friendyousohard | 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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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?

12th Spell: [Video/Action for Fluttershy]

[Text] Ignore you? Perish the thought.

[Text] \o/

[Text] <3

[Text]