, before shaking her head sadly. “I’m sorry, Wealthy Protector, but we cannot see anything.”
“That because they hidden, and I forgot change view to hidden mode,” Wealthy Protector said, right before the image in the crystal began to warp and shift. After a few seconds of this, a large number of vessels resolved themselves. There were at least forty of the strange ships, most of them bearing a design similar to The Bastion, though there were a few exceptions. Some were much larger and more oblong in design, while others were smaller and sleeker looking. They did not appear to be arranged in any sort of discernible order, and were quickly moving away from each other, spreading out in a way that would make them harder to destroy at once should a celestial body strike them.
They were all still moving in the general direction of the princess’s home, though, which in and of itself filled Luna with a silent dread. This was only further compounded when Luna noticed how close they were to her world.
“Sergeant!” Luna shouted at the top of her lungs. “Go awaken my sister, alert the guard, and assemble our forces, we’re being attacked now!”
The sergeant at the door took off like a bolt from a crossbow, not even taking the time to salute. Princess Luna then turned towards the snake alien, intent on relating what had happened, only to find her quickly muttering into a device in her own tongue. “I sorry, Luna, but must leave. They here now, now begins defense. I pray for all safety, will do our part, must leave now.”
“Then go. We will try not to hit you, but be aware that our aim might not be the best,” Princess Luna replied with a bow. “Go now, and know that your willingness to stand with us is appreciated.”
Akitesh responded with a short bow of her own before she disappeared in a flash of white light. Satisfied that she at least had allies in this new theater of war, Princess Luna turned back towards the crystal, and cleared her throat. “Wealthy Protector, can you show me the predicted paths of the sun and moon?”
“Knowing paths…? Oh, orbits. Yes, show now,” Wealthy Protector said, before two white circles appeared, showing Princess Luna exactly what she wanted to know.
She had to curse, then, when she noticed that the fleet was already too far in to make the sun much more than a nuisance. “Well, they’re already past the first hurdle, then,” Luna muttered to herself. “May the spirits smile on us this day, for I am sure that we will need it…”
Things are looking exciting! Looking forward to more!
Nice, both the chapter and the timing of the soulsmith. I have to agree with a number of stories that state that magic has a high level of drama...
Eager to see more of Alex back on Earth, though.
FYI for those who are thinking about picking up his original fiction; I haven't finished reading it yet, but I can tell you that it's a: pretty good, and b: more than just this story with the ponies filed off...
Huh. First time I've seen of the concept of soul-forging like this. Very interesting.
Also, TO BATTLE STATIONS!!! The enemy is upon us!
I do hope that whatever weapons the Equestrians have are effective.
Edmond... Dante. The Count of Monte Cristo. Vengeance against an unjust wrong. Nice.
9756993
That's my favorite book and I missed that reference. I am the sad now, cause all I could think of was Edmond from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
the battle of equus is about to begin
Curious on how's Alex front going, but nice to see they got the Omniscope ready in time. I bet the Krin fleet will have the time of their lives when they see a moon heading towards them in nearly relativistic speeds... and then turning around for another pass.
9757000
Doesn't that also work? I mean, at one point he acted against the good guys, only to redeem himself and become their staunchest ally?
Or maybe I'm misremembering.
9757121 No, you're remembering it right. Edmond stayed true to the end, while Susan eventually forgot about, and betrayed, Narnia.
9757124
Wait a minute. What book did this happen in? Cause I've read all but the last and don't remember Susan betraying Narnia.
So I'm guessing that the sun can't get too many because the orbit is moving away from the bulk of the fleet? Or is it that it can reverse but then won't be able to get close enough to the planet?
9757153
Spoiler alert?
9757157
It's that bringing the sun to bear would bring it too close to the planet, so, it's going to be up to Luna to swat a fleet with her moon.
9757157
They are already mostly past the point where the sun is usable without damage to themselves.
Nice. It seems like the end of the story is on its way, and that's kind of a bummer.
9757262 *Nervous laugh of an author who's already realized that, in order to tell the story he set out writing, he may need another book, possibly two.* Yeah, the story's almost at an end. Totally....
My sentiments exactly! I was looking forward to some firey EXTERMINATUS! Those buggers deserved it!
Why you decide to turn Celestia's chance to shine (pun true, but not relevant) into yet another time where Celestia can't do anything important BY HERSELF when the moment comes?!
Celestia deserves a chance to show her power in defense of her home and those buggers are the perfect target! Why you not let her get one clean shot at one of the big ones?
Ugggh! Seriously, I haven't felt this cheated since I went to see Cloverfield in theaters! And that was much worse. The whole hype was the question: "What is Cloverfield?", and the entire movie never even touched on answering it. It was like going to a Godzilla movie but the movie was solely about people who were only in the area of the action. You feel like you got robbed of something because you paid for the movie and got a 2 1/2 hour side plot to watch instead, while the movie played off screen!
THE WHOLE REASON, HECK, THE ONLY REASON FOR THE OMNISCOPE TO BE MADE WAS TO LET THE PRINCESSES USE THE SUN AGAINST THE BAD ALIENS! AND YOU JUST CHUCKED THAT REASON OUT THE WINDOW!
I have no doubt you can, and have, made something completely worthwhile out of this. And I am still looking forward to the next chapter. But know that I will always be disappointed in this moment. Whether intentionally or not, you just sat yourself in the camp of "Celestia is nothing when the time comes" to write this moment and I have come to hate that camp because of moments like these and much worse.
I get it, canon writing is canon writing, but THIS IS FANFICTION! Let the Princess who can control THE SUN be the Princess with the Power TO CONTROL THE FREAKIN' SUN!
LET HER FLEX! LET HER PROTECT HER LITTLE PONIES!
It doesn't have to win the war, but let her mean SOMETHING! This was a moment she would have carried with her no matter what else happened, the moment she defended her people with her own strength.
This disappointment I feel is like when I saw what The Lord of the Rings movie did to Faramir's character compared to the books. In Tolkien's books he was an example, that we got to see, of the strength that Gandalf saw in the world of men that gave him hope as the time of the elves was ending. The strength that Elrond, the elf lord of Rivendale, didn't see. A common man, not a descendent from the line of Numenor, with the spirit to defy will of The One Ring. The will of Sauron himself. The strength that Sauron turned his own father against in favor of his spiritually weaker brother, Boromir.
The movie? Hey, we can do a whole CGI special effects enhanced battle between Mordor and Gondor at Oscilliath, the crowd will love the extra action! Just have The Ring make this guy bring Frodo there. He's son of the Steward of Gondor? Perfect, he's also just a common man not one of those long lived men so he's weak, The Ring can dominate him, he's not that important. (*facepalm*) Unimportant were none of the characters in Tolkien's stories. Nor were any of the deeds of Mithrandir's (Gandalf's) life needless.
Nevertheless, I have come to like The Lord of the Rings movie, just for what they are though. They aren't and will never be Tolkien's level of quality.
(sigh) I'm bringing this rant down to a close. I need some feel better food. I will see you next chapter as, despite this disappointment, I am looking forward to more. See ya then.
P.S. Also, sorry about the rant... these kind of explosions happen every now and again. At least this time there was no Springfield Pitchfork and Torch mob following... or... worse...
Thanks for the Birthday present!
And so it begins!
But they can flick the sun around. They were already that close? Well that's disappointing.
Twenty Bits says Alex got caught up in bureaucracy.
It's going to be a close one, folks! Make sure your harnesses are fully engaged, this ride doesn't stop for a while and we just finished getting warmed up!
Keep going! ;)
Time for some massive coronal ejections?
9757365
Chillax, bruh. The fighting hasn't even started yet. Celestia hasn't been written out of the story, they just had one plan circumvented by their enemies, and it wasn't even a plan that they were really counting on to begin with. Yeah, Celestia isn't going to be able to swat the entire fleet out of the sky with a fast-moving sun, but who do you think is gonna be commanding the defense of Equestria on the ground while Luna is standing in front of the omniscope trying to maneuver her moon around? She'll get her time to shine, she'll just be doing it in person instead of from a distance.
And realistically speaking, this pretty much had to happen. Being able to destroy the entire fleet with a giant ball of burning plasma in one fel swoop sort of takes the drama out of an invasion, you know?
So, this isn't actually relevant to the plot, but the bit at the beginning with the encryption really bugged me.
Like there's basically no reason to worry about what base the transmission was encoded in, if it's more than 16 you didn't record the message properly because you only recorded 16 discreet signals, and if it's less it should be obvious that not all the signal states are being used.
And maybe he's worrying about the encoding scheme instead of the raw data, but then he shouldn't care about the number system at all, but rather the language system (like how our computers use binary/hexadecimal but ASCII is a base 128 encoding of English)
And yeah knowing the encoding scheme would help, but if the message is encrypted on top of that there'd be basically no way of telling what encoding the cypher text is using without some idea what the plain text is already unless it is obvious from the cypher text anyway, so that doesn't seem like the kind of thing he'd be worrying about either.
Additionally I don't see a way that reading emotions would help break a cypher except in that it might reveal some plain text, and that really wouldn't help against anything more complex than what you can make with a cypher wheel. I guess it might reveal some of a key phrase which would be enough for something like a Vigenère cipher if the phrase happened to have some emotional charge, but there's no reason why it should.
IDK. I know it's not relevant to anything, but I waisted a good 15 minutes thinking about alien cryptography before I could move on to the rest of the chapter. But yeah.
Just ask Discord to help out. He can zip the moon and sun about so fast and randomly the invaders would never have a chance to dodge them both.
Their only choice would then be the Windscreen or the Bug Zapper or GTFO of Dodge City before they get clobbered by one of them!
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Meanwhile on earth Alex must brave the place that sends you mad to prove his identity and citizenship
well shit this just happened fast.
9757508 If you recall, he flat out says that the task is impossible without the cypher. As for the reason he mentioned the emotional imprint, if you remember back in book 1, Written Script used an emotional imprint to get the general gist of Alex's messages. A general feel of what's inside an encoded message is far better than not knowing anything at all.
Why is he doing this in the first place? Again, he tells you why. He has absolutely nothing else to do. The snake is bored out of his wits, so he figured it is better to bang his head guessing an encoded message than waste away doing diddly squat.
Edmond, can you show me the predicted paths of the sun and moon?
Just want to point out that, due to the translation spell, Edmond was introduced as Wealthy Protector so Luna wouldn't refer to him as Edmond if I'm understanding the overall plot right.
Otherwise awesome chapter! I'm really excited to see what happens next!
9757639 oops, I missed that one during editing. Yes, it was supposed to be Wealthy Protector, that is completely a typo. Thanks for the catch!
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This and solar flares.
Plenty for Celestia to do yet.
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Exactly this.
Be careful with the was/were mix up, I've noticed a lot of people doing that lately and it's aggravating to me.
"Was" is singular, "were" is plural.
"He WAS cleaning the car while his mom and dad WERE still on their trip."
I know "if I were you" rolls of the tongue better than "if I was you" it's just not proper English.
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Was hoping Celestia's sun would play a part in the fight but it would be foolish to think a space faring race wouldn't be able to calculate orbits and how to be as far as possible from a giant homicidal ball of plasma, heh. Luna's moon will hopefully prove a more nimble foil to the heavy war hammer of the sun. I'd also expect missiles/bombs to be launched well ahead, if nothing else than to cause as much collateral damage as possible. Heavy duty magic might be the only recourse to stop or mitigate atomics/antimatter (or whatever fantastical destruction you want to come up with) weapons when that stuff hits-- some is bound to get through and hiding in a cave just isn't going to save you.
Tricky, not heavy duty, magic could help? Playing with portals? Send the weapons right back at their source. Targeted deconstruction? Flying to pieces. Pegasi-enhanced stormclouds shooting lighting straight up? We have [rare] blue lightning that does that on it's own here on Earth, going several dozens of miles into the upper reaches of the atmosphere and I doubt anything can withstand that... well, maybe Derpy.
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You mistake my frustration on Celestia.
I'm not annoyed that Celestia won't be able to do anything at all. She will do things, that is a given. She's a Princess of a country, there's no way she can't get anything done. That is not the issue.
My frustration stems from Celestia being denied the opportunity to do something on her own, using her own power that either no one or possibly Luna, Twilight, or Cadence could do in her place because of their power being equal or close to hers. I'm frustrated that she is being denied ANY opportunity to do something herself that shows her power and do something meaningful with it.
And worst of all, they just finished the tool they needed to enable it. That the story spent in suspense for the completion of, was set up to be waiting for. To see the Sun, and thereby the Sun Princess, take down an enemy ship at the least.
Nothing is so iconic to Princess Celestia as her control over the Sun's movement and that was the purpose of the Omniscope. And yet, when the moment arrived, what could she do? Nothing. As the camp is titled: "Celestia is nothing when the time comes."
The concept took off when the Changelings invaded and Celestia got beaten by Chrysalis in MLP: FiM. People really started noticing how many times canon left her doing nothing, being nothing, or getting beaten against so many threats to Equestria and even the Crystal Empire. As I said above, canon writing is canon writing. Nothing wrong with that. But... this is fanfiction. She doesn't have to be useless.
And I don't expect her to wipe out the fleet with the sun. That would be winning the war, which I said I don't expect of her using the sun in this part of the story.
They were already spread out, so ok, she can't wipe them all out.
She can't even wipe a significant portion of them out, that's ok too. Sucks for them, but ok, I get it.
But not getting even ONE shot off... The moment comes and Celestia's nothing once again... that... that I hate.
Whether it's "too late for her to do anything", "she's too powerful and has to restrain herself or needless destruction", she gets easily beaten, or "she can't win, so she doesn't fight" it can all lead to the same place. Camp Celestia's nothing when the time comes.
Now, don't go thinking that I'm saying you can't do or have any of that in a story to stay out of that camp. Individually, they are legit storytelling tools. But using those tools or reasons to keep her down so your "destined" can be the heroes for the entire story? You're in that camp. And it's not hard to catch on before the story is over.
How to avoid? Let her flex.
It doesn't even have to work out, but let her do something meaningful with her own strength. She's a Princess with the magical might to control the movement of a STAR. That power cannot be completely meaningless, especially in this story.
The aliens have seen a sun used against their fleets before? Ok.
They've spread out so they don't lose the entire fleet? Ok.
They're ready to dodge, evade, and do anything they can to avoid a weaponized star? Ok.
The one who can control the sun maybe only manages to hit one of their larger ships before they get too close? Man, that sucks, but ok. They did their best, I guess.
The one who can control the sun didn't even get to try? ...... Are... you...SERIOUS?!
Is this person, who is so powerful, just a JOKE to you?
What was the point of that?
What's the reason that character is even in your story?
What possible purpose does it serve that the enemy gets by without even a challenge let alone a scratch?
What makes them so important that they can't take even one ship as casualty.
Good guys got red shirts who take the hits so the plot important characters don't. Are you telling me every single enemy personnel and ship in this fleet are plot important? And you can't conceive of them taking a single loss? ...Who is this person who can control a star's movement?
Princess Celestia, of course it's Princess Celestia. Because "Celestia's nothing when the time comes", again.
That, is what frustrates me.
Now, there's a good example of Celestia flexing in Irrespective's Baked Beaniverse. The story series starting with No Nose Knows. If you read through to when Changelings get involved you will get to see Celestia FLEX.
Now, she is a central character in the series, she's restrained by the "she's so powerful that she can be dangerous to those around her" tool, and she doesn't do anything plot altering when she does flex. But she doesn't have to in that story. Which makes the flex all the more awesome. And WHOA DOES SHE FLEX! Someone has to RUN FROM THE SUN! (not the literal Sun) You get to see The Sun Princess herself in that part of the story. WHOO!
That story uses the tool right! And the story is better for it. Go read the series if you haven't, it's another great story to read along with this one.
Oh, and lastly, what you said about her commanding Equestria's defense. That's part of the stuff she was "given" to be able to do. That's her getting others to get stuff done and maybe getting involved. It's not her doing something with her own power to defend her ponies that few but those as powerful as the Sun Princess can do.
If she had gotten even just one ship before they crossed into the "too close for the sun to anything but a nuisance range" that would have been a Sun Princess flex.
That would have been, "Yeah, I can hit you, give me a clean shot and I'll hit another." Sun Princess supreme!
It would have been, "Sir, the sensors show the power controlling that sun is coming from the planet's surface, not the Quizin! The natives are throwing their own sun directly at our ships! And they can see us!" Now the aliens have reason to be very concerned, if not scared. And then the moon began to move. (I hope I got the snake people's species name right.)
Let Princess Celestia flex her power. It can be awesome without overpowering your story.
Oh, boy. It begins. Here’s hoping these assholes get stomped and their captives set free. It may all depend on how fast Alex works and how much help he brings back. Maybe the quzin can lend a few ships and give our troops a ride and the chance to bring some bigger toys along if there’s enough time.
Time to hit some fools with a moon
9758126 I think you will be pleasently surprised by the next chapter then. Heck the next four paragraphs. Just wait, Celestia is going to have PLENTY of room to flex, so please, trust me on this. My least favorite trope in all of fimfiction is Celestia doing nothing. Stay seated, and enjoy the show. It might not envolve her using the sun as a club, but she has a few other, flashier tricks she's learned with the thing over the centuries...
9758126
Right, but you're assuming that just because Celestia isn't able to literally hit things with the sun that she's now somehow completely barred from doing anything with her personal magical might in the upcoming conflict.
Since we're dragging other stories in this, I'll point to the Iron Hearts series by SFaccountant for examples of her being able to very much show off her magical might on ground-bound targets. Besides cutting an enormous swath of destruction through the enemy army, at one point she catches a full spaceship that was about to fall on Canterlot at terminal velocity. There are other things she can do to "flex" besides this one thing you're so hung up on.
Honestly I'm getting the feeling that no matter what Celestia does in the upcoming conflict it's never going to be enough for you just because she didn't perform this one, specific, win button move. And it would be an auto-win. Even getting the sun in the general vicinity of the fleet would be enough to wreck it.
I immediately think of the cultural significance of Sir Edmund Hillary, first to summit Mount Everest
A name I personally attribute with the will to never give up.
Paperback copy of What I've Become; $9.99(plus tax) and a few hours I should have put the book down to not mess with my sleep schedule.
Re-reading all three stories from the beginning; more than a few hours into my sleep schedule and being tired at work(worth it).
Getting to what I thought was the last chapter out & seeing there is a new one....PRICELESS.
Well now that I did that old joke i'm back to lurking for a few years/ however long this takes to get done. On that note are you focusing on finishing this maybe "last" book or are you remaking book two? Or both at the same time? Either way, Cheers! & sweet book!
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This story happens, at the latest, mid-season-3.
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You have a mistaken perspective on the use of the sun as a weapon. You seem to be stuck on it being an auto-win move, however the author already accounted for the enemy's readiness for its use. As the author wrote in previous chapters, the Quizin even having a single ship there already made them leery of the sun being used against them. It has happened to them before.
Please remember that fact as it makes almost any expectation of a total fleet wipe impossible. They have lost fleets to this tactic before. They know about it and have developed counter tactics to reduce damage. And, as a kicker, they are a technologically advanced space faring race with FTL drives and engines built for combat manuvers just like the Quizin. (Man, I hope I'm getting their name right.) So, combined with their preparation, that the author wrote about, of spreading their ships out so that it would be difficult to use the sun in such a way that the fleet would suffer catastrophic losses and their general wariness of the Quizin presence an auto-win was unrealistic. They knew what they were doing.
And as a space faring race that has suffered losses to the use of a sun as a club, I would be remiss to assume they have no capability to survive a close encounter with a star or sun. Perfect defenses? Out of the question. Capabilities to make it believably survivable? No question.
So I never expected such a result in this situation, and in my own opinion, neither should you. The author has established these parameters very well which is a part of what makes the story enjoyable.
Now, as to your recommendation of the Iron Hearts series. Thank you, I will look forward to reading another story where Celestia isn't left useless. I do hope to see Celestia be a threat to the ships in space in that story, but since you made no mention of it in your example I am tempering my expectations.
And that brings me to my last point. I never said I didn't expect Celestia to do anything with her power, especially ground side. However, I seem to have failed, yet again, to communicate something to you.
The Quizin are a magical, technologically advanced, space faring race, who can throw around stars with magic.
Their enemy the...
(aww, shoot. I'm guessing again. Can't wait for my new computer to arrive.)
...The Kriin?
(Meh, at least I didn't guess the Kilrathi.)
Their enemy the Kriin are a technologically advanced, space faring race, who are trying to steal control over magic for their purposes, and are scared of the Quizin because they throw around stars with magic.
The Kriin are not scared of the natives of Equus. Wary, yes. They got magic, like the Quizin. Scared, no. The natives of Equus aren't a space faring race, they don't have the tech to be seen as a threat to their fleets like the Quizin are.
Do you see now?
Celestia destroying even one ship? Now the threat is suddenly real. As an example:
"THE SUN TOOK OUT THE FULGOR CLAW!"
"Damn the Quizin! How did they see us? We're too close now for that to happen twice, continue onwards!"
"Sir, it wasn't the Quizin."
"WHAT?!"
"It wasn't the Quizin. The energy came from the planet according to the sensors. Someone down there threw the sun."
"BY THE GODS! One race throwing stars was bad enough, NOW THERE'S TWO OF THEM?! Get ready for a real fight, our mission just became more important than ever."
Meanwhile, on the Quizin ship:
"...Looks like they managed to get one of the Kriin ships with their sun. They're too close for another pass though."
(Nods) "Prepare for combat. Our mission just became more imperative than ever. Our enemy is not just attacking natives, they are attacking people like our own now. So let us defend them like our own."
There's a difference between being dangerous on the ground and a threat to a space fleet. The Kriin have more experience fighting the Quizin on the ground, they aren't scared of a ground battle against magic. They expect it, they have experience and defenses against it, they've even won against it sometimes. Its the star throwing that scares them.
Lose the fleet, lose the battle on the planet.
No fleet means no reinforcements or retreat.
This was a moment where Princess Celestia taking out one ship would show to the enemy that they don't need the Quizin to be a threat to their fleet. Equus is dangerous to their fleets.
And then the moon began to swing their way.
No matter how you hash it, people planet side won't see the sun moving and then learn Princess Celestia smacked a hereti- I mean... smacked a ship from an invading space fleet with it. But they will see the moon moving and then learn Princess Luna smacked an invading space fleet around with it.
Ergo, it ends up looking like Princess Celestia did nothing up there and Princess Luna did.
Now, I'm pretty sure it was mentioned that the Quizin have swung asteroids into enemy fleets, so I don't expect the moon to make as big an impact on them except for its sheer size. And it will spook them something fierce. But nothing will have the sheer fear factor of losing even a single ship to having a star swung at you.
The Kriin are scared by that kind of show of force. The ground based fighting? Nothing they can't potentially handle, they've faced it before. Won't even give them pause because they think they've prepared for it all. But only the next chapter will reveal whether they were, or not.
This was Celestia's chance to scare the Kriin. And they deserve to be scared after all they've done and intend to do. And when the tool to make it happen is finished, what do we get? "Nope! Celestia don't get to use this. Too late, you missed her chance. Looks like it's Princess Luna to the rescue."
Not... even... one... scratch. They didn't even get the PAINT on their hull melted a little. Not even one scratch. This is what terrifies the Kriin, and they get nothing from it. Disappointing, but not something I can't move on from.
Now, at this point, I recommend we consider letting this go between us. You believe I'm mad that Celestia didn't get to hit an auto-win switch, I believe something was unnecessarily skipped out on.
If that is still how it stands after what I've said here, let's just let it all pass. We shouldn't get any furthur into a debate if we've failed to communicate, yet again, at this point. It would just be unnecessary drama in the comment section and I don't want to do that to the author.
In any case, have a good day, enjoy the story, and once again: Thank you for the recommendation of the Iron Hearts series. I look forward to reading it.
9758649 Again, I must tell you to cool, and watch, and wait. Celestia is still gonna put the fear of the power-packed taste of Sunny D into them. Luna might think they're out of range. Celestia, who's had a thousand years to play with some of the sun's more interesting features, does not.
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9758678
Looking forward to it, Knight Breeze, looking forward to it. Once read a story where Celestia thought with portals to drop sun fire on an enemy. That was awesome.
9758678
i.imgur.com/DKJhx9l.gif
9758678
me, reading the next chapter:
media.giphy.com/media/N1nFBvRxhDYU8/giphy.gif
9758084
Read up on the subjunctive mood. "If I were you" is, in fact, correct English grammar.
If a phrase using "were" rolls off the tongue better than using "was", even though it seems like "was" should be correct, chances are it's a subjunctive that you learned through experience without even realizing it and it's actually correct.
9756993
That was exactly what I thought when I saw that name. You, my friend, have excellent taste.
9758649
I would be remiss if I did not point out the incident in which Krin ground troops were terrified by... semi-automatic slug throwers. I think you're right about their response to the sun, but that's not a surprise as threat. Their response to threats, overall, seems to be based not at all on the degree of the threat, but to how mentally prepared they are for it. On those grounds, they may not be mentally prepared for a ground war against an entire species that are either aeromancers, geomancers, or void knights.
Edit: added quotes: