[GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

swicked wrote:

Do they have a navy branch and an air force branch?

They had to have a navy. Celestia 1 was a huge battleship.

The Skyguard is their Air Force, but it's more like the army than anything like our Air Force (which is extremely limited due to the need for fuel and landing space, which pegasi and cloud fortresses don't require).

My head-canon is that Pipsqueak's ultimate fate is linked to the Navy -- that he was a low-ranked officer (Ensign or JG) on a cruiser in a battlegroup that was on patrol when the bombs fell. They sailed back to equestria when all the radios went silent and couldn't even approach the shore, so the whole group, with failing fuel reserves and no hope of resupply, set course for a cluster of habitable islands as far from the poisoned lands as they could get. Once there, they disassembled their ships for materials and built what they could. 200 years later, their descendants are tribal islanders with some funny stories about their background (essentially the tribe from Fallout 2). I like to think there's a secret cabal of Engineers, the descendants of the original ship's engineers, who maintain a few modern weapons systems to protect the tribe, should they ever come under attack. Perhaps once every 70 or 80 years, when things get dire, they bring the one working spark generator online, and green fire rains from the top of the holy mountain (where the gun is hidden) to strike down the enemies of the tribe. As far the rest of them are concerned, they're under the protection of the Spirits.

I'd love to write that story sometime, but I'm not much of a writer.

FeatherDust wrote:

swicked wrote:

Do they have a navy branch and an air force branch?

They had to have a navy. Celestia 1 was a huge battleship.

The Skyguard is their Air Force, but it's more like the army than anything like our Air Force (which is extremely limited due to the need for fuel and landing space, which pegasi and cloud fortresses don't require).

My head-canon is that Pipsqueak's ultimate fate is linked to the Navy -- that he was a low-ranked officer (Ensign or JG) on a cruiser in a battlegroup that was on patrol when the bombs fell. They sailed back to equestria when all the radios went silent and couldn't even approach the shore, so the whole group, with failing fuel reserves and no hope of resupply, set course for a cluster of habitable islands as far from the poisoned lands as they could get. Once there, they disassembled their ships for materials and built what they could. 200 years later, their descendants are tribal islanders with some funny stories about their background (essentially the tribe from Fallout 2). I like to think there's a secret cabal of Engineers, the descendants of the original ship's engineers, who maintain a few modern weapons systems to protect the tribe, should they ever come under attack. Perhaps once every 70 or 80 years, when things get dire, they bring the one working spark generator online, and green fire rains from the top of the holy mountain (where the gun is hidden) to strike down the enemies of the tribe. As far the rest of them are concerned, they're under the protection of the Spirits.

I'd love to write that story sometime, but I'm not much of a writer.

If somber never takes up the fate/details of Pipsqueak, I'll do it along with Shining Armour and Cadence.
I'm sure I could find a way of working it in somehow.

Well Pipsqueak was what, six years old at the time of Luna's first nightmare night? There is a unknown amount of time between Season 1 and Season 2 and the seventeen years of the Great War. Given the show itself my head cannon is that there is five years between Pipsqueaks first appearance and the start of the war (Based on the expected six seasons of FiM).

Which means at the start of the great war Pipsqueak would be eleven years old. I'm not sure how pony ages work and if they are similar to human ages but for sure Pipsqueak would be twenty by the time of the Littlehorn massacre.

Which means Pipsqueak could spend between seven years to eleven years in the Navy. That's to short to be a Captain of his own ship unless it was a patrol boat but plenty of time to be a XO of a ship. Again that's without patronage getting him advancements. Your not making Captain without at least ten years even if you are sleeping with you favorite princess.

Happy Fourth of July everyone, I hope you all have a good one!

swicked wrote:

Kippershy wrote:If somber never takes up the fate/details of Pipsqueak, I'll do it along with Shining Armour and Cadence.
I'm sure I could find a way of working it in somehow.

I would headcanon that Cadence and Shining Armor were helping maintain the Canterlot shield and went the way of Luna.

well, you're wrong.
you know what happened? Romeo and Juliet, but instead of fighting parents its a real war being fought that takes S.A away.
He falls in battle while leading the Canterlot Royal Guard in the defence of Celestia pre-Luna years.
Without her love, Princess Cadence lobbies for the war to end, but it doesn't.
Instead she gets told she should be helping to win, not to stand down, and that she's weak for not seeking revenge over her late husband.

Grief and depression gets the best of her, she kills herself in an act of heartache and defiance over the war.
Yet another reason why Celestia stood down in turn of Luna.

I feel I need to expand on advancement a touch in one of those informative posts that interest about three people.

Navy and Advancement
The United States Navy has a proud tradition, ruthlessly stolen from Great Britain which itself has a proud tradition swiped from the Dutch. Things like three years on the same ship in the same job are not accidents but expectations that it takes six months in peacetime to really master your position and at least two years to really rate your performance. As an officer in the Navy or any Navy you'll be spending two to four years of schooling learning how to do whatever job it is you hold as a proud Ensign. As a fresh Butter bar you will be assigned a senior NCO who while you technically outrank will be your momma or daddy once you get out of school and become a Lieutenant and are trusted to chew your own food without help. After you make Lt you'll be given real life command of things and can from then on instantly screw up your career at any moment because YOU ARE IN COMMAND, it might just be of a deck crew but some Lt's get put in charge of the entire ship or an instillation because in the military we tend to be twenty four hours a day seven days a week and someone needs to be in charge of the big expensive things on Holidays, at two in the morning and other times.

Which means if you say run your ship aground, or your building is blown up your in charge of because your guards were asleep instead of patrolling then kiss your career goodbye. You are constantly being watched, weighed and measured while your a Lt by your own people to see if they can get around your rules that make things less fun, by your superiors to see if your ready to advance. If your a beneficiary of a patronage system you'll be give special consideration like being put in charge of something that will make you a full Lieutenant after only one tour instead of two. Or giving you an especially good Captain, or a nice safe impossible to screw up assignment.

Keep in mind in peace time (Which for the Navy it's been peace time since Vietnam) there are only so many officer slots so while one could make Captain in fourteen years in 1944, in 2012 that's twenty years and assumes your dad is an Admiral and your mom is the President. Twenty two years is standard these days.

So typically each rank 0-1 to 0-2 to 0-3 and so on represents a tour of three years and change and that assumes you get promoted first time every time as a Line Officer.

swicked wrote:

Kippershy wrote:

swicked wrote:

Kippershy wrote:If somber never takes up the fate/details of Pipsqueak, I'll do it along with Shining Armour and Cadence.
I'm sure I could find a way of working it in somehow.

I would headcanon that Cadence and Shining Armor were helping maintain the Canterlot shield and went the way of Luna.

well, you're wrong.
you know what happened? Romeo and Juliet, but instead of fighting parents its a real war being fought that takes S.A away.
He falls in battle while leading the Canterlot Royal Guard in the defence of Celestia pre-Luna years.
Without her love, Princess Cadence lobbies for the war to end, but it doesn't.
Instead she gets told she should be helping to win, not to stand down, and that she's weak for not seeking revenge over her late husband.

Grief and depression gets the best of her, she kills herself in an act of heartache and defiance over the war.
Yet another reason why Celestia stood down in turn of Luna.

...that doesn't strike me as Romeo and Juliet at all. Other than that they love each other. Cadence isn't even 14 o_o

You're right. I was more thinking of tragedy in general.


Still, they get pulled apart because the war, their duties to the country demanding their full service.
and all the rest.

You can't tell me it doesn't sound a little bit more canon to the original story, a little more epic, and even gives Twilight that little bit more reason to give it her absolute everything.

Rafafidi wrote:[pedantic]
Chapter 17:
"The rotting structure leaned precariously out over the alley where it slouched against the burned-out shell of its neighbor. The colorful pink paint had decayed into a fleshy grayish tone, the white trim darkened and peeling with the constant moisture. The roof had warped in the rain till it resembled mummified leather. A tower once resembling stacked cupcakes now creaked as it leaned over to the side like a vengeful fist."
Blackjack haven't met a gryphon or hellhound yet, so I think she wouldn't use this word to describe the tower.
I know it's silly, but it slapped me out of my immersion.
[/pedantic]

There is now a change pending approval; thank you for bringing this to our attention.


re Cadence et al:
My current idea, if I must consider Cadence, Shining Armor, the changelings, or really anything from the wedding episode is that the wedding episode takes place in an alternate timeline caused by C, SA, and the changelings being sent back in time from the near future of the Equestrian Wasteland as a plot by a group of alicorns and ghouls using a preapocalypse temporal research lab to prevent the war. Cadence would try and make peace, Shining Armor would, if Cadence failed, use military knowledge gained from twenty years of war to end the war quickly instead of letting things escalate, and the changelings would form a shadow government controlling both states, the idea being that, since they feed on love, it would be in their best interests to keep peace. The idea still has a lot of holes in it, but it's the best that I've been able to come up with so far.

O. Hinds wrote: The idea still has a lot of holes in it.

Not sure if pun was intended or not.

Cptadder wrote:Well Pipsqueak was what, six years old at the time of Luna's first nightmare night? There is a unknown amount of time between Season 1 and Season 2 and the seventeen years of the Great War. Given the show itself my head cannon is that there is five years between Pipsqueaks first appearance and the start of the war (Based on the expected six seasons of FiM).

Which means at the start of the great war Pipsqueak would be eleven years old. I'm not sure how pony ages work and if they are similar to human ages but for sure Pipsqueak would be twenty by the time of the Littlehorn massacre.

Which means Pipsqueak could spend between seven years to eleven years in the Navy. That's to short to be a Captain of his own ship unless it was a patrol boat but plenty of time to be a XO of a ship. Again that's without patronage getting him advancements. Your not making Captain without at least ten years even if you are sleeping with you favorite princess.

I think there's a bit more time between the show and the start of the war. The Ministry Mares were all starting to wrinkle and grey by the end; Pinkie's mane looked like a candy cane. Given that they're ~20ish in the show, and the war raged for 20 years, I'd guess at least a decade between season 2 and the beginning.


And you're thinking of peacetime promotions, when you become captain because of long and honorable service. During total war, with casualty numbers like we saw in the other services, I think the most common way to become Captain is to have everybody above you dead and demonstrate the ability to command. Age doesn't matter much if they know what they're doing better than the rest of the ship, and even by your estimate of 11 at the start of the twenty-year war his thirteen years of combat experience would make him very good at it.

Cptadder wrote:

Again, you're assuming the promotions are all matters of career advancement and pretty much everybody survives their tour of duty. In the great pony-zebra war there would be people dying around you every day. You'd have those same earth pony construction teams that built a town in a week assembling warships around the clock, and the griffons, dragons, and warbots destroying them just as fast. Command would not be a case of "this is your ship for the next three years," it would be a case of "This is your captain for the mission, this is his second for when the captain get his neck snapped by a zebra infiltrator, this is the third for when the lieutenant is torn apart by a griffon, and you better pray to Celestia that one of these fine officers lasts through the mission because otherwise you're falling back on that ensign over there. Yes, the tiny one with the stupid looking eyepatch."

Like you said, somebody's always got to be in charge, and that's what the chain of command was invented for before it became a fancy word for layers of bureaucracy.

Per Kkhat, Cadence does not exist in FoE as not only she but Shinning Armor throw some rather vicious twists into FoE cannon in general. Having a royal guard captain be your brother changes quite a few things including Twilight's actions as I don't think Celestia could have sheltered her favorite student from the war for ten long years with her only standing army being run by Twilight's brother.

And yes maybe the Pegasuses have some form of formal military left over from the pre Celestia days but day one year one of the war the army Celestia has to go to war with is the Royal guard and that's about it.

swicked wrote:The loss of Big Mac changed the face of war as Applejack created the entire division of steel rangers and a vicious hatred of stronger bullets.

In order to write in the loss of Twilight's BBBFF I would think her actions would need to be attributed to a similarly dramatic change in focus. Maybe even a greater overall project between Twilight and Applejack for the sake of protecting those they care about.
I hardly think it would just make her try harder.

I would actually sort of prefer, assuming Cadence survived him, if she was the only princess to of ever gotten back to Stable 1, considering the CMC intended to trap the princesses in there along with all the nobles. I don't know what her fate would be past that, but I would hope for something horrific. I rather dislike her.

Agreed on most points. Shining was the captain of the Canterlot city guard. He predated the conventional military, and his sole duty would be to defend the city of Canterlot against all threats. He wouldn't have left while there was a war on, and he's unlikely to have died before Pink Cloud killed his city. Once he realized that he'd failed his city and his Goddess, his only remaining goal would be to keep his wife alive, and he would ensure that she got to "safety" as the last thing he did.

Of course this is all if Cadence and such actually happened in the Fo:E continuity (in which case I assume her to be a winged unicorn rather than an alicorn due to a pony genetics tweak; I've covered this before so PM me if you want the full theory). I prefer the idea that--

O. Hinds wrote:re Cadence et al:
My current idea, if I must consider Cadence, Shining Armor, the changelings, or really anything from the wedding episode is that the wedding episode takes place in an alternate timeline caused by C, SA, and the changelings being sent back in time from the near future of the Equestrian Wasteland as a plot by a group of alicorns and ghouls using a preapocalypse temporal research lab to prevent the war. Cadence would try and make peace, Shining Armor would, if Cadence failed, use military knowledge gained from twenty years of war to end the war quickly instead of letting things escalate, and the changelings would form a shadow government controlling both states, the idea being that, since they feed on love, it would be in their best interests to keep peace. The idea still has a lot of holes in it, but it's the best that I've been able to come up with so far.

Frickin' ninjas. Only problem I see is that Shining was Twilight's brother, so he couldn't have come from the future. Yeah, Cadence is totally a Fo:E alicorn who travelled back in time and set them on a divergent timeline. It explains everything from her fascination with Twilight Sparkle even before she got her cutie mark to how she's an alicorn with much less than deific powers and knowledge of things even the princesses of the current time lack. As for time-travelling changelings... it could work. Doesn't fit my headcanon, or the story I'm writing and may or may not ever actually post, but it could work.

Cptadder wrote:Per Kkhat, Cadence does not exist in FoE as not only she but Shinning Armor throw some rather vicious twists into FoE cannon in general. Having a royal guard captain be your brother changes quite a few things including Twilight's actions as I don't think Celestia could have sheltered her favorite student from the war for ten long years with her only standing army being run by Twilight's brother.

And yes maybe the Pegasuses have some form of formal military left over from the pre Celestia days but day one year one of the war the army Celestia has to go to war with is the Royal guard and that's about it.

Royal Guard != army. Shining would protect Canterlot, and possible the Princesses, but he wouldn't go to war until it came to his gates and he certainly wouldn't be in charge of the war effort.

All things considered, a shadow government operating with the need of love would pretty awesome.
I think Shining Armor was probably killed in Canterlot defending the city. As far as I know, his shield spell wasn't specific to Canterlot so if he was anywhere else, he probably would have cast his spell to protect himself and those around him, and so survived. Being in Canterlot means he could have cast his spell and died anyways. I can't imagine Cadence being far from him so she probably died with him, unless he sent her to Stable 1, where she would die anyways.

swicked wrote:

Sindri wrote:Only problem I see is that Shining was Twilight's brother, so he couldn't have come from the future.

Memory spells.

After all, how is Cadence going to otherwise sell being another princess without the current ones questioning it?

Let us be clear: Cadence is a princess in the same sense that Blueblood is a prince. She is not counted among the immortal God-Empresses of Equestria with Luna and Celestia.

I can see Shining and Cadence fitting into prewar equestria. My guess though is that Shining would be the equivalent to the director of the Secret Service, influential perhaps but not nearly as much as say a general, tycoon, or minister and thus would have ducked out of the war.

In my head cannon I put Cadence as a winged unicorn, a genetic fluke made possible by miniscule relation to the princesses and their royal family but like alicorns, being for the most part infertile. By the end of the war Shining has had enough and either retires or just goes Awol so to speak by the time of the pink cloud.

swicked wrote:

Sindri wrote:

swicked wrote:

Sindri wrote:Only problem I see is that Shining was Twilight's brother, so he couldn't have come from the future.

Memory spells.

After all, how is Cadence going to otherwise sell being another princess without the current ones questioning it?

Let us be clear: Cadence is a princess in the same sense that Blueblood is a prince. She is not counted among the immortal God-Empresses of Equestria with Luna and Celestia.

You would think Celestia and Luna would be aware of another alicorn, or winged unicorn, falling out of thin air, though. That they might question it.

I'm sure that if you came to Celestia with a proposal beginning with "I'm from the future and I need to pretend to be a princess to save the world" she'd let you go through with it just for the trolling opportunities.

Here's kinda how my Headcanon works.

Celestia fought the war lightly. The 'military' as such was done by the royal guard and she tried not to envolve the country as much as possible. Better for ponies to be happy than thrown into the struggle. The guard was expanded as years went by, but it was still an elite order mostly populated by pegasi and unicorns and the occasional earth pony. The wonderbolts were eventually expanded to the Skyguard. The war was much more low key as well, with prisoners taken and rules of war followed. The war was more about claiming and holding coal fields than killing the enemy and really the war flared hot and cold over the ten year period.

Littlehorn changed everything. Unlike Celestia, Luna embraced total war and the entire magical, industrial, and technological resources of the country were brought to bear. The Royal Guard was replaced by the Equestrian Army for the purposes of persecuting the war, and anypony willing and able to fight was allowed to join. Luna wanted to win to cement her rule, just as her sister did 1000 years ago. The zebras also expanded their war commitment exponentially, with dozens of unaffiliated tribes joining the fighting. The war transformed from 'holding ground' to 'destroying the enemy'.

This escalation became an ever more unstable arms race for both people that eventually went completely off the rails.

Somber wrote:Here's kinda how my Headcanon works.

Celestia fought the war lightly. The 'military' as such was done by the royal guard and she tried not to envolve the country as much as possible. Better for ponies to be happy than thrown into the struggle. The guard was expanded as years went by, but it was still an elite order mostly populated by pegasi and unicorns and the occasional earth pony. The wonderbolts were eventually expanded to the Skyguard. The war was much more low key as well, with prisoners taken and rules of war followed. The war was more about claiming and holding coal fields than killing the enemy and really the war flared hot and cold over the ten year period.

Littlehorn changed everything. Unlike Celestia, Luna embraced total war and the entire magical, industrial, and technological resources of the country were brought to bear. The Royal Guard was replaced by the Equestrian Army for the purposes of persecuting the war, and anypony willing and able to fight was allowed to join. Luna wanted to win to cement her rule, just as her sister did 1000 years ago. The zebras also expanded their war commitment exponentially, with dozens of unaffiliated tribes joining the fighting. The war transformed from 'holding ground' to 'destroying the enemy'.

This escalation became an ever more unstable arms race for both people that eventually went completely off the rails.

If you look at the show's makeup for the Royal Guard this fits pretty closely.
Keep in mind five facts we can gleam from cannon

1. We see Earth, Pegasuses and Unicorn Pones in the Guard
2. When Celestia travels it's by Royal Guard Pegasus pulled sky chariot
3. When Celestia visits Ponyville she has Royal Guards with her and guarding the building she's in but none inside (Or maybe just out of view)
4. The only military we've seen is Royal Guard wearing those uniforms, no hint of cops, police, and the like, when things go down it's a Royal Guard asking the questions.
5. We've seen Canterlot in high security mode which based on unit scaling on twenty four hour manning suggests a guard in the mid hundreds to a thousand a change in order to guard all the places that need guarding, provide a city watch and cover the border posts.


Adding in my own head cannon here and with some FoE quotes. The first ten years were a large scale border skirmish between the Royal Guard and the Caesars personal guard which keeping with the Caesar theme would be his Praetorian Guard. So the Royal Guard fights the Praetorian guard with the Royal Guard broken into...

The Royal Air Guard (Pegasuses) who would be in charge of Celestia when's she's traveling, for scouting ahead when she has engagements and for transporting other Guard ponies when required.
The Royal Unicorn Guard (Unicorns) who provide magical backup to the other two guards in the form of magical wards, useful spells.
The Royal Earth Guard (Earth Pones) Handle most of the ceremonial duties like providing guards to line the throne room, guard areas and grunt work that Guarding her royal Highness requires.

My second bit of head cannon is that being that Celestia is pretty much immortal and already long lived that the Royal Guard would quickly become semi-hereditary. Nobility is bad enough about only trusting those who's great grandfathers were servants to their great grand mothers, now add in the fact that Celestia personal knew your great grand father and I'm guessing Canterlot is filled with hereditary family lines of pones who serve in the Royal Guard where 50% of the family grows up with their parents in the guard and knows they will join the guard themselves. We have met the Canterlot nobility after all and I can see having a brother or sister serve in the guard being popular.

Has anybody heard of any mlp elder scrolls crossovers? It seems like a logical step after how wildly successful the fallout crossover is, but I can't find any. I was thinking of writing one, but I'm not very good at writing.

Erumpet wrote:Has anybody heard of any mlp elder scrolls crossovers? It seems like a logical step after how wildly successful the fallout crossover is, but I can't find any. I was thinking of writing one, but I'm not very good at writing.

Around when Skyrim was first released a few dozen cropped up, but none of them have achieved any real fame so I'm dubious as to quality. I'll read them if I ever have the time, after finishing all the things I know are good.

Cptadder wrote:Well Pipsqueak was what, six years old at the time of Luna's first nightmare night?

Given the variability of pony ages, I'd say "between 8 and 10". The CMCs, for reference, are between 10 and 12.

Which means at the start of the great war Pipsqueak would be eleven years old. I'm not sure how pony ages work and if they are similar to human ages but for sure Pipsqueak would be twenty by the time of the Littlehorn massacre.

Just assume he's a few years younger than the CMCs and work from there. They're running a multinational corporation; he's in the Navy.

Which means Pipsqueak could spend between seven years to eleven years in the Navy. That's to short to be a Captain of his own ship unless it was a patrol boat but plenty of time to be a XO of a ship. Again that's without patronage getting him advancements. Your not making Captain without at least ten years even if you are sleeping with you favorite princess.

Well, it's theoretically enough but you can't assume he joined the navy right at the start of things. That's why I said Ensign or Lieutenant JG; he's well within the age range for a young officer.

Sindri wrote:

And you're thinking of peacetime promotions, when you become captain because of long and honorable service. During total war, with casualty numbers like we saw in the other services, I think the most common way to become Captain is to have everybody above you dead and demonstrate the ability to command. Age doesn't matter much if they know what they're doing better than the rest of the ship, and even by your estimate of 11 at the start of the twenty-year war his thirteen years of combat experience would make him very good at it.

I quoted twenty two years for peacetime, fourteen years for war time. Ten years if your losing badly. And I'm making a difference between battlefield temporary promotions and a permanent Captaincy which is a real word. Captain as in 0-6 and in charge of your own ship of the line. In order for Pipsqueak to say be Captain of the HMS (HHS?) Luna would require him to be an O-6 the way the Navy works. He could be Captain (If your in charge of your own ship your a Captain no matter how humble) of a smaller ship (We let Lieutenants Captain Patrol boats for example and Lt Commanders can be in charge of Frigates, Destroyers and support ships).

The thing about Naval combat is that it's not a very lethal profession compared to Army service except when it is. Ships are designed to float, take awhile to sink so unless you go down in stormy weather or hit the ammo storage and have the ship blow up on you many ships have tons of survivors. So if your ship is shot out form under you, you can move most of the crew to a new ship and be back in the fight in under a month. This means there's not as much room for sudden advancement as in the Army where a unit can be shot to shit and the Master Sergeant who ends up leading them for two weeks gets a promotion to Lieutenant and gets put in charge of the unit in essence jumping three ranks (If not exactly). The flip side is however that sometimes Naval combat IS lethal and sometimes you lose all hands with a ship or the damn thing just sinks in a storm meaning that kind of 25% loss ratio that produces rapid battlefield advances does not exist in the Navy.

I don't care how many Zebra's you sent to the bottom Pip, until you can drink your tea properly and keep that monocle in place you shall not have your own Battleship!

Sindri wrote:
Agreed on most points. Shining was the captain of the Canterlot city guard. He predated the conventional military, and his sole duty would be to defend the city of Canterlot against all threats. He wouldn't have left while there was a war on, and he's unlikely to have died before Pink Cloud killed his city. Once he realized that he'd failed his city and his Goddess, his only remaining goal would be to keep his wife alive, and he would ensure that she got to "safety" as the last thing he did.

The Royal Guard travels with the Princess, the Royal Guard has all three pony types represented.

Sindri wrote:
Royal Guard != army. Shining would protect Canterlot, and possible the Princesses, but he wouldn't go to war until it came to his gates and he certainly wouldn't be in charge of the war effort.

The Royal Guard is the only identified military force in Equestrian even if Shinning Armor was bound by oath, dead, spell and transmutation circle to the Capital itself the Equestrian Army would be formed by necessity out of Royal Guard Ponies to have a framework to recruit the ponies who would lead it.

And which rank are you, Adder?

ketchup504 wrote:And which rank are you, Adder?

I left the service as a Petty Officer second class, my Uncle (Who has since died of cancer) left as a Lieutenant Commander, my grandfather was a member of the 1939 WWII American volunteer groups that served overseas before America formally entered the war and later went on to serve as a carrier pilot in the Pacific before retiring as full commander. My great uncle by marriage was a submarine driver and exited the service as a Vice Admiral in the subs. My great and great great grandfather served in US Navy as well and I know I have a civil war Captain ancestor in there somewhere. I grew up around retired Vietnam era Marine snipers, former Admirals and Captains as I'm from a military family with a long record of service and one thing that happened after WWII and WWI and earlier is that when long term service people tend to get out they like staying near their own, own as in former members of the military. Meetings at the local VFW on the 4th of July could be sixty or seventy people of in those days WWII/Korea and Vietnam vets when I was visiting my grandparents. My second babysitter was a Naval flight surgeon for twenty one years before he retired to civilian practice.

I grew up listening to table talk as my grandmother dragged me along to the traditional parties full of the officers wives circuit and I listen as I heard about Captain such and so being passed over for Rear Admiral because he pissed off Admiral X, or Admiral Y was having an affair and everyone knew it so he was going to be eased out. How Captain Z landed a job as a talking head on CNN.

Coronado, Pensacola, Bragg, Groton (To a much lesser extent) DC and of course Norfolk itself are cities you can go to and find these little meetings and the little groups to grow up learning the political game you need to master to reach the rank of Captain and beyond, who's old rivalries you must watch out for, where the bodies were buried and exactly who's ass to kiss and how if you wanted to get your own Battleship (These days your own carrier/fleet command)

I don't remember seeing a Earth Pony Royal Guard. Just white pegasus and brown/gray unicorns. And where whould the bat-ponies fit in this army?

Thanks for sharing, very interesting. Really.
Nobody uses battleships anymore, everything is missiles and aircraft for naval warfare. First strike capability-based, right?

Cptadder wrote:

WavemasterRyx wrote:

Cptadder wrote:Ten minutes of searching have lead me to the startling conclusion that no one has thought to do a Pony version of Robert E Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman or Ulysses S. Grant, Nathan Bedford Forrest, or George B. McClellan to foster on O.Hinds as his new avatar.

Really any civil war era General will do as everyone was going as a Gentleman doing those days.

I'll see what I can do.

All done.

Spoiler:

http://wavemasterryx.tumblr.com/post/26526611027

Kattlarv wrote:@Wave: (Hey, you did a "comment like me" thing :P)
And thanks. Will do some stuff and hope I soon find inspiration to work on it.
Also, once I apply some more duct tape on the suit story, mind if I ste- borrow your picture as a thumbnail for it?

Heh, yeah, well I like being sure to answer anyone that addresses me, if I can help it, and I have no problem doing huge posts. When there's that many of course, doing just the @ thing is a bit more... viewer friendly I suppose than using a full block-quote.
If you'd like to use the picture for your stormy thumbnail please feel free, I'd be happy to let you use it. Also please send me a link once you have your story finished heh.

Ice Crystal wrote:Happy Fourth of July everyone, I hope you all have a good one!

Ah yes, Happy Fourth of July everypony. And if you don't live in the US... set off some fireworks anyways if you want to! Because why not.

Rafafidi wrote:I don't remember seeing a Earth Pony Royal Guard

We see one in a group of three Unicorns in Part 1 of the Canterlot Wedding and some in the streets trapped in Goo in part 2.

Rafafidi wrote:And where would the bat-ponies fit in this army?

Luna's personal guards and the night watch.

Let me just say thank you Netflix I had to check my memory with nine different episodes and yes, 90% of the guard seems to be Unicorns.

WavemasterRyx wrote:

All done.

And in Honor of General Sherman my favorite two quotes of his

Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other

I think I understand what military fame is; to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.


-William Tecumseh Sherman

ketchup504 wrote:
Nobody uses battleships anymore, everything is missiles and aircraft for naval warfare. First strike capability-based, right?

Battleships died with the air dropped torpedo and the aircraft carrier because you can't mount enough AA guns and enough armor to shrug off sixty planes throwing torpedoes at you or level bombing your ship. It got even worse when the planes could stand off an engage from over the horizon in high speed runs. We kept the Iowas around until Gulf I and we wanted them for later but an act of sabotage by an idiot resulted in us scrapping the upgrade plans. Fighting other ships missiles just have way to effective a kill rate when you actually get a hit. The Navy wants a big gun again for shore suppression but we are looking into rail guns not giant conventional guns. We could not even cast new sixteen inch shells or cannons if we wanted to since all the hardware was dismantled, sold or scrapped years ago.

Well off for Fireworks, enjoy your fourth all.

Cptadder wrote:

Rafafidi wrote:I don't remember seeing a Earth Pony Royal Guard

We see one in a group of three Unicorns in Part 1 of the Canterlot Wedding and some in the streets trapped in Goo in part 2.

Sorry, but I call then "animation errors", since there where some alicorns in the royal guard in this episode. My head-cannon is white for pegasus and gray for unicorns. The season 2 finale is full of mistakes.