Please note that an Orichalcum sword would be worse than useless for a super powerful elemental mage like the Celestial Dragon Emperor.
Who Needs Harmony?: An MLP Empire Quest
- Thread starter Questor
- Start date
Please note that an Orichalcum sword would be worse than useless for a super powerful elemental mage like the Celestial Dragon Emperor.
- Location
- USA
What's even more horrifying to me is the fact they're still conscious.
Being trapped within your own mind as your body literally works it's self to death and not being able to so much as scream is some true nightmare fuel. And let's not even think about the poor mares stuck in the breeding pens.
- Location
- Germany
Well, pure Orichalcum definitely would be detrimental for Kōryū, which makes it unsuitable for a weapon gift.
It might have applications as a channel or limiter for precision spellwork though, ...
One could even create spell patterns with a carefully crafted negative made from Orichalcum removing certain parts from a magic blast, but that'd be advanced arcano-technology and thus quite a long time away.
- Location
- Maryland
Sorry about that. Fixed it.
I am pretty much sure that the only reason we got 100 crystal ponies is because there were a lot more that killed themselves after being freed
Omake: The Crystal Matrix (Semi-Canon)
- Location
- SF Bay Area
Omake: The Crystal Matrix
@Questor
The helms that every crystal pony save a few wore was in fact not that complicated magically speaking, it was originally developed before Sombra's rise as a means to help Ponies with nerve damage to trot again. Sombra took this invention of a doctor and warped it to his own ends. During his reign of terror he placed the helm on one of the captured nobles and commanded her, to corral other nobles. It failed rather spectacularly as they would never stop corraling, and she simply corraled the entire city running all the way out of the the empire, prompting Sombra to kill that entire collection of nobles to ensure no news got out about it.
Mind control, Sombra realized was possible but limited, the instant he was distracted the pony would have freedom and couldn't be trusted. So... he took some magical crystals, and encoded a link between the helm and the crystal. This worked... partially. Sure the pony was dominated, but given no commands, they would simply stand until they collapsed. So Sombra went back to the drawing board, there must be some way to encode commands into the crystal for the pony to perform without his direct input. Sombra was distracted by the last stand of the Crystal Praetorians but returned to the Domination Helms afterwards, and as luck would have it going through Crystal archives from before the Age of Discord revealed to Sombra, the unquestioned ruler of terror in the Crystal Empire, a book. A book written by Crystal Pony Princess Silver Lovelace, on a mechanical language based on binary mathematics, a coding language. Torturing a Professor at Crystal University's family, made a stallion skilled in such knowledges pliable to their instruction. Binary mathematics, led to Basic code languages, led to more advanced scripts. With every terrible advancement in coding came other requirements. The crowning glory of which was the Crystal Matrix, Sombra's most advanced magical artifice, far beyond the golems.
More testing yielded by Sombra realized he could use the helms to get compliant subservient workers at efficient economies. This pleased him. The first crystal ponies dominated by the helms were miners at the mines. Once enough crystals were mined, Sombra placed domination helms on the Crystal unicorns, forcing them to do the painstaking fine detail to encode complex codes and commands for the domination helms. Within a year... a third of the crystal populace were wearing domination helms... After another uprising to stop Sombra failed, as they were unwilling to fight the dominated ponies. Sombra laughed darkly that he forced soldier commands upon the captured families of the resisting soldiers. Those weak willed fools didn't have the will to kill their own families to oppose him.
After another year there was no meaningful resistance, domination helms were on ALL ponies from infancy. Sombra was pleased at his own work regarding the Crystal Matrix, the interconnected command terminal for the crystal ponies, so pleased in fact he commanded his nation to applaud him for it, and soon the crystal ponies returned to their assigned task as dictated by their scheduling scripts. Without having to dominate the will of everypony himself, Sombra was free to do other things, like make golems or commune with Windigos.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Years passed, and the helms remained in operation, but deep in the bowels of the Crystal Palace, the bureaucracy kept functioning for this Imperium of Sombra's. All Empries had paperwork after all. One dominated pony dutifully received a report at their desk, but it was placed askew on their desk. The pony's subconscious knew it was odd, there was no beating the script that blared throughout her conscious mind day in and day out, but crystal ponies could push in very minor ways. The most she was ever able to manage was placing a form upside down, or a few typos which the system didn't rat her out on. As a result seeing an askew paper on her desk didn't happen unless the dominated clerk forced it to be left askew.
FORM COMPLETE, PROCEED TO NEXT FORM. START SECTION 1
The pony picked up the form and began to read... This was a blue form, filled with typos, scratches and miswritten text. This perked the subconscious mind's interest, at least 8 ponies all dominated tried to make errors on this ONE form. She mustered as much strength to help the fight as she read
The dominated pony knew what had to be done to this report, what the script demanded of her, and what had to be done. The number of errors, how many ponies had pushed their mental subconsciousness this far to make errors. This report had to be destroyed. ALL Crystal ponies knew it who even glanced at this, but the scripts blaring in their head wouldn't let them just destroy the report. Everypony had done the limit of their power to, and now it was up to her.
PROCESS FORM. FORM CORRUPTED. OPENING SUPPLEMENTAL ASSISTANCE NODES
...and like that she realized she had a free hand... partially, just to help process this form. The great Crystal Matrix, the master computer that Sombra forced all ponies to processthrough had a bug... a bug Sombra wasn't aware of. When the script wasn't able to determine what to do it opened up the subconscious to control and assist due to the helm's design. It was an undocumented design feature of the first helm designed before Sombra's takeover, it allowed doctors and other unicorns to assist in helping physical therapy. Now? It was the only respite besides unconsciousness that was the cells of their own minds... and now she had it. This is what the other ponies before her were trying to do, create enough junk data on the form so that eventually the Crystal Matrix would release one pony just enough will to help it comprehend. Something she had no interest in doing
She grabbed a form from her desk drawer, a notice of an auditor's report being illegible and requiring resubmission... next decade satisfying the script partially. The damning form which was the only ray of hope that the crystal ponies had, was pushed into the shredder.
VIOLATION: Demerit 37 of 100. Un-Permitted destruction of Assets 75 points added. Exceeds threshold. PUNISHMENT: Death.
She welcomed oblivion as the electricuton process began, and no one would ever know what that form was, just a missing piece paper. Hopefully one day her people would be free again...
>>>>>
So this is what I come up with after playing Papers Please. I reason that there is no way that Sombra could keep all those mental control spells himself, or enchant each helm to do precisely what his empire requires. He would need a way to swap out commands without using his own magical power. So... he gets the crystals, encodes a mindcontrol script into a crystal that links the helm to the crystal. He then puts the crystal into the Crystal Matrix which allows him to in effect program his populace like one would computer code. It's monstrous, but I figure what else can one expect from Sombra.
@Questor
The helms that every crystal pony save a few wore was in fact not that complicated magically speaking, it was originally developed before Sombra's rise as a means to help Ponies with nerve damage to trot again. Sombra took this invention of a doctor and warped it to his own ends. During his reign of terror he placed the helm on one of the captured nobles and commanded her, to corral other nobles. It failed rather spectacularly as they would never stop corraling, and she simply corraled the entire city running all the way out of the the empire, prompting Sombra to kill that entire collection of nobles to ensure no news got out about it.
Mind control, Sombra realized was possible but limited, the instant he was distracted the pony would have freedom and couldn't be trusted. So... he took some magical crystals, and encoded a link between the helm and the crystal. This worked... partially. Sure the pony was dominated, but given no commands, they would simply stand until they collapsed. So Sombra went back to the drawing board, there must be some way to encode commands into the crystal for the pony to perform without his direct input. Sombra was distracted by the last stand of the Crystal Praetorians but returned to the Domination Helms afterwards, and as luck would have it going through Crystal archives from before the Age of Discord revealed to Sombra, the unquestioned ruler of terror in the Crystal Empire, a book. A book written by Crystal Pony Princess Silver Lovelace, on a mechanical language based on binary mathematics, a coding language. Torturing a Professor at Crystal University's family, made a stallion skilled in such knowledges pliable to their instruction. Binary mathematics, led to Basic code languages, led to more advanced scripts. With every terrible advancement in coding came other requirements. The crowning glory of which was the Crystal Matrix, Sombra's most advanced magical artifice, far beyond the golems.
More testing yielded by Sombra realized he could use the helms to get compliant subservient workers at efficient economies. This pleased him. The first crystal ponies dominated by the helms were miners at the mines. Once enough crystals were mined, Sombra placed domination helms on the Crystal unicorns, forcing them to do the painstaking fine detail to encode complex codes and commands for the domination helms. Within a year... a third of the crystal populace were wearing domination helms... After another uprising to stop Sombra failed, as they were unwilling to fight the dominated ponies. Sombra laughed darkly that he forced soldier commands upon the captured families of the resisting soldiers. Those weak willed fools didn't have the will to kill their own families to oppose him.
After another year there was no meaningful resistance, domination helms were on ALL ponies from infancy. Sombra was pleased at his own work regarding the Crystal Matrix, the interconnected command terminal for the crystal ponies, so pleased in fact he commanded his nation to applaud him for it, and soon the crystal ponies returned to their assigned task as dictated by their scheduling scripts. Without having to dominate the will of everypony himself, Sombra was free to do other things, like make golems or commune with Windigos.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Years passed, and the helms remained in operation, but deep in the bowels of the Crystal Palace, the bureaucracy kept functioning for this Imperium of Sombra's. All Empries had paperwork after all. One dominated pony dutifully received a report at their desk, but it was placed askew on their desk. The pony's subconscious knew it was odd, there was no beating the script that blared throughout her conscious mind day in and day out, but crystal ponies could push in very minor ways. The most she was ever able to manage was placing a form upside down, or a few typos which the system didn't rat her out on. As a result seeing an askew paper on her desk didn't happen unless the dominated clerk forced it to be left askew.
FORM COMPLETE, PROCEED TO NEXT FORM. START SECTION 1
The pony picked up the form and began to read... This was a blue form, filled with typos, scratches and miswritten text. This perked the subconscious mind's interest, at least 8 ponies all dominated tried to make errors on this ONE form. She mustered as much strength to help the fight as she read
The dominated pony knew what had to be done to this report, what the script demanded of her, and what had to be done. The number of errors, how many ponies had pushed their mental subconsciousness this far to make errors. This report had to be destroyed. ALL Crystal ponies knew it who even glanced at this, but the scripts blaring in their head wouldn't let them just destroy the report. Everypony had done the limit of their power to, and now it was up to her.
PROCESS FORM. FORM CORRUPTED. OPENING SUPPLEMENTAL ASSISTANCE NODES
...and like that she realized she had a free hand... partially, just to help process this form. The great Crystal Matrix, the master computer that Sombra forced all ponies to processthrough had a bug... a bug Sombra wasn't aware of. When the script wasn't able to determine what to do it opened up the subconscious to control and assist due to the helm's design. It was an undocumented design feature of the first helm designed before Sombra's takeover, it allowed doctors and other unicorns to assist in helping physical therapy. Now? It was the only respite besides unconsciousness that was the cells of their own minds... and now she had it. This is what the other ponies before her were trying to do, create enough junk data on the form so that eventually the Crystal Matrix would release one pony just enough will to help it comprehend. Something she had no interest in doing
She grabbed a form from her desk drawer, a notice of an auditor's report being illegible and requiring resubmission... next decade satisfying the script partially. The damning form which was the only ray of hope that the crystal ponies had, was pushed into the shredder.
VIOLATION: Demerit 37 of 100. Un-Permitted destruction of Assets 75 points added. Exceeds threshold. PUNISHMENT: Death.
She welcomed oblivion as the electricuton process began, and no one would ever know what that form was, just a missing piece paper. Hopefully one day her people would be free again...
>>>>>
So this is what I come up with after playing Papers Please. I reason that there is no way that Sombra could keep all those mental control spells himself, or enchant each helm to do precisely what his empire requires. He would need a way to swap out commands without using his own magical power. So... he gets the crystals, encodes a mindcontrol script into a crystal that links the helm to the crystal. He then puts the crystal into the Crystal Matrix which allows him to in effect program his populace like one would computer code. It's monstrous, but I figure what else can one expect from Sombra.
- Location
- A house
It's a ceremonial thing! And an anti-magic sword has tons of uses... If only for the anti-magic properties. as long as he's not directly touching it, should be worthwhile.
- Location
- Maryland
Amazing writing! +15 to a roll!
- Location
- USA
Well.. if we needed anymore reason to kill Sombra we just got it. I hope we can rescue the ponies in the end. How soon before we march?
Also Yak are friends! Though I wonder how they will feel about how Sombra is treating the crystal ponies.
And those magic advisers, nice!
Also Yak are friends! Though I wonder how they will feel about how Sombra is treating the crystal ponies.
And those magic advisers, nice!
- Location
- Maryland
Thanks, I spent a good while trying to find images that I felt were suitable...and in the case of the Tanuki, Safe for Work.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
You don't actually need fractal banking for paper money to expand the economy. Just the fact that paper money just does not last as long as metal coins means that it tends to have a low shelf life. Most modern bills last about 16 months on average. This means that the bills are always gradually leaving the economy giving us a certain amount of extra room for printing more bills.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Holy mother of god. We managed to rescue some Crystal Ponies!? How will this affect the narrative for year to come. I'm exited for this development!
How would that work, if you have a 1:1 relation with what is in store and what is lend out? I seriously don't see how that would increase the money supply. Hell, as far as I can tell, it would tend to decrease it. Unless you just start printing bills, but then you're effectively doing fractional banking with knowing the fraction. Either way, it seems to me that the effect would be fairly small.
I feel like I might have misunderstood you, in which case please help me clear it up.
Also, @Questor , I think this is still relevant enough that it's not a derail, but it feels like it might be close. Should we cut it out?
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Most it is just increasing the currency velocity. With gold and silver all the money that is saved leaves the economy. With paper money it also leaves the economy, but it also degrades such that we can keep replacing the dead money with moving money. I have heard that some countries have made there money flimsy on purpose to take advantage of this.
Edit: Also if you expect the paper money to degrade then spending it becomes a game of hot potato also increasing velocity.
Last edited:
- Location
- Back in Cali
@Questor
Mind explaining how this happens?
Especially because the plan I made was budgeted as follows.
Treasury Reserves: 330
Yearly Income: 6150
Yearly Expenditures: 540
Net Income: 5610
Cost: 5610-4700=910
Net= 910
Treasury= 1240
So we should have 1240 in our Treasury, not a 1500 decrease in funds. Unless you have decided to change the way cost for multi-turn project works and decided not to tell us. Did we get robbed is that what the hazard failure was for, did the bank immediately fail and we lost our investment? Because none of this is explained at all.
Mind explaining how this happens?
Especially because the plan I made was budgeted as follows.
Treasury Reserves: 330
Yearly Income: 6150
Yearly Expenditures: 540
Net Income: 5610
Cost: 5610-4700=910
Net= 910
Treasury= 1240
So we should have 1240 in our Treasury, not a 1500 decrease in funds. Unless you have decided to change the way cost for multi-turn project works and decided not to tell us. Did we get robbed is that what the hazard failure was for, did the bank immediately fail and we lost our investment? Because none of this is explained at all.
Last edited:
- Location
- South Carolina
One of the possibilities that I thought of for that hazard roll was to have some kind of sea monster(s) move into the waters between the empires, making travel between anywhere from treacherous to suicidal, temporarily cutting off our connection to Neighpon. This could both start a questline, and/or require us to start investing into our completely overlooked navy.
By the way, does anyone know what happened to Aquilia's ships? I remember there being a naval buildup from them before King What's-His-Name died, but I don't think they were mentioned again. I don't think we took them since we had and still have only twenty cogs.
By the way, does anyone know what happened to Aquilia's ships? I remember there being a naval buildup from them before King What's-His-Name died, but I don't think they were mentioned again. I don't think we took them since we had and still have only twenty cogs.
- Location
- Back in Cali
The ships were sunk by the loyalists and the rest went pirate.
- Location
- Idaho
You know 2 things have occurred to me that needs to be addressed.
First those Cristal ponies are going to need hell of a lot of therapy to ensure they are functional, like at all. Because years of mind control while being fully aware will without a doubt leave scars.
Secondly what are we going to do with the Cristal Ponies after we end Sombra. Are we going to absorb them into the Empire or re-establish their own government.
First those Cristal ponies are going to need hell of a lot of therapy to ensure they are functional, like at all. Because years of mind control while being fully aware will without a doubt leave scars.
Secondly what are we going to do with the Cristal Ponies after we end Sombra. Are we going to absorb them into the Empire or re-establish their own government.
- Location
- Back in Cali
Any that survive and we can get to will be relocated to our home territory. The Crystal Empire is a dead land that can not support any life. We are also going to kill a lot of them so the population is going to be much smaller.
- Location
- California
Not if we blitzkerg to Sombre.
We use archers and artillery for the rock horses, flesh monsters and other assorted abominations. The flamethrowers are to keep the Wendigoes at bay, and maybe have Diamond Dogs focus on setting traps solely for mindcontrolled soldiers; keep them harmless in pits or restrainted under piles of dirt. Meanwhile, Yak volunteers and knights smash the defenses, so other regular troops take the city. This should allow grandmasters and other trusted individuals equipped with anti-magic weaponry ( or maybe net might be better) to gank Sombre.
- Location
- Back in Cali
That puts are own people in danger. It sucks but we need to worry about our own before we can try and safe the people trying to kill us mind-controlled or not. We are going to kill a lot of them both in the next attack and when we invade shortly after. We must do what is best for ourselves and our allies. That is the reality of war there will always be collateral damage. Our duty is to our people and our allies not to helping our enemy and the Crystal Ponies are the enemy until they are released and Sombra is gone. Once that is done then we can focus on helping them but not before.
NoMoreScarecrow
[Unverified Vanir]
- Location
- South Africa Time Zone
Well, it may not be a dead land if we get to the Crystal Plot Device. The post specifically stated that we now know about catacombs and hidden passages, as well as about the Heart.
Edit: Under NO circumstances should we send our resident Crazy Ivan after the Heart.
Last edited: