Rage Review: Resist and Bite (Chapter 13, Part C) · 10:37pm Apr 27th, 2020
Chapter 13: Slavery in Canterlot (Part C)
Something-something, Roman captives, medieval serfs, blacks in the Old South. I can't be bothered to come up with any actual slavery jokes any more.
Unknown to all of them, Charlie Lam and Luster Dawn were observing Canterlot while sitting on a tree branch. And the sight traumatized the two of them.
"Oh my, this is getting worse." Luster Dawn said petrified.
LUSTER DAWN: I mean they killed a lot of creatures before, but now they're doing it in Canterlot. I go shopping there!
Charlie clicked on a button on his goggle scanners and scanned the area again and saw that there were fourteen riot police units on duty. And two soldiers one armed with a CF-05 9mm calibre submachine gun and the other armed with a 20 guage shotgun guarding the entrance.
So, basically, there are 16 troops deployed for duty in the whole city. Which is close to my estimate, as 16 x 3 =48, roughly a platoon.
Author, you should be aware that "the city of Canterlot" is not all just one location. If you've seen any episode of the Show set in the actual city, you might have noticed that it is a complex and very densely packed urban center with numerous winding streets. It would require at least a battalion strength force to meaningfully patrol.
Emplaced videocameras would help, but you still need MP or other troops to back them up. And there is a literal maze of old tunnels underneath the city -- the exhausted mines that were the original reason for the existence of Canterlot. In short, an urban guerilla's dream battlefield.
Speaking of dream battlefields, where's Luna? And Celestia? Are they just watching and eating popcorn?
"What are all of these screen on these safety goggles?" She asked.
Charlie sighed and extended his left hoof and clicked on a button on the safety goggle. Then, the goggles began to scan the area and Luster Dawn can see what was happening.
CHARLIE: Stupid Unicorn! Why don't you instantly grasp how to use all the functions of my custom-built experimental safety goggles, complete with unlabeled controls, which no other human would understand how to use either?
"Oh, now this technology of yours is very astonishing." Luster Dawn said with a smile.
"Indeed it is." Charlie said with a nod.
LUSTER DAWN: Wow, you're so amazingly neato-keen, Charlie-sempai! I'm grateful even for your patronizing contempt, for it means that you've noticed me! I so wish that we weren't at war, so that I could give myself to you right now in tribute to your wonderfulness!
CHARLIE: It's no more than I deserve. Barely enough, really.
He the looked back in front of him on his left and saw some wooden planks behind some large rocks piled up 70cm from the entrance. And it looked like it was a sewer system, he looked closer and saw that the wooden planks are indeed hiding something underneath.
This is a mere quibble, but why is the Canterlot sewer system covered by mere "wooden planks?" Canterlot is a beautiful, monumental city at least a thousand years old. There has been a lot of time to build lovely stone, even marble bridges or other covers over the part of the sewer system right outside.
On this general topic, one of the reasons it's really STUPID for the Chinese to tear down Canterlot, given that they clearly intend to permanently occupy the country (they'd better, if only to forestall the obvious sequels to their atrocities likely to be carried out by the now-furious Equestrians should the Chinese withdraw) is that Canterlot is valuable in part due to its beauty and history. It would make a great tourist destination.
That is, of course, unless some morons tore it down to build a Not-So-Great Wall.
Charlie then looked at Luster Dawn and began to report.
"Luster Dawn, follow me. I think I see something." Charlie said as he spread his wings and glided down from the tree branch. Then, he began to walk to the entrance of Canterlot.
"Huh?" Luster Dawn asked surprised "Okay then, I'm right behind you." She said as she jumped down from the tree branch and onto the ground. Then, she followed him from behind.
Why does Charlie suddenly know more about Canterlot than someone who lives there?
Ah, well. I've survived another chapter! Yay! 
Lazily written evil D&D races...
"So then..." Princess Celestia burst into laughter for a few moments. "Then Flurry Heart just looks up from the wreckage of the cake, gives the widest smile she can, and says 'Surprise?'"
Sunset Shimmer's hands twitched. No, she told herself. No throttling your old mentor. She's fought minotaurs; she'll see it coming. "That's... fascinating, Princess Celestia, but you told me you wanted to stay for the weekend almost a week ago. The last time I left Twilight in the lab unsupervised for this long, I had to argue ethics with a toaster."
"Oh, that reminds me of this hilarious little story our Twilight told me about her newest student!"
Sunset groaned and buried her face in her hands. "I miss high school..."
And at this point, I'm beginning to think that Luster turned to the Mirror Pool out of desperation. ("Hundreds of me, one Chosen One. I like those odds!") The Luster who's been, ahem, "guiding" Charlie is only one or two generations away from chanting "FIND! FIND! FIND! FIND!"
Granted, that doesn't explain all the other Equestrians...
Eh, I might quibble about the 'serfs as slaves' line given just how serfdom varied over Europe over more than a thousand years of history and different societies* but anyway.
This chapter seems like it was short and scanty.
I wonder, are the Chinese themselves aware that they're dreadfully undermanned? Thus explaining why they're so vicious with the conquered ponies? "If we don't keep them terrified, they'll slaughter us all!"
* -- Nor will I get into things like the 'peasant republics' of the Dithmarschen, the Helvetic Confederation, etc. Not doing this to bust your chops, just me being a pedant. Normally by now most years I've met people I could discuss this stuff with in person but everything was canceled because of the Wuhan Flu so I'm going a little stir crazy.
5251502
After I wrote the part about medieval serfs it actually bugged me too, but I decided to leave it because I was joking rather than writing real social history here.
They must be on vacation with Discord now... that's actually the official, edited story explanation now, by the way, "probably on vacation somewhere in another dimension," because dealing with Discord offscreen without explanation, then editing to "Discord was tased by police officers, bound and imprisoned with magically binding rings" wasn't working well enough ("bite off fingers" being a probable reason why, along with the sheer absurdity of tasing him successfully, as the debates went).
Technically, she doesn't live there anymore, at least when the show ended, but... yeah, she used to, for most of her life into, what, late teens, early adulthood?
But anyway, it's because she gets to be less useful in actually teaching Charlie anything, if he shows more intuition than her about her home city. He didn't really need her to teach him how to use magic, not even through a training montage, he gets to remind her that she can teleport in this story, when she trained herself to do that through study, through work.
How many things has Luster Dawn actually taught Charlie in this story, about Equestria, and in general? If the answer isn't "nothing," it's "not enough."