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I think, Discord's 'omnipotence' has pretty interesting and funny limits, but people do not ask about it usually. Probably changing ones, or maybe very linked to random phenomena, or with some other component of chance... Chaos has really good sense of humor sometimes, doesn't really play well with concept of control (usually). So reality warping with some random and completely unreasonable limitations is really in style for this magic.​
 
Gonna admit, as much as I don't like Discord, *absolutely hilarious* if Voice tampers with the seal on an Eldrich god and fucks up/overestimates herself and meddled in affairs outside her comprehension. It's all dumbass wizards all the way down. :p

(Do like Q in Star Trek, but in good Q episodes there's a difference in motives I like better.)

The thing is Voices interference doesn't matter? Discord planned for being sealed and had an escape/battle plan in place from the start, planting the plunderseeds to sap the tree of harmony of power before the fight with the princesses. Those seeds are still in play, and the only one that knows about them is Discord, so they are going to stay in play regardless of Voices interference. All its going to take is the tree weakening enough for the seeds to sprout and sap its power and Discord is free.
 
Nah, pretty sure Discord is totally dealt with. Thankfully.

More importantly, Voice's 'prank' definitely caused more distress than intended, but ultimately seems to have worked out well enough for Flighty and Sunset. The mood whiplash Flighty was forced through was intense, though.

Also Voice continues to tease but has clear limits- namely the 'when you're older' bit.
 
I should feel a bit uncomfortable, when so many people around suddenly hate Chaos. :V

However, some intuition is telling me, that the Voice made something more interesting, than just reinforcing the seal. It would be too simple, too cutting for the story. Perhaps, they could make some surprise, which we would see in the future. Because why even bring Discord into thier story, if they not going to use this piece later? They could just do thier thing quietly and only speak about it, when asked for some reason. Bringing him into conversation already making him relevant for the story. Like, cognitohazard - curse of Chekhov's gun. But this is just my intuition.​

Eh, this looks more like "The author didn't want Discord to be relevant, and so put them on a bus for the appriciable lifespan of the entire cast."
 
I should feel a bit uncomfortable, when so many people around suddenly hate Chaos. :V

However, some intuition is telling me, that the Voice made something more interesting, than just reinforcing the seal. It would be too simple, too cutting for the story. Perhaps, they could make some surprise, which we would see in the future. Because why even bring Discord into thier story, if they not going to use this piece later? They could just do thier thing quietly and only speak about it, when asked for some reason. Bringing him into conversation already making him relevant for the story. Like, cognitohazard - curse of Chekhov's gun. But this is just my intuition.​

I could see several reasons to include Discord in this manner. It signals that his kind of event aren't going to be a big factor of the story. It shows that voice will interfere against big enough problems. It shows that to Sunset.
 
Eh, this looks more like "The author didn't want Discord to be relevant, and so put them on a bus for the appriciable lifespan of the entire cast."
Discord already wasn't going to be relevant to this story considering his original release time was even later than canon NMM, so uh. If you're looking at me for reasons rather than looking at Voice, you're searching in the wrong place.
 
She's going to learn how to pony! I'm so proud! 👏

So is voice, I think, at least a little!

Took a joke entirely too far," Voice easily admitted, ears going flat. "I tried to apologize, but she was… less than receptive."

Or maybe not yet, thats not a healthy way to apologize voice....

Rather than take care of the problem Herself, Voice shifted to hide behind me — and then made matters worse by outright shoving me forward, sending me stumbling into Flighty.
 
Discord already wasn't going to be relevant to this story considering his original release time was even later than canon NMM, so uh. If you're looking at me for reasons rather than looking at Voice, you're searching in the wrong place.
*shrug*, I got nothing, then. I don't know why discord would be brought up exclusively so he can be double-sealed, if not from a doylistic perspective to convey to the readers "No, there's no secret Discord plans being hinted at, stop commenting about it."
 
if not from a doylistic perspective to convey to the readers "No, there's no secret Discord plans being hinted at, stop commenting about it."
Unlike some authors, I'm actually quite happy when people amiably speculate, even (or perhaps especially :V ) when that speculation is totally wrong. :p
 
Voice is kinda like a reverse QA huh? Fully aware what is up with the universe, not using their full power for story reasons, and they actively dislike chaos.


Actually, she kinda reminds me of Dreamer.
 
Probably the same reason she couldn't unbanish Luna or deal with the Nightmare. She had connection only to half of the Elements and sending Luna to the Moon broke her connection to them.
Yep.
Almost everyone has forgotten Luna, and so much of why Celestia is such a mess can be directly tracked to Luna not being here.
If Cadence/Sunset were told about what happened, they could actually do something, but until then, this train wreck shall continue.
 
"I guess. Now I feel guilty," She grumbled, but smiled impishly and moved on before I could ask why. "You were about to say 'other ponies,' weren't you?"

Of course She fixated on that. Still, I let Her change the subject.

"You're pony-shaped, doing much better at imitating us lately, and it's a natural thing to say in general," I said defensively.
I love how casually speciesist Equestrian culture is. It's canon, but it's very… huh.

"Because I am not very good at harmless teasing, but I already know behaving in such a way produces entertaining reactions without going too far. Also, it will be much funnier in a couple years when I bring my A-game."

I hesitated, befuddled. She was already indistinguishable from a trained personal attendant. How was She supposed to improve on that?

"Your what?"

Voice grinned, opened Her mouth — then appeared to think better of whatever she was going to do. She produced the same paradoxically pleasant pout as earlier.

"You have no idea how tempting it is to demonstrate, but that would be grossly inappropriate," she confessed. "I would banish myself out of self-loathing guilt. At any rate, this conversation has reinforced that I might have gone too far, and owe somepony an apology. I will be back soon, or sooner should you call."
The ponies are gay and it is good.

Because there surely wouldn't be any negative consequences to telling bad ponies that demons do exist after all, Flighty thought darkly. Princess Celestia can't make laws against it without revealing that fact.
OK, look. Celestia certainly isn't perfect, in like, any way, but she's not the kind of person who'd keep information that could be quite important to public safety from everyone for no reason. I get that you're panicking, but do consider this.

Anyways, good chapter; I very much enjoyed it.
 
I hope that, when you remember this, you will appreciate how hard it is for me to refrain from acting like a villain,
Relatable.

You have no idea how tempting it is to demonstrate, but that would be grossly inappropriate," she confessed. "I would banish myself out of self-loathing guilt. At any rate, this conversation has reinforced that I might have gone too far, and owe somepony an apology. I will be back soon, or sooner should you call
I'm not sure what's being said here, actually. Probably sexual/romantic, but what exactly?

So yeah, that's pretty much what I expected about Flighty. A prank, possibly a very funny one, just taken a bit too far.
 
*shrug*, I got nothing, then. I don't know why discord would be brought up exclusively so he can be double-sealed, if not from a doylistic perspective to convey to the readers "No, there's no secret Discord plans being hinted at, stop commenting about it."

It has several pretty clear effects just in this update. It informs on who Voice is as a character, changes how other characters view them (most especially Celestia. as pointed out in the update), and informs Sunset of how Discord's prison was waning (which will likely lead to some very important conversations, given how no one wants that prison to break and Sunset viewing keeping it up as Celestia's most important duty).

We've already seen some of it- Sunset's view on Voice's summoning switched from 'worth it for selfish reasons' to just 'worth it'.

In general, its important from a characterization standpoint- and as this story is entirely about characters and character conflicts, that's huge. Discord isn't important, but Voice is, and this will heavily effect how the other characters view and interact with Voice going forward.

(Honestly I doubt any of the major canon villains except Nightmare Moon are going to be relevant- NMM is important because of how she informs on Celestia as a character and as the source of a large portion of her mistakes with Sunset. But ultimately the actual 'villain' of this story is Sunset's own neuroses and delusions- this is very much a, ah, 'pony vs self' conflict. The primary goal, as set in chapter 1, is for Sunset to build genuine relationships with those around her and accept them as genuine. )
 
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OK, look. Celestia certainly isn't perfect, in like, any way, but she's not the kind of person who'd keep information that could be quite important to public safety from everyone for no reason. I get that you're panicking, but do consider this.

While true, she is also someone who absolutely would keep information that is important to public safety secret if she thought keeping it secret was the safer route.

Or because it was too emotionally painful for her.

Or because she didn't think it would be relevant for a while and then she forgot about the sealed evil in a can.

Or ...

(Celestia is bad at telling people things they need to know, is what I'm getting at. But Flighty's logic is actually valid here? If you can summon demons, Celestia might well keep that fact secret to the point of not making laws against it, counting on demon-summoners to violate other laws anyway. Plus of course what if the demon isn't evil? Everyone gets a chance at redemption in Equestria!)
 
(Honestly I doubt any of the major canon villains except Nightmare Moon are going to be relevant- NMM is important because of how she informs on Celestia as a character and as the source of a large portion of her mistakes with Sunset. But ultimately the actual 'villain' of this story is Sunset's own neuroses and delusions- this is very much a, ah, 'pony vs self' conflict. The primary goal, as set in chapter 1, is for Sunset to build genuine relationships with those around her and accept them as genuine. )

While true, Sombra and Chrysalis would both have the potential to have a lot of impinging on things, given Cadance's importance.

On the other hand, NMM is much more forseeable in the current timeframe...
 
Cadence walking into the scene. Watches Flighty clinging to Sunset for a moment, tilts her head in thought then sighs. "Just a ship tease, nothing will come of it."

A glaring Sunset, "will you stop standing there and save me from these emotions!"
 
I'm not sure what's being said here, actually. Probably sexual/romantic, but what exactly?
Reasonably certain it's about Voice just flirting with / flustering Sunset in her role as a hoofmaiden already, and if she tried harder, Sunset has no understanding or defense against what would happen next (even if its just Sunset agreeing to "skip school" to go on a date with Voice at the nearest aquarium.) It'd be taking advantage of someone's naivety in the context of a relationship.
 
Labour and material resources spent on dealing with Discord's antics are resources that aren't available for other purposes. Food supplies, water supplies, police, fire fighters, paramedics, etc.
do you mean the labor and material resources that weren't spent dealing with discord's antics because everything was set back to starting point when he was downed? even if they were, what material resources would even be expended during a discord rampage, what would be needed?

he provides plentiful food, water, air, housing, and horses don't need clothing. the only thing he could be accused of, aside from disruption of the peace and vandalizing, is maybe some kind of trauma from being forced to stop working on their (insert talent here) due to an environment inhospitable to such?
"I imagine I 'like' him even less," Voice hissed. "There are rules, and chaos does not merely break them. No, breaking them would be preferable as determined defiance of the natural order can make for a very good story. Chaos does not acknowledge these rules even exist. It warps every narrative until it is the sole focus of everything within its domain, and by its very nature, it does not confine itself to a small territory. It spreads as far as it can until there are few satisfying stories to be found within an entire reality."
voice hates poorly-written crack fics, which discord is the essence of. heh
"You have no idea how tempting it is to demonstrate, but that would be grossly inappropriate," she confessed. "I would banish myself out of self-loathing guilt.
voice also picked up modern standards for AOC. . . somewhere. that sounds like a story and a half
 
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