Ranger
Chapter 176: Exchange
By Wanderer D
......I'm not sure how to describe how Tala is doing.
Anyway, I hope to hear back from you soon! We all want to know how things are. Please write?
Your sister,
Twilight Sparkle
Twilight sighed and closed the diary, tracing her hoof gently over it. "I hope you're okay."
"Twilight?" Celestia spoke up, smiling gently at her. "The Commander's messages are very clear on what they request, and what they explicitly don't want."
Twilight looked up from the scrolls that had been copied out of the pads, and nodded.
"You seem relieved," Celestia continued.
"I am," Twilight said, easing back into her chair. "Not that I wouldn't insist on assisting if she had requested it, but I am glad that she didn't ask for troops, and in fact insisted that we don't."
"I'm surprised she wouldn't want more soldiers," Cadance said, studying her own copy. "It seems like the most obvious request."
"It's not surprising," Luna said, "The last thing they need are more aliens, even those coming to assist. Many people on Earth that currently support XCOM would not take kindly to finding out they were cooperating with interplanetary, or inter-dimensional, alien allies."
"Not to mention the Avenger cannot hold that many people," Twilight said, watching suspiciously as Luna nodded in agreement.
Shining sighed, rubbing his temples. "But you want to go back," he said, pointing a hoof at Twilight. "What's wrong with sending troops with you?"
"It took me several months to train in my human body to the point of being helpful," Twilight said, shaking her head. "And Sunset got really lucky when she found Mox. If he hadn't taken her under his wing, she would have died soon after wandering into that Lost-filled city.
"As Alejandra and I have proved here, just because the mirror compensates for initial adaptation, it doesn't mean that you will be able to simply cross it and fight as effectively as you otherwise could." Twilight tapped the table with her hoof, a habit she had developed as a human, only then she had fingers.
She stared at her hoof, so familiar, and yet strange. "Earth ponies would be at a disadvantage. Just because you can hold things with your hands and be deadly if you hit, doesn't mean the enemy will stay still. I have seen vipers dodge shots that were sure to hit them.
"Pegasi wouldn't have wings. All the advantages of flying high and their maneuverability would be gone. They might still move fast… but they'd be grounded. They'd need to adapt to a much more limited dimension of movement.
She traced a circle on the table. "Unicorns wouldn't be able to use magic. In all my time there, I only managed to communicate with Sunset thanks to the Element of Magic, which we don't have anymore. I wasn't able to levitate anything. I wasn't able to teleport or even cast cantrips.
"Before she even went there, Sunset had studied forbidden magic. She had begun to internalize the magic and bonded it with her blood, even before she became a full Blood Witch. Unless we're willing to sacrifice our soldiers or willing to risk creating monsters, that throws magic off the table completely.
"Magical items would work—for a while, until their magic depleted. But with how scarce they are, are we willing to send them over? The opportunities for misuse are high here, how much worse would they be in a world where they don't comprehend the full extent of what could happen?"
Cadance laughed a little uncomfortably. "Come on, Twily, I know you can expect everypony to be a master of magic, but it's really not that easy to misuse—"
Twilight looked around the room. "Remember the Alicorn Amulet?" She pointed upwards. "Or the magical mirror? There are plenty of magical artifacts that can be misused even by unicorns."
Silence descended as the present royalty returned to analyzing the missives.
"So this is why she's just asking for supplies such as food and theoretical papers for their own scientists to figure out Thaumic technology," Cadance said after a moment. "It's hard to believe this is Chrysalis we're talking about."
"That bug has nothing on the Commander," Twilight said, eyes narrowing. "We would not be here if she did."
Celestia cleared her throat. "Do you think their scientists are prepared to understand our thaumic theories, Twilight?"
"Well, I'll be there…" Twilight said, forcing herself to ignore their worried glances. "And Sunset is there too. Tygan was able to follow a lot of my theory, and Sunset mentioned she met a scientist that took to magical theory as fish to water."
"To think there would be magical prodigies in such a vastly different world," Luna said. "Truly, the multiverse is filled with wonder."
"So supplies, and diplomatic protection for members of her team that might need to escape their world if everything goes to Tartarus," Shining said, taking a deep breath. "She also requests that, if they lose the war, we not only help her troops, but also destroy the mirror."
"Why would she request that?" Luna asked, "Doesn't she want to continue the fight, even from here?"
"Sunset said that the Commander knows what really made the Elders conquer Earth." Twilight stood up and grimaced. "I think it's less continuing the fight, and more protecting the rest of us of what follows."
Celestia hummed. "Well, we will certainly take their asylum-seekers. What type of tyrants would turn their back at people that suffer persecution and death if they can't escape?"
Twilight blinked. "You don't think the nobles like Blueblood—"
"Blueblood might be many things, Twilight," Celestia interrupted, "but he would never turn his back on somepony in that situation. He might not mingle with them, but he would fight anypony that denied them access." She smiled. "It's kindness and generosity like this that makes us strong."
Luna let out a long yawn. "Sister, there are many more items to discuss in these lists, but I am afraid I must rest, or I won't be able to perform my duties to Equestria tonight."
"Of course, sister," Celestia said as they all stood up. "Okay everypony, let's take a break, we can continue the deliberations tomorrow."
Celestia sat up in her bed, heart pounding. For a moment, she couldn't remember what had caused her to wake up. She glanced at the clock, it was three in the morning.
A sense of dread slowly filled her, as if an unknown, menacing presence was emanating from the very walls around her. "Luna?"
There was no sign of her sister, but whatever had spooked her had faded away into nothing. Celestia took a deep breath, trying to calm down and chuckled. "My imagination…" She then slid off her bed, casting a spell to light up her room. 'Maybe some tea—'
Her musings were interrupted by loud banging on her door. She stepped back as the door burst open and none other than Shining Armor stood in the doorway, eyes wide, breathing hard. "Princess! It's Luna!"
It took her a second to teleport to her sister's room; Twilight and Cadance were already there, looking worriedly at the unconscious form of Luna. Around her, Luna's things had been blasted away, and ethereal energy fizzled and popped.
"Luna!" Celestia cried, falling next to her sister. She looked up at the others. "What happened?"
Twilight shook her head. "We don't know."
"The guards heard an explosion and Twilight felt a magical reaction—"
"It was like nothing I've felt before," Twilight interrupted Cadance. "We teleported here, and Luna was already like this."
A groan made them all look down at the Night Princess, who was stirring slightly. Her eyes opened and she glanced around in confusion, trying to push herself up on her hind legs and failing miserably.
She would have fallen if Twilight hadn't caught her in her telekinetic field. "Luna, careful!"
Luna shook her head and stared in confusion at Twilight. "T-twilight Sparkle?"
"Yeah, it's me," Twilight answered, looking at the other two with worry. "What happened Luna?"
"Je ne—I'm not—"
Luna looked up and gazed at Celestia, whose eyes were wide with horrified understanding.
Celestia gasped, "Oh no… Laetitia?"
o.0.o End Chapter 176 o.0.o
Well this is bad... though it does suggest that Laetitia won't "fade" when her body ceases to function.
Uh oh At least Luna knows how to operate as a Templar, and Laetitia will be safe. As for the court bureaucratic issues... Either our favorite Templar is in for an intense learning experience, or the Equestrian royalty will have to adapt.
As far as the research goes, couldn't Equestria set up labs to work with alloys and small samples of Elerium? You never know, poni could get a major breakthrough going. (Coil weapons or lasers for example, those are amazing.)
very interesting can't for wait for more
Oh dear! What just happened back there?!?
"She had began to internalize the magic"
"She had begun to internalize the magic"?
"then slid of her bed, casting"
"then slid off her bed, casting"?
"Shining Armor stood on the doorway"
"Shining Armor stood in the doorway"?
"her sister's room, Twilight and Cadance"
"her sister's room; Twilight and Cadance"?
*cough cough*
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One more:
"Luna looked up and gazed at Celestia, who's eyes were wide with horrified understanding."
"Luna looked up and gazed at Celestia, whose eyes were wide with horrified understanding."?
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Ah, thanks. They are very sneaky, typos... :)
Yikes! That's really worrying. We've already seen a mind-swap situation (the FMP arc) which was dangerous enough. This one is even more distressing, both because Luna's role in Equestria is really really important, and because I thought Laetitia's body was about to die. It would be horrific for Luna's mind to die in Laetitia's body!
Or maybe Laetitia has just died on Earth, and so her spirit has come to share Luna's body? In that case there's hope for the two of them to figure out how to share Luna's body, in time. But the chapter title suggests that's not the right hypothesis.
Guess another member was Laetitia party.
So we meet again, Laetitia
Oh boy, This is going to be interesting.
Just realized the Latitia X Luna ship could be called Latuna
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Although I agree that they sound outsource research, the laser thing is actually explained by the in game files. XCOM did develop then soon before losing the first eat, but Advent uses armor that refracts it enough to make standard ballistic weapons better.
But huh, magical items are rare, didn't imagine that. So no "kill all the psykers" grenades, unfortunately.
Nice to see they did think of asylum though, some part of humankind might survive if they lose. Not in body, but culture (and alien derivative tech).
It makes a lot of sense for this to be the request. XCOM needs to develop new force multipliers more than they need a new source of recruits.
Dang. Well it was likely to go that way eventually.
Uh oh, now there's real matter to have the portal open again and solve this present shenanigan.
Twilight has converted to the faith of 'The Great Commandy One'!
Well, I suppose celestia managed to run things on her own for a 1000 years. What's a bit more time to that?
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Could work.
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Her Spicy Pepper grenades.
Shit just got real.
Uh oh! This is one good reason why you don't share your life force across dimensions!
Not-a-complete-jerk Blueblood? Hmm, I approve.
DUN dun DUNNNNNN.
And now to read another dozen chapters to figure out how it came to that ...
can't
Gosh darnit Discord it wasn't funny the first time.
Puppet strings become to thin and Luna had to take direct control?
I wonder if that is one of the reasons possessions are not usually done... ✌