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TCPolecat7 — A New Breed: Book 2: Chapter 13
Published: 2012-11-27 11:43:51 +0000 UTC; Views: 1816; Favourites: 6; Downloads: 208
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MLP (c) HasbroAnd we're back again. Nothing much to say about this one, other than Clockwork's breakdown was damned fun to write. No more real pressures on her (as some folks were worried about), but the pressures she endured now seem to have caused a few... cracks.
As always, feedback, comments, and critiques are welcome and encouraged.
For those who are using the Google Docs versions, I apologize for the problem the past few chapters. I didn't notice the conversion requirement for new uploads was added. I've gone back and fixed 11 and 12, and will be updating their links momentarily after posting this.
- Polecat
G-docs link: [link]
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Comments: 21
Clockwork, if you were always acting logically, you wouldn't have risked yourself and two of your teammates in an attempt to rescue a suicidal ex-hero. He clearly wasn't worth the risk from an objective standpoint. And then what sort of a bearer would you be for Loyalty? And the Elements are far from well understood, so I doubt you'd realize yours had forsaken you when you forsake it until you needed it. And then you and your friends would fall, and Equestria soon after.
The only logical course of action is to be illogical.
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Clockwork is far from "logical", I agree. She's no Vulcan... but then again, she isn't exactly in her right state of mind presently.
- Polecat
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Page 2: The room was spacious, long and narrow like a museum hall or town home, and yet somehow managed to >feel felt< cramped all the same.
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Blargh. I should have spotted that one. Sounds like I did a correction, and forgot/missed reverting the old one.
- Polecat
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I had a realization a while ago that altered my entire analysis of the balance of power. At first I thought the addition of griffin specials, in conjunction with special spears designed to counter pony weapons, gave the griffins the advantage, but then it hit to me. Why? Taking away the pegasi's wingblades would have been a devastating blow 50 years ago, but today? Why are they still using blades at all? The ponies have made incredible leaps in scientific achievement in the last few decades and though the lack of gunpowder or similar explosive definitely reduces the military applications of that science, the advances in metallurgy and electronics should have revolutionized war. I have a few theories that might explain the lack plasma or laser based weapons, the first being Clockwork is in no condition to be designing these things at the moment, but that shouldn't stop others. Burner created a series of imp shaped laser turrets, with apparently advanced targeting software, that had enough power to take out several specials. Now, he was the leading expert in Equestria before Clockwork came in, but he was also working, for all intents and purposes, from a garage with only a basic understanding of how clockworks suit worked. There has to be other ponies who could reproduce his work, or even just backwards engineer some of his turrets, assuming enough can be salvaged, then equip the pegasi forces with beam weapons. I guess there could be a few logistical problems with that such as: the imp turrets didn't walk around, this might have been due to the power requirements calling for a massive generator, one a pony couldn't carry. If that is the case, build a tank, they have had trains with steam engines since before the imp war. The only thing I could see stopping that would be calibration of the lenses. The imp turrets only moved their heads so, for all we know, the jarring of mobility could actually render the laser useless. If that is the case, just use them defensively. They should at least place turrets around Canterlot and if you can't create a viable friend-or-foe targeting program (and without the cheat of being able to say that they just hooked up their eyes-forward-sparkle to the turret, I don't see how they could create one) then just have ponies operate the turrets manually. It is possible that the problem isn't technical, but political. Princess Celesita, for all her wisdom and experience, tends to treat the army as decoration, relying instead on a single pony to create a shield around Canterlot or instead of dispatching a battalion of soldiers to combat an evil resurrected emperor, she sends her apprentice and her friends. Even in "modern" times, you never heard of the courageous charge of the 142 Earth Pony Corp who broke the imp lines and saved Los Pegasus, but you do hear about how Ultrapony took out a destroyer Imp singlehanded(hoofed?)ly. Luna, in my New Breed head cannon, isn't much better. I think she still views herself as kind of an outsider, thus the reason she got all the other misfits together and created her agency, so equipping regular ponies is outside her perceived influence.
In conclusion, even if the lasers were big, unwieldy and stationary, they should at least be used for defense and even if the Princesses don't command them to be built, you would think somepony in the private sector would at least be selling them.
Your thoughts?
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Heh, interesting. The answer is a little simpler. It's only been a few generations (less than 100 years) since the time we've seen on the show and the time the current group are in action. That's not a lot of time for training and tradition to change. Celestia especially (as was shown with her reactions to the Discord statue) is very resistant to the idea of change. Luna is less so, but she also is a lot less likely to push the military issue, given her history and problems. Both of them are more likely to fall back on magic than on technology tho, as are the Unicorns of Canterlot (which is primarily a unicorn city).
So yes, there are things that Clockwork has done for the Guard, weaponizing is usually a bit lower on the list. Further, there's a conception from the ponies that Canterlot itself is safe, being too far within the Ponylands to be a viable target. Any invasionary force would have to work down through the line up north and through a number of cities before every even getting close....
- Polecat
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The fact that Canterlot is primarily unicorns didn't even occur to me, but it makes a lot of sense. The ones most resistant to technology would be the ones who have the advantage in its absence.
You would think the sense of security that the citizens of Canterlot feel would be shaken after the attack by the imps that nearly leveled their city, but I guess "those were the imps, we have lived next to the griffin kingdom for thousands of years. They wouldn't dare attack our capital." I almost pity them.
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In essense, the feel is all about range. The Imps were very much universal, and the citizens of the world, not just the Ponylands and Canterlot, are feeling run down and in dire need of a break. They want some stability back so badly that they are ignoring other threats.
That, and the Gryphon Clans feel very far away, they're way up in the north! They'd have plenty of warning if they came into the Ponylands anyway....
- Polecat
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For some reason, Galaxi's feelings for Clockwork took me by surprise. If Clockwork survives all this, and I don't just mean physically, they could be a good couple.
The fact that the Silverthorn referred to Eclipse as a Magus rather than a cursed griffin, without knowing who he was, raises some questions. Do the griffins have their own version of a unicorn or can any griffin learn magic with proper training? How common are griffin magi? How do they compare with a unicorn in terms of power?
What did they do to Godkiller? Magically wiping the mind of a living entity of anti-magic seems a bit difficult, unless she can completely turn it off, not just suppress it. This would also carry risk, what if it activate in the middle of the procedure? She seemed empty, so she probably wasn't "broken" by conventional means. They could have lobotomized her, but that seems like a big risk, one small slip an you loose your trump card.
Excellent chapter! I eagerly await they next one!
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Heh. I've had people commenting left and right about how they thought the pair were already a couple, so I appreciate having someone not see that angle coming.
In my opinion, gryphons can learn magic, but they'r emore like how we'd envision "traditional" spell-casters, with books and tomes and wands an the like. The fact he was flaunting it instead of hiding it immediately gave the perception he must have been a mage (which is a high caste) instead of a special (which is a slave-low caste). After all, no one would flaunt, in the most powerful halls of the gryphon aerie, that they were a special.
Godkiller? Consider it... very high level brainwashing combined with a good scrubbing of all memories and the like. She was broken in every way possible, and then some. She almost literally doesn't exist as her own gryphon anymore, that gryphoness died years ago.
Glad you liked!
- Polecat
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Well, Clockwork seems to have lost it. I was actually surprised that Trixie didn't just knock her out and drag her from the lab for her own good, but thinking about it brain trauma is not a thing friends should inflict on each other in any situation, regardless of what TV says. Trixie at a loss for words? What madness is this?
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Trixie at a loss for words. And it's MADNESS, that's what, pure madness. 
- Polecat
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At this point everyone on the side of good could use an intervention, I really dislike forced cyberization good thing we've already had that discussion. Eclipse is sneakier then that, there's definitely more to it and I was expecting that to happen for some time now. The chaos zebra gang has become the wild card now. Galaxi and Clockwork sitting in a space vessel heading for Kessel to be put together and locked in with a key?
Last Thoughts: Dragons breath fire through chemical generated by their bodies and grown up they a highly resistent to magic... but what happens if they get a taste of anti-magic? Also first glimpse of the godkiller, not really much of a killer and more like a disabler really. Eclipse was still controlling the body despite not having any magic because of miss Nulla Fier.
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Not technically forced cyberization so much as Clockwork going off the deep end here.
Eclipse is sneaky, but so is Goldtalon. They both have their personal plans...
Kaos always was a wild-card, ne?
Probably not. Besides, I don't think Luna knows where Kessel is yet...
Dragons? I always put it as I heard it once in a cartoon: they eat gems and coal to create the basic materials to act sort of like a furnace. They breathe a sort of methane that uses a naturally electrified plate in their mouth to ignite it, thus breathing fire. Purely chemical and evolutionary instead of magic.
Godkiller was named by Goldtalon. He has a flare for the dramatic, no? Still, anti-magic is a POWERFUL weapon against the ponies, given how much magic they use...
And there's no saying what prolonged exposure might have done to Eclipse (I know, but I ain't tellin'.
- Polecat
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Technically it could be forced by habit, need to do better and situation. She could force it on herself, but at least some part of her is fighting that impulse right?
I'm pretty sure I know which one will stick the dagger in first. The power of frenemies.
Ne' indeed meow meow.
Godkiller sounds more like a walking armageddon for all ponies when you put it that way, if it weren't for range limitations on her powers. She could disrupt the food growers, the weather controllers and the whatever unicorns do when Celestia and Luna control the moon and sun instead of them. I guess unicorns persue scholarly persuits mostly or things you can't do without telekinetic magic, but this doesn't necessarily make all unicorns smart... just specialized, like how Galaxi is getting into others heads.
I have only at least four hunches about what the prolonged exposure thing, one of them is probably a really good guess the other might be close to the truth and the other two aren't worth mentioning if you aren't going for that anyway. One thing is for sure Rainbow Brite didn't have this much trouble fighting a killer robot armor, that movie was a classic like Wizards.
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That's what she's fighting in herself, yes. That desire to "fix" the problem...
I won't say. You might be right, you might be wrong...
Heh heh
That's the point, yes. More, her anti-magic has been proven to affect Celestia and Luna level magics (it was tested on artifacts they enchanted), and now it's even been MORE proven by its effectiveness on Eclipse, who is potentially even more powerful (Nightmare would have won against Celestia had it only been the pair squaring off and not the team as well, and even then it took using the Elements of Harmony... twice).
I can't comment without knowing your "hunches", but I will say you lost me with the Rainbow Brite comment...
- Polecat
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Mmm-hmm, I thought that Galaxi was headed in that direction, shouldn't be surprised she can't see it herself...
Huh, I'm surprised the Duke was that observant...
Should have figured the gryphon invasion would have ties to Eclipse and his plans...
Ohhh... yeah turning herself into a cyborg probably isn't the best thing for Clockwork on any level right now...
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Sometimes it's the most obvious things you can't see...
Silverthorn is a bit more than he seems... he had to be to coordinate his father's death like that.
Yes well, the pair have a common interest/goal...
No, not it is not. More on that next chapter tho.
- Polecat
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True, I am starting to get that impression about the little jerk.
That they clearly do...
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Well Galaxi is blind in more ways then the one common denominator.
Even if you're a lush, you can learn a thing or two about getting infomation from being seemingly harmless.
It was bound to happen, evil team up rules 101.
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