Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[Stringtheory]

That's actually a good idea for a dark AU fic: An eternal war behind the scenes of Utopia.

that's pretty much the exact premiss for the Upheaval series (EQD link here, and FiMfiction link here, because for some stupid reason EQD doesn't link to FiMfiction), except that the war is less behind the scenes and more of behind a magical barrier, set up by Celestia to keep the Heartland (a.k.a. canon Equestria) grimdark free, the heartland has had it's records purged of any mention of the war and the ponies on the opposite side of the barrier and who would stumble into this grimdark border area, which is quite large, (named the Barrier Lands), but the Mane6
I highly recommend it, normal disclaimer of there being an entire world's full of OC's seeming a little redundant here, though there is a OC alicorn

I'm not sure how believable blaming the war for gender inequality would be, but it could work, if you really like War Stallions.

as for gender equality in Upheaval, it's plays Gender is No Object very straight and hasn't brought up gender roles at all (even in the Heartland), because in an endless war you need every pony to fight

I haven't heard of War Stallions, care to explain?

[Cptadder]

Cptadder, did you miss my last post or just not have anything to say in reply? The conversation seemed like it ended rather abruptly.

Still reading it and replying to it, got two conversations going on at the same time in this thread, four emails, my dog is eating my toes and it's 1AM so I'm losing track of threads.

Anyway post reply...thingy

Sure they can, to an extent. That's how MIRV works.

Check
your ICBM phases, MIRV's detach before the apogee or right after, once
missiles hit terminal they have to be on targeted because at over seven
kilometers a second you only get roughly one hundred and forty seconds
to three hundred seconds between the mid phase and impact depending on
the ICBM. Lots of fun info I picked up talking with those who's job
involved targeting those things for real.

Ooh, lucky you.
Hm... Yes, I thought that the warheads were put on target later in the
arc. I think that one probably stil l could put maneuvering systems on
the reentry vehicles themselves, though; no one bothered in real life
because a strategic missile armed with a modern thermonuclear warhead
doesn't really need the extra maneuverability.

Warheads maneuvering systems are the equivalent of spray cans of air. They just need to orient themselves at the target and ride the arc. Missiles don't go in strait lines and their speed is such you'd need a massive engine aimed in one direction to get any kinds of real lateral movement. Missiles are set on their targets the instant they launch, the amount power it takes to lift warheads into the air means you can't be off by more than a few tens of miles to the separation point in order to get maximum accuracy.

(Yes,
it is problematic, but unless we want to throw FoE out the window, we
have to have the cloudcover preventing missile hits on pegasi but not
surface structures due to navigation interference.)

Was
there anything left to launch after the surprise attack? Remember
Celestia one dropped the light of judgement on entire sections of the
Zebra home world for some time before the Pegasus closed the sky. After
that was there anyone left to launch anything?

Certainly, but Celestia One couldn't target all of them at once.
See,
here's the thing: the missiles had to be capable of extremely rapid
launches to be a working second strike weapon (slow enough launches
would render them incapable of being a reliable first strike weapon, but
I don't think that your proposals would be that slow) due to the
speed with which Equestrian megaspells can act. This is important for
two reasons. One, the Zebras need an actual working second-strike
weapons system for successful MAD. Two, if Equestria found out that the
Zebras were knowingly amassing an arsenal of strategic,
targeted-at-civilians balefire missiles that would only be useful in a
first strike...

Time for a quote from my nuclear friend. "How do you tell the difference of a nuclear armed Tomahawk from a conventionally armed one? When the boom happens" Seriously that's a direct quote, sure he mentioned if your standing in front of the missile for obvious reason the W-80 warhead is painted with enough warning signs and danger stripes to look like a barbers cone but otherwise the difference between 1000 pound bomb with a thirty meter confirmed kill zone and a 200 kiloton nuke with a sixteen hundred meter confirmed kill zone is the boom at the end. There are no super sensors to detect nuclear VS conventional warheads when in flight inside an atmosphere.

If the Zebras were simply building conventional cruise missiles then switching the warheads over to nuclear armed editions this could explain a secret buildup.

You
could put the capsules on mobile launchers, sure, but I don't know
where you'd find room to move around at least a thousand or so of them.
(Though mobile launchers would allow cutbacks on the number of decoy
capsules, I suppose.)

Decoy's only need be good enough to
be Decoys. And you do it the same way the Germans did, underground
facilities in the woods or the way the Soviets did, shear volume and
miles and miles of railyards. Since the Zebras have the coal and the
steel I could easily seen thousands of miles of siding, mainlines and
switchbacks giving you plenty of room for traincars that look like
traincars but pull a few straps and the tent poles and fabric covering
fall away and you got a stack of bombs with a launcher car, or a
disposable one shot launcher platform.

Might work, but a
launch would be significantly slower and the launchers less hardened, I
think. The delay wouldn't matter so much against a missile-armed
opponent, but against Equestria, I don't think that it's acceptable.

Depends on the general, again were I General Zebra I'd accept it if I had decent commander and control facilities that could survive a Celestia-One first strike. But then as General Zebra I'm fighting Nightmare Moon and the Stars so first strike might be my assumed strategic thinking... dunno.

Mind,
that's three years to go from "If we can make bombs out of these, find a
way to get them from here to there" to the destruction of Equestria.
That three years includes not just the development and testing of the
missile systems but the development of the balefire megaspells and,
crucially, the mass manufacture and deployment of the missiles.

That's a big deal, that last point. From manufacture to deployment is a big lead time unless something about megapsells makes duplication able to be mass produced.

[Cptadder]

With the development of cruise missiles... could this not be the reason it could be done in three years? They had already, or nearly already, perfected a means of delivering their highest powered explosives and poisons and those three years were just spent changing out the warheads for much more powerful megaspells.

Unless I'm missing something. I haven't really been paying too much attention to your discussion, to be honest...

Sometimes you design the missile for the warhead, sometimes you design the warhead for the missile. Sometimes you design the plane for the missile and the warhead. In the W-80s case it was designed way back when, when it was paper so you could 1 for 1 slot it onto anything a standard 1000 pound warhead would fit. Much like how a 60 watt lightbulb and a 100 watt lightbulb both fit into the same socket. So do some Cruise missiles use semi-universal designs to retain warheads. After all if it weighs the same and is shaped the same, the nosecone could be filled with yummy candy or squirrels for all it cares about getting itself to the target.

[O. Hinds]

Warheads maneuvering systems are the equivalent of spray cans of air. They just need to orient themselves at the target and ride the arc. Missiles don't go in strait lines and their speed is such you'd need a massive engine aimed in one direction to get any kinds of real lateral movement. Missiles are set on their targets the instant they launch, the amount power it takes to lift warheads into the air means you can't be off by more than a few tens of miles to the separation point in order to get maximum accuracy.

Ah, okay. Pity. Still, it's nice to find someone here who knows more about missile tech than me.

Time for a quote from my nuclear friend. "How do you tell the difference of a nuclear armed Tomahawk from a conventionally armed one? When the boom happens" Seriously that's a direct quote, sure he mentioned if your standing in front of the missile for obvious reason the W-80 warhead is painted with enough warning signs and danger stripes to look like a barbers cone but otherwise the difference between 1000 pound bomb with a thirty meter confirmed kill zone and a 200 kiloton nuke with a sixteen hundred meter confirmed kill zone is the boom at the end. There are no super sensors to detect nuclear VS conventional warheads when in flight inside and atmosphere.

If the Zebras were simply building conventional cruise missiles then switching the warheads over to nuclear armed editions this could explain a secret buildup.

True. I remember reading a proposal to outfit some Trident missiles with kinetic-kill warheads. The biggest objection was "No one's going to see what sort of warhead a launching Trident has; they're just going to see a launching Trident. If it was launching at your area, would you be willing to trust that it was kinetic kill?"

Depends on the general, again were I General Zebra I'd accept it if I had decent commander and control facilities that could survive a Celestia-One first strike. But then as General Zebra I'm fighting Nightmare Moon and the Stars so first strike might be my assumed strategic thinking... dunno.

It's not C&C surviving that I'm worried about. If an Equestrian first strike using up to the entire available Equestrian megaspell arsenal was made against the missile fields, Zebra second strike capability would be pretty much gone, letting Equestria wipe out the Zebras without taking much damage at all itself. At the first sign of the last balloon going up, whatever that sign might be (information from spies, a (probably unintentionally and due to Zebra countermeasures) limited strike agains the missile fields, some new detection system, etc.), it was vital to get the missiles in the air as fast as possible before they were wiped out on the ground. This is also important in the event of a Zebra first strike; every moment between the order to fire going out and the actual launches is a moment in which Equestrian megaspells could let loose.
You know the Cold War fear of the five/thirty minute warning? The first sign of an Equestrian megaspell attack would be the megaspells arriving and activating. And the state in control of these weapons has propaganda that severely demonizes the Zebras and is run by a being who is considered by your culture to be an incarnation of malicious evil. Imagine living under that shadow.

That's a big deal, that last point. From manufacture to deployment is a big lead time unless something about megapsells makes duplication able to be mass produced.

Right. If they started developing ballistic missiles as soon as they got megaspells, before they'd even created the balefire warheads, and stole as much from Equestria as possible, they might get a few acceptably-working prototypes up by the end of the war. Maybe fifty or so actually deployed missiles. At most, that would escalate the war to a full exchange and make Equestria mad and afraid; at worst, it would do nearly no damage, escalate the war to a full exchange, and make Equestria afraid but justifiably confident.

Sometimes you design the missile for the warhead, sometimes you design the warhead for the missile. Sometimes you design the plane for the missile and the warhead. In the W-80s case it was designed way back when, when it was paper so you could 1 for 1 slot it onto anything a standard 1000 pound warhead would fit. Much like how a 60 watt lightbulb and a 100 watt lightbulb both fit into the same socket. So to do Cruise missiles use semi-universal designs to retain warheads. After all if it weighs the same and is shaped the same, the nosecone could be filled with yummy candy or squirrels for all it cares about getting itself to the target.

Aye. The SACII has at least three known types of warhead (though, admittedly, one of them has to use a variant with a modified payload bay), and that's not counting a big conventional bomb (a SACII could be conventionally armed, but there are other missiles that could do that job better and without drawing SACIIs away from the balefire armory).

[Meleagridis]

@Ballistic vs Cruise

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to complain. This is exactly the sort of engaging discussion I would like to see in a thread like this. I just wish I could follow along!
So many big words...

Heh, daily check, how is everyone today?

Any day you can shrug off writer's block is a Good Day. I could lose my pants in public and still have a fine day if writer's block would fade away. So good. I am good, thanks.
You?

skits.

Well damn. Now I have to read it.

Really, just from what I've heard, Murky Number Seven was an inevitable read for most of the people here. Your promotion seems to have knocked it up several notches on everyone's reading lists, however. Also? When you have to push half a page into spoiler tags, I think that's more than enough excuse for a dedicated discussion thread. Go wild. Poor Cloudsville...

[O. Hinds]

Time for a quote from my nuclear friend. "How do you tell the difference of a nuclear armed Tomahawk from a conventionally armed one? When the boom happens" Seriously that's a direct quote, sure he mentioned if your standing in front of the missile for obvious reason the W-80 warhead is painted with enough warning signs and danger stripes to look like a barbers cone but otherwise the difference between 1000 pound bomb with a thirty meter confirmed kill zone and a 200 kiloton nuke with a sixteen hundred meter confirmed kill zone is the boom at the end. There are no super sensors to detect nuclear VS conventional warheads when in flight inside and atmosphere.

If the Zebras were simply building conventional cruise missiles then switching the warheads over to nuclear armed editions this could explain a secret buildup.

True. I remember reading a proposal to outfit some Trident missiles with kinetic-kill warheads. The biggest objection was "No one's going to see what sort of warhead a launching Trident has; they're just going to see a launching Trident. If it was launching at your area, would you be willing to trust that it was kinetic kill?"

Addendum/clarification/thing I forgot to type before: While the Zebras could build up an arsenal of SACIIs and claim that they were conventionally armed, they'd also be amassing an arsenal of balefire bombs suitable for use as warheads. If spies discovered that the latter was mysteriously decreasing as the former were installed in their launch sites, said launch sites being pointed at Equestria itself and too numerous to just be targeting military facilities, things could get bad. You don't hid a MAD deterrent; you show it off as much as possible without compromising its security. What you do hide like that is a weapon that you intend to launch a first strike with as soon as it's operational. Not an impression that you want to give your enemy when your enemy's WMD system is already operational.

[WavemasterRyx]

Metal is really hard to color. Anyways, this is part one of the return of "happy Boo" after the last two fairly sad posts.

http://boo-project-horizons.tumblr.com/post/25013332559

Spoiler:

[Cptadder]

@cptadder

Spoiler:

Speed is VATS speed but agility is not overland travel speed which depending on your system is a combination of strength, endurance and agility. Raw sprint speed is independent of SPECIAL but your right it is a mechanics vs storyline argument... However I will contend that Murky has demonstrated contortionist level flexibility thus he is agile, thus agility.

True. I remember reading a proposal to outfit some Trident missiles with kinetic-kill warheads. The biggest objection was "No one's going to see what sort of warhead a launching Trident has; they're just going to see a launching Trident. If it was launching at your area, would you be willing to trust that it was kinetic kill?"

I remember reading that story, was in 2005? Yeah we all had a good laugh on the watchfloor as I was still in the Navy then and even the FNG could see ballistic missiles were ballistic missiles, our missile tech was the one to point out with the cost of a Trident it was literally cheaper to build a three B-52s, pack them full of explosives and remote ram them into the target than send one trident missile with a conventional warhead, never mind the B-52 ramming planes being twelve times the boom.

It's not C&C surviving that I'm worried about. If an Equestrian first strike using up to the entire available Equestrian megaspell arsenal was made against the missile fields, Zebra second strike capability would be pretty much gone, letting Equestria wipe out the Zebras without taking much damage at all itself. At the first sign of the last balloon going up, whatever that sign might be (information from spies, a (probably unintentionally and due to Zebra countermeasures) limited strike agains the missile fields, some new detection system, etc.), it was vital to get the missiles in the air as fast as possible before they were wiped out on the ground. This is also important in the event of a Zebra first strike; every moment between the order to fire going out and the actual launches is a moment in which Equestrian megaspells could let loose.
You know the Cold War fear of the five/thirty minute warning? The first sign of an Equestrian megaspell attack would be the megaspells arriving and activating. And the state in control of these weapons has propaganda that severely demonizes the Zebras and is run by a being who is considered by your culture to be an incarnation of malicious evil. Imagine living under that shadow.

Quick note, the actual time was seven minutes as past 1968 we both had enough boomers to get in missile range and flush all our submarines nukes and take out all C&C facilites on the east coast or for us to take out Moscow. Taking out the missiles themselves before launch was always tricky but it was possible if the subs shot themselves dry and relied on the mobile launchers to take care of second strike.

And a second note, one fly they all fly.
And a third note, while the Ministry of Moral was more cartoonist evil about it, we did things just as bad to paint the Soviets as just as bad as Zebras. Better wiped then striped is after all a reference to better dead then Red. However the MoM was way better at the always watching bit than we were meaning dissenters were much easier nabbed,

Right. If they started developing ballistic missiles as soon as they got megaspells, before they'd even created the balefire warheads, and stole as much from Equestria as possible, they might get a few acceptably-working prototypes up by the end of the war. Maybe fifty or so actually deployed missiles. At most, that would escalate the war to a full exchange and make Equestria mad and afraid; at worst, it would do nearly no damage, escalate the war to a full exchange, and make Equestria afraid but justifiably confident.

Question, do we have a job finished date on Celestia-One? It's very obviously a first strike/surgical strike weapon. And I don't see it being finished a week before the war since it was used so effectively that implies testing, calibration and shake down. Because with Celestia-One operation burning down fifty missiles before they can all launch would be easy since Ballistic missiles are horribly fragile things to that kind of direct heat attack (How much fun would it be trying to launch a missile when the silo cover is melted to the concrete?)

Addendum/clarification/thing I forgot to type before: While the Zebras could build up an arsenal of SACIIs and claim that they were conventionally armed, they'd also be amassing an arsenal of balefire bombs suitable for use as warheads. If spies discovered that the latter was mysteriously decreasing as the former were installed in their launch sites, said launch sites being pointed at Equestria itself and too numerous to just be targeting military facilities, things could get bad. You don't hid a MAD deterrent; you show it off as much as possible without compromising its security. What you do hide like that is a weapon that you intend to launch a first strike with as soon as it's operational. Not an impression that you want to give your enemy when your enemy's WMD system is already operational.

There's a simpler method they could build up an arsenal of SACII's and use them with conventional warheads before megaspells ever hit the scene.

Okay we are starting to reach the limits of theoretical discussion, we've moved from what is possible to what is possible if that is possible and then this is possible.

[Ketchup]

Metal is really hard to color. Anyways, this is part one of the return of "happy Boo" after the last two fairly sad posts.

http://boo-project-horizons.tumblr.com/post/25013332559

Spoiler:

I can't say I haven't done this. Lol.

[Kippershy]

Metal is really hard to color. Anyways, this is part one of the return of "happy Boo" after the last two fairly sad posts.

http://boo-project-horizons.tumblr.com/post/25013332559

Spoiler:

that feel when this:



is the other half to it =3

[CamoBadger]

Metal is really hard to color. Anyways, this is part one of the return of "happy Boo" after the last two fairly sad posts.

http://boo-project-horizons.tumblr.com/post/25013332559

Spoiler:

HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG

[SilentCarto]

re space programs:
Anyone else here tremendously excited about the work REL is doing?

Hay yes! I love that they already have plans to build a supersonic airliner based on the same technology.

As for ground beacons you can aim city targeted cruise missiles by dead reckoning. You just need to know where your launcher is, how far away the missile is from target. You only need two or three major landmarks for the missile to get mid course corrections. In fact V2's were aimed by exactly this method for some time.

...huh? The V-2 was a ballistic missile. Did you mean to say V-1?
Anyway, neither one had any sensors that could make midcourse corrections. The V-1 flew a fixed compass heading for a precalculated time, then kicked over into a steep dive wherever it happened to be. The V-2 used a pair of gyros to hold a course and trajectory during its boost phase, but after that it turned into an artillery shell. (Its control mechanism relied on deflecting the exhaust stream rather than steering aerodynamically with its fins.)

So it's late, but I'll still post my reading list, for if anyone's actually interested (not necessarily in this order, and I'm probably forgetting a few):

Personally, I couldn't get into Pink Eyes. The whole "hurr durr I'm a stupid kid la la la" schtick wore on me extremely quickly, and all reports said she never really grew out of that, so I dropped it.

Check your ICBM phases, MIRV's detach before the apogee or right after, once missiles hit terminal they have to be on targeted because at over seven kilometers a second you only get roughly one hundred and forty seconds to three hundred seconds between the mid phase and impact depending on the ICBM. Lots of fun info I picked up talking with those who's job involved targeting those things for real.

Well, yes, if you're talking about locking onto and steering to a target whose location you didn't already know, no ICBM can do that. It's a rare cruise missile that can, even today.

Anyway, even if the missiles were guided by robot intelligences, it wouldn't help... the pegasi would, I assume, be aware that the missiles had some kind of look-down/shoot-down capability, so they would certainly conceal their cities against that. Either the issue was ground observers calling in their position, or it was missiles sighting them from above; probably not both, and the only difference is whether they throw up a cloud deck or a cloud ceiling. After the fact, they would need to move the cities above the clouds anyway to escape the fallout and start cloud farming.

Was there anything left to launch after the surprise attack? Remember Celestia one dropped the light of judgement on entire sections of the Zebra home world for some time before the Pegasus closed the sky. After that was there anyone left to launch anything?

Well, SOMEONE was able to fire three missiles at Canterlot a day or so afterward... C-1 was still firing when the cloud cover cut it off, so they presumably didn't hit all their assigned targets before that.

That is the stupidest...
If you ever see me wearing one of these, please, for the love of celestia, kill me.

That's just the skeleton. Imagine it with armor plating all around it, and it'll look significantly more badass.

the main thing I find sad is that in the picture there, that soldier is carrying...maybe 40 pounds in that bag? As a medic all of my gear and armor is almost triple that, and I don't whine for a pair of robot legs. So again, if I'm ever wearing it, kill me, because obviously I've lost all sense of being a soldier.

Crystal, dear, you don't put a car on the test track with a full load in the trunk.

One, the Zebras need an actual working second-strike weapons system for successful MAD.

You mean CARE.

If the Zebras were simply building conventional cruise missiles then switching the warheads over to nuclear armed editions this could explain a secret buildup.

Great point! The missiles could already all be in place, and you simply don't know which ones you should shoot first.

Metal is really hard to color. Anyways, this is part one of the return of "happy Boo" after the last two fairly sad posts.

TIME FOR MY HAPPY INJECTION!

[RoboRed]

Metal is really hard to color. Anyways, this is part one of the return of "happy Boo" after the last two fairly sad posts.

http://boo-project-horizons.tumblr.com/post/25013332559

Spoiler:

*glee*

[Guest]

Metal is really hard to color. Anyways, this is part one of the return of "happy Boo" after the last two fairly sad posts.

http://boo-project-horizons.tumblr.com/post/25013332559

Spoiler:

Squee! Boo being adorable and happy, yes please!

[Guest]

Metal is really hard to color. Anyways, this is part one of the return of "happy Boo" after the last two fairly sad posts.

http://boo-project-horizons.tumblr.com/post/25013332559

Spoiler:

I think my heart my just exploded. Happy Boo is best Boo!

Another amazing picture Wave!

[Cptadder]

CptAdder:Blah blah ICBMs

O. Hinds:Blah Blah Blah Balefire

WavemasterRyx:Here's a picture of Boo

Everyone else: Squee!!!

[Kattlarv]

@Silent: (Door) Yes since important things have always just been "vaguely mentioned". That's like saying a certain someone would have been described as "I saw a pony in a power armour, it had some decals and very large guns." or any statuette being "I found a statuette of a pony, it had colour and text on it.". Then again, my memory sucks, so maybe Somber has described everything they reach and look at very sparsely. And how would "Twilight's OCD to get just the exact right things for all of the everything" support "she didn't give five bits about how it was built but went there later and changed it, since hey, why make it right the first time? Or that saying Rarity is precise in her work to support a point that "she just scribbles her designs once and always goes with the first design as her final"

(Shield) Yeah, that part might imply it, I just don't recall any alicorn using both her shield, and other magic at the same time. And they would have time to put the shield up on the hydra. And yes, I know you search and look for it. But what the hay should I search for throughout like, 30 chapters to find an instance where their shield is used at the same time as they cast magic? Since yes, currently it seems like they might be able to as only one instance of the opposite being mentioned (Or that scene is flawed in description there.)

@Sindri: (Door) Possibly, assuming her OCD is in better control, which it technically should. Otherwise she's still the mare that worries over even colour and frosting percentage between cupcakes.

@Waffle: (Rapists) Somehow I now got a feeling someone is actually going to Ctrf+F=Rape+Rapist FoE just to check xD
Anyhow, that's okay, I forgive you xP

@Kipper: Le gasp! Well, that was a bit of a surprise hehe xP
And if you've lost the ability to think straight, just think of lesbians.
But really, yeah, I can relate to going "blank" in the head.

On a side note, want me to mail/PM you a way TMI comic a friend of mine did for a RL event I had? ;D

As for that, I'm going with that she either gave them "equine endurance" or that Styg was eager enough to go all those times. But as said, I know going "tmi" might have been a big concern, but he did have dinner before the sex *rimshot*,so mentioning it afterwards or in a small way to have her go wouldn't be such a stretch. Personally would have found it adorable if he actually had some ed and clumsily gave her a "helping hoof" after he was done, maybe not after the first, (as she collapsed from mental strain) but second perhaps.

@MN7: Oh yeah, just forgot I'm not supposed to talk about that topic, sorry Somber ^^'

And yay, I actually had time to spend on reading and commenting, despite having a really weird day. (I ended up with a pineapple)

[Stringtheory]

CptAdder:Blah blah ICBMs

O. Hinds:Blah Blah Blah Balefire

WavemasterRyx:Here's a picture of Boo

Everyone else: Squee!!!

your first two lines remind me of the briefing from Duty Calls (a "game" made to be a marketing thing for Bulletstorm, and a shameless COD parody): blah blah blah secret base, blah blah blah nuclear missile bomb
here have a link: [link]

[Aonee]

CptAdder:Blah blah ICBMs

O. Hinds:Blah Blah Blah Balefire

WavemasterRyx:Here's a picture of Boo

Everyone else: Squee!!!

your first two lines remind me of the briefing from Duty Calls (a "game" made to be a marketing thing for Bulletstorm, and a shameless COD parody): blah blah blah secret base, blah blah blah nuclear missile bomb
here have a link: [link]

BLOODY SCREEN! So realistic!
"Boring, boring, boring"
And then there's the ending.

[Sindri]

if I'm ever wearing it, kill me, because obviously I've lost all sense of being a soldier.

Yeah, but when they deploy soldiers with powered exoskeletons on the battlefield, it'll be because they're carrying a hell of a lot more than you are now. Modern body armor is about the limit of what a human can move with effectively, and the medical equipment you're carrying is all carefully selected for weight versus utility, right? Your medic-model power armor will probably be almost as tough as a tank and carry most of a field hospital on its back. At a minimum of human sprinting speed.

MNS

Spoiler:

Well as to that

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Speechcraft isn't all about being defiant and taking charge of things. He ought to have a lot of experience in telling people what they want to hear, making them think he isn't worth worrying about, offering suggestions in a way that convinces them that it was their idea in the first place... these are all basic survival skills as a slave or a long-term victim.


Oh, and crying and carrying on? Not always a bad thing. Jacuzzi Splot for the win!

True. I remember reading a proposal to outfit some Trident missiles with kinetic-kill warheads. The biggest objection was "No one's going to see what sort of warhead a launching Trident has; they're just going to see a launching Trident. If it was launching at your area, would you be willing to trust that it was kinetic kill?"

Plus there's the little issue of spending a multi-million dollar ballistic missile strike for the strategic equivalent of punching them in the nose. There are better ways to deliver pretty much anything other than a full scale strike of a dozen or so thermonuclear warheads.

I just don't recall any alicorn using both her shield, and other magic at the same time.

There have been several. Every time 'Pip fought one and didn't catch them by surprise, most times Lacunae fights... an alicorn that's aware of the combat has their shield up by default. Most alicorns do not use weapons, instead fighting with magic alone.

[Kippershy]

@Kipper: Le gasp! Well, that was a bit of a surprise hehe xP
And if you've lost the ability to think straight, just think of lesbians.
But really, yeah, I can relate to going "blank" in the head.

On a side note, want me to mail/PM you a way TMI comic a friend of mine did for a RL event I had? ;D

As for that, I'm going with that she either gave them "equine endurance" or that Styg was eager enough to go all those times. But as said, I know going "tmi" might have been a big concern, but he did have dinner before the sex *rimshot*,so mentioning it afterwards or in a small way to have her go wouldn't be such a stretch. Personally would have found it adorable if he actually had some ed and clumsily gave her a "helping hoof" after he was done, maybe not after the first, (as she collapsed from mental strain) but second perhaps.

First of all, I want to let you know I somehow misread your TMI part as "you want to nail me?"...then as "you want to mail me?" then finally as "you want me to mail you..." before thinking "you want me to nail you?"



Yes... Yes I do.



Seriously though, yes. Sounds interesting.


and you have very good points to make, as always.
I completely agree with you now you put it that way; a little massage (no tongue? too much like sex? fiiine xD, a little rubbing and teasing will do fine all the same!) sounds like it'd do BJ some good.
Though then she'd compare it to sex with Glory and that might be too much over the line.

This was (at first) purely to see if she could do it without killing him... then because it was exciting.

[Ketchup]

I wish I was a"Sergeant of the master sergeants most important person of extreme sergeants to the max".

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Question about lacunae... isn't she a teleporter? So her coat is lavender... riiight?

[Meleagridis]

Question about lacunae... isn't she a teleporter? So her coat is lavender... riiight?

Described as purple in this last chapter, if I got my mind right. I'm not so good with memory, though.

[Sindri]

Question about lacunae... isn't she a teleporter? So her coat is lavender... riiight?

Very dark purple, easily mistaken for black.

[SilentCarto]

Yes since important things have always just been "vaguely mentioned". That's like saying a certain someone would have been described as "I saw a pony in a power armour, it had some decals and very large guns." or any statuette being "I found a statuette of a pony, it had colour and text on it."

It's more like saying, "Three Steel Rangers burst into the room." Did she mention the armor, specifically? Did she describe anything about their armor? No. Because Steel Rangers are assumed to be in their armor unless stated otherwise, and we know what the armor looks like. Those details aren't important, or aren't important to BJ at the moment. The weapons may get a mention shortly, if this is going to be a fight. If not... maybe not!

I mean, if BJ were to find a second statue of Twilight, would she describe it in detail again? Or just say, "It's a Twilight statuette," and move on?

(Shield) Yeah, that part might imply it, I just don't recall any alicorn using both her shield, and other magic at the same time.

Really? Because I have a hard time thinking of a time when they didn't. The first time we see an alicorn in full combat mode, Kkat writes,
But the last pseudo-goddess had been given plenty of time to bring up her shield as her sisters were slaughtered. And the explosions [...] detonated against the shield while she stood inside, looking cozy, unconcerned, and only mildly pissed. [...] The pseudo-goddess merely lowered her head, a spark of light bursting from her horn. In an instant, the two rockets had reversed course. [...] Once again, brilliant light burst all about us, this time carrying a choking stench of ozone as the alicorn summoned lightning from the thunderclouds and struck Calamity to the ground. [...] A malicious smile broke over her features, cold and wicked, as motes of pinkish-purple light ignited around her head, growing and shaping into magical arrows. [...] The memory orb glowed softly as the alicorn touched it with focused magic. Her eyes went wide, her shield dropping and the forming cascade of magical arrows evaporating as the alicorn was lost inside the memory.
-- FOE, ch. 14

And later, while trying to rescue the griffons on top of Horseshoe Tower,
The two others launched themselves into the air, spreading their wings as their shields bubbled around them. [...] The alicorn let out a wicked, bitter and majestic laugh that echoed off the walls of the pit. Using telekinesis of her own, she knocked it free of my telekinetic sheath with a hurled chair. [...] With a flash of light, one of the alicorns appeared right between us. [...] I realized something very peculiar. The alicorn’s sphere of shielding was up at full strength, but she had appeared literally in the center of us. Parts of each of us were inside the barrier. Including SteelHooves’s metal rear end.
The alicorn began casting a spell. I felt a vice tighten around my heart. My hooves began to tingle.
-- FOE, ch. 18

Question about lacunae... isn't she a teleporter? So her coat is lavender... riiight?

Her coat is described as 'dusky purple', though a lot of people draw her bluer than they probably should. Remember, teleporters are dark purple, not lavender. And alicorn coloration varies significantly between individuals, possibly darkening with power -- Nightseer was an extraordinarily dark green, and the Behemoth was practically black.
This is probably the most accurate depiction of her coloration.

[Sindri]

Alicorns were first described as black by Littelpip; it was only in their later appearances (under better light, with more time to examine them) that she realized that they were actually a very dark purple, blue, or green. So for Lacunae we ought to start with something like Twilight's coloration, then crank the darkness to where you can hardly tell what color it is anymore.

[FeatherDust]

(Styg) I can use it as evidence for being self centred in sex ;P

Also known as being a horny teenager. You seem very down on him for this an I can't see why. So he's a bad lay. I disagree, but whatever. Suppose he sucks in bed. In what way does that make him a bad person and hated? That's where we started this discussion; you sad you hated Styg and could not understand the affection for him.

I can forgive him the first 1-2 times, but to keep doing it again and again? Like we've discussed, I'd really want to know how bad sex ed the batponies seem to have, or if he really is that easily distracted/narrow minded at sex.

Uhhh... he lived in a cave with close family members. Not the best place to learn that sort of thing. And anyway, BJ is not a very good teacher. She didn't apparently give him any guidance. Is he supposed to figure it out on his own?
Ugh, anyway, point being it does not matter if he's good or bad at sex.

@Silent: (Doors) The doors were only mentioned as doors, no lock was mentioned. So Somber doesn't say there was a lock, just that they were wooden doors laced with amethyst.

I don't get what you want to accomplish with the doors discussion.

We are not saying that this is without a doubt the facts. We're saying that it is reasonable to suspect the door could have had a physical lock that was used to intentionally invalidate the "door test". Your argument seems to say that you think it is IMPOSSIBLE that the door in question had a manual lock, which seems like a very odd claim to me. Yes, it's conceivable that Twilight had this door custom made. It is equally conceivable that the door was an ordinary office door outfitted with aftermarket arcane enhancements. Why are you working so hard to deny the possibility that the door test was a trick (and therefore that BJ is Twilight's descendant)?

[Kattlarv]

@Sindri: Hum... yeah it does sound a bit more familiar now...I just saw them as shielding, then flanking with another alicorn, and that used magic. But I guess that makes more sense, kind of.

@Kipper:That's the old Kipper back xD (And I'd offer to just post it here in a spoiler, but being NSFW, I will not due to obvious reason haha)
And well, you know, every once and again I roll above 10 on my dice xP But yeah, the part that made me derp afterwards was the "He wasn't good, but he wasn't that bad either. Unlike Glory, he didn't know what to do" thing, followed by the "Hey Glory, I got myself nailed by a dude, he was totally awesome in bed!" it just seems kinda odd of BJ to try and ramp it up that much instead of "I managed to have sex with a male without tearing his dick off!", focusing on what was important about it. Dunno why she'd try to brag about it.

@Silent: (Door) Show me where she describes Steel Rain as "just another steel ranger I saw". And yes: "I came to my next unique door to Twilight's other secret room, it was just like the previous unique door I saw, so it looked the same, I'll just mention that this was laced with amethysts instead of mithral. BJ has usually described things with a bit of detail if they're important or new to her, and yeah, you're right, a door with magical enhancements protecting lost, possible priceless artefacts and knowledge, and might alter her fate is not special or important enough for her to care.

(Shields) Ah, thanks for the reminder, I just somehow didn't recall that part.

@Feather: (Styg) I don't hate styg, I just hate that others are all "*Squee*"for him. Point with him being a horny teenager, can't say much of that as I don't recall his age being mentioned. Secondly, I derped a bit at the part above, mentioned to Kipper about BJ's later comment. She could ofc have said it to boost his confidence or lure Psycho, but I don't recall which were there, but I think she walked a bit from the group.

Second point is that yes, he lived in a cave, yet they seem educated enough to know inbreeding is bad? And point of it, I don't care if he's physically good or bad, it is that he quit every time after he came, he was satisfied. Even a simple mind could figure out that there is two in that act. As said, unless their bat sex ed is only "don't sex cousins" he was being selfish there. And I could be going much worse on him, mind that ;P

(Door) This is the PH thread, we do these things all the time xD
And it's not that I can't see it, it is that I don't see why. It was a very ornate door, seemingly made for one purpose, to be in front of this room, enchanted with a spell to be impervious and only allow Twilight passage. So I don't see why she'd put a physical lock on it... unless she thought it'd be funny to have a useless lock spies would try to pick.

[O. Hinds]

I can't say I haven't done this. Lol.

…Including wearing the cover as a hat?

[Sponsored content]