Training - Chapter 2
Chapter 2
“No, no, that’s not it,” Nova said as Sabra once again wrapped his front hooves around the rope. “You need to grab it with the back of your hoof. Here, watch.” He took the rope from Sabra and with a quick flip locked his hoof around it. “You’ve got to have a secure grip, see?” he said, pulling his body up with his foreleg. “Then you can bite into it,” he said, demonstrating. “L’ke th’s. Then ...” He wrapped his other hoof around the rope a bit further up and let go with his teeth. “You can let go with your mouth and start pulling yourself up,” he said, repeating the first motion with his right limb and pulling himself up the rope. “Now normally you’d wrap your rear legs around the rope and sort of shimmy them along, but since we’re next to a wall you can just brace your rear legs like so. See?”
“And if I lose my grip?” Sabra asked, giving the rope in front of him a suspicious glare.
“Just bite down with your teeth until you’ve got a hold on the rope again,” Nova said, letting go of the rope and dropping to the ground. “Simple.”
“Rahisi,” Sabra said, looking at the rope as if it were a snake. “Simple. Right.” He leapt into the air, one hoof wrapping around the rope, rear hooves braced against the wall—and tumbled backwards, landing on his back in the training field grass.
Nova laughed. “And here I thought you were some sort of crazy ninja zebra. Come on, Sabra, it’s just a rope.” He watched as Sabra lifted himself from the ground and took the rope in his teeth again. “No, no. Not like that. Here, watch exactly how I turn my hoof.”
Steel moved away from the two as Nova once again began to demonstrate the finer points of climbing a free-hanging rope. Of all the ponies who would have expressed the most aptitude at using a free rope, he hadn’t expected it to be Nova. The young unicorn had even beaten Hunter up the rope, an act that was especially impressive because Hunter had wings.
Then again, Nova apparently couldn’t teleport either. Which was worrisome, as neither could Dawn. Nova at least had an excuse, as near as Steel could tell he’d had never had much formal education, and teleportation wasn’t exactly something one figured out on their own. Still, it was a void in his team's magic capacity.
Steel watched the two for a moment longer, staying silent even when Sabra ended up hanging upside down, the rope having somehow tied itself around his rear hoof. “We studied the body and the mind,” Sabra was saying to hysterical Nova in that calm, melodic voice. “Not ropes.” Steel kept his face impassive as Nova’s horn lit up and unraveled the pooz zebra, dropping him to the ground on all fours.
He watched for a moment longer as Nova showed Sabra again how to grab the rope with his hoof, this time succeeding as Sabra’s body lifted from the ground, one hoof wrapped around the rope. Then, nodding his head in satisfaction, he moved on.
“Right, now. With your front hooves up, I want you to dash at me with your wings,” Hunter was saying to Sky Bolt. “Hold that pose just like I showed you and dash forward.” Hunter stepped out of the way, and Sky Bolt threw her wings back, sliding forward on the ground about three feet. “Alright, that’s a good start,” Hunter said as he stepped back over to her. “Now I want you to do that again, but this time, angle your feathers like this,” he said,matching her pose. “So when you push back, you also get just a little bit of lift, like this.” There was a rush of wind as Hunter snapped his wings back and darted across the ground, covering almost twenty feet before stopping. “Now notice how much further I went?
“Yeah!” Sky Bolt said with a nod. “So this is why we’ve been doing those backthrust wing exercises?”
“You got it.” Hunter said, nodding. “You build that backthrust up and you’ll be able to jump around like nopony's business, on ground or off! Now, let's see you try that again.”
Sky Bolt nodded and launched forward across the ground, this time going several feet further than she had before.
“Excellent!” Hunter said, spotting Steel. Steel gave a quick “come here” motion with his head and Hunter nodded. “Now, just work on that a few times. Don’t push it,” he warned as Sky Bolt snapped her wings back out. “When you start feeling the strain, take a break and just work on those forms. The last thing you want to do is overdo it and wind up with Dawn mad at you.”
“Alright!” Sky Bolt said, her wings gyrating around her body before snapping back, sending her skidding forward across the grass.
“A bit more tilt to the bottom feathers,” Hunter called as he walked up to Steel and flashed a quick salute. “So boss, what’s up?”
“Things going well?” Steel asked, his eyes still on the rapidly darting grey pegasus.
Hunter nodded. “I’ve got her learning the basics of Tempest style right now. She’s a few weeks or so from proficiency, but she’s a quick learner and she’s got the build for it. I’m not sure how she’ll do with Hurricane though,” he said with a backwards glance. “I might wait until we start doing weapons training to teach her that one though, she’s a bit lightweight to be trying that.”
“A lightweight?!” Sky Bolt squawked from the field. “Who’re you calling a lightweight?”
“That’s not positioning I’m hearing!” Hunter called back, his voice sarcastic. “Besides, better lightweight than fat-flank!”
“Oh, you’re such a charmer!” Sky Bolt said, rolling her eyes before settling back into the Tempest start stance. “With a mouth like that, no wonder you use that hat to hide your face.”
“Oh low blow, Bolt!” Hunter called. “Keep that up and I’ll have to show you some Hurricane stuff today. Hooves-on.” Sky Bolt rolled her eyes again, flipped him a quick salute—again with the wrong hoof, Steel noted—and went back to her training, although from the look of her lips she was muttering something.
“Ah, she’s got some spirit,” Hunter said, laughing as he turned back towards Steel. “I like her spunk.”
“And I’m wondering if it was such a bright idea having my sarcastic First Lieutenant assigned to teach an impressionable and energetic young engineer how to be a Guard,” Steel said, raising one eyebrow at Hunter.
Hunter shook his head. “Relax, I’m making sure she’s on the right track.”
“Oh?” Steel cocked his eyebrow again. “Because she’s still saluting with the wrong hoof. Worry about it later,” he said, catching Hunter’s shoulder with one hoof as he started to turn. “I just wanted to know if you’d found anything on those train robberies.”
Hunter shook his head. “Nothing that the Royal Guard would be interested in. I even went and talked to a few ponies they hadn’t and came up empty hooved.” He took a quick look over in the direction of the rope wall, where Sabra had at long last managed to get himself off the ground, although he appeared to be incapable of moving up or down. “I did however—” Hunter said, lowering his voice slightly, “—come up with a theory only somewhat related though.”
“Concerning what?”
Hunter took another glance at the rope wall. “On why our thief let himself get caught. These thefts go back almost three months right? Well,” he said. “What if you were Nova, and you heard that there were these thefts occurring all over Equestria, untraceable thefts?”
Steel looked over towards the wall. Nova was up on top of it now, laughing as Sabra once again lost his grip and landed on the grass below. “You think he let himself get caught because he was worried somepony would suspect him?”
“More than that actually,” Hunter said. “The date he was caught? Almost four weeks ago. News of the thefts only started showing up in the news a week or so after that, and the big break didn’t happen until last week. So, if he did know that he needed a good alibi for not being the train thief, how did he know before anypony else?”
“Assuming of course,” Steel said, “that this all isn’t just conjecture.”
Hunter shrugged. “The dates matched up just a little too cleanly once I put them on paper. It would be worth asking about. Because if he did know about the thefts even before the Guard did, I want to know how.”
“Good thinking,” Steel said, giving the pegasus a nod. “But don’t ask him yet,” he said, watching as Nova slid down the rope with practiced ease and began trying to help Sabra figure out how to move. “I’ll keep it in mind. Anything else you want to mention on that?”
Hunter shook his head. “Nothing. Do you have any idea when the barracks is going to be done?”
“Arch told me it would be another day or two to wire in the magilectric system and finish up the bay doors,” Steel said, his mind flashing back to the confusing conversation he’d had with the engineer earlier that morning. “As to the details of what most of that is for, ask your protégé over there,” he said with a quick motion at the still darting form of Sky Bolt. “She’s the one who came up with most of them.”
“So I did see them installing speakers in her workshop the other day.” Hunter said.
“Most likely,” Steel said. “And I’ve decided not to ask her about that one. Anyway, let me know if you find anything. At ease.”
Hunter saluted and trotted back over to Sky Bolt. “Alright, good. Now let's do it again, but this time I want you to hold your front hooves up. Like this ...” Steel watched for a few seconds and then headed for his office. He still had some work to do that required his desk.
* * *
Dawn let out a relaxed breath as the suture closed, gently pulling the two sides of the cut together. “Now, see there?” she said to the small filly. “Nice and easy.” The filly looked up at her, bravely blinking back tears from her bright blue eyes. “And now your leg will be just fine, ok?”
The filly gave a small sniff but didn’t cry. “Okay,” she said quietly. “Thank you.”
“Don’t move your leg yet,” Dawn said as the filly started to get up. “We still want to wrap this up.” Her horn lit up as a small gauze wrap floated over and began to carefully wrap itself around the stitched-together cut. “Now, you’ll need to take good care of this leg for a few days, so don’t be running around at it.” She levitated a pair of scissors up and carefully cut the gauze. “You want it to heal.” A single piece of tape and the filly was ready to go. “All right, now you can move, but gently, okay?”
The filly nodded as she slowly stood, resting her weight on her three good hooves. “Is it going to hurt?” she asked, tentatively putting her bandaged leg down.
“It might at first,” Dawn said. “But it’ll stop eventually. If it keeps hurting, you need to tell your Mom or Dad so they can bring you back here.” The filly gave her a small nod, her mane bouncing. “Okay then, let's go see your Mom.” The filly took a few hesitant steps down from the examining table and then slowly made her way across the room, limping as she tried to keep her weight off of her wounded foreleg. Dawn opened the door with her magic and followed the filly out into the hall where her mother was waiting.
“Mommy!” The little foal called out, limping over to her mother as quickly as she could. The two exchanged a quick hug.
“Thank you for taking such good care of her,” the mother said, looking up at Dawn with a smile on her face as her daughter continued to nuzzle her leg. “Was everything alright?”
“Everything was fine,” Dawn said, giving the mother her most reassuring smile. “Your daughter was well-behaved through the whole procedure.”
“Thank you again for treating her,” the mother said, giving her daughter another nuzzle. “I know you were about to leave when we came in—”
“Think nothing of it,” Dawn said, levitating her saddlebags onto her back. “I’m a doctor. Fixing ponies is what I do. Now, the duty nurse will have some antibiotics for your daughter to take, and you just make sure she rests that leg and doesn’t tear the stitches out. With the healing spell her leg should be good in a few days and you can bring her back for a check-up then.”
“Thank you,” the mother said. Dawn turned and was about to leave when there was a small tap on her leg. She looked down to see the filly.
“Thank you,” the filly said again, looking up at Dawn with a smile on her face. “You’re a good doctor.”
Dawn smiled down at her. “Why, thank you. You’re a very polite young mare. Now,” she said, looking over towards the filly’s Mother. “You take good care of that leg, and maybe I’ll be here again when you come back.” The filly smiled and gave her leg a quick hug before limping back over towards her mother. Dawn smiled at her and then headed for the office entrance.
Once she’d dropped off her coat, Dawn said goodbye to the duty nurse and headed out one of the employee entrances to the Canterlot General Hospital. She debated hailing a coach to help her get back to the barracks as quickly as possible—after all she was late for her meeting with Steel—but decided against it once she looked at the small amount of bits she’d taken with her earlier that afternoon. She wouldn’t have enough for the quick ride, and it wasn’t that far away. She just hoped that Steel wouldn’t be annoyed with her tardiness. He was already letting her spend some of the training periods at the Hospital, but if it looked as if she was shirking her duties, he’d probably restrict it. Maybe. It was hard to tell with him. And there was absolutely no reason for her to send that poor filly to another doctor if she could do it herself.
Her walk to Canterlot Castle was brisk, her steps quick as she made her way through the streets, stepping past various ponies and dodging the occasional coach. The walk gave her time to think, time to summarize what she’d observed in the last week. She had to admit that she was surprised by the level of ability the team had shown so far. Especially considering that some of them came from backgrounds outside of what one would usually consider Guard material, the results so far had been impressive. It would still take quite some time before the team was truly ready for anything, perhaps as long as six months by her standards, but the progress they’d shown so far was well above what she would have expected.
Of course, the team was somewhat imbalanced, Steel, Hunter, and Sabra alone were each a fighting force to be reckoned with, and together she had no doubt that the trio could easily plow through an entire contingent of Guard without slowing down. But as for herself, Nova, and Sky Bolt, she had her doubts. She could fight, although she didn’t like to, and she was confident of her ability to take on more than one tough opponent at a time, but of Nova and Sky Bolt she wasn’t so sure.
The Guard at the front gate saluted her as she passed, bright sunlight glinting off of the polished gold armor as they moved. She returned the salute with one of her own. After all, she was an officer of the Guard, and there were certain conventions that had to be followed.
She cut through the training ground on her way to the barracks. Most of the team was no longer there, as the practice schedule let them off to enjoy their own free time at four, provided they put several off-hours into practice or study of their own. Sabra was still in one corner of the training field, blindfold up, staff spinning through the air, but the rest of the team had apparently left for the day.
Dawn found one of them a few minutes later as she entered the barracks. Sky Bolt was flitting about near the ceiling at the far end of the barracks, a tool gripped tightly in her teeth as she mimed orders to the construction crew. From the look of things, they were in the process of doing something to the roof. She let out a sigh as she looked over at the four bare walls that at some foreseeable point were to hold her medical office. She understood that there were more important things to work on—Hunter’s office wasn’t even more than a shell at this point—but she still wanted her own medical facilities to be up as soon as possible. Someplace quiet to retreat to when she needed it, where she could close her eyes and relax to some Chopin. Still, Sky Bolt had promised her that they would have her office finished in another week, so there wasn’t too much longer to wait.
She knocked on the door to Steel’s office and then walked in. With all the noise of the construction around her, she wouldn’t have been able to hear the stallion’s call to come in, so she simply hoped that he wasn’t in the middle of anything. “Sir,” she said, snapping a quick salute.
“Hello, Dawn,” Steel said, barely looking up, but returning her salute as she entered. “You’re late.” It was a statement, not a question.
“My apologies,” Dawn said as the door closed behind her, reducing the loud cacophony of noise from the construction crew to a low background rumble. “A young filly came in at the last minute with a cut on her leg that required stitches, and I was the best available doctor.”
“Well, I can’t exactly say much against that without sounding heartless,” Steel said without looking up from the paper he was studying. “Besides, you wanted to see me. Were it the other way around, we might be having a different conversation.” His eyes followed one last line of text and then he pushed the paper away. “Before we talk about anything else however, I do want to ask your opinion of the training so far.”
“Physical or overall, sir?” Dawn asked.
“Both,” Steel said. “And drop the sir. Save it for something official.”
“Yes, si—yes,” Dawn stammered. “Well, physically it’s a little too early to tell. If you ask me in another week or two I’ll be able to give you a better estimate, but for now all I can say with surety is that the two at the highest risk of injury, Nova and Sky Bolt, appear to be handling the training without too much difficulty. Overall, I would say the same. Again, Sky Bolt and Nova are the two who are the ‘low’ end of the group.”
“Even after Nova’s continued performances on the obstacle course?” Steel asked.
Dawn opened her mouth to speak, but stopped just short of replying as she ran over her response in her head. “Perhaps I should rephrase that,” she said at last. “Comparatively, I believe that both Nova and Sky Bolt have much to learn, both in terms of skill but also in terms of utilizing their skills in an effective manner. Which is why I wanted to talk to you. I assume you’ve been over my reports concerning Nova’s magical ability?” She waited, watching as Steel nodded. “So you are familiar with what I noted as “discrepancies” in his magical ability?” Another nod.
“Well then,” Dawn said, clearing her throat with a cough. “Over the past few days I’ve been paying close attention to Nova, and I have reached the conclusion that he is lying to us about his magical capacity.”
Steel’s brow wrinkled as he leaned forward. “How?” he asked, his voice steady.
“He’s been deliberately underperforming,” Dawn said. “I tested the theory myself. You’re familiar with the horn-light test?” Steel nodded at the mention of the small device. It was a common enough tool, a simple device that, when placed on a unicorn’s horn, measured raw magical output and regulated it into lighting a series of magic-resistant lights. “Each time he’s been connected to one,” she explained, “he’s performed at a level average for an ordinary unicorn, but his magic out in the field hasn’t quite matched up to what he’s tested.”
“So,” she said, pulling a small horn light from her saddlebags. “I modified this one, made it far more resistant than normal.” She slipped the small cone shaped machine over her horn, feeling a momentary tingle as it eagerly sucked up the ambient magic of her horn. “I, for example, can normally only light three of the five lights.” She took a deep breath and began to channel as much magic as she could through her horn, focusing on her best talent, healing. The horn light began to glow faintly, and from the corners of her eyes she could see the first gem begin to light, then the second, glowing with a faint dull orange glimmer.
Dawn released her magic and the glow faded. “The ranking is exponential,” she said as she plucked the horn-light from her head. “So where normally I would rank as a three-plus, or a strong three, with the modifications I made to this particular light I come up as a solid two.”
“Alright,” Steel said, looking intrigued. “And what happened when you gave it to Nova?”
Dawn scoffed, her ears going flat. “He scored exactly the same as he always has, a solid three. I’d never thought about it until I got suspicious, but with the mirrors in the medical office we’ve been using he could probably see exactly where his score was.”
“So he games the results,” Steel said, sitting back. “I can’t say I’m surprised. There’ve been a few other little things brought to my attention as well. What do you think he’d peak at if he gave it his all on a regular test?”
Dawn shrugged as she thought back to her magical theory classes. “I’m not quite certain. At least a four-plus. Maybe even a five. It’s difficult to say for certain.”
“And how rare is that for a unicorn?” Steel asked, putting his hooves together.
Dawn’s thoughts raced as she pulled the numbers to the front of her mind. “Statistically, about one in three-hundred. As I said, it’s an exponential growth.”
“Hmm,” Steel said, leaning forward again. “Out of curiousity, what would you say the ranking of Princess Celestia’s student is?”
Dawn sat back in surprise. “Her?” she asked, surprised. “Maybe a seven or an eight, but that’s completely theoretical. If she knows, she hasn’t told anyone. What does that have to do with anything?”
Steel shrugged. “I was just curious. Well, thank you for letting me know about Nova.”
“You’re welcome,” Dawn said. “But ...” she paused for a moment. “What are you going to do about it?”
Steel sighed. “For the moment? Nothing.”
“Nothing—”
Steel cut her prepared question off with a raised hoof. “To be fair, while dishonest, it’s not as if he’s done anything other than withhold information about himself.”
“But—"
“No buts, Dawn,” Steel said, giving her a pointed look that spoke volumes and made her sink back in her seat. “I don’t want you asking him about it,” he said, leaning back. “I’m fairly sure he has his own reasons, and those will come out in time. Now, do you have anything else to add?”
“Well, no,” Dawn said, feeling slightly confused at his orders.
“Well, then I need to get back to work.” Steel looked down at his desk. “Oh!” he said, his ears perking up. “Before you go, I have something that I need your medical opinion on.” He picked up a small stack of papers and slid them across the desk. “What can you tell me about enchanting crystals?”
“Not much,” Dawn said, off put by the sudden change in topic. “Why?”
“Sky Bolt had an interesting theory the other day regarding them,” Steel said, tapping the stack of papers. Since he looked as if he expected her to look at them, Dawn picked them up.
“What are these?” she asked as she looked down at the top page. There was a lightly inked sketch of angled, pony-shaped metal sketched on the page, with notes written all over the margins. “They look like armor sketches.”
“They are,” Steel said, and Dawn’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Sky Bolt’s been doing some preliminary sketch work on possible armor designs.” He gave his head a small shake and smiled. “I honestly don’t know where she found the time between her training and the construction, but what I want to ask you about is this.” He stepped around the desk and tapped the sketch right in the back of the shoulders. “She has this idea about using enchantment crystals to supplement the armor, but she said it could be dangerous.”
“Why not just enchant the armor like the Guard does?” Dawn asked, spreading pages in the air in an attempt to make sense of the designs.
“I asked her the same thing,” Steel said. “Apparently she’s looking at high level spellwork. Something sustainable or more robust than a low grade enchantment. She drew a few concepts on one of the pages here,” Steel pushed a few of the pages with his hoof, making Dawn wince as the extra pressure came back through the bond of her magic. “Ah, here we are.” He held a page out towards her. On it were several quick sketches with notes describing the scene. One showed an armored pony lifting a several ton boulder in his hooves. The notes below marked it a “strength enhancement gem.” Another showed only a vague pony-like outline, with a note below declaring it an “Invisibility enchantment.”
“She wasn’t joking,” Dawn said as she looked over a few more sketches. Speed enhancements. Stability. One page seemed to be devoted to a detailed breakdown of the armor itself, which seemed to be comprised of alternating layers of thin crystals. “About the Guard armor,” she clarified upon seeing Steel’s confused look. “The stuff she has here, it's ...” She struggled for the right words. “It’s like something out of a comic book.”
“So it’s not feasible then?” Steel asked.
“No, quite the contrary,” Dawn said as she picked up another sheet of paper. It was covered in mechanical equations that she couldn’t hope to understand, line after line of equations that seemed to intermix magical theory like it was some sort of seasoning. “I’m not an expert, but this looks completely feasible.” She cocked an eyebrow at Steel. “Where did she say she got these?”
“She told me she got the idea from some comic books as a filly,” Steel said, confirming Dawn’s earlier choice of words. “But apparently she worked this all out on her own.”
“Impressive,” Dawn said, making a mental note to slip the young mare an intelligence test. “Whatever she’s being paid isn’t enough.”
Steel nodded. “I already knew that, but as my magical education is a little lacking, I was wondering if you could explain why she seemed most worried about the enchanted gems.”
Dawn sat back, shuffling the papers back together once more. “Simple. Enchanted gems are by far the most expensive part of her designs. Gemstones in and of themselves are not exactly rare in Equestria, but only certain gemstones—and I don’t know the exact percentage—can be enchanted.” She tapped the stack of papers. “And while in theory any enchantment can be placed in a gemstone, actually placing the enchantment is ...” She paused as she searched for the right words. “—difficult, to say the least. Imbuing a gem with an enchantment takes time to do properly. Rush it, and you run the risk of building a dangerous magical backlash that can,” she paused for a moment, her throat dry. “Make one go insane.”
“This is why although the art of enchanting gemstones has been around for hundreds of years,” she explained, looking up at Steel. “Actual enchanted gemstones are costly, as it can take a single unicorn a month to properly enchant a single gem, depending on the complexity of the spell. Also, the enchantment does not last forever. I don’t understand all the science behind it,” she admitted, “but there are limitations to how long an enchantment can last. In many cases, it’s simply more profitable to find an alternative method.”
“I see,” Steel said, sitting back down behind his desk. “That explains a few other things as well.”
“Really?” Dawn asked. “Like what?”
Steel waved a hoof. “A steam engine design she showed me when I first met her. She mentioned something about diminishing costs that I think I finally get. Also,” he said with a sudden frown, “I think I’ll need to be talking to Princess Luna about our budget again. Anyway, thank you for clearing that up.”
“Are you seriously considering her designs then?” Dawn asked, a slight curiosity fluttering in her stomach. She’d only read theories of what could be accomplished with a healing gemstone. If she could actually have the budget and time to try for herself...
“I am,” Steel said. “Although for now I want you to keep word of this quiet. Princess Luna wants us to have our own, functional armor unlike either of the other Guard detachments. Besides, I’ve worn the Royal Guard armor. It’s about fifty percent function, fifty percent show.” He looked down at one hoof and gave it a quick rotation. “I won’t turn down anything that gives us an advantage when we need it, but at the same time I don’t want word of this getting out. If this is feasible, then that means anypony with the right equipment could make something of it.” He looked back up at Dawn. “So for now, keep quiet about both the armor and Nova, understood?”
Dawn knew an order when she heard it. “Understood sir. Will that be all?”
Steel nodded. “For tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Dawn.”
Dawn moved to leave, but then stopped. “Steel?” She asked, turning back slightly.
“Yes?” Steel asked, looking up from his paperwork.
“How do you feel?”
Steel let out a sigh. “At the moment, tired. But otherwise, fine.”
“I see,” Dawn said, turning back to the door.
“Dawn?” Steel’s voice stopped her.
“Yes?” she said, turning back. Steel’s mouth was open, and he appeared to be debating something.
“Thank you for asking,” he said after a moment. “Good night.”
“Good night, Steel,” Dawn said as she walked out the door, her mind racing with the possibilities of an healing enchanted gemstone.
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If the design is layering crystals, Skybolt is getting very close to what they do with semiconductors in Intergrated chips ( IC's).
"Steel kept his face impassive as Nova’s horn lit up and unraveled the pooz zebra, dropping him to the ground on all fours."
Should be "poor".
an entire contingent
So Nova's out to try and get the thief who could've potentially tarnished his reputation. Makes sense.
Twilight scoring 7 or 8? Meh, you're underestimating her. Now as for combat capability... No, zapping things is nice, but most of her 'opponents' have been not as combat pragmatic either. Now as for enchantment upgrades, I'm really hoping to see a Twilight cameo here. While she may not be a specialist, theorhetical magic enchantment is something I think she would like to take on. It's getting closer to circuitry though.
4081832
Don't forget it's an exponential scale, so an 8 would be a LOT more than twice as powerful than a 4.
I'd love to see this idea combined with Twilight's elerium circuitry in Stardust
4139186 If the scale is indeed exponential, an 8 would actually be 16 times more powerful than a 4, so yeah, don't tick off Celestia's star pupil
Dawn knew an order when she heard it.
4542840
And you're still only thinking Quadratic.
Exponential would be closer to... I, actually can't give you a basic multiplier.
The exact number would be the square, which means the multiplier is the same as what the value for 4 lights would be.
The basic equation for an exponential is y = c^x. (Curse this lack of superscript)
So, for x=4 -> x=8 the multipliers for some values of c would be:
1 : 1
2 : 16
3 : 81
4 : 256
5 : 625
n : n^4
As you can see, the multiplier get kinda ridiculous. (On a side note, I hadn't realised that 2^X would produce something so similar to a quadratic equation)
On a different note, exponential doesn't come up too often with normal measuring scales, logarithmic is far more common and even more ridiculously massive when jumping that far up a scale.
4081832 a 7 or 8, if the base is 2, is somewhere between 128 and 256. With a higher base, the higher the power goes. if 1 light takes 20 power, 8 lights would be 25600000000 power. If we're talking wattage, a continuous beam with this level of power could vaporize mountains. While the base is probably lower, if those lights were conventional home lights for the first, which are 60-watt bulbs, then Twi would have the potential to fire a Death Star Super Laser. That is why a 7 or 8 is scary on an exponential scale.
team's
nopony's, let's
how to be a Guard,” Steel said
protégé
I believe that should be a comma, too.
rare case of an extra comma. Also, delete later. (Or replace with after)
just fine, OK?
well-behaved
door,
Okay... so far, this is proving to be excellent. I shall be continuing to read this, and then the next story following.