Ranger
Chapter 171: Realizations
By Wanderer D
"Good morning, Twily."
The voice snapped Twilight out of her silent contemplation of the caffeinated contents of her mug. She slowly raised her head and blinked at the smiling stallion and accompanying princess.
"S-shining!" she shouted, jumping to her hooves and rushing to embrace her brother in a tight hug.
"Ow! Hey, it seems you're a lot stronger than before!" He laughed as Twilight stepped back, smiling sheepishly.
"Sorry, Shiny, I just-I didn't expect you to be here!" Twilight replied, trotting over to give a much gentler hug to Cadance. "I've missed you guys!"
"We're just glad you managed to come back to us," Cadance whispered, tightening the hug for a moment before releasing Twilight. Her eyes twinkled. "And I heard that you brought a companion that has already sworn you fealty?"
"Well, I brought two friends," Twilight said as they all sat down, "but only Alejandra swore fealty."
"Alejandra, huh?" Shining Armor tapped a hoof to his chin. "Wasn't she one of the rookies you trained with?"
"Yes," Twilight said, frowning at the memories. "The only other one that survived."
Shining patted her on the shoulder. "I'm sorry."
Twilight took a deep breath. "No, sis said it would take time… that sometimes it just springs on soldiers out of the blue. I just… wished it had been different."
Cadance and Shining shared a sad glance.
"Sis?" Cadance asked into the awkward silence that followed.
"Oh, yeah," Twilight chuckled, rubbing her hoof on the back of her head and looking up. "More like clan sister or something. Sunset explained it better, but we decided to go with it."
"Should I be jealous?" Shining asked, smirking.
"Of course not!" Twilight laughed. "You'll always be my B.B.B.F.F."
"How is she, by the way?" Cadance asked, tilting her head slightly, a small sad smile playing on her lips. "We didn't part on the best terms, and the last time I talked to her, she used Luna to take me down."
Twilight cringed. "Yeah… she felt pretty bad about that. You should have seen me when I heard she broke a baton on Luna's face." She shook her head, eyes wide and incredulous at the mental image that kept replaying in her mind. She blinked, pressing her lips. "I-don't know. I wrote to her a couple of days ago, but she hasn't written back." She glanced at the table, frowning. "I hope everything is okay."
"It was surprising to find out what type of pony she grew into," Cadance said, levitating a mug of coffee for herself and Shining Armor. "She always had ambition, but joining a military operation seems a bit—well, not glamorous enough for her aspirations."
Twilight chuckled along with Cadance and Shining. "It's not like the place isn't a clusterfuck of death," she muttered.
It took a moment before Twilight's eyes widened and she looked up from the table to her brother and sister-in-law. "I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said—"
"I never really thought I'd hear you say things like that," Shining said with a grin. "And I'm not sure if I should be proud of you or disappointed."
The trio laughed until a new voice spoke up.
"Twilight? What does clusterfuck mean?" Spike asked.
"Shit."
Alejandra followed Galahad on a lazy glide around the castle grounds, taking the time to appreciate the sights. Even though they had been there over a week, the landscape never ceased to take her breath away.
The sheer amount of nature, the lack of alien threats (other than herself, or Tala, presumably), the perfect balance of culture and technology not actually overwhelming their world. It was paradise in a away, but still too fantastic, too unthreatening for her to feel comfortable.
Nothing could have peace like this, could it? In a way, the political mayhem she had seen and heard about was almost assuring; it made the situation easier for her cynical mind to accept. The fact that politicians were trying to put weight on her presence, that there were real imperfections in an otherwise unblemished world—that there were unseen threats.
But there was one thing above all that she had come to love—besides Twilight, if she was honest with herself—and it was flight.
"You know, I will never get tired of seeing that face of pure bliss," Galahad said with a chuckle as he guided them on a gentle curve, following mostly the whims of the air currents.
"Flying is just... amazing," Alejandra agreed. She slowed down to a hover, staying in place with lazy beats of her wings. "From here I could dominate the whole battlefield. Most enemy fire wouldn't even reach me, if they could even see me."
"It is a superior position to operate from, yes," Galahad said, "but there are several ways here at least to bring high fliers down. Especially if it takes seconds of steady pause to eliminate an enemy."
Alejandra blinked and nodded, giving her new teacher all of her attention.
"While I have heard that you don't have unicorns there, let's assume that you might end up in combat here. There are many ways for you to be taken down by spells. The uninitiated would argue that only strong unicorns would bring you down, given the distance and the limited amount of spells that could reach from the ground to our height fast enough to have trouble dodging them."
Galahad shook his head. "They would be wrong. That would mean that only a small percentage of the guard would be able to be of any use against fliers. Bear in mind that the three main pony tribes themselves weren't always a single, cohesive group.
"By necessity, unicorns developed many ways to deal with flying enemies, be them pegasi, griffons, changelings, or dragons. And that's not including the monster species that also fly. Your worst enemy is the creative Unicorn."
Galahad spread his forelegs in an all-encompassing gesture. "Why exhaust themselves with fire from below when they can teleport more than once close to you. Or worse, you to them. Why risk their health when they can turn the elements around you against you? Why waste power when they can confuse you with illusions? Or even transform you into something else if you're not careful or able to dodge their spells?"
Alejandra considered the grim words. "ADVENT is not known for being too creative," she finally said, "but if Tala or Mox are any example, not to mention the Chosen... "
"Furthermore," Galahad spoke up, "you want to protect Twilight. Be her bodyguard as it is… how are you going to do so while staying away from her far enough to take full advantage of how high up in the air you are, or if you're earthbound, how far up a building or tree or hill you can get while she's in danger?"
Alejandra frowned. "I-I don't know. I was training as a sniper, that means that most of my training was with a rifle and—" she cut off, her eyes widening as she looked down at her claws.
Noticing her stare, Galahad smirked, and nodded sagely. "Yes?"
"My guns."
Galahad sighed. "Well, I was going to suggest learning to fight with your claws, which you will still do, but your guns might not be too bad an idea."
Alejandra grinned. "Alright, I admit it, I thought about the claws first, but that isn't realistic where I come from."
"Right," Galahad shook his head with a smirk. "Now, come, we're flying to Griffonstone. And don't worry, I already cleared it with Princess Sparkle."
"Why?"
"Because right now you are good enough at flying to learn to be a griffon, and that's the closest place to find one that isn't a pastry chef or an assassin of some sort."
"You said the place was a dump."
"It is."
"I can't wait."
o.0.o End Chapter 171 o.0.o
Dig yourself out of that one Twilight. Go on, I'm waiting.
RIP Spikes innocence.
Well that's X-Com, baby. You're not a proper commander until you've experienced at least a couple of those.
The only thing worse then a creative magic user, is a well-prepared and creative magic user.
I really want to punch Fluttershy in the face right now.
9203710
Yes Twilight, What Does Clusterfuck mean?
pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/639210354820665348/cvMaRU-j_400x400.png
Try to explain that Twilight Without Breaking Spike
Flying to Griffinstone seems like a long trip, though possible, especially if they're taking some breaks along the way.
One of the most common mistakes to make around young, fairly innocent youths. Twilight needs to pay attention to her surroundings brfore she opens her mouth like that.
Come silent G you know what to do. Just put all your points into gunslinger.
Griffonstone where Silent G has a chance to meet Gabby.
The fact that Twilight could probably defeat Shining in both physical and magic combat make me feel happy. I mean she is a demigod.
It was paradise in a away
1. Way.
Twilight's vocabulary has been corrupted!
...
I don't know how I should feel about that.
Unicorn Master Race Reversion Tactics 102,class in session!
9204088
And after all that effort to censor her friends.
Bad time for removing the censor spell. Then again, younglings must learn cusses one day or another from their families if they don't want them to repeat them in public without knowing what they mean.
Alejandra is going to Griffonstone. This gonna be good.
Oops.
Twilight's becoming an alicorn Athena, a symbol of both wisdom and warfare. I like it.
And Alejandra... If anything, Griffonstone might be familiar to someone accustomed to human shantytowns.
9203951
I typically focus on getting the deadeye and Rapid fire perks.
I'm calling it. Silent G is gonna get into a fight, like barfight style and she is gonna tear griffonstone apart.
9204713
But she will be a more effective flying bodyguard with pistol that is easy to move around with. Remember Equestria doesn't have anything (except maybe magic) that can take hits from magnetic weaponry. So that rifle will only weigh her down except when she needs to penetrade extremely tough magic barriers and that's where Twilight comes in.
9205351
Let's not go that far. If she dies, how can she learn from her mistakes?
9204616
Better, Have her meet The Other Fluttershy, The Her the Runs a Resistance camp that fights against advent now and again.
She may learn the best from someone who started where she did.
9203735
There is something much much worse. An insane Magic User. Cause even a creative one, still follows logic, still follow rules, they just get creative. An Insane one? They will do things that don't make sense, thing you can't predict no matter how clever or creative you yourself are, they'd do things that you would never think of, even if you had a thousand years to prepare.
Things like using spells that have a high chance of hurting themselves or innocents along with you.
9205650
Well that depends on if the magic in your setting relies on a will-based system of magic or a 'sufficiently advanced science' approach to matters.
I'm willing to bet that god-tier magic (such as Discord) would follow the will-based pattern and your statement is 100% true.
Wanderer, I love this story, but curiosity has been burning me up inside like coal in my brain: you got some kind of obsession with lesbian ships or something? For real, that's all you ever do.
9214875
Uh. He's writing in the MLP universe. 90% of the characters are female, especially the ones with the most character development. Romance between characters that have any development is pretty much going to have to mean lesbian.
The same isn't quite true of XCOM, but unless he was going to ship someone with Tygan or Central, that doesn't make much difference. For the OC squaddies, Wanderer seems to have been following the MLP gender proportions, so F-F relationships are still most likely based on pure statistics.
9203710
9203832
"Well, Spike, the technical definition is complicated, but in ordinary conversation it refers to a situation that is experiencing many unwelcome complications, or a situation that is going very badly. Also, never say that word."
Press F to pay respects.
F.
9228672
Also explain that it is extremely rude. (In other words, the why of why he isn't allowed to say it.) As long as you stay calm, it's quite easy to explain things like that.
"HEY! HOW COME THE SWEAR FILTER DOESN'T APPLY TO HER!?"
"Squiddy, calm down."
"I AM FUDGING CALM!"
If you weren't a griffon that'd sound bad. Heck, it still sounds bad coming out of your mouth. Griffons are more than pastry chefs and assasins! ...Probably.
-GM, master of emerald buttons.
9659892
Up to what chapter should be read before reading the relevant LoSB chapter?
I love how its basically canon that Griffonstone is a trash dump
it was gonna happen eventually
it's canon
I find it immensely hilarious that it ended up being Twilight who dropped an f bomb first.
Damn fine chapter.
Magnificent tactical analysis and rich lore of warfare ♤♡