The bell above the door chimed as Luna stepped into the cafe, followed shortly thereafter by Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. Sighing, I rose from my seat to greet them.
“Luna– oof!”
She practically launched herself at me, grappling me tightly in a hug.
“Do not run off like that!” She growled, her muzzle still pressed against my chest.
“It was quite clear that I am unwelcome here,” I told her. “I don’t want to ruin your day off.”
“Our day off!” Luna stressed.
I glanced at my blueprint for the Fifth Hive, “This has been anything but a day off.”
Luna broke the hug, “All the more reason to not leave me! Do you honestly believe that I would enjoy this night, knowing you are off skulking somewhere and feeling abandoned?”
“I do not sk– okay, maybe I do, but I do not feel abandoned!”
Luna rolled her eyes, “If anything is certain, it is that you have a penchant for drama.”
After the initial flood of love finished overwhelming my emotional senses, I noticed a rather glaring spike of sadness in the room. Twilight Sparkle was staring at the floor, completely still.
“What happened?” I asked.
Luna’s ears flicked backwards, “I told Twilight a rather depressing story. I will relay it to you later. Right now, I… would like to speak to you in private. Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy. We will converge again at the Golden Oaks library in a few minutes. Please find Rarity and Applejack in the meantime.”
“No problem, Princess,” Rainbow saluted.
Fluttershy smiled, “Okay, Princess Luna. Thank you for listening to me, King Phasma. We’ll, uh, talk again soon.”
Twilight cleared her throat, “... Sounds good, Princess. We’ll see you there.”
“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked her friend.
Twilight nodded slowly, “Yeah. I just have some things to talk about with the Pr– with Princess Celestia next time I see her.”
The next part of their conversation was cut off when Luna enveloped us both in a flash of cyan magic. The warm, quiet comfort of the café was immediately ripped away and replaced with the bitter howling wind. Newly trained instincts kicked in before I realized that not only were we in the sky, but that I was falling. My large insect wings buzzed loudly as I caught myself and flew back upwards.
Luna stood on a cloud– one that I had fallen straight through.
She spoke over the wind, “Apologies! I forgot that changelings can not stand on clouds like pegasi can.”
“We’re also not covered in fur,” I returned, still hovering in front of her.
“You can change that at any time, I am quite certain!”
I grimaced, “I don’t like disguising when I don’t have to. I’m not a trained Infiltrator, and I want to remain as me when I can. You know that, Luna.”
Luna frowned, “... Yes. Sorry, I just wanted somewhere where nopony could overhear us.” She gestured to Ponyville, which now lay below us. Strings of lights, lone streetlamps, and many candles cut through the night. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“... Reminds me of home,” I admitted. “That’s one sight that I’ll never see again: the night lights of Earth.”
“You said you’ve never seen it in person,” Luna pointed out,
“Pictures exist. So do videos. At least, they existed where I came from.”
Luna sighed and lit up her horn with cyan magic. Four short bursts shot out from the tip, targeting each of my hooves as I hovered before her.
“There! Now you can stand on a cloud– for the next fifteen minutes, at least.”
Setting down next to her, I tried to cast my own spell across my body. This one was a basic warming enchantment, made to keep out the cold of winter. After three failed tries, Luna sighed and cast it on me herself. Unsurprisingly, she got the basic enchantment down on the first try.
“Thanks. Alright Luna, no one’s going to hear us now,” I said.
“... I would like to start with an apology,” Luna said, rubbing a foreleg awkwardly. “I wanted to put this off until later, but it seems that Harmony conspires against us. Drama and echoes of the past haunt us both like bygone specters of the dead. We need to talk about Tarsus.”
“Fifteen minutes,” I reminded her.
“It’ll hardly take even half that length,” Luna muttered. “The night you and the First Fang sentenced him, I gave only a token resistance. I was content to let you make your mistake and learn from it. I thought that it could be reversed in time. I… knew I should have done more to dissuade you. To dissuade you all. Yet I did not.”
“I doubt you even could.”
Luna shrugged, “Perhaps. But the fact that I did not is… it is not good, Phasma. I told you that I would help you. However, only Thorax was the voice of reason that night. For that, I’m sorry. All this has come to pass because of my inaction.”
I frowned, “Luna–”
She lifted a hoof to stay my protest, “There is more. I… do not think that your actions were severe– no, that isn’t right. I know your actions are severe, but I do not believe they are. Before you say anything, yes, your actions mattered most out of the First Fang.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” I told her. “I know how it looks; I am the King, and even though it wasn’t my decision alone, it is ultimately my name that carries the weight when others hear about it. And I was also the one who promised you and your sister that I would try to be… less violent.”
“Just as it is your name that the blame unjustly falls to, it is my fault that all of this happened,” Luna summarized. “But as I said, I do not believe your actions to be so incomprehensible. I spoke with Twilight about this, and I know that I will be speaking about this again tomorrow when we go to… therapy. I told Twilight about a grievous and brutal act that my sister and I committed shortly after Discord’s defeat. Even though it was some time ago, the memory feels as sharp as when it first happened. We slaughtered a warband of griffons in a way that would make even the most brutal of warlords– such as your mother– blush.. In my past, there were a thousand other battles that were even uglier than what transpired on that mountain. Compared to the things I have done, your actions seem almost tame.”
“Discord’s defeat…. This was more than four thousand years ago.”
Luna nodded, “Yes. Yet it haunts me.”
“Luna, that’s almost as old as the pyramids!” At her confusion, I explained, “One of humanity’s oldest monuments. Shit, I still think of cringey and outright horrible things I’ve said and done as a child, but this is on a whole different level of history.”
“A fact that Twilight is grappling with,” Luna explained. “How does one measure a mistake? A sin? How long ago it happened? How many ponies were hurt or killed? How unjust it was? You have done something brutal quite recently– which looks even worse when propped up with the death of Double Dealings. I have done countless horrendous atrocities that have stained my hooves red– but because those were in the past, you expect me to believe that they do not matter? Twilight’s misgivings are proof to the contrary. Celestia and I are not perfect. We have done horrible things. What is important is that we have learned from our mistakes and have never repeated them.
“The fact that I let you retread those mistakes with only a paltry opposition is a mark of failure, Phasma. I must… reconcile the difference between what I know and what I believe. I failed when I did not try to stop the First Fang’s sentencing– even if my attempts would never have succeeded. I failed you when I stood by and let you take all of the blame. I must ask for your forgiveness for these…”
I groaned, “Forgive you for my actions? Luna, your mental gymnastics are making my head hurt. As you said, there was likely nothing you could do– and as for letting me take all the blame, well… Apparently I needed the lesson to be brutally hammered home. After the party, I went to Chrysalis and I… completely overrode Thorax’s voice on the First Fang. I ordered the assassination of the traitor.”
Luna grimaced, “Celestia informed me this morning of what has transpired. I had originally hoped to delay all of this until tomorrow…”
“There’s more,” I said. “Not only does Tarsus live, he was with the Living Hero, the newly crowned King of Griffonia. The King likely thinks that it was an attempt on his own life. An act of war.”
“Does he know that it was you?”
I shrugged, “There’s no conceivable way he could know…”
“No way that you know of,” Luna pointed out.
“Exactly,” I sighed. “I told Celestia all of this.”
“What was her reaction?”
I frowned, “... Muted. I expected to be yelled at. Instead, she just fell back on her vices and told me to inform her of any new developments.”
“Another mistake to remember,” Luna grunted. “Another pyramid in time... What is important is that this never happens again. I am not so naïve as to say that you should approach the King and take the blame. Let us follow Celestia’s lead and let this… blow over. If he eventually discovers the truth, our concealment will look bad. If he would have never discovered the truth save for our confession, then we would have started a war that could have been avoided.”
The conversation fell into silence, overtaken by the constant whistling of the wind that carried the cloud across the sky.
“Thank you, Luna.”
“For what?”
“For sticking with me. For giving me something to look forward to, despite everything and everyone I’ve lost. For understanding. It feels like every action of mine is looked at under a microscope. What would have been perfectly acceptable in my previous life is now seen as practically war crimes here. It means a lot that you are still trying to help me.”
She chuckled, “There is a reason why the last truly despicable action Celestia and I have committed was over four thousand years ago. You know, aside from the actions of Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker. We hold ourselves to such a high degree that these things can never come to pass. With time, you’ll make it. I know you will.”
“Yeah, no pressure.”
Luna took both of my forehooves and leaned up to give me a kiss.
“Thank you for taking all of the heat off me,” Luna smiled. “Nopony is even talking about how Nightmare Moon nearly tried to take over the world a second time, or that they miss complaining to Celestia instead of to me. Your horrible actions– and your mother’s– have made reintegration quite easy. In all seriousness, I am wanted and appreciated now. In the days before my corruption, I always felt the opposite. It may be selfish of me to say this, but your invasion has been a blessing. And yes, thank you for sticking with me this whole time. Going to sleep those first few months was a lot easier when I knew that I had a friend I could talk to all night long. I’ve had enough loneliness to fill a hundred lifetimes.”
“I'm happy to give something back,” I grinned as I gave her a kiss.
“As much as I would like to hold onto this moment, it is time to return," Luna lamented. "I will relay the full story of what happened on another day. Tomorrow, during our therapy, I would like to…. tell you what I experienced during my banishment."
"Are you sure, Luna? I know you don’t like talking about it."
She gripped my hooves tighter and nodded, "I do not wish to. But for this wound to heal, I must rip off the bandage."
"Okay. I'll be there for you," I promised. "And not just because I got the equivalent of a court order to attend."
When we returned to Twilight Sparkle's house, I was in a much better mood. When Fluttershy immediately offered me the chart that I had accidentally left behind in the café, I was in an even better mood.
'Why can't all six of the Element Bearers be like Fluttershy? Hmm… I wonder if there's a way I can turn all of them into clones of her. Yeah, that's a perfectly sensible and moral thing to do. I'll approach Twilight with the idea later.'
I stowed away the drawing under my elytra for safekeeping. I would have to deal with the uncomfortable scratching sensation against my wings, as I lacked any sort of backpack or saddlebags.
The Elements and Luna were quietly talking about things that both did and didn't matter when the door to the library opened. Two ponies, one a prim and proper unicorn, and the other a backwater country-girl earth pony, entered the library.
"Sorry for the delay," Rarity apologized as she greeted her friends. "Applejack here wanted to finish up some family business before coming over."
The Element of Honesty was wearing a scarecrow costume for Nightmare Night. At her mention, she waved to everyone present.
"Sorry, everypony. Granny was stuck making some more caramel apples. Apparently, they're selling like hotcakes tonight! I had to lend a helping hoof."
Fluttershy gave me a side glance. I returned the gesture of a small shake of my head.
"Where is the Element of Laughter?" Luna asked, looking around the room.
"Watching over the Cakes’ foals," Rainbow explained. "That's the family she lives with."
"Then we are set for tonight's expedition!" Luna declared. "Let us be off. I wish to see how the holiday named after my scourge is celebrated."
Luna, with eagerness to match the missing pink pony, pranced out of the library. The rest of us scrambled to follow her out. Our first and longest stop on our little tour of Ponyville would be the main street and the stalls that lined the thoroughfare. There were plenty of ponies still outside, going from house to house, demanding candy. The costumes were a lot less complete than I expected. Most ponies only wore one or two parts of a costume each.
'Then again, ponies don't exactly wear costumes.'
Ponies stopped and greeted the Princess. Several foals shrieked and hollered when they saw the alicorn. A few even offered up portions of their haul as a sacrifice. But I knew as an empath that there were none that were actually afraid of her. Despite being brought up upon the idea that Nightmare Moon was a demon to be feared and supplicated with candy, none of the foals actually feared her.
They were scared of me, however. Parents visibly scooted their foals out of the way or even just further away from me when they spotted me. As such, I gravitated towards the back of our little pack as we traveled through the town, meeting ponies.
With Luna being distracted with a few stalls that would have fit right into a carnival, I was stuck with finding something to occupy myself. I could have joined her, but I never really found bobbing for apples or similar games to be appealing. Trusting Twilight Sparkle to make sure Luna was having a good time, I looked around for an activity within eyesight.
'... Oh! Now there's an idea!'
The corner I headed to was a small art stand with some slightly-spooky Halloween-inspired paintings up.
'Nightmare Night. Whatever. As long as the owner doesn’t start asking questions about shit I don't want to talk about, I'll kill some time here until we move on.'
The stall owner, a cream-colored earth pony mare wearing a skeleton costume and a bone-white mane, didn't even flinch when she saw me walking over.
"Good evening, King Phasma." She greeted me.
"Hello," I said. "Nice… paintings. You make them yourself?"
"Actually, my marefriend Lyra made them. I'm just watching her stall while she fixes her costume."
"... Have we met before?" I asked suddenly. "Your voice sounds familiar."
"No," the mare said.
"You sure?" I frowned. "I could have been disguised at the time…"
"Have you ever been here, to Ponyville?"
"No," I relented. "Sorry, I just thought I recognized you. Err… how much for one of these paintings?"
"The price is on the painting."
"This one doesn't have a price," I pointed out.
I levitated the painting from where it rested against the stand and showed it to the mare. The painting was of a frog sitting on a lilypad, its reflection in the water distorted.
She nodded, "I see. It probably got mixed up with this batch. I guess I can sell it to you for fifty bits… You sure you don't want a Nightmare Night one? This is the only time Lyra sells these."
I shook my head, "The person I'm giving this to won't be interested in the others."
'Lace loves painting. Lace loves nature. Surely, she'll love a painting of nature.'
The mare shrugged, "Fifty bits."
I patted down my haunches out of habit, "I seem to have left my wallet at home."
"I'm sure one of the Elements would be happy to lend you the money. Or if you really don't have a way to pay, I could give it to you…" the mare suggested. "This is for your marefriend, right? Princess Luna? We all owe her a lot."
I shook my head, "No, it's for a friend. Her name is Lacewing."
The pony froze. Up to this point, she remained as cool as a cucumber. But when I mentioned Lace's name, a spike of emotion pulsed from her like a boat's wake. It took me a second to identify the emotion.
It was hatred. Specifically, a niche subset of hate, one directed inwards.
Guilt.
Everything clicked into place. I had, in fact, met this pony before.
"Take it," she said. "On the house."
"Thanks… Inquisitor," I said quietly. "She'll love it."
"Shhh," Sweetie Drops hushed me. "My name is Bon Bon."
I nodded, "Bon Bon. I can pay you back. I don't exactly have a shortage of bits."
She insisted, "Just take it. I saw the full debriefing. It doesn't feel like I've done enough. Please, take it."
"Thanks. And I really do mean thank you, Bon Bon. You saved a lot of lives. If you need anything at all…"
"I'll go to my boss first," Sweetie insisted. "But sure, if she can't help, I'll ask you. I'm just happy to help."
"Take care," I said, struggling to find a way to hold the painting without it being distracting.
"You too!" She called out as I walked away.
Sighing, I carefully stuffed the painting underneath my elytra, on top of the drawing. It was pretty uncomfortable, and I couldn't even close the elytra all the way anymore, but it would have to do.
Luna was still busy with the distractions the little fair offered. She had moved on from bobbing apples to throwing darts at balloons filled with glow-in-the-dark paint. Twilight and Rainbow were hurling darts alongside Luna while Rarity and Fluttershy chatted off to the side.
The last of the five had sauntered over to me.
"Thought the Princess said you were too busy to come," Applejack greeted me.
"Our schedules are subject to change," I told her.
"... Dash said you were fixin' the mess you made. Is that true?"
"Are you here to interrogate me?"
Applejack frowned, "No, I just believe ponies have to eat their supper before they can get their dessert."
"I am monitoring the situation," I explained.
"Sounds like it's not fixed."
"It's not."
She rubbed her chin, "Something happened?"
"Yes."
"... Can you tell me what happened?"
I glared down at the smaller pony, "I'm having a wonderful day off work, thank you."
Applejack nodded to Fluttershy, "Fluttershy said you were workin' when they found yah. I don't think askin' a few questions is pushing too hard, do you?"
"... I made things worse," I admitted. "You got your answer. Now leave me alone."
Applejack paused, "... Anything we can help with?"
"You?" I asked incredulously. "There's nothing anyone can do but sit back and hope this spark doesn't blow into a forest fire."
"Huh. Well, thanks for being honest with me. I, uh… I saw you buy something from that mare earlier."
"Don't you have something better to do than to spy on me?" I snapped.
Applejack took a step back, "Woah, I didn't mean nothing by it. I just meant that, errr… Look, maybe I'll just talk to you in a bit. Sorry about putting you in a bad mood."
As I left Applejack behind, Luna saw me and quickly pranced over.
“Phasma! I have won many games!” She cheered.
“Totally,” Twilight chuckled when she joined us. “Princess Luna is a natural.”
“And Twilight only sabotaged herself in three out of the six games!” Luna smiled. She continued as Twilight froze, “I think she picked up that I played most of these a few times in my day. There are only so many ways you can reinvent the wheel, dame Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight chuckled nervously, “Oh, you, uh, noticed? I just wanted to make sure you had a good time, Princess!”
Luna lifted the smaller unicorn up and hugged her, “I know! You really are trying to make this a wonderful night, thank you! Come, all of you, I have been informed of a ‘haunted maze’ that must be conquered! We shall split off into pairs when we delve into it. Phasma! With me!”
I snickered as I started walking to this maze alongside Luna, “Just the two of us, all alone, in a maze?”
“Head out of the gutter, wayward King,” Luna elbowed me. “We will not be alone in the maze. Nor are such scandalous thoughts that are implying proper in public.”
“N-not even… hoof holding?” I whispered.
“Hmmm… Since you have been cooperative so far, I can indulge your fantasy,” Luna chuckled, taking my hoof as we walked down the moonlit street.
Dwarf Fortress, Darktide, and a new MC modpack are about to play hell with my upload schedule.
Phasma! You are way, WAY out of line! Hoof holding... for shame!
This is the sort of slip-up that should have happened in early episodes like Luna Eclipsed to show that it takes time for people to adjust to a phrase suddenly being rendered ambiguous. Of course, there really isn't that much reason for them to have addressed the inequality given that Celestia is rarely shown actually doing any rulership duties either.
I conceived of a way almost immediately: Tarsus only changed names and species for his disguise's backstory because there are so few reasons for a blind griffon to be wherever he was first encountered. This lets him just explain that and then dramatically drop the disguise. Bam, war is beginning, take off all zigs.
In canon, we didn't see her again until after Discord gave all of Canterlot a dose of perspective. Probably in more horrifying ways than they would be allowed to show or talk about in TV-Y, because they didn't show or talk about it.
I'll never pass up an opportunity to drop the most adult-pandering line we got until "there's no wrong way to fantasize" six seasons later:
Her failure to realize this was literally the main conflict of the episode. If she tries to rerail it to that he'll just tell her "that was just for show, all the genuine fear was directed at me" and if necessary follow up with "changeling, remember?"
For those playing at home, Division P made use of SMILE assets up to and including Agent Sweetie Drops. And she was the one in disguise. (And of course the story brought it up. That's the problem with going back-and-forth using CTRL+F shenanigans)
I'd be happy that she's finally grown a brain, but she's currently in a scarecrow costume. Bit of dissonance, there.
Refer to my profile picture.
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Some things just take priority, Ogryn being one of them.
Will this story be as long as Changing Expectations?
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I CAN FEEL THE WARP OVERTAKING [my upload schedule]... IT IS A GOOD PAIN
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SO MUCH FUN being a Bullgryn with a Heavy Stubber! Although Brom wonders what the grok a stubber is!
(Seriously. My first thought on seeing it was an autocannon, but tank autocannons are bigger, so...Heavy Machine Gun?)
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A VERY heavy machine gun my friend, imperial knight stubbers can tear through a space marine like their tissue paper
Degenerates like you belong on a cross.
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The only difference between these two things is ammunition caliber, and I think we've been told what most of the weapons in the 41st millennium chamber.
Hahaha, I expected a mocking “I’m scared” line.
Nice.
Hoof holding
Heh, Applejack failing to engage small talk with someone she's never tried thinking about in a positive way before is funny.
Wondered if he'd find BonBon here. The painting could take so many meanings....
We suppose he hasn't practiced utility spells all that much, but basic warming should have been doable by now. Too many distractions!
Good little bit with Bon Bon there.
Good to acknowledge that even ponies can stumble on the path of "doing better" and good to see that some are genuine.
Phasma you filthy degenerate have you no shame
We are born of the holding,
Made men by the holding,
Undone by the holding.
Our hooves are yet to hold,
Fear the hoof holding.
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Then that would be Tarsus declaring war on his own hosts, by himself, for no reason. The assassins were never caught or even exposed as changelings, and were probably too far away for him to sense in any capacity. Tarsus may suspect what happened, but the Hero has probably been up to his eyeballs in actual griffon rivals trying to assassinate him for ages now, and there's a decent chance this wasn't even the only such attempt since Tarsus got there.
Applejack is priceless. She keeps annoying Phasma and is surprised that she is disliked by him
After all Celestia and Luna did in the past, i am very surprised their Military get so low grade.
Noone better knows about long term goals and regrets as a fellow, well experienced Imortal.
Bonbon is awesome, Lyra just missed out on the chance of a lifetime. One don't meet a former Human about anytime in Equestria.
Lyra is a painting artist? Awesome
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...yep those would do it, good thing Homeworld 3 got pushed back or I would never get anything done.
While Phasma has went to far, the pony keep acting like there are not a lot of ponies just like or worse.
Bon Bon knows how bad some ponies are, but the princesses who also know, keep acting like the only thing wrong ponies did was 1000's of years ago.
One of the nobles intrusted with running the country tried to maim/kill Phasma (and i infer that he killed/maimed many ponies before based on how he acted about it), but they think it was wrong to stop him. It is like the pony land have batman ideas, but not his ability to stop badguys.
If we find out that 50% of the nobles have ponies as slaves, it would not shock me. If we find out the apple family takes foals that get non-apple marks into the everfree and leave them there, it would not shock me.
I really think that if a evil wizard showed up and cast a spell that would kill a pony every second, and the only way to stop it was with own death; they would stand there and let every pony die. They would not even try to turn the spell back on the wizard as that would be wrong.
I think I got where they all differ. The ponies see it as the only blood on your hands is what you put there. While Phasma see that also the blood of they you fail to protect is too. Like what I said above. Killing the wizard would be blood on their hooves, but not killing the wizard all the blood is on the wizards hooves. I know there are some humans who think like that.
I hope to see one of the main 6 break...maybe Applejack. Like how would she act if what happen in "If You Give a Little Love", happen here. Having one of her own kin mistreating another of her kin.
Since the Tarsus ark seems to be ending, I wonder if phasma starts actually preparing for the end of the world. He should be thinking more about machine guns, artillery and maybe a nuke than about reforming changeling society. They all could be worse than dead in two years.
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God Speed, gentle soul. I can only hope you find enough time to keep yourself fed.
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/955/397/854.jpg
AJ needs some one to brake her nose so she learns to keep it out of others business or maybe brake it a few times.
love the chapter.
If you really believe this, that Phas was in the wrong and Thorax was in the right during the tribunal, then why have you made the timeline where Tarsus was killed there objectively better for Phas and the Changelings than this one? You've gone out of your way to illustrate that the changelings wouldn't have cared, and the ponies are already treating Phas like he did kill Tarsus. So the only effective change is there'd be no risk of war with the griffons: which is an unequivocal plus.
When we left Tarsus at the end of his tribunal he was swearing vengeance along the lines of "kill me or I swear I'll make you regret it," and now that we're catching up to him we find him in close proximity to the leader of an unaffiliated foreign power? Yeah I'm sure his intentions are purely benign and he is in no way looking for an angle to make good his threats. Thus the assassination attempt is much less a trigger event for a potential war with the griffons, but a nice bit of leverage for Tarsus to advance his plots in that direction. Sure seems like Phas is being punished for failing to kill Tarsus to me, and that it's Thorax's mercy that is "begetting violence," to use Celestia's sanctimonious and at this point blatantly false rhetoric. It also means that if anyone other than Tarsus himself is to blame for any eventual war with the griffons it'd be Thorax for his vote at the tribunal: no living Tarsus, no griffon arc.
Speaking of the assassination attempt let's take a look at those assassins shall we? Both are infiltrators, trained in the fourth hive presumably alongside Tarsus and as such are his colleagues. Yet there's no bemoaning having to kill Tarsus personally, no discomfort at killing one of their own, or even distress over killing a cripple: just a "we need to get this done or the boss will kill us" nervousness. And even that is alluded to being due to their training and not any personal fear/gravitas held by either Lace or Phas.
But hey maybe Tarsus' C.O. (commanding officer) would care and do something if Tarsus had been killed at the tribunal. Except oh wait, his C.O. is Chrysalis and we were explicitly treated to a conversation between Phas and Chrysalis where she makes it abundantly clear she doesn't know who he is or care what happens to him. So I guess that avenue's out.
Okay, so his colleagues and C.O. don't care but maybe Tarsus has friends that might take it personally and start some kind of movement. Yeah he did have a group of friends outside of work didn't he, the even had a group name. What is it again? Oh yeah.... the first fang, of whom Tarsus got one killed and everyone else except that deviant Thorax in the first fang want Tarsus dead because of it (and as a credit to him if we're counting the honorary "I'm having a crisis because soldiers die and I've been told my number is coming up and apparently never considered this possibility that I would be the one dying instead of killing" Pharynx would also not want him dead because of aforementioned unsympathetic crisis but has no real feelings other than that). And even Thorax was of the opinion that Tarsus should suffer life imprisonment.
Now let's talk about that "correct" option. Now I'm not going to belabor the absurdity of considering an execution taking at most a few minutes to be "savage and barbaric" while holding what is essentially an execution that lasts a lifetime while you are dictating every facet of the prisoner's existence (by virtue of dictating the conditions they are held in) to be "just and humane," but instead look at the practicality of such in option. In terms of effective prisons... you've shown no effective prisons. Division-P is almost if not uniformly at large, every Nightmare we've seen thus far that were supposed to be sealed away forever either returned or are flat out stated to be in the process of returning, and heck you've already had the second coming of Discord. Narratives in general love prisons that are about as effective as Arkham Asylum, and you've basically gone out of your way to give me no reason to expect otherwise here. Chrysalis is only complying with her house arrest because she basically wants to be there, and that's as close to a "normal" prisoner arrangement we've seen. If the question is not "if," but "when" the prisoner will escape then you aren't actually stopping them by imprisoning them. You're giving them a chance to rest, recuperate and a chance to wait for a situation more advantageous to them. So the most likely outcome of that "correct" timeline is the same situation we have now except Tarsus has working eyes and the ponies might have been a bit less preachy and sanctimonious than this one, doesn't really seem like it's any better practically than this one, and as such, still objectively worse than killing him at the tribunal.
Why yes, Applejack, it is a wise decision to keep kicking a hornet's nest again and again
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Knowing her, she's done the same thing with an actual hornet's nest on her property.
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"I gotta make sure the critters know they ain't welcome!"
in fact, they're selling better than the hotcakes!
i really liked this chapter, it was short but really sweet, luna being absolutely adorable with how much she wants to support phasma is just the best, and seeing Applejack's actions bite her in the ass is fantastic, even better now that she seems a bit regretful but already fucked up her relationship with phasma so badly that he only thinks of her as an annoyance, really good chapter!
Twilight and the Therapie Pony will probably learn stuff that will give them PTSD from Storytelling...
But i rather have them than Politics that laugh at their mistakes made 5 years ago because politicians enjoy immunity even years after they screwed over their national dutys, their people and their worlds environmental health.
11439411
Agreed, Pony love to create Arkham City circumstances and than are shocked if it bites them back in the ass with lasting marks when leaving.
Harmony can be many things, but when it creates Joker vs Batman situations for a Nation or even a world? Just... fucking kill the Joker placeholder and be done with it.
In the end the Batman placeholder has keep his moral intact, but lost thousands or millions in innocent lifes as a cost!
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Your comment makes it hilarious 👍
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Your Profile-Picture makes it hilarious 👍
11438819
Indeed 🤝
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👍
11438978
Indeed, at least noone is retarded enough to try Reform the literally genocide route running race.
Only Celestia or Applejack Harmony/Pony logic would try that
11441214
Needs less Batman-Bruce Wayne and more Punisher-Frank Castle.
Still waiting for Pinkie to confront Applejack over her disrupting and disrespecting Phasma on what is essentially his birthday party.
I find it incredibly hard to believe that the self-proclaimed Premier Party Pony would let that slide.
11441518
Thats what he is now and tries to mellow out.
One Nymph steps at a time...
11441521
Agreed. It was also his very first one! There for potencialy ruine B-Days in general! Phasmatodea is a big grown but still impressionate Nymph after all
OC offer is still on the table.
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Hmm? The Princesses aren't denying there are ponies who do horrible stuff though. When they're talking about the horrible stuff that they did a thousand years ago, the "they" they're talking about isn't ponies in general, but themselves.
And sure, the ponies would kill if that is the only option between that or the death of others. The reason they're on Phasma's case is more because he tends to kill when that isn't the vital choice to be made. Tarsus, in this case, was more him just wanting revenge for Tarsus betraying him. It had nothing to do with a crucial life or death choice.
How scandalous! Hoofholding in public! What's next? Public nuzzles?
That's why you don't put big things in there, seriously Phasma...
The Exile seemed to be learning the hard lesson that he has been forced to learn: rely on others and be friends. As harsh as it was, I don’t think the princesses are understanding the situation from the Changelings’ perspective. It’s always only from the Pony’s point of view. He wouldn’t have learned by being coddled.
Rainbow gets dressed down by Luna for being a jerk. Okay. But no one gives it to Applejack for ruining his first birthday party and trying to ruin his date? Wtf, AJ? Calm down.
11555659
Yeah, I do believe a lesson in tact and times and places is in order for Applejack, like if she had maybe waited, and told Celestia after the party, I don’t know if Phasma would have even been able to give the order, preventing this whole shebang.
Bon Bon:
"You missed the human Lyra."
Lyra:
"Curses... Did he buy anything?"
Bon Bon:
"Yep, he seem to like the frog one "
Lyra:
"Odd... don't frogs eat insects? He is a flying insectoid after all."
Bon Bon:
"I don't know, apparently it was for a friend of his."
Lyra:
"Is she a human to?"
Bon Bon:
"I doubt it."
Lyra:
"Than I have to go after human Phasma."
Bon Bon:
"He already has a marefriend."
Lyra:
"We still need a stallion, also don't Princess Luna know sharing is caring?"
Bon Bon:
"I doubt she is in a sharing mood..."
Lyra:
"Maybe some more art get him interested?
I wonder what human art looks like!"
Bon Bon:
"Good point."
There are only a few stories where Luna has a non human parter and is very happy. This story and the from Hiver seem to be the best in that regard ♡
11458908
Ear nibbling comes next
11441518
The creatures he punished by choice so far all deserved their fate, unfortunately in some cases his hoove was forced.