FOE commentary 44

This particular tale was about a time when Twilight Sparkle’s magic had failed her……and she had been asked to rely on Pinkie Pie’s irrational Pinkie Sense.
 - Wow, I almost forgot about this side of that episode. Nice touch!

“It’s time to end this.”
 - Alas, the end is neigh. But I think I will enjoy those last chapters more than anything.

“That shiny crud makes uh better ‘splosive than uh drink.”
 - Aw yeah, one Nuka Grenade incoming!!

“Yes!”  I thumped the table again, the Sparkle~Cola Rad hopping farther away.
 - Griffon Brush-off reference! God, do I love you Kkat.

Calamity leveled a prolonged stare at me.  Then his expression brightened.  “That’s muh girl!”
 - Loyalty at its finest.

Life Bloom was still wrapping his mind around what I’d said.  “You’re going to… give us back… the sun!”
 - LOL! I love him being so spellbound, especially since that gave me an opportunity to crack that pun. HA!

“The Blue Dome?”
 - I gotta admit, for all the good things about Pip, she's kinda making the plan as she goes along this time. But given the timeframe, that's kinda understandable afterall.

Dead, stunned silence.  Broken first by the hellhound.  “Und you let her make the plans?”  He leveled a wry stare at Calamity and Velvet.  “Un purpose?”
 - Certainly not the finest moment to introduce a neofit to her planmaking XD

Then, on impulse, I trotted over and gave Calamity a fierce hug.  “We’ll figure something out.”
 - Awwww, see how Pip's loosening out near the end. ... I now have the sudden craving for a Pip plushie.

“After this, the pegasi will have plenty of reason to hate me too.”
 - The Wasteland hero: pissing off all (but one of) the factions, one battle at a time.

“I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to do better.”
 - Wow, you and Somber just sound so much alike at times. But I guess, after all that should come naturally, given the material :P

Because of Velvet Remedy.
 - Guess Kindness can really pay off afterall! :D

Today:
 - So, that's it. The end of the past tense narration, the beginning of the future unknown. I hope I can bear the cliffhanger this time X\

The first shot was fired less than an hour after dawn.  I don’t think anypony will ever know by who.  But that shot lit the fire.
 - Reference to the actual start of the pony-zebra war (as imagined). LOL! I love those kind of things.

“Yes.”
 - Ugh, that was fast. Why do I get shivers then?

“How about you?  You let yourself be captured by the enemy to help the hellhound who tried to use you as a hostage.”
 - Oh yeah, now I really wanna hear this one!!

“Surrounded by hellhounds, missing a leg, my only chance of recovery dependent on somepony being willing to risk their life for my sake.” She smiled, “Strangely, it wasn’t that hard to imagine.”
- Ooooh Velvet, that's a really clever subversion, yours! No wonder she's got the speech all pumped up ^^

One of the other pegasi dived in at Reggie.  She brought up her guns, but he was too fast, spinning and bucking her in the face as he fired twin beams of pink at Butcher.  One of the beams struck the Talon heavy gunner squarely, and Butcher dissolved into pink ash, Little Gilda tumbling down through the closing hole in the clouds and disappearing from sight.
 - Oh what the FUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

“We wish to continue.  To make more of us,” the alicorn continued.  “No more Red Eye.  No more Black Book.  You will fix this.”
 - ...Well! That's surely an interesting development.

“Not you!” the lead alicorn said sharply, the others behind her neighing.  “We know you.  You are The Destroyer.  We do not seek your aid.”
 - Why am I laughing so hard at this? XD

“We remember your compassion at Maripony,” the oddly-maned blue enlightened her.  “You are The One Who Helps.”
 - Wow, way to get famous, Velvet! If only they knew how you sing too, they'd be at your feet, kissing!

“So…” I said slowly, realizing what I was seeing.  “Something of Red Eye survived after all.”
 - Heh, thinking about it, it was a given that Red Eye had to be removed from the picture, this far into the story.

Calamity landed, his eyes darting between Velvet Remedy and the alicorns.  Leaning close to me, he whispered loudly, “So… uh… they ain’t gonna attack us?” I really had no words.
 - Way to defy experience here! Wastelands, Y U NO consistent??? (JK here, of course. :p)

“We have learned,” she admonished Calamity.  “Siding with those who oppose The Destroyer and her friends leads to failure.”
 - Oh wow, guess they can be smarter than videogame villains afterall! ^^

Without a word, the Steel Ranger turned away from the Applejack’s Ranger, focusing on the enemy.  The Applejack’s Ranger galloped in, shifting to cover his blind spots.
 - Aw, the classical Enemy Mine. Very nice.

“They’re learning,” I said, feeling equally shocked.  “Growing.”
 - Just when one thought they couldn't get any more fearsome than before! Drats, I say :p

It was Life Bloom.  He had fallen behind.  And from the sounds of it, he wanted to talk with me.  It was turning out to be that sort of day.
 - You kinda call that on yourself when you're dwelling in so many secrets :p

“Or maybe a poison-cleansing megaspell,”
 - He knows! The Hellhound knows! They ALL know! It's time for panic!

“This will destroy her!”  He stomped the ground for emphasis.
 - Captain Obvious moments abound.

I merely nodded, turning my tail on him and trotting off.  As much as my heart felt like it had been put through a blender, this was good.
 - If I were Pip, my heart would be spinning in circles like through a washing cycle at this point. And I don't think wouldn't hold through, I guess. But sure, I ain't no Pip.

 It had been two centuries since the megaspell known as Celestia One had been activated. ...
 - Am I about to witness... a God's Judgement megaspell? Death from above in light form? My body is not ready for this.

“You are Littlepip!” the reaper pony proclaimed, its voice like an earthquake filled with knives.  The creature shifted its fearsome stare to Calamity.  “You are Calamity!  Correct?”
 - Canterlot voice, yay!!!

(And it wants to talk, my little pony rudely interrupted my panic.  SO called it.)
 - Again, laughed too hard for the moment. Or maybe not.

Wait! my little pony insisted.  I should know this! My little pony slammed together bits of memory like a puzzle.
 - God, I love this moments of epiphany in Pip more than anything.

The mouse snorted, just a little, blasting the air with yard-long streams of terrifyingly solid pink. “Oh,” Calamity muttered.  “That mouse.”
 - Oh my GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!! Kkat, you're best at spac- no wait, you're the mest at writing. That's better. (Ah, if only I had crosslined text! :p )

... The elevator door slid open anyway, pouring out a thick, blanketing mist of pink, revealing the bat-winged ghoul and his little friend standing just inside.
 - Well, that's a classy entrance as any other.

He was cut off by the pained yelp of the albino hellhound.  We turned to see the cyberhound crouching in a corner, his paws clamped over his ears.
 - ENOUGH!! Quit your whining, pony!!

“Good,” I said sheepishly.  “Because the next step in the plan is to piss off a dragon.”
 - Of course, way to make them regret they trusted you Pip! XD

Shocked silence, magnified by the soft clank as somepony dropped something.
 - Sweet and Elite reference! God I love doing this too much. (getting the more obscure ones, I mean.)

“Oh yes,” he responded with a bright smile.  “As a medical pony, I can definitely attest to the healing power of group hugs.”
 - As widely demonstrated throughout the latest chapters.

I kept telling myself I was going to have a nice, long, comatose sleep in just a few days.  My body didn’t care and wasn’t listening anymore.
 - You can only lull your body into obeying for so long :p

Xenith’s gaze fell on me.  “We will be ready for battle, little one.  Just… could you help me stir?”  She blushed slightly.  “And stand up?”
 - Feeling the weight of the years, ain't it Xenith? XP

Stern watched from the roof of what had once been Red Eye’s office in the Ministry of Magic, as the cyberdragon, surrounded by six of those damned Raptors, finally let out a death wail and fell, twisting in the air as it tumbled back to the earth.
 - Two battles in a row won't do much good, but he probably knew that beforehand.

And even if she didn’t, it was impossible to miss the burning hatred in this one’s eyes. ....
 - Xenith's out for revenge? Now this one I didn't see coming.

A couple of those brews, I knew from experience, were not merely of the healing sort.
 - Couple of extra levels + zebra perks GET!

“This is where you wished to be?  Are you certain?”  The Canterlot ghoul’s voice echoed painfully inside the sky-tank.  “I see nothing here but rubble!”
 - Good grief pony, carry a blackboard and chalk around for buck's sake!

Possibly, in a way, even moreso than before now that she was no longer confined to the Royal Treasury, trapped inside a fused horde of gold, gems and valuables.  From what I had gleaned from Lionheart, “mouse” had survived the crumble and fall of canterlot by just being that tough.
 - That's what I call taking a level in badass! (Phenomenal cosmic powers!  Itty bitty living space.)

“Dragon magic.”
 - *snort snort*

... I moved forward to follow her, but my ears caught a sound.  A touch of… conversation?
 - Well, wasn't that a nice stealth tactic! Thanks to Big town for that one! ;)

The hellhound was crouched down, staring closely at the pony, a look of confusion on his face.  “You got rugs?  How you gonna stop they winged-ponies with rugs?” the hellhound barked.  “Ur they flyin’ rugs?”
 - What part of 'old und senile' you don't git?

Yay?
 - Find a Pet (but this one was kinda obvious :p )

What he had was impressive.
 - Now, to put to use the 20000+ caps I had lying around!! (Like it always happens in endgame)

Gawdyna wasn’t sure if she wanted to hug Regina or give her backside a thrashing.
 - Hahahaha! Classic.

“I know it’s not going to be as simple as turning a rock into a top hat,”
 - Boast Busters (meh, I'll stop with the easy ones now)

Velvet Remedy’s face scrunched like she had bitten something sour.
 - The return of the scrunchy face! Oh LOL.

“They are not monsters,” Velvet Remedy snapped.  “They’re victims.  Of the Goddess.  Of Red Eye.  And now, when they finally have a chance at freedom and individuality, you’re talking like they are a particularly unpleasant infestation that needs to be exterminated.”
 - AKA you have no chance against the 110 Speech mare. Gooooo Velvet!

But being a better fighter isn’t worth much in “pegasus-fighting” when you’re up against a better flier.
 - The irony of none of them being a pegasus isn't lost here.

“Just who do you think you are?”
 - You forgot a "the hell" in the middle XD

“What?” Stern managed, eyes widening, just before the second zebra appeared overhead, the wind blowing back the hood of her cloak as she drove her hooves into the black griffin’s back with spine-shattering force. “Don’t.  Touch.  My.  MOTHER!”
 - Oh MYYYYYY- Xephyr! At this rate, my heart is gonna explode not twice, but dozens of times!

In two months, I had seen horrors enough to spawn a lifetime of nightmares, cruelty and despair that could kill the soul.
 - Do you really want to sleep after all, Pip? XD

“I am Littlepip,” I declared softly, the conversation just between the Wasteland and me.  “Damaged, but not defeated…”  I looked for something else to say, but only one thing came from my heart.  “You don’t win.”
 - The anger at ye gods, man, we're touching all the topic tropes here! I'm so excited!!! ^^

The little light of hope exploded in a blast brighter than Celestia’s sun itself, a ring of sickly colors erupting forth from that center, driving winds before it and tearing the hellish clouds away.
 - A sonic radboom! AWWWWWWWWW YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Piss off a dragon.  Check.
 - Eeeyup. Bup Pip knows where to thread well enough.

I sighed deeply.  Time to pull out the big, puppy eyes.  “Don’t you trust me, Spike?”
 - LMAO, I didn't think Pip would EVER resort to this!

“Do you like it?” Silver Bell chimed, galloping up to us.  “I made the cave pretty!”
 - If only I had Silver Bell for a daughter, I would be blessed foerver and ever. That's just how cute you picture her.

Spike’s cave was crowded.
 - I can hear Spike snorting from over here XD

I froze.  Oh Goddesses.  She’d just learned about Kage.
 - Revelations and coping shall abound today.

“We’re under attack!  It’s… it’s a dragon!”
 - "A scary, fire-breathing, all-grown-up, eat-a-pony-in-one-bite..." ...Oh, you get the gist.

Spike attacked the shield.  The blue wall of energy buckled, warped and collapsed under the unstoppable force of Twilight’s number one assistant.
 - What to say, F*** YEA!

Not well, and not fast, but he was hovering everywhere like a pro.
 - LOL, can't you just feel the empathy :)

The amber mare raised an eyebrow, scooting slightly away.  “Allllrighty, then.”
 - Mare in the Moon! (I know, I know, I'm too good at this. Yes, I do autographs, right after the show, please.) (sorry, I'm just on a sweet little roll here XD too excited about the chapter to be embarassed)

“No,” Gawd re-iterated.  “I ain’t lettin’ you have a crossbow so you can name it The Fart.” Reggie whined, “But mom!” ...
 - Why, why didn't I think of this first? XD Probably because I'm not a teenager nomore. Ah...

“So?” Xephyr butted in.  “Gloom, I eat flowers.  You eat flowers.”
 - Bridle Gossip! (Is it just me, or are you secretly planning to sneak in a reference from each chapter in this chap?)

“But it was the lesbian way she was eating the flowers.”
 - Some people are just psychic like that XD

So instead I sunk low and tried to focus on anything but mares (of any species)… or flowers.
 - "So, um, those gems are sure really pretty!"

“Mommy?”
 - My tear ducts are trained to open whenever this word comes up in this fic, by this point.

So here’s the deal: I’m offering the full support of my Talons and our resources, but in return I want total freedom to take over Red Eye’s resources in Fillydelphia.”
 - Looks like somegriffin's getting real ambitious!

... Well, yes.  I had kinda been thinking along those lines, I had to admit.
 - It's this kind of real, proper, genious reasoning that keeps me coming back, more than anything. It's such a joy to the eye.

“You?” Calamity asked.  “In Gawd we trust?”
 - Of course, what else? XD

“I…”  Velvet Remedy blushed uncertainly.  “I think I have alicorns.” Gawd blinked.
 - Velvet, more badass than the rest of you put together, since ch44.

Xenith looked back at Velvet Remedy, her face hardened with determination, “I have decided.  I wish to become their teacher.  This is something I can do for them.”
 - I don't know why exactly, but this Xenith-teacher thing has blossomed so beautifully. I didn't expect such a little detail to stand out so wonderfully. Perhaps it was the comments discussion.

“Oh, but it isn’t nothing,” I insisted.  “It’s everything!”
 - Sweet and elite ref incoming! ... Oh wait. That was an obvious one. Muh bad. :p

My heart seized as Silver Bell’s eyes went wide.  “Mommy?” she asked timidly.
 - HHNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG- I swear, how Can I endure this whole heart wrenching not once, but TWICE? You're tearing me apart, Kkat!

I realized I was banking an awful lot on Ditzy Doo being able to explode twice.
 - Can you do that? etc. :p

“Did you tell us that Twilight Sparkle had a cloudwalking spell?  Would there be any chance that spell is somewhere in all these books?” I’d forgotten about that.
 - Again, it feels Pip is making too much of it as she goes along. But really, she could make alternative plans anyway, so no biggie,

“HERE?” Spike blurted.
 - Of all the things that could happen!

“Oh yeah,” he purred.  “Probability of hindrance: zero percent!”
 - Sweet! Does she throw mininukes from his back too? That'd be awesome! xD

“Get shot full of holes?” Velvet Remedy offered wryly.
 - That was so obligatory, I'm surprised I hadn't seen it before,

“Gawd, what I have to deal with…” “Hey, leave me out o’ this one, kid.”
 - You crack the best jokes x°D

“I’m sorry,” she sang out, “Pardon me.  Excuse me…” as she dropped each of the technicians in turn with her anesthetic spell.
 - Of course she would apologize.

The air shimmered behind the talkative one, revealing a midnight blue alicorn with a silky, frost-colored mane.  The oddly-maned alicorn leaned close and whispered, “The kind that earns you friends.”
 - Can it get any better than this? I guess ... maybe. You never know, there's one or more whole chapters ahead.

“No,” Velvet Remedy corrected him.  “Fluttershy’s a tree.” ...
 - Oh Gawd, this is not happening here XDDDDD LMAO, I'm dying!! *wheeze* Too much... laughter.... lungs... failing....

Spike turned to me again.  “I was so fixated on how it happened with Twilight Sparkle that I forgot.  But even Nightmare Moon thought the spark didn’t work, and she was Luna, who with Celestia had been a former Bearer.  The only way she wouldn’t have known better was if the very nature of the spark changes each time.” ....
 - I... I have no words. You, dear sir, is truly the only one I read who thought of such a clever subversion to the spark of friendship in the workings of the Elements, and I have to say, it's absolutely glorious. Worthy of instant headcanon. You, Kkat, truly are a master of plot. (pun intended)

At that moment, I finally realized what most of you probably figured out right from the prologue: the true meaning of my cutie mark. ...
 - OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDD- Honestly, I truly forgot about that. I kinda thought, "well he bumps into all kind of people because he's the friggin protagonist, right?" But I thought wrong. Once again, Brava, Kkat. Have all my appreciation.

“Now that’s how we do it down in the wasteland!”
 - Fall weather friends!

Calamity sniffed at the air.  “Well, what do ya know.  It’s like the end o’ an empire… with radishes.”
 - True poetry, right here.

... “Hol-lee shit…”
 - Always true to himself, that's our Calamity!

“You’re about to plug yourself into the central control for all the Towers,” she pointed out. “The same towers I use for my broadcasts.  You’re not leaving me, not where it counts.  The S.P.P. is what I do.” I… I hadn’t thought of it that way.
 - Oh, wow. That's like, the third time you left me speechless. In the matter of minutes. You're too good for my own good, Kkat.

... “Whoa.  Déjà vu,” Spike said.
 - Oh ROFL. You totally had me at this.

That night, that party… I think it was the most pure fun I had ever enjoyed in my life. ...
 - Ah, what a true blessing is to enjoy the little things in life.

“You’ve got confetti in your mane,” I told him. “Ya do too.”
 - Sweet and Elite, again!

“Hold it right there, ya traitorous, thievin’ scumbag!
 - STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!

“Or what?” Calamity asked.  “Ya ain’t gonna shoot me.  Fer all yer faults, ya ain’t Autumn Leaf.”  “Ah’ll BEAT YER ASS till ya WISH AH HAD!”
 - Oh wow, I'm loving this dialogue.

“Ya got her mane, y’know,” his father said softly, letting his traitorous son past.  “Ah really liked her mane.”
 - Noooooo, this was supposed to be a d'awwwww moment, why am I laughing so hard at the reference X°DDDD

Right Now:
 - IT BEGINS

This was my purpose.  My destiny!
 - Also much better than a rock.

Sunshine and rainbows, she had promised.  I heard the sound of explosions and massive energy discharges from the remaining Raptors.  My crying became weeping.
 - Wow, this is actually so touching.

“Spike!” I shouted, waving my forearms desperately!  “I need you!”
 - Ohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuckohfuck Is she gonna do what I think she's gonna do?

“I need you to breathe on me,” I told him flatly.
 - OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO- Kkat, everyone ever will hate you for the upcoming cliffhanger, I'm sure.

I told him the truth.  The whole truth, every awful, soul-wrenching detail.
 - I can feel my heart shrinking to a point, God! This is too good.

He roared. .....
 - ... Spectacular finish. That's all. Awaiting the next chapter with bated breath. (HA!)