//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: How to Bore a Commissioner // by Shieldheart204 //------------------------------// Chapter 5 Shield was at the basement door with Twilight, why she wanted to follow him was a mystery. As soon as he registered his hand and eye to the door he entered and started taking off all of his tools. And while he placed everything on a mannequin the librarian was busy grabbing each and every single gun in the room. Her routine seemed to grab a gun, weight it, aim down the sights and return it. And considering that each rack had five identical assault rifles, it soon got irritating. "What do you expect to accomplish by grabbing my rifles and not shooting them?" He finally snapped. With a surprised look she put a blue-grey bullpup Hermes-Pattern Mark III assault rifle. "Sorry, I was just intrigued by the designs. I personally liked these, it certainly was much smaller than the others, and far lighter than the rest. Why do you have so many?" "It's called an armory for a reason." He shot back coldly, then beating himself with a nearby newspaper, and said apologetically. "No! Bad Sam! We do not use sarcasm against innocent young women!" "Sam who?" She asked confused. "Im sorry about that. Sam is a figment of my imagination, whenever a sarcastic comment slips my radar I blame it on him. I know it's childish but I love having imaginary friends to blame for the stuff I say." He replied as he put his harness on Buster. "Maybe you shouldn't keep imaginary people in your brain, I'm sure it will affect you somehow." She kindly retorted. "I know, but sometimes it's easier to blame something else when it's meaningless. Like right now." He sighed. "I don't suppose you would could tell me of a way to make it up for this?" "I would really appreciate it if you taught me how to teach me how to use these rifles and maybe more about the history of the Commissioners." She said with a smile. He grabbed his white pistol, cocked it and fired on one of the mannequins. The bolt emerged with a loud roar, and upon hitting the target it animated the dummy and forced it to walk into the range. He set her in front of the fence and headed for the Hermes guns. He grabbed one with his left hand. "Catch." He ordered as he tossed her the rifle. She fumbled the rifle and dropped it. As soon as the gun hit the floor it fired an electric blue bolt. The bolt ricocheted across the room and aimed at Shield. With his reflexes he managed to sidestep, but the bullet singed the hair behind his left ear. "I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed as she rushed over to him. "Are you alright?" It took a second after the librarian rushed over for the commissioner to actually notice what had just happened. "Oh shit!" He started patting his head in an effort to stop an imaginary fire. "How bad is it?" He asked after confirming he was not on fire. Twilight couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. "What's so funny about setting my hair on fire?" He asked as he recovered. "Sorry, it's just I can't believe that you got so worked up about that. It's hard to believe that the same man who called a manticore a pussycat got so scared by a single bullet." She said. The blond immediately looked at her. "You actually heard that? How much did you hear?" He asked with a terrified look. She turned away and said coyly. "Not much really, although I thought I heard something about using its skull as a urinal." She then laughed for a bit. "Yeah, I guess I can get carried away whenever I'm fighting." He meekly replied as he scratched the back of his head. "Anyway, grab that rifle and we can get started." Twilight did as she was told, but found it hard to maintain. Both of her hands were focused on the grip, making balance nearly impossible. "No, no, no, no, no no." He stuttered as he neared her. "You don't hold a rifle the same way you hold a pistol." He quickly grabbed her left hand and moved it to the smooth grip under the barrel. "This is the ideal position. Right hand on the trigger and left supporting the light part. The best thing of a bullpup it this." He explained as he pointed at the butt of the rifle, which was pressed to her right shoulder. "Most of the designs make the firing chamber start in between your hands, but the bullpup has the chamfering matrix right in the shoulder rather than in between the hands, which actually allows for larger mana cores. Second, the barrel is actually of the same length as your standard gun so you have the same range with better maneuverability. Now fire." And she pulled the trigger. The red bullet erupted from the barrel and struck the dummy in the right shoulder. "Really? I just thought it was cosmetic design." Replied Twilight as she studied the weapon. "Girl, the army rarely does things just for cosmetic purposes. For example." He went and grabbed the black rifle with silver lining. "These silver lines are not just to show my rank, but actually function as an accelerator for the mana bullet. With the lines the bullet can acquire more momentum than the usual." He said as his index finger trailed from the receiving chamber all the way to the tip of the barrel. "Now, the gold on the grip and stock has the sole purpose of absorbing the recoil on this thing. Which by the way is absurd when you decide to shoot an Alpha Strike." He exclaimed as he aimed down the sights. "Alpha Strike?" Asked the librarian. "Yeah, it's when you concentrate on firing more magic per shot than usual. Remember when you fired that pistol eight days ago?" He said as he grabbed her gun and put it away. "Yeah." Sighed Twilight. "It was totally unexpected." "That's because you focused all of your mind on firing. With that you could probably pierce a dragon's chest in two shots. The big downside is that you will probably have melted down the rifling and also you'll have overheated the weapon." He presented his rifle to her. "So in exchange for extreme vulnerability you can fire a a very powerful shot? Interesting last-resort you have." She contemplated as she was handed the rifle. The weight was greater than the Hermes, but she could still carry it even of barely. "And am I correct in assuming that only mages have this power?" "That is correct, you need to provide the magic from your own pool." He stated calmly as he sat there, motionless. "What's with the weird look?" She asked with an uncomfortable stare. "I'm just waiting for you to fire. I didn't hand you a ten-thousand bit rifle just so you could hold it in your pretty hands." He scoffed. "I want to see how you fare on your own. I'm waiting." "But you haven't shown me proper techniques with this rifle, you have yet to tell me how to avoid bruising my arm, or how to align my sights correctly or..." She started, but was cut off by Shield's raising hand. "Look, I know you've studied magic through your books. I know that you're a bookworm. But you won't beat Star Swirl if you just read what other people did in the past." He scowled as he grabbed a black rifle from a different rack. This was severely shorter than the one she was holding, and it looked like it was made of plastic rather than metal. "This is Manny, he's a special Bushmaster Mark IV Mana Assault Carbine that I use during most operations in Vanhoover. Coincidentally it is the standard issue weapon with the Manehattan Marines. Now, I know from experience that Manny has a special pad in the fore-end of the barrel which allows me to enchant bullets more easily. Like so." He grabbed it with both hands and aimed down range. His left hand began glowing lightly, and with his other hand on the trigger he fired three bolts of fire straight at the target. Upon impact the dummy caught fire. "How many enchantments are possible with that gun?" She asked. "There's no limit. So long as you can imagine it you can shoot it." Responded Shield as he opened the chamber and a faint hiss passed. "That beautiful sound you just heard is the sound of a mana core cooling down." He sighed as he settled his carbine and grabbed his Stallions. Twilight was giggling as she held her rifle. "What's so funny?" He asked as he twirled the pistols in his hands. "I'm sorry. I just couldn't help but think: Manny? You really named a gun Manny?" She grinned. "Well, yeah. I always name my guns whenever they do a good deed. For example, Manny helped save a platoon of legionnaires who were stranded in a cave surrounded by white goblins." He aimed both pistols at the target. "And I think these have earned their name." He pressed both triggers, but instead of the usual crimson bolts, a ball of snow erupted from the white gun and a ball of ash erupted from the black one. "I shall dub these, Snow and Ash. Kinda original, don't you think?" He smirked as he spun them in his hands. "So your guns have to earn their names?" She asked skeptically. "It's a family tradition." "Your family names their weapons?" She questioned. "Nah, I meant that earning your name is part of my family." He replied as he unleashed a barrage of crimson. "I'm the only maniac in Vanhoover to name my arsenal." "So going back to Manny, what was that about it being standard issue only in Manehattan?" "Oh, you don't know? How much of the Equestrian Armed Forces do you know about?" "I really didn't focus a lot in that area, I preferred to learn more about spells and the history of magic. Something that has had little to do with the army." She answered calmly. "Except for the Magitech Revolution that started a hundred years ago." Shot Shield with a smirk. "I'm sorry, the what?" "The Magitech Revolution pioneered by military engineer Grease Monkey. Not only did this provoke the rise of the mechanized industry but also caused the Division of the Army and the birth of the Royal Air Fleet." He replied. "Didn't you read anything besides The Great Magic Compendiums?" "Of course I did! I read all five tomes of Magic History, the Grimoire of Mana and a whole library wing worth of Equestrian History! And I finally figured out what you're talking about! You're referring to the Great Industrial Revolution, the period in which Cogsworth introduces machines to our country and became the father of modern industries." "Correct! You really do know about history, maybe you just need some help in the violent areas. Now take a shot and I'll start talking." He ordered before folding his arms and sitting on a case. "Why are you so eager about this?" She asked as she focused her energy and pulled the trigger. Unexpectedly, the rifle rocketed back and threw the librarian off her feet and making her land in the hard tiles. She nursed her backside as she stood up. "What was that?" Shield was laughing and clapping, almost starting to imitate a sea lion as he started to run out of breath. She dropped the hissing rifle on the ground and proceeded to slap the commissioner in the face. "What's so funny?" He managed to regain his air and started explaining. "Sorry, I just found it hilarious when you did that Alpha Strike." Shield walked over to the remains of the target, where only the knees, shins and feet survived on the site. The rest of the mannequin had been pushed out like building blocks. "Had this been an unlucky dude we probably would have had to use a vacuum to clean his remains." He stated as he grabbed his pistol from his back and started shooting each body part. With a crimson haze the limbs hovered lazily back to their original position. "Why don't you use a wand instead of your gun?" Asked the Mage with purple hair as she touched the gun. It was searing hot, almost to the point that she was confident she could fry an egg with the intense heat it was expelling "That's because my wand is probably somewhere in Vanhoover. They didn't actually bring it, and I've actually gotten used to this whole do it with your hands thing. And anyways, I think it's cooler to cast spells by shooting them from a lethal weapon rather than from an overly glorified piece of wood." He said as he twirled his gun and holstered it on his back. Twilight decided not to follow it, he seemed to have an air of exhaustion and it would be best to let him be. Shield grabbed the rifle by the handle and after checking the temperature, he set it back on the rack with its cousins. "You know what, I'm tired, and I think I should get some shut-eye. Why don't you come by tomorrow for any interviews you might want." "You promise?" She asked tentatively. "You told me about a week ago you were ready for it." "I'm sure, I was ready today but because of the incident I got drained of all ." He said through a weak smile.