friendyousohard | 12th Spell: [Video/Action for Fluttershy]

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12th Spell: [Video/Action for Fluttershy]

Alright, Starswirl, you've got the video running?

[There's a sigh in response, and then that odd echo sort of voice that accompanies telepathy.]

Yes, but I really do think you're spoiling him with this. Recording an entire match just so one of your Pokemon can strut around?

[Twilight shrugs in response, unperturbed by her Pokemon's complaint.]

It's only the one time, and he really was insistent. I don't usually hold with showing off, but as long as he doesn't start strutting around and being generally insufferable, I think it's fairly harmless. I just kind of wish I knew who he was trying to impress.

I have a feeling you'll find out soon enough.

[Twilight responds to that with a raised eyebrow, but she doesn't question it any further. The camera swings up to show the doors of the Azalea gym, and she shrugs and turns around to face them. A grinning, almost swaggering Heracross shoves the doors open as soon as she looks at them, with considerably more force than necessary. Twilight grimaces, but follows him inside, as does the camera. They walk straight up to the gym leader, who promptly grins at them.]

Well hello there! You must be the latest challenger. I'm Bugsy, and I never lose when it comes to bug-type Pokemon.

Megasoma here begs to disagree on that.

Oh yeah? Well we'll just see how your Heracross measures up to the Bug Pokemon authority, shall we? Go, Pinsir!

[And the battle's on. Megasoma turns to grin and wink at the camera as it starts, while Twilight seems to be realizing that encouraging this sort of behavior might have been a bad idea. She sighs.]

Well, you wanted this, now you've got it. Go, Megasoma. Show everyone watching what you can do.

[And he proceeds to do precisely that.]

A few moments later...

[Twilight walks out of the gym, attaching her new badge to her shirt, while Megasoma swaggers around, posing and flexing and generally looking way too pleased with himself for his own good. She takes the gear back from the cameramon and sighs as the view swings around to show a very unimpressed Kadabra.]

Okay, Starswirl, I admit it. You were right. That was a horrible idea.

[She turns to the camera.]

My sincerest apologies for anyone who had to sit through that. I promise, I'm never doing anything like that again.

Now to find a way to deflate his swollen head...

[She sighs, and clicks off the gear.]

[OOC: Well that turned out longer than I'd planned on. Mod-approved Hive Badge for Twilight, and your character can either speak up while the fight's going on or afterwards. But yeah, ICly absolutely all of the battle was shown on the gear.]

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[That was painful. Ow. But less because of an arrogant bug and more because he has a migraine and this involved sound and light. After this, he's probably just going to stop looking at the goddamn network. A distraction from pain is not worth more pain.]

Congratulations. You earned it.

...Also, good luck with deflating his ego a little. I don't know how you'll manage it.

I'll figure it out somehow. I hope you at least got some enjoyment out of the whole spectacle.

[After one last glance at her overly-proud-of-himself bug, Twilight decides to distract herself from the issue, for the moment at least.]

... How are you doing, Spencer?

We got to Violet in one piece and Flora is doing better. I'd say I'm doing alright.

[...And that is why he is using text. Obviously.]

Are you okay? Besides having a proud bug on your hands.

Perfectly fine. I just got a new badge, my new Pokemon are settling in nicely, and we're about to head out to Ilex Forest, which Fluttershy has told me plenty of great things about.

I'm glad to hear that about your Munna. We were pretty worried.

That's great. I'm glad to hear it.

Oh, well, you don't have to worry anymore. She's floating around and has started developing telepathy already. Tell Fluttershy thanks again if I don't get a chance to.

[Also, he's wondering how much Fluttershy has told her. >.> ]

[Pretty much just enough to prevent her from asking publicly about his dreams now that she's put the pieces together after their last conversation. Good thing too, or she probably wouldn't have thought about it.]

I'll make sure to let her know, but I bet you'll have the chance to talk to her yourself again soon.

[Well, at least you're not asking about them. Maybe after a little longer of knowing you, he'll tentatively respond if you ask in an in-person discussion, but it takes him a while to open up.]

Hopefully. I enjoyed our conversation last time. How long have you two known each other?

Over two years now. We first met when I arrived in Ponyville to oversee preparations for the annual Summer Sun Celebration, on the orders of my mentor. It took us a while to open up to each other, since she's so shy and I was, well... let's just say I wasn't really looking for friends at the time.

But once we got used to each other- [And traveled through one of the most dangerous places in their world together.] We got to be friends really quickly.

Ponyville?

One of these days, you need to tell me more about your world.

Heh, yeah, it's not the most original name, is it?

Oh... [She's a little surprised at his interest at first, until she realizes, it's an entirely alien world to him, just like Johto. Of course anyone who's at all like her would find that fascinating.] Well of course I can do that! You'll have to tell me about yours in return, though.

Well, humans do that too. Where I come from, there's a state called Missouri, and it has a town called Humansville. At least they guaranteed that they wouldn't share a name with any other town.

I'd be happy to. [He's not physically perking up on his end due to PAIN, but he's mentally perking up. Yay! A chance to ramble and explain stuff and learn!] I could even draw a rough map of my world if you're interested. It'd help you understand how things work in different places.

A "state"? I don't think I'm familiar with the term in this particular context, since I'm guessing you're not using it to reference a state of matter or the like.

That sounds great! I can try to do the same, but my artistic skills are... not exactly up to par. Still, I can at least draw out the general shape of things.

A 'state' is also a word for a kind of governed sub-entity within a country, similar to a 'province'. I don't know if you divide things up like we do back home, but on Earth, pieces of land belong to their own governments, and an area controlled by one government is called a country. I'm from a country called the United States of America, and within that country, I'm from a state called Nevada. Nevada alone is about 110,600 square miles, but states vary in sizes.

It's okay, mind aren't either. We'll just have to do our best to explain things.

Well, we do have countries. The country I live in is called Equestria. But states and provinces, not so much. The government structure basically goes straight from city and town leaders up to Princess Celestia and her council. Of course, Equestria itself is probably not anywhere near as large as your home country if most of the states in it are as large as that. How many states are there, anyway?

Oh, so your home is a monarchy? Constitutional, absolute, or elective? And why isn't your leader called a 'Queen', then?

The United States has fifty states in all, but we also have sixteen territories which are under federal jurisdiction but have not been annexed into the Union, and thus are not considered states.

Although it's worth pointing out that not all states are as big as Nevada. States vary in size. The smallest state in the US is one called Rhode Island, which is only 1,545.05 square miles.

How many countries are in your world?

That's actually a pretty good question, and one I don't think anyone really knows the proper answer to. She's been "Princess" for so long that we all just go with it, I don't think we've ever had a real Queen. I do have a theory, based on semi-recent evidence, but it's not much more than a wild guess.

Fascinating. Fifty states, each at the very least over a thousand five hundred square miles across... There must be a lot of humans just to take up that much space.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. I don't think the whole world's ever been explored yet, primarily because while Equestria itself is a veritable paradise, things beyond our borders tend to get... dangerous. Just as an example, hiking through a mountain range is one thing.

Hiking through a mountain range inhabited by dragons is another matter entirely.

I am aware of four nations. Equestria, the Gryphon Kingdom, the Zebra lands, which may or may not be divided up into smaller nations, the only zebra I know doesn't talk about it all that much, and the Buffalo tribes, who I count as a nation because they have a unique culture, though they're largely nomadic and it would be hard to put their territory on a map.

Well, what's that theory?

Oh, there are. As of July of 2011, there are 311,591,917 humans in the United States alone. In the same year, there were 6,973,738,433 humans in all on the planet.

[Yes, he could remember that off the top of his head.]

Where I come from, we have zebras and buffalo, but neither of them are sapient species. In my world, humans are the only sapient species.

What do you mean by 'paradise'? Don't you have crime and disease and corruption?

Princess Celestia has a younger sister, Princess Luna, who was banished from Equestria long ago due to... very extenuating circumstances. It's odd, it's all technically common knowledge, but it feels like I'm divulging secrets when I talk about it. Still, the point is that her banishment recently ended, and seems to have been always set to come to an end. And a realm can only have one king or queen, but there's no such limit on the number of princes or princesses.

Hence my theory, that she refrained from taking the title as a symbol of her acceptance for her sister's return, so that they could rule as equals when the time came.

Just under 7 billion? [It's very hard to properly convey her astonishment through text.] You must cover your entire planet! But then, as the only species with sapience that would be a much easier feat for you than us...

Disease, yes, but the number of diseases out there that can't be treated in some form is small and growing smaller steadily thanks to the efforts of numerous researchers around the country dedicated to finding cures and vaccines. Of course, occasional outbreaks from outside our borders do come through at times, but our knowledge is growing a little more every day, and bit by bit we're learning how to fight even the deadliest diseases.

Corruption isn't actually as much a problem as simple incompetence, really. Not that greedy, immoral ponies don't exist, and of course sometimes they do get into positions of power, but the voices of the ponies who are affected by their actions are usually heard rather quickly, and if it comes to it, ponies can bring their grievances straight to the Princesses. Even the threat of that kind of action tends to get all but the most ruthless in line.

And crime, again, it's not as if we don't know it, but every area has dedicated peace officers, neighborhood watches, security... really, any crime above petty theft is nigh-impossible to get away with for any length of time.

Really, we ponies live a very charmed life, back in Equestria. You'd almost think there was never anything to worry about beyond usual life problems, and usually, you'd be right.

The problem lies in when something upsets all of that. Because usually, when something tries? It's something very, very big. And dangerous.

And evil.

Edited (And then there was rambling!) 2012-10-11 11:06 (UTC)

That makes sense. Where I come from, there aren't meant to be two queens or two kings of one realm, either. But how will they decide on heirs? Assuming both of them are going to have children, that is.

Actually, that many people on their own don't cover that much space. If the entire human population stood shoulder to shoulder, they would be able to fit within Los Angeles. Los Angeles is a city of five hundred square miles. The trouble starts when one accounts for the amount of resources a single human needs to maintain a certain quality of life and then multiplies that by seven billion.

How troublesome are your diseases? Humans have relatively recently started developing effective ways to combat the worst of the diseases we've faced, but historically, disease or primitive medical attention have been the leading cause of death. That's averaged, of course, since there have been eras when violence and war have caused more death.

So you don't have a problem with corruption and crime? [Coming from a member of the BAU: where is this magical place and when can he go there?] That... well, from the point of view from my world, that sounds like a fairy tale. The area where I currently live in, Washington DC--which is technically not a state, but is often treated like one in unofficial matters--has roughly 145.2 intentional, proven homicides per year, and that's only counting cases where a body has been found. A sizable percentage of those murders go unsolved, and if one lists countries by homicide rates from greatest to least, there are eighty-five countries above the United States. Again, that is only counting proven homicides, and in some countries, police turn blind eyes to murder or many homicides go unrecorded because of rampant violence and people not taking the time to record every death. [No, it does not occur to him that this may be upsetting to hear. He's Reid. He doesn't always know when he should just shut up.] It's actually my job to try to catch serial perpetrators of violent crimes across the United States.

What kinds of things try to disrupt Equestria? It doesn't sound like there are many ponies who are mean-spirited.

That actually isn't as much of a problem as you might think. [She's kind of thrown by the thought of either of the Princesses having children, but since he can't see her expression there's no hint of that in the message.] You see, the princesses are, if not immortal, then at least ageless. They've both been around for over a thousand years, and they seem fully likely to keep going for... I have no idea how long.

Well, yes, if you packed everyone in like that I'm sure you could fit in a comparatively small area, but people need space... Some more than others.

Epidemiology isn't my specialty, but I can think of a few particularly virulent strains. One of the most interesting, and horrible, is the Cutie Pox, a virus that once wiped out an entire settlement. I don't think I've explained the concept of "Cutie Marks" to you yet, so for a bit of grounding, Cutie Marks are a symbol that shows up on a pony's flank when they discover their lifelong special talent. It's a representation of what that pony is destined for in their life, though in this context "destiny" is something you pursue rather than something you're forced into.

The Cutie Pox twisted this concept, inflicting multiple Cutie Marks on the ponies it infected, and forcing them to carry out actions based on those marks. The longer the disease, the more marks, and the more those ponies had to try to accomplish at once simply because they were physically compelled to do so. In the end, untreated victims died of simple exhaustion.

[His explanation of just the simple, clinical figures makes Twilight's face actually contort into an expression of utmost horror. That many murders? In one region? And many of them unsolved? What is wrong with Spencer's world?] That's... you say my world sounds like a fairy tale. To me, yours sounds like a horror story. I'm not saying there aren't ponies who wouldn't commit murder, or that it hasn't happened, but to the best of my knowledge there hasn't been a case of that where the perpetrator wasn't caught in... centuries! And the sheer numbers are much lower, as well. Then again, that could be due to the circumstances of our respective homes. Maybe if your world were more like Equestria, the people there would be... oh, but that's assuming they all take those actions because of circumstances that made them what they are. I suppose that's a dangerous assumption to make. [Even if she's not sure if she wants to consider the alternatives...]

The last great attack on Equestria was made by one single being. A creature with a disgusting sense of humor, no morals or restraint to speak of, a direct loathing of the very concept of harmony, and enough power to warp the very fabric of reality around him on a whim. His name is Discord, and he's the only living creature I can genuinely say I hate.

Wait, there are people with eternal youth where you come from? How long does the average pony live?

Remind me to ask you more about Cutie Marks later. That disease actually sounds a little like smallpox, only smallpox never compelled a person to do anything, the marks that developed were actually skin lesions, and it wiped out a lot more than a single settlement. Is that the most dangerous disease there is in Equestria?

There's a reason my job and jobs like mine exist. While most of the people I've caught have been affected by circumstances and sickness and would probably have been harmless if things were different, there are many who have no visible reason for their willingness to kill. Off the top of my head, there were three men who were raised in perfectly happy middle class families and were all gainfully employed, without any kind of stressors in their background, and yet they still banded together and murdered nine people. [Reid. Reid. WHY ARE YOU SAYING THIS TO A PONY.] So no, I don't think Earth becoming more like Equestria would make the human population as non-violent as yours is. I like to think that most humans are nonviolent, but there's much too much violence in the world to say that many humans don't have some kind of predisposition towards it. [Twilight, he will not stop saying awful things unless you turn on Audio or Video and he hears/sees how affecting that is. Pitfall of having zero social skills.]

Discord? We have discord, but only as a concept, and there's nothing with that kind of power on Earth. How did Equestria stop him?

Only the two. Only the Princesses. Your average pony can live about sixty years or so, though with medical science improving steadily that figure keeps climbing.

I'm not sure I'd classify it as the "most dangerous" one, but if not contained, it certainly does pose a major hazard. When you say dangerous, do you mean on an individual or community-wide basis?

That's... that's horrifying. It's almost... no, it's worse, it's infinitely worse to think of people doing that without any impetus than it is to think of them responding to events in their lives in that way. [She's horrified, she's sickened... and yet she still keeps reading, taking in what he's saying, trying to wrap her head around these horrific concepts that are just so alien to her.] I can't... I can't imagine what sort of thought process goes through the mind of someone like that. How could they possibly come to the conclusion that something like that is what they want to do?

[No, Twi, don't ask that, don't ask that! There are, in fact, questions you don't want to know the answers to!]

The only way you can stop something like that. With an equal (or greater) and opposite power, the Elements of Harmony. They are the greatest force known to ponykind, powerful enough to deal with any threat we've yet encountered. The full extent of how they work is not quite understood, but I can sum it up pretty simply. They take the facets that make up a truly harmonious relationship between a group of ponies, or people I would assume, and literally use it as a power source to return the world around them to a harmonious state. Anything that can't be harmonized is sealed or destroyed. In Discord's case, he was literally transformed into a statue, and everything he did while free was undone.

Community, I suppose. Contagious, fatal diseases without known cures. I know that historically, Small Pox has the highest known body count, but we relatively recently developed a disease that would have easily surpassed that had it ran unchecked the way Small Pox did.

Generally, it's very difficult to understand why someone would just kill for the thrill of it. That's why my job exists. [Unfortunately, Twi, without the assistance of Video, you have to actually tell Reid to not answer a question if you don't want to know.] In some cases, it's curiosity. Questions like how does it feel and can they get away with it have been germinating in their mind, often since childhood. In other cases, it's boredom and thrill-seeking behavior. In all cases, there is a profound lack of empathy displayed, even if the person functions normally in day-to-day life. And this is without getting into things like sexual sadism.

Elements of Harmony? [...That sounds like something out of a little kid's show, not gonna lie.] So they convert positive relationships into energy?

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12th Spell: [Video/Action for Fluttershy]

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[Text] Ffffffffff I thought I replied to this ignore if you like /o\

[Text] Ignore you? Perish the thought.

[Text] \o/

[Text] <3

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