With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Gabriel]

So is she actually taller than Grayven now?
although it does makes me wonder if she would retain her height when returning to Earth.

 

[Ganurath]

1. Pinkie's special talent extends to a wider variety of parties than I'd initially assumed.
2. Taller than Grayven?

 

[Vaermina]

I was really hoping this was gonna fail.

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It sort of did.

Given she looks like a mature Alicorn instead of a young one like Twilight Sparkle and Cadance she must have burned at least a thousand years off her lifespan.

Which given we know Luna and Celestia don't last another thousand years means she probably burned up most of her life to become an Alicorn.

 

[moralrelativity]

Circe."

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Extraneous quote mark.

expression hardens

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Progress! It's not red.

"Yes! Tallest alicorn!"

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Yay! It worked!!

 

[SebazuD]

It sort of did.

Given she looks like a mature Alicorn instead of a young one like Twilight Sparkle and Cadance she must have burned at least a thousand years off her lifespan.

Which given we know Luna and Celestia don't last another thousand years means she probably burned up most of her life to become an Alicorn.

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You really think Zoat is not gonna have her be like an even more special Alicorn or something like that?

 

[moralrelativity]

Given she looks like a mature Alicorn instead of a young one ...

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What makes you say she looks mature? Just because she's taller?

 

[Slayer Anderson]

Man, with all these new alicorns popping up, there must have been some freaky sex going on in the palace.

Probably a wild orgy or two.

 

[Oglymogly]

As someone who knew very very little of MLP when Sunset was introduced, I'm surprised how invested I've been in this arc. It was very well paced and the payoff 'feels' right. Great job!

Wow, I'm honestly surprised that this succeeded without anything going wrong or getting messed up. Good to see a ritual to gain power go right for once in a work of fiction. Usually some manor of events conspired to ruin it, but I suppose Grayven scared off Discord, so nothing was ruined.

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Grayven probably foresaw that possibility, thus his timing on his second round of 'head hunting.'

In fact, the only remaining BBG's I know of are Treik and Sombra, and I'm not sure how easy it would be to track them down.

 

[Vanathor]

It sort of did.

Given she looks like a mature Alicorn instead of a young one like Twilight Sparkle and Cadance she must have burned at least a thousand years off her lifespan.

Which given we know Luna and Celestia don't last another thousand years means she probably burned up most of her life to become an Alicorn.

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Why are you working from the assumption that alicorns have a finite lifespan? Celestia and Luna opted to retire. They didn't die.

 

[Vaermina]

What makes you say she looks mature? Just because she's taller?

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Check the pic Zoat linked.

That's how Alicorn's look when they hit somewhere around the thousand year mark.

Case in point, thousand year old Twilight Sparkle.

 

[Darko]

Sunset could have probably just had a growthspurt, rather than aging herself a thousand years.

 

[Oglymogly]

It sort of did.

Given she looks like a mature Alicorn instead of a young one like Twilight Sparkle and Cadance she must have burned at least a thousand years off her lifespan.

Which given we know Luna and Celestia don't last another thousand years means she probably burned up most of her life to become an Alicorn.

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Interesting idea. I've never had heard that Alicorns had a limited life span, but I suppose there isn't anyone who would know, with the sample size. We know Sunset is going to research the heck out of this, so I expect she'll be the first to find out one way or another.

As a alternate theory, it could have been a more efficient ritual than Twi or Cadance went through, propelling her into the height of her power. Or since she was reshaped wholesale, it could have used the mental image of Sunbut as a reference model.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Extraneous quote mark.

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

Canterlot
Afternoon

I throw the doors open wide when we reach the Drawing Room and get a clear view of the ponies gathered inside. Twilight is pacing nervously just outside of Sunset's arcane inscriptions while Sunset calmly does a last minute check. The rest of the Bearerherd and Cadance stand off to the side, presumably having decided to stick around after Sunset's tests. An-.

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Oh, dear. Someone or something unexpected?

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Huh.

An alicorn I don't recognise stands a little closer, watching Sunset with…

"Circe?"

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Because of course she'd be an alicorn. Immense magical power? What else?

She turns my way. "Grayven. You didn't tell me that this was happening today."

"Fifteen to one time ratio." Green pelt, pink-purple mane and tail and staff whose head is glowing with arcane power as a cutie mark. No, hang on: there's a broken and rusted sword underneath it. "And the timing is Sunset's decision. How did you-?"

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The staff is an obvious choice. But a broken and rusted sword? Symbolic of intellect overcoming strength of arms?

"Jean anticipated your order."

"Ah." I nod. Hadn't realised that she was awake. I suppose that one of the g-gnomes probably notified her.

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It's only what, early April 2nd? It shouldn't have been too much trouble.

Sunset glances towards the door as Celestia and Luna come inside, Celestia hanging back slightly while Luna trots up alongside me.

"Grayven, will you introduce us?"

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Hmm... Is Celestia finally starting to let Luna be more active in leadership, or just concerned for Sunset's safety?

"Princess Luna, this is Circe." I frown slightly. "Do you bother with titles?"

Circe sighs. "With an introduction like that I can hardly do so now." She smiles at Luna. "A pleasure to meet you, Luna."

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They'd be a waste of breath anyway. Has Circe really bothered with such things before, outside of impressing simple folks?

"And what is thine involvement in this affair?"

"Sunset and I are 'study buddies'." Circe twists her head towards Sunset. "Isn't that right, Sun-"

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Heh, how informal. I expect she's settled right into ponyhood, right down to using magic with ease.

Finishing her last check, Sunset makes momentary eye contact with Celestia and then prances over to nuzzle Circe."

"-set." Circe hesitates for a moment, then cranes her neck down and attempts to reciprocate the gesture. "Are you prepared?"

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Huh, unexpected. I'm guessing Sunset's having a few last-minute worries. Or giving Celestia's nose a bit of a tweak. "Look how much cooler my other teacher is!"

Sunset pulls back slightly. "As much as I can be. I've confirmed my hypothesis as much as I can without experimental data. The only thing I can do now is cast the spell."

"I meant: are you ready?"

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Ready to become a demi-goddess? This is no small step, with no going back as far as we know. Of course she's nervous...

"I…" She sounds uncertain, her head dropping slightly and her eyes roaming around the room. Then she sees Celestia and her expression hardens. "I'm as ready as I'm going to get. Anything else is just cowardice."

"Good." Circe kisses the top of her head and then steps back. "But just in case anything goes wrong, I'll be here and so will Grayven."

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Sort of taking the role of substitute parents, aren't they? I wonder how Sunset's actual family will react... Surely they've been told...

I nod. "Pretty much anything short of you being plastered all over the walls, I'll be able to fix."

"Thanks, Grayven, that's exactly the mental image I needed."

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Well, as long as she's still got an intact brain, the Rings can do a lot...

"Yes, me sticking you back together. So don't worry."

She shakes her head and walks back to her diagram.

"Just get out of the way."

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And the nerves have been stamped down. Probably still fluttering below the surface, but she's bound and determined now.

I consider prodding her to say something to Celestia, but… No. Instead, I walk around the side of the diagram and and pull up next to Pinkie Pie.

"How's the family?"

"Bigger! The other me's weren't the only ponies in the Mirror Pool."

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Interesting. I wonder how many people have messed with it over the years...

"Oh? Who else?"

"Granny Pie! Which I shoulda realised because she couldn't have known how it worked without using it at least once!" Makes sense, I suppose. Pinkie grins. "Granny Pie died five years ago! Mom was so happy to see her that she screamed and fainted!"

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...God dammit, Pinkie... There's comedy and then there's Comedy...

I regards her fondly for a moment. "Ah, Pinkie. Never change."

"Hey, how'd you know I wasn't one of the other me's?"

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As if they'd let them in here? Bad enough Pinkie's wild talent is in the room.

"I guessed that the others are being held somewhere pending being rehoused, so the only other you you could be is Party Popper. And I know you're not her."

"Oh. How?"

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Do tell, Grayven...

"I've.. sort of.. marked her. It will take a while to wear off."

Pinkie looks a little uncomfortable. "And you didn't let her have a shower afterwards? That's kind of… Icky, don't you think? I mean, I guess what two consenting adult do in private is their own business, but you've both been walking all over Canterlot and I'm not-."

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<Spit-takes> Seriously, that's the first thing you think of? Dammit, you've got a dirty mind, filly.

"Not… That… Not 'marked' like I-. Ew!"

"So how did you 'mark' her, exactly?" She shakes her head. "Because all the ideas I'm coming up with-."

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I'm guessing he bonded with her as a vassal, much as he did with his other friends.

"If I could have everypony's attention!"

Sunset's standing in the middle of the arcane diagram, which is glowing in the same colour as her horn's aura. Celestia stops lurking in the doorway, but is still standing back from the rest of the audience.

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It Begins!

"My name is Sunset Shimmer and today is the day I finally become an alicorn. As I'm sure you know, an alicorn is a type of pony who possesses the magic of all three tribes, which combine to make them even more powerful than any normal pony."

Twilight shakes her head. "I didn't get that much of a power boost."

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Have you actually tried doing things other than flying?

Sunset gices her a mild glare. "Maybe if you used your non-unicorn magics a little, you'd have noticed it a little more."

Twilight opens her mouth, but Applejack looks at her with raised eyebrows and Rainbow Dash just nods. Twilight slumps slightly.

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I'll bet AJ is just wondering "What Earth Pony Magic?"

"So as I was saying, becoming an alicorn requires the magic of all three tribes. So far, that's happened using a powerful magic discharges from ponies of all three tribes perfectly aligning with the recipient's special talent or a spell which called upon the magic of all tribes through ponies with whom the recipient had a strong emotional bond. I will be using a third technique, a more controlled version of the method Cadenza lucked into. This network will draw on the platonic ideal forms of the magics of all three tribes via the magic networks covering Equestria… Harmony, if you like. I will use this to alter my own metaphysique into that of an alicorn. From the outside, all you should see is a quick flash of light. From inside… I don't know. I think Twilight's visit to an 'astral plane' was a byproduct of the inefficiency of the spell she used, but…"

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Ah, but you miss out on the song from Princess Celestia! Or whatever mentor you favour most, I suspect.

She shakes her head.

"The whole thing should only take a few seconds, so here goes!"

Sunset's horn glows brilliantly, the strength of the glow mirrored by her diagram. I glance around the circle and both Circe and Celestia have their horns low level glowing. Not sure what Celestia's planning: there's no way she understands the process.

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Hopefully just magesight spells, letting them see the workings. Or maybe Celestia's preparing a shield spell. Just in case.

"First stage is fine, now I unbind my magics to enable the change. That should happen fairly auto-."

The centre of the diagram flashes, though not brightly enough to interfere with my vision. Sunset isn't there.. any longer. Or rather, her outline is gone. I'm.. slightly concerned-.

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No smouldering symbol of her cutie mark?

Then the light vanishes, the glow of the diagram drops off and oh goodness me.

Sunset takes a breath, then looks around the room. Then she flares her new wings and looks down at herself, then left and right at herself.

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Well... That was certainly successful. Let's hope it - and she- is stable.

Then she looks at Celestia and grins.

"Yes! Tallest alicorn!"

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That reaction! Entirely in character. Guessing she caught up to the fifteen years she was technically away from Equestria...

Well, that was... almost anti-climactic. Hopefully, there's nothing wrong that we aren't seeing, like some sort of magical cancer or something...

Corrections.

...what two consenting adult do in private...

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...what two consenting adults do in private...

Sunset gices her a mild glare.

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Sunset gives her a mild glare.

...a powerful magic discharges from ponies...

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...a powerful magic discharge from ponies...

 

[Doccer]

Sunset gices her a mild glare. "Maybe if you used your non-unicorn magics a little, you'd have noticed it a little more."

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Sunset gives her a mild glare. "Maybe if you used your non-unicorn magics a little, you'd have noticed it a little more."

 

[Emizaquel]

Or perhaps, she's just older? I could easily see Sunset as being the equivalent of late-teens to early teens in Twilight's case, which would mean that she's already most of the way grown, rather than twilight's relative immaturity.

 

[King of Frost]

Case in point, thousand year old Twilight Sparkle.

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Twilight was supposed to be a thousand years old in the ending? But everyone else was still alive. The other bearers were visibly older but still very much alive, the students from the school were adults, even the Cutie Mark Crusaders were simply young adults.

 

[NightmareWarden]

The pessimist in me is guessing that this change will only last while Sunset is draining power from the Harmony field. At which point she will revert to a unicorn or become a young adult alicorn like she ought to be. Or... There are massive gaps in the harmony field due to this ritual.

I'd like to give a round of applause to the Atlantean physicists, sorcerers and mathemagicians that helped make this experiment possible. Hopefully they are recognized in their own society as much as our own greatest minds are, if not more-so.

 

[DrThoth]

"Grayven, will you introduce us?"

"Princess Luna, this is Circe." I frown slightly. "Do you bother with titles?"

Circe sighs. "With an introduction like that I can hardly do so now." She smiles at Luna. "A pleasure to meet you, Luna."

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Renegade asked Circe what, if any, titles she used when they first met; he may have forgotten, I'm not sure if he has a perfect memory or anything like that. You could change it to "Still no titles, right?" or something like that.

Also, what's the significance of the broken sword in Circe's cutie mark? Magical power trumps martial might?

I'd like to give a round of applause to the Atlantean physicists, sorcerers and mathemagicians that helped make this experiment possible. Hopefully they are recognized in their own society as much as our own greatest minds are, if not more-so.

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Were any non-Venturians involved at all? I feel a bit sad thinking of Renegade-Sephtian not realizing his full potential.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Corrections.
...what two consenting adults do in private...
Sunset gives her a mild glare.
...a powerful magic discharge from ponies...

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Emizaquel]

Twilight was supposed to be a thousand years old in the ending? But everyone else was still alive. The other bearers were visibly older but still very much alive, the students from the school were adults, even the Cutie Mark Crusaders were simply young adults.

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I did not know this, makes total sense,

 

[Mr Zoat]

Renegade asked Circe what, if any, titles she used when they first met; he may have forgotten, I'm not sure if he has a perfect memory or anything like that. You could change it to "Still no titles, right?" or something like that.

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No, because Luna wasn't listening last time he asked.

Also, what's the significance of the broken sword in Circe's cutie mark? Magical power trumps martial might?

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That's probably what she'd say if asked. After realising that it's not that; it's that she's far happier teaching and researching than she was fighting

Were any non-Venturians involved at all? I feel a bit sad thinking of Renegade-Sephtian not realizing his full potential.

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He's probably going to get noticed eventually. His work on enchantment was already a set text before the SI met him, remember?

 

[Chaoswind]

I did not know this, makes total sense,

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Is Vaermina arguing in bad faith again, take everything he says with a mountain of salt.

If she is bigger than Grayven then something went slightly wrong for sure, she wanted to do something similar to God hood awakening and that means slowly building up power till the peak is achieved, if she got full powered alicorn mode then she is likely going to be unstable and lose some of her powers as her soul is unable to keep hold of the power it was suddenly feed.


In short I think this is what full power sunset will look like when she is done growing in power but due to her own soul immaturity she is going to get smaller till she is between the sizes of twilight and Cadance.

 

[DrThoth]

No, because Luna wasn't listening last time he asked.

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The fact that Renegade frowns slightly before asking the question implies that he doesn't know the answer, so the question doesn't read like he's just asking it for Luna's benefit.

He's probably going to get noticed eventually. His work on enchantment was already a set text before the SI met him, remember?

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I can't recall all the details of the success of Renegade-Venturia, though it seems primarily economic in nature rather than in pure thaumaturgical innovation (though I know they've developed mana siphons at least). Maybe Orin (or more likely Mera) can facilitate an intellectual exchange or a conference or something.

 

[Vaermina]

Twilight was supposed to be a thousand years old in the ending? But everyone else was still alive. The other bearers were visibly older but still very much alive, the students from the school were adults, even the Cutie Mark Crusaders were simply young adults.

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The ending was Twilight looking back on those times.

Is Vaermina arguing in bad faith again, take everything he says with a mountain of salt.

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I get that you enjoy making bad faith arguments yourself, but that's no excuse for falsely accusing others of doing so.

Now please, don't force me to embarrass you this way again, because it will be much worse for you next time.

 

[Emizaquel]

Is Vaermina arguing in bad faith again, take everything he says with a mountain of salt.

If she is bigger than Grayven then something went slightly wrong for sure, she wanted to do something similar to God hood awakening and that means slowly building up power till the peak is achieved, if she got full powered alicorn mode then she is likely going to be unstable and lose some of her powers as her soul is unable to keep hold of the power it was suddenly feed.


In short I think this is what full power sunset will look like when she is done growing in power but due to her own soul immaturity she is going to get smaller till she is between the sizes of twilight and Cadance.

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The ending was Twilight looking back on those times.



I get that you enjoy making bad faith arguments yourself, but that's no excuse for falsely accusing others of doing so.

Now please, don't force me to embarrass you this way again, because it will be much worse for you next time.

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Okay, I had to check this on youtube, and I have no care for the show, but the while the last episode does seem to contain a flashback, there are scenes with the adult twilight and what look like old, but still living mane 6.

now, I'm going to go play some doom, that was way too saccharine for me.

 

[Handlewithcare]

It sort of did.

Given she looks like a mature Alicorn instead of a young one like Twilight Sparkle and Cadance she must have burned at least a thousand years off her lifespan.

Which given we know Luna and Celestia don't last another thousand years means she probably burned up most of her life to become an Alicorn.

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As if pony immortality would be a challenge for Grayven.


Noice. Sunset Alicorn.

Princess Starlight when?

Princess of Trickery Trixie when?

PRINCE BIG MAC WHEN?????

 

[ArKFallen]

The ending was Twilight looking back on those times.

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Yes but it isn't a flashback when her friends interact with the young pony asking about them. If they were human I'd put them 28-42yrs based on the definition below their eyes.

 

[Agent Orange]

Princess Starlight when?

Princess of Trickery Trixie when?

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Why would you want those two maniacs to become princesses?

PRINCE BIG MAC WHEN?????

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This on the other hand I have no problem with

 

[Chaoswind]

Okay, I had to check this on youtube, and I have no care for the show, but the while the last episode does seem to contain a flashback, there are scenes with the adult twilight and what look like old, but still living mane 6.

now, I'm going to go play some doom, that was way too saccharine for me.

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Vaermina makes good arguments every once in a while, but most of the time his arguments usually rely on obscure interpretations of Canon events or pseudo canon, once a blue moon he makes an argument that you can agree with, but most of the time he is just trying to pretend he knows more about anything than anyone else and even when he is explicitly wrong he will never admit as much... Some would accuse him of trolling, but I think it's just pathological.

The ending was Twilight looking back on those times.



I get that you enjoy making bad faith arguments yourself, but that's no excuse for falsely accusing others of doing so.

Now please, don't force me to embarrass you this way again, because it will be much worse for you next time.

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Who cares about what you think Vaermina?

The only works of fiction in with I can claim some expertise are the Mass Effect franchise, some massive hours dumped into several square games, and some shows that had rabbit holes in their expanded universes. I do so because I have invested absurd amounts of time in each of them. The only way I debate in bad faith is when my knowledge gets retconed, or when I am in parrot mode repeating what someone else has argued and sourced, that is orders of magnitude better than your usual aptitude in regards to unimportant internet screaming matches, hence why I can assure you I am not in the ignored list of several users at least not for my arguments in regards to fiction...

My political views are a whole different issue.

Now leaving behind this unimportant derail, this side episode has been entertaining, but I could have done without the days that got WASTED in warhammer, and fallout because unlike what is happening in pony land those events will have absolutely no measure of importance in regards to the plot at large.