Afternoon
Equestria
Lightning Dust looks askance at Tempest Shadow's horn stump.
"You can cast spells with that?"
Tempest doesn't seem much moved by what must be a pretty big insult. I guess she's either used to it, or thinks that someone she's going to be fighting beside deserves to know.
"No. I just fire energy blasts."
"Like, at one third power..? 'Cause you've got a third of a horn?"
Tempest's eyes narrow slightly and her horn crackles a little more.
"You tell me."
Lightning
blasts from Tempest's horn, striking Dust and making her convulse-. For a fraction of a second. Then she spreads her wings and water vapour
precipitates out of the air, forming a small and
very black cloud sheath around them which crackles with electricity. Dust looks at them nervously for a moment, then grins confidently.
Tempest looks at her curiously, then nods. "Impressive reactions."
"Impressive lightning blast. How'd you build up so fast?"
"I'm always built up."
"Oh yeah?" Dust saunters closer. "How's about-?" A small discharge from her doom clouds hits her in the left ear. "Ow."
Tempest raises her eyebrows.
"Let me just deal with this real quick."
She flies over to a window, kicks it open and with a
flap throws the clouds outside before flying back down.
"Owowowowow!"
"How's about-?" She blinks, but Tempest and Buckface have already caught up with me at the other end of the corridor. "Hey!"
Buckface turns his head back towards her.
"Get a bloady move ohn."
Dust grimaces, then with one powerful flap shoots over to join us. Looks like
Super Lesbian Horse RPG is back on. Best of luck to her. I return my attention to the door and knock lightly.
"Enter."
I push the door open and trot inside, the other three following me. Luna has several sheets of paper floating in her thaumokinetic grip and a book on guard procedures in front of her. Celestia is laying on a chaise longue, sipping tea from a cup. She looks at my hirelings curiously while Luna sets her paperwork down to greet us with a smile.
"Grayven. We understand that you have retained the service of these trainers to improve Our guard. How goes it?"
"Not great. Tempest?"
Tempest steps forward. "The Royal Guard are in reasonable physical condition, but their training and equipment are badly outdated. Ponies have a bad reputation for focusing on their special talents to the exclusion of other skills and whoever came up with the Guard's procedure manual did exactly that."
"Thou wouldst rather that they focus on what they are
worst at?"
"When training an army, you need everyone to have standard skills. You need everyone to know what the soldiers next to them can do, even if they don't know them personally. If you don't have standard spells for unicorns, the commander can't know what the magic users under their command can do. If pegasi aren't taught standard weather manipulation techniques you can end up making a plan requiring dense fog only to discover that no one knows how to make it or use it. And as for earth ponies-."
"Theys a right buncha pantywastars a'right."
Tempest keeps her face carefully blank, but she does glance at Buckface in a way which indicates that she's decidedly unimpressed.
"They cannae even break wee little stones wi' their hooves. And I tried wrasslin' one o' them an' his leg snapped like a
tweg."
Celestia sits up, looking slightly concerned.
"You
broke his leg?"
Tempest takes a half-step forward. "Princess, injuries during training
happen. If anything, the fact that.. 'Buckface' could injure them so easily is part of the problem."
Luna looks at me. "'Buckface'?"
I close my eyes, shake my head and raise my right forehoof.
"I see. And what remedy do you suggest?"
"My training techniques are a bit more realistic than running into sandbags, princess. I'll bring them up to scratch."
Luna nods. "We will assign you a platoon to train, that you may show Us the fruits of your labour. Grayven tells Us that you desire Our aid in restoring your horn." Tempest stiffens. "How didst thou receive so grievous an injury?"
"I ran into a cave after a ball.
The cave had an ursa in it."
Luna blinks. "Thou wert attacked by an ursa?"
"Yes, princess."
"At what age?"
"I was six, princess." She hesitates for a moment. "Princess, can you fix it?"
"Such chirurgies exist, but they are slow and difficult to bring to fruition. We will consult with Our physicians on the best way to proceed."
"Thank you, princess."
"We will also need the location of that ursa. If it dwells so close to a pony settlement that foals are endangered We will need to encourage it to seek new accommodation."
Tempest
grins cruelly. "If you wait until my platoon is ready,
we can handle that."
"We think it best to handle it at once, and not wait until Our soldiers are trained adequately. Fear not, Tempest Shadow, if the time since Our return has taught Us anything it is that thou shall have enemies aplenty. For now, consult with Our Captains as to who will be assigned to thine training platoon."
Tempest bows. "Princess."
She turns to leave, Dust and Buckface following and closing the door behind them.
Luna looks at me. "Buckface?"
"A nickname he acquired after a fight with an adult dragon, where he received the injury you saw. He comes from your species' original homeland on the other side of the planet."
"You've been travelling? Did you bring me a gift?"
"Naturally." I
take the wrapped box out of subspace, Celestia frowning slightly as I
pass it to Luna.
She smiles in pleasure and she takes it in her thaumokinetic grip, undoes the ribbon and paper, opens the box lid and lifts out Queen Chrysalis's severed head.
