Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
"'Lady Sunset' is fine, and not really. We just need to make sure I'm not disabled by surprise attacks or poison. Enhancing my attacks after that means the enemy won't be able to throw as many attacks at me. There's a reason 'the best defense is a good offense' used to be such a popular saying
I have to say, I think Sunset is looking at this from the wrong perspective. If the regalia is entirely dedicated to defense, that means Sunset can focus entirely on offensive magic, rather than needing to split her focus between offense and defense.

Of course, part of it is that I assume enchantments would be better at defense over boosting offense, for a given amount of power
 
I have to say, I think Sunset is looking at this from the wrong perspective. If the regalia is entirely dedicated to defense, that means Sunset can focus entirely on offensive magic, rather than needing to split her focus between offense and defense.

Of course, part of it is that I assume enchantments would be better at defense over boosting offense, for a given amount of power
In general no enchantment is ever going to be better than what Sunset can do herself. So the enchantment is more about blocking surprises.
 
I don't think that we ever see any Unicorn or Pegasus farmers. The Earth Ponies have that job even more locked down then the Pegasus have weather work or Unicorns have Wizard.
 
I don't think that we ever see any Unicorn or Pegasus farmers. The Earth Ponies have that job even more locked down then the Pegasus have weather work or Unicorns have Wizard.
Of course, that could just be a side effect of Ponyville having originally been founded by earth pony families that still have the local agricultural market pretty much saturated. The only other place we see extensively is Canterlot and there's no farmland there in the first place.
 
Of course, that could just be a side effect of Ponyville having originally been founded by earth pony families that still have the local agricultural market pretty much saturated. The only other place we see extensively is Canterlot and there's no farmland there in the first place.
Let's also not forget that one of said Earth Pony families, the Apple clan, freaking go all over the map to set up places, like AJ's cousin Braeburn.

Edit: Speaking of the Apple clan, I wonder if Granny Smith still remembers some of the old Druid arts, considering all she does to get Zap Apple Jam ready.
 
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Let's also not forget that one of said Earth Pony families, the Apple clan, freaking go all over the map to set up places, like AJ's cousin Braeburn.

Edit: Speaking of the Apple clan, I wonder if Granny Smith still remembers some of the old Druid arts, considering all she does to get Zap Apple Jam ready.

Given the way we see the Zap apples treated in the show, I wouldn't be surprised if there is some of that to it. Even if it isn't consciously doing druidic magic in her mind. She is just caring for the Zaps the way you care for Zaps.
 
Yeah, that's probably how the majority of modern Druidry is done, old folk tales and little quirks passed down.
I fear that many fields of magic have become more exclusive, not less. Nowhere is this more obvious than among earth ponies: improved technologies and more comfortable living standards have pushed away the encouragement of necessity, and seem to have resulted in a dramatically reduced proportion of skilled earth pony druids and craftsmares. Few communities have a druid available to call upon when instinct and oral traditions fail their farmers, and craftsmares might dedicate only a few hours to their creations rather than needing to pour their hearts into their work for weeks or even months on end.
Eh, sound like that's not quite right. Druids are the experts for when those old folk tales and instincts aren't enough. Of course when it's a dying art then all that's left of it is now in the new old folk tales.
 
I have to say, I think Sunset is looking at this from the wrong perspective. If the regalia is entirely dedicated to defense, that means Sunset can focus entirely on offensive magic, rather than needing to split her focus between offense and defense.
I doubt her focus would be split like that much. She is using a "The best defence is a great offense" strategy.

Defensive enchantments only reduce damage if you get hit by the enemy.
Boosted offense lets you take down enemies faster which reduces the number of times you get hit.

There are tradeoffs but I assume Sunset knows more about pony battle magic than we do.
 
Eh, sound like that's not quite right. Druids are the experts for when those old folk tales and instincts aren't enough. Of course when it's a dying art then all that's left of it is now in the new old folk tales.
Being a Druid in Equestria is kind of like being an expert in COBAL nowadays. Not all that much call for your skills normally, but when people do need you, you get those nice 6 figure paychecks.
 

I suppose we could get into a debate about what is a druid vs what is someone using druidic techniques and magics without fully understanding what they are doing. To continue using the previous example, someone who codes in COBAL vs someone that is able to use the COBAL machine right up until the things they have always done on it ceases to work. (Or a GUI only user knowing how to copy paste some Command Line Interface commands into an interface, but not fully understanding what they do versus an experience DOS user showing up and taking over.
 
Illuminating Invitation Fan Art
Flighty Flame
Honestly, you could probably remake this fanart in Adobe Animate (that's what they call Flash now) using DHX's official 'generic pony' templates and have it look exactly like a real character from the actual show. I understand if you don't want to go through all that trouble though, it just felt like an interesting idea to me.
 
So Voice/VOID is using a different name and naming scheme with Flighty as Devourer/DODD? Is that to obfuscate things or to denote that Voice is using a different aspect of themself in this situation?
In one of the previous chapters, Voice mentioned a bunch of names in that format (like Destroyer of Destined Dynasties, in chapter 22), given (or perceived) by someone on the losing side of a revolution. Now, it could be that Voice simply has multiple naming schemes* and it doesn't mean anything beyond Alivaril running out of Steam for vaguely fitting word combinations. It could be different aspects, IIRC VOID always starts with Voice, but the DODD one doesn't seem to be as consistent. So my guess it's more that individual anchors (which were mentioned in the SMILE report) get different names, where the primary anchor has Voice**. Voice herself has said that the number of names varies by language, but it's unclear if that means naming schemes or instantiations of the scheme.

*Though at a guess, VOID is actually just one name, but it's such a complex concept that people just see one side based on their perspective and use that. Like seeing only a face of a cube. DODD would be a second name.
**We know there's at least 1 more scheme (EOID, but I prefer to treat that one as EID, German for oath), and also DDODD, which may be different, or maybe Alivaril just put an adjective too much in there***.
***The list of names in 22 includes
Demonstrator of Debauched Desires
Destroyer of Destined Dynasties
Devious Demon of Despised Dreams
Enabler of Impossible Delusions
P.S: While I was going through Chapter 22, I noticed this on the topic of Sunset having a crush on Voice, and Voice knowing:
"Plus, I'm the Voice of Inadvisable Dreams," Voice added mischievously. "If I don't feature in at least a few dreams, I'm clearly not trying hard enough."
Notably, that's Voice referring to herself as Inadvisable Dreams, when she first introduced herself it was Voice of Imperceptible Dreams, while the chapter of her introduction is Impossible Dreams.
 
Honestly, you could probably remake this fanart in Adobe Animate (that's what they call Flash now) using DHX's official 'generic pony' templates and have it look exactly like a real character from the actual show. I understand if you don't want to go through all that trouble though, it just felt like an interesting idea to me.
Or Inkscape, which is free, doesn't take much disk space, and doesn't require you to sell the soul of your firstborn to Adobe.
 
"And perhaps a little insurance, just in case."
Yeah... Voice Definitely knows about that letter. Unsurprisingly at that, considering that - as far as I know - using acronym's or initialism does not in fact prevent Eldritch beings from being aware of any reference too themselves, despite what anyone may say to comfort themselves in any reality that these beings are known to factually exist.

Admittedly it usually does not matter to the Eldritch that they are being mentioned - as far as I am aware - beyond any attempts at directly calling out to them or attempts too summon Eldritch into a world in general, which by default will draw their direct awareness. But then, that is a matter of the powerful having no need to pay attention to every fly that buzzes around when it is not landing on their food, rather than a matter of inability too notice.

A permissible mistake however as it is not often that anything Eldritch that gets summoned is as Benign as Voice or Weak enough that it feel the need to pay attention. Unfortunate for the MLP: SCP Foundation Voice is just low enough in the Eldritch ecosystem to pay too much attention to any reference to themsleves for any plans they might conjure up to slip a past its awareness without a lot of shenanigans being involved or - possibly - discords direct involvement.

I would actually generally rate a benign Eldritch Being like Voice or any others that are - as Voice purports itself - essentially the Eldritch equivalent of plant matter or possibly herbivores, as the most dangerous kind of Outer Entities. Because - if self aware - they need to be cunning, wise, and skillful to survive rather than simply relying on abusing overwhelming conceptual power. Of which they also have in abundance when entering in comparisons with most - although not all - non Eldritch Beings.
 
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I was not expecting my comment to get threadmarked this morning...

I removed my other comments from there because, at least by personal preference, I'd rather omakes only contain the actual relevant comment and not other thoughts about the story.

Any idea if it's okay to re-post those now that they're no longer in the original post, or can I not re-post content I've removed from another post?
 
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