On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

[Cubbyhb1]

Its important to remember that Air Groove doesn't actually dislike the puns, she just finds them unprofessional and sometimes has trouble understanding them.

 

[Ciber]

At first I was very skeptical of this crossover ...
Now I am physically pained to have reached the end.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

Imma be honest and say Rudolf puns here is too well done (and I feel too much reference to irl horses, which shouldn't work). Rudolf puns in general tend to be far more forced and cringe inducing. Trying to force puns in places that should not be placed in.

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Rudolf probably trained up her Wit to do subtle puns.

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This is pre-Teio Rudolf, so she's not actually intentionally trying to create puns, and is mostly just too used to racing metaphors being thrown into things so keeps doing them. Some of what Shirogane finds funny is her referencing things that apply to the horse animal but not umamusume.

Also, considering Shiro lives by herself, I think it will be inevitable that Air Groove will at some point to visit to destress/clean up, only to get disappointed at Shiro cleanliness.

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Shirogane's apartment would be very clean and actually fairly decorated since her mom and grandmother decorated it. What Air Groove might get on Shirogane's case about is her sleeping patterns or overwork. Though it would make sense for her to check in on Shiro's place early on to see how she was settling in. Once she sees Shirogane is fine it wouldn't be as much of a concern.

Anyway, just curious but who else is in this iteration of Rigil. Because while Brian, Rudolf and Air Groove fits. Sounds like Umas such as Taiki Shuttle (big dog energy), Maruzensky (too chill and running for fun) and TM Opera O (very bombastic), and El Condor Pasa (genki wrestler) shouldn't fit in this team.

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It seems like Hana Toujou is able to train a wide array of runners personality wise, though they have to be ones that will listen to instruction or are able to articulate their decision making. Silence Suzuka was her trainee for a while and it didn't work out too well, since Suzuka kinda just runs at her own pace and doesn't do well otherwise. Or maybe Toujou is just not particularly good at training Front Runners, for whatever reason.

How so? I'm not too familiar with Uma, either anime or game. I just know them through osmosis knowledge.

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Shirogane reminds her vaguely of Oguri Cap and Symboli Kris S.

did she not even cast it and went straight for the punch?

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She did not cast it. She lacks a computation orb so can't do any of the more obvious magecraft spells.

Also, I kinda want to hear what the Tracen Gossip Network has to say about Shirogane.

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Nothing really at the moment, aside from Symboli Rudolf's trainer picking up a new trainee.

She did mention having the occasional informal races between friends, so she should at least have the basic of sprinting it to win it.

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Steady is also a draft Uma not a racing Uma. She's built to lift not run.

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While the races were unofficial, Steady Distance is an active racer who is doing pretty well on the local Kanagawa circuit. She's a dirt runner though, so is not as well know. Shirogane can beat her in some scrimmages, especially on the road, and the did this quite often, so Shirogane basically does have some experience running a race, but as shown in this last chapter, she is largely unfamiliar with the official ways of starting and ending a race.

Wonder if we'll get to see if Spe is racist when she sees a chestnutter... I forget if Shiro is chestnut with a white eagle or somehow inverted and she's the first ever instance of gaining melanin or if she's blonde with the white eagle and the chatbot spitting out pure white hair for the Reference Image doesn't help in the regard.

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Shirogane has pale gray hair that fades to white towards the forehead, so she won't fall afoul of Special Weeks learned suspicion of chestnut umas. Funny enough, Special Week will probably be one of the few younger umas who is completely unbothered by Shirogane's lack of uma emotes, since Spe is mostly used to being around humans, and Shirogane would just come off as a very serious person.

Talked about her childhood, it involved teachers thinking she was dyeing her hair and wearing color contacts.

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Presumably this is much less prevalent in umaverse, since umamusume in Japan have a pretty wide variety of hair colors, and since there's interbreeding, that means humans in Japan have more variety in hair color as well, which seems to bear out since some of the trainers have hair that isn't black.

If Gold Ship is here I can already predict that she'll end up joining McQueen as GolShi's conscripted audience to her antics.

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Shirogane is not really one to be an audience, but that means, unfortunately for her, that she'll be too interesting for Gold Ship to ignore.

I still choose to Believe they're actual staff members.

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Given how long Rudolf is there, at some point it seems like they do transition into staff members. Though if Shirogane follows the same trend she'd probably end up on the security team.

...Dadulf doesn't match that.

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While Rudolf does have a silly side to her, she's quite focused and serious most of the time. Unless Teio is involved.

Gonna have to get her a therapist, they have another Staff Sergeant Reckless.

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Sergeant Reckless was known to be largely unaffected by gunfire after her first experience with it though. She was basically an ammo runner, while Shirogane is more of an attack horse.

Most umas would be kind of like greyhounds if they were dogs, while Shirogane is more the equivalent of a Belgian Malinoe.

 

[```]

Regarding Being X, I can see them being petty enough to reincarnate Tanya as a horse and just leave it be. Fortunately for Tanya, when her horse life had ended, she got reincarnated to horse isekai land AKA Uma Musume.

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That's actually a really neat theory. Considering her colouration, and all the other hints being dropped... she was a Destrier in another life, wasn't she? As she gets older, will she find herself having to resist the inexplicable urge to charge into groups of people, crush them under her heels, and hear the lamentations of their women? ("Hold on, who put that last part in the scri- DIGITAL GET BACK HERE!")

Anyway, I saw a author comment in AO3 mentioning Shirogane/Tanya will be able to use magic and I hope when she does, it wouldn't be used to make her faster in a race, since it'll be cheating essentially. Would be more neat if the magic is more in line with Uma weirdness (i.e. Neo Universe able to see alt universe, Manhattan Cafe friend, Still in Love infectious insanity).

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It's interesting. There are a lot of things in Umamusume that, on first glance, you might be inclined to simply brush off as conceits of game mechanics or one-off jokes for a gag panel, not 'in character' to what's going on in the 'real story', as such.

But as time goes on and certain things pile up, you suddenly realize: this stuff is all actually happening.

Neo Universe lamenting a friend she never met in a world she'll never see (again).

People literally getting powerups from divine blessings and channeling the spirits of the ancestors.

Mad scientists stopping at nothing to plumb the nature of the world - and getting results.

Sunday Silence haunting her descendants and people like Manhatten Cafe who aren't just seeing things. There are things there doing things. That she can see.

Grandmothers leaving a grimoir for the kids and surprisepikachuface when they try out a ritual in it.

People like Marvelous Sunday or Maruzensky who can just casually slide into an astral realm in certain conditions.

When Rudolf talks about someone going 'in the zone', it's not just a figure of speech; they're literally tapping into another level of existence.

Umamusume is a low key supernatural setting, and I think it's interesting to see authors explore and engage with that aspect.

Uma Musume Pretty Derby - Good Luck Charm (Doujinshi) - MangaDex

A short story about Silence Suzuka, who is in hospital, and Matikanefukukitaru visits her, or is it Fuku that she is right now?

mangadex.org

 

[Jetsmillion]

Hmm, speak on supernatural umas, think any of them will notice when Shiro uses her magic for something?

 

[Renko]

Shirogane's apartment would be very clean and actually fairly decorated since her mom and grandmother decorated it.

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Wait! Shiro is not going to stay in the dorms? She ain't going to room with anybody!?

View: https://youtu.be/gF8hyTSQ-lY?si=hWUwzDNQ_nVzsCkS​

I don't like this!

Why does she have to be loner again!? She's not an SI!

There's this other YS story that I'm reading and she's also a loner in it too! WTF

I was hoping she'll be able to interact with the characters more and get herself to more shenanigans by being dorm mates!

I was hoping the she'll be with Gold Ship....

 

[pot]

This is pre-Teio Rudolf, so she's not actually intentionally trying to create puns, and is mostly just too used to racing metaphors being thrown into things so keeps doing them. Some of what Shirogane finds funny is her referencing things that apply to the horse animal but not umamusume.


Shirogane's apartment would be very clean and actually fairly decorated since her mom and grandmother decorated it. What Air Groove might get on Shirogane's case about is her sleeping patterns or overwork. Though it would make sense for her to check in on Shiro's place early on to see how she was settling in. Once she sees Shirogane is fine it wouldn't be as much of a concern.


It seems like Hana Toujou is able to train a wide array of runners personality wise, though they have to be ones that will listen to instruction or are able to articulate their decision making. Silence Suzuka was her trainee for a while and it didn't work out too well, since Suzuka kinda just runs at her own pace and doesn't do well otherwise. Or maybe Toujou is just not particularly good at training Front Runners, for whatever reason.


Shirogane reminds her vaguely of Oguri Cap and Symboli Kris S.


She did not cast it. She lacks a computation orb so can't do any of the more obvious magecraft spells.


Nothing really at the moment, aside from Symboli Rudolf's trainer picking up a new trainee.



While the races were unofficial, Steady Distance is an active racer who is doing pretty well on the local Kanagawa circuit. She's a dirt runner though, so is not as well know. Shirogane can beat her in some scrimmages, especially on the road, and the did this quite often, so Shirogane basically does have some experience running a race, but as shown in this last chapter, she is largely unfamiliar with the official ways of starting and ending a race.


Shirogane has pale gray hair that fades to white towards the forehead, so she won't fall afoul of Special Weeks learned suspicion of chestnut umas. Funny enough, Special Week will probably be one of the few younger umas who is completely unbothered by Shirogane's lack of uma emotes, since Spe is mostly used to being around humans, and Shirogane would just come off as a very serious person.


Presumably this is much less prevalent in umaverse, since umamusume in Japan have a pretty wide variety of hair colors, and since there's interbreeding, that means humans in Japan have more variety in hair color as well, which seems to bear out since some of the trainers have hair that isn't black.


Shirogane is not really one to be an audience, but that means, unfortunately for her, that she'll be too interesting for Gold Ship to ignore.


Given how long Rudolf is there, at some point it seems like they do transition into staff members. Though if Shirogane follows the same trend she'd probably end up on the security team.


While Rudolf does have a silly side to her, she's quite focused and serious most of the time. Unless Teio is involved.


Sergeant Reckless was known to be largely unaffected by gunfire after her first experience with it though. She was basically an ammo runner, while Shirogane is more of an attack horse.

Most umas would be kind of like greyhounds if they were dogs, while Shirogane is more the equivalent of a Belgian Malinoe.

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Hope the chaos being known as goldship appears

 

[D'znn-Xy'lll MetaChthonia]

Shirogane is not really one to be an audience, but that means, unfortunately for her, that she'll be too interesting for Gold Ship to ignore.

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Mh-hm, if McQueen is any Example GolShi just latches onto whomever can act as Straight Man to her comedy routine of a life, more SERIOUS BUSINESS the better, and if they try to escape? She has a nice sack for them. If they can escape The Sack? Well, that's like running from a tiger, she just needs to chase then. Tis why I said "conscripted" because I doubt even McQueen is willingly there even if she was assigned to be GolShi's minder to make sure she doesn't go too out of pocket. Just gave up on trying to escape Gold Ship from her always finding a way to drag her into it or will just take whatever shenanigans she does to McQueen instead.

Sergeant Reckless was known to be largely unaffected by gunfire after her first experience with it though. She was basically an ammo runner, while Shirogane is more of an attack horse.

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Point I was making is she has PTSD associated with gunfire from her Past Life. Reacts far more severely then a normal pony and isn't gonna shake it as easily.

IIRC The Sergeant might very well be the only Real World horse to ever figure out how to both operate and do maintenance on firearms and man-portable artillery emplacements. Although who's to say if she had hons PTSD, doubt she ever was in an environment that would make it obvious enough for humans to notice even if it was in an era that would recognize it once she retired.

 

[Jetsmillion]

So, for this story, does Sweep Tosho actually have magic or just think she does? Because that could make for and interesting interaction between her and Shiro.

 

[Cubbyhb1]

So, for this story, does Sweep Tosho actually have magic or just think she does? Because that could make for and interesting interaction between her and Shiro.

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I haven't seen much with Sweap yet, but Daiwa Scarlet's version of the 'plus 5 to all stats and Mood Up' random event is her walking into a magic circle Sweap made.

 

[Jubjub3000]

Thank you for this, I love it! I wonder how long it will take for them to realise how much stamina she has? And how much weight she can run with.

And how long until she kicks something haha!

 

[Jubjub3000]

I'm guessing that Shirogane will be a racer with low acceleration and decent speed,

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Going by what the traffic cop stated a few chapters back, shes got some good acceleration. Maybe she has a lower max speed? So she accelerates really well, can maintain top speed with weights without tiring, but isn't the fastest.

 

[D'znn-Xy'lll MetaChthonia]

Going by what the traffic cop stated a few chapters back, shes got some good acceleration. Maybe she has a lower max speed? So she accelerates really well, can maintain top speed with weights without tiring, but isn't the fastest.

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Spoiler: Image

She would have to depend on everyone else tiring out in the first half to overcome them but even then she would still need to keep up and it's an unreliable strategy.

 

[Jubjub3000]

Spoiler: Image

She would have to depend on everyone else tiring out in the first half to overcome them but even then she would still need to keep up and it's an unreliable strategy.

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Could see her having above average speed though, just not being within the top percentage for sprints.

 

[Jetsmillion]

Spoiler: Image

She would have to depend on everyone else tiring out in the first half to overcome them but even then she would still need to keep up and it's an unreliable strategy.

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Ah, but Shiro doesn't need to have the best top speed if her average speed let's her achieve a big enough lead before the final stretch.

In game stats Shiro would only have about 900 speed competing with those who have 1200 speed. Shiro, however, has near max stamina and guts and spends much more of the race at top speed instead of accelerating at the end.

Edit:
Oh, and she might have stamina debuffs like the Evil Nice Nature build.

 

[MHEmpire]

Regarding stats, I'm gonna weigh in with my previous theory: she's likely a Polish Arabian, both based on her noted altitude for incredible stamina over top speed and historical Polish warhorse breeding preferences since at least the late 1700s—right in time for the author's previous mention in-thread of her ancestor's Ułan uniform being more Napoleonic than 1900s. This would indicate her likely being reincarnated from a Polish warhorse during the Napoleonic Wars themselves (where Poland was closely allied to the French as liberators from Prussian, Russian, and Austrian occupation) or one of the several Polish uprisings that occurred in the years afterward (namely the November, Kraków, and Poznań Uprising, and maybe the January Uprising depending on how far you're willing to stretch the uniform staying in vogue).

Arabians are known for quick by the standards of most breeds, to the extent they are still used in some specific forms of horse racing, but they're not hyper specialized for speed like thoroughbreds are, with stamina being their big standout trait—these races they're used for are mainly endurance races. The Polish line of Arabians are also particularly stamina-focused compared to those bred back in the Middle East, which would further Shirogane's own heavy stamina focus.

 

[```]

She'd be the "This is Fine" horse. Seems quite normal when you interact with her. Then proceeds to be unbothered by most things that would spook an uma.


With how wonky the Umamusume timeline is, that is technically possible. Probably.


I wouldn't say she won against death, exactly, but she doesn't have the same kind of fear of death now that it is a known rather than an unknown.


Shirogane is not likely to be an active saboteur like Stay Gold, but she'd have no compunction running over Stay Gold if the attitude pony tried to box her off.

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Stay Gold was an equal opportunity terrorist.

He kneecapped Top Road and styled on everyone while doing it... but he was also the one who broke open the blocking pack of colluding jockeys and cleared that fateful sliver of daylight for TM Opera O in the legendary 2000 Arima Kinen.

She's got layers. Like an ogre.

(Just don't look for her when Point Flag comes calling for the alimony.)

 

[Jetsmillion]

Stay Gold was an equal opportunity terrorist.

He kneecapped Top Road and styled on everyone while doing it... but he was also the one who broke open the blocking pack of the colluding jockeys and cleared the barest fateful margin for TM Opera O in the legendary 2000 Arima Kinen.

She's got layers. Like an ogre.

(Just don't look for her when Point Flag comes calling for the alimony.)

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So, what your saying is that Stay Gold is like an Onion? Or would she prefer to be a cake or a parfait?

 

[```]

So, what your saying is that Stay Gold is like an Onion? Or would she prefer to be a cake or a parfait?

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Cake or parfait.

Not because it's correct, but because it causes gap moe; and thus is correct.

 

[Neo3932156]

Image

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Can you either resize or put it in a spoiler? It's a bit too big for mobile screen.

 

[```]

Can you either resize or put it in a spoiler? It's a bit too big for mobile screen.

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done

 

[Stranger1950]

This is pre-Teio Rudolf, so she's not actually intentionally trying to create puns, and is mostly just too used to racing metaphors being thrown into things so keeps doing them. Some of what Shirogane finds funny is her referencing things that apply to the horse animal but not umamusume.

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Considering Air Groove is already in office, shouldn't Teio already be retired. Unless you are using anime timeline, that would be pretty messy due to how inconsistent it is to irl timeline, such as Hayahide still racing while Brian already finished racing and the weird position to put in Teio/McQueen/Bourbon/Rice gen and the 2000s gen.

Shirogane's apartment would be very clean and actually fairly decorated since her mom and grandmother decorated it. What Air Groove might get on Shirogane's case about is her sleeping patterns or overwork. Though it would make sense for her to check in on Shiro's place early on to see how she was settling in. Once she sees Shirogane is fine it wouldn't be as much of a concern.

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Air Groove looking at Rudolf and Shiro overworking: Oh no, there are two of them now.

It seems like Hana Toujou is able to train a wide array of runners personality wise, though they have to be ones that will listen to instruction or are able to articulate their decision making. Silence Suzuka was her trainee for a while and it didn't work out too well, since Suzuka kinda just runs at her own pace and doesn't do well otherwise. Or maybe Toujou is just not particularly good at training Front Runners, for whatever reason.

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Which some umas like Taiki Shuttle and El Condor Pasa are kinda bad at doing. Like, El character story is her essentially ignoring what her trainer said and got her own interpretation. While Taiki Shuttle is such an airhead that she tend to do forget what she was doing. Then there is Opera O who has her weird training routine. Doesn't really sounds like stuff that would gel with how serious Hana is and her style sounding like it requires discipline. At least to me, it'll be better to pick and choose Rigil roster and decide which uma makes the most sense.

While Rudolf does have a silly side to her, she's quite focused and serious most of the time. Unless Teio is involved.

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Not really, in her career story, a good chunk of her events is trying to workshop her comedy skills. Like, I can see her spending an entire night thinking of new puns to use. Heck, she was tempted to even buy a pun shirt at some point. Then there is that on Xmas event where Rudolf wore a christmas tree costume.

So yeah, while she is serious a good amount of time, she also got a lot of goofy moments that would make Air Groove groan.

Anyway, regarding the upcoming race, I can see her doing well, but inevitably loses to Air Groove. Although probably by a neck. She is still rather inexperienced and hasn't professionally trained as much as Air Groove. And as talented as Shiro is, its from a combination of hard work, an analytical mind and past lives knowledge. She isn't a monster of talent like Oguri, Brian or Mayano, who can learn moves simply from vibes alone.

 

[FluffyVoid]

Maybe Shirogane will be singing the Gas Gas Gas song to motivate herself to increase her speed in the last leg of the race.

 

[Jubjub3000]

I wonder if in her free time shiro will try and create a delivery company like uber eats but horse girls? Maybe later on create a dedicated training centre and test to create really fast and efficient couriers?

 

[SiegfriedisPower]

Soldier: "The Empire is on the back foot, our allies are strong, and the army is doing well. Yeah we got this war in the bag."

*Evil and Intimidating Horse*​

 

[Jubjub3000]

I wonder if shiro will continue doing laps of the racetrack even after finishing? Maybe she gets so locked in sometimes that she runs until she's out of stamina? Jumping over anyone who attempts to stop her haha!

So there are bets on if she keeps on going, how long and how many laps she will complete and how many people she will jump over or dodge around.

 

[Neo3932156]

I wonder if shiro will continue doing laps of the racetrack even after finishing? Maybe she gets so locked in sometimes that she runs until she's out of stamina? Jumping over anyone who attempts to stop her haha!

So there are bets on if she keeps on going, how long and how many laps she will complete and how many people she will jump over or dodge around.

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One way to get her to do that is by her Trainer wanting to know Shirogane limit by asking her to run laps around the tracks.

Cue to her non-stop running at a consistent pace throughout the entire day, and her distance record remain '?' caused they ran out of time.

 

[Jubjub3000]

One way to get her to do that is by her Trainer wanting to know Shirogane limit by asking her to run laps around the tracks.

Cue to her non-stop running at a consistent pace throughout the entire day, and her distance record remain '?' caused they ran out of time.

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Would be funny if they go home at the end of the day then come back in the morning to her still running at the same speed haha! With the motion sensor counting and timing the laps recording a consistent pace the entire time.

 

[mauveine]

So, as she's a 'Stamina Freak' rather than a 'Speed Demon', can anyone do a rough diagram of 'constant pace' vs 'accel burst then falter' in terms of time-distance
I'm feeling a bit dumb right now, because I should be able to do it in my head (have done it before), but I'm going blank for some reason