"This is the next step in your tutoring." Luna explained as she and Chris walked down the corridors of the Royal Palace, "We will be working on your body and learning how to use your safe portals as tools when fighting an enemy."
Chris scratched his head,
"Why the safe portals? I mean I understand using them for practice, but in a real fight I'm going to be going for the kill."
Luna spread her left wing and slapped Chris on the back of his head,
"Do not be so callous. Any idiot can injure others, the truly skilled warrior can vanquish without spilling blood. Would it not be better to subdue your enemy than to tear them to shreds?"
"You didn't seem to have any problem killing all those Diamond Dogs." Chris huffed, "I'm not trying to be rude, but that seems a bit hypocritical to me."
"Those Dogs were already dead, their bodies simply hadn't acknowledged the fact yet. What we did was a mercy. It is our goal to educate so that death is not necessary. Why kill when you can teach? Turn your enemy into an ally. With enough skill, killing is all but unnecessary. I plan to make you the best, but you must pledge to me that you will use these skills to subdue, not cause permanent injury. I want your solemn oath that you will abstain from killing unless you have no other choice and I do mean NO OTHER CHOICE." Luna emphasized sternly.
Chris reluctantly nodded his head,
"Alright, I swear to do my very best not to kill, but I cannot promise that there will not be bruises, abrasions, lacerations, or broken bones. If it is another pitched battle, that oath does not apply and I will kill in self defense if I'm backed into a corner with no other options."
Luna laughed lightly,
"That will do, thank you. Let us test your awareness. We will be testing and honing all five of your senses, first one at a time and then we will begin adding them together until you can use all of them as a complete set and not just individually. Second, we will work on honing your reflexes to allow you to respond as needed in any given situation. Third, we will learn about how to fight with body and magic. Fourth, we will spar." Luna paused and took a breath, "Which of your senses do you believe to be your weakest?"
Chris answered instantly,
"Smell. It's the one I use the least."
Luna nodded,
"Then that is the only sense you will have."
Before Chris took another step his vision went black. He tried to yell but he couldn't hear his own voice, he couldn't feel the vibrations of his vocal chords and everything suddenly tasted like bland ash. He immediately fell into a complete, uncoordinated panic. His mind refused to accept the complete lack of his other senses, raging helplessly against the total absence of sensory stimulation.
Luna watched with concern as Chris lost his balance and flailed around on the floor helplessly. Though it pained her terribly to do so, she waited until he calmed down more before she lit up her horn and entered his frantic mind.
'Be still Christopher.' Luna's voice sounded within his head, 'This is your first test. You will navigate from here to my chambers using only your sense of smell to follow my perfume. You must trust me. I will allow no harm to come to you but this test will continue until you are successful, no matter how long it takes. Come follow me."
It took the man many long minutes to calm down enough to hold still and even then it took even longer for him to use his equilibrium to rise to his feet.
Chris sniffed the air but he couldn't detect anything right away, 'Shit.'
* * *
19 hours later, after finally sniffing out Luna's perfume, which took him three of those 19 hours, then being led through groups of other Ponies with perfume, then being led through the kitchens, and all around the Royal Palace, Chris' senses finally returned. He was hungry, thirsty, he needed to use the bathroom, he was exhausted, and worst of all, he didn't even know it until his senses returned. The jolt of their return was so sudden and bracing that he collapsed onto the ground, became nauseous, and threw up almost instantly.
He curled himself up into the fetal position and sobbed at the overwhelming stimulation after so many hours of absence. It had been the most terrifying time of his entire life and his emotions ran wild and raw. During the hours he spent trying to follow Luna's perfume, his mind had pushed all other thoughts away, but with his senses returned, so too did the emotions. More prevalent than his confusion were his feelings of humiliation and betrayal. Luna had led him around the Palace all day like a dog on a leash and he had been absolutely powerless to do anything about it. He was more than angry, he was furious. He forced open his reluctant eyes and raised his head, fury burning in his gaze.
What he had thought was Luna's bedroom was in fact a huge bathroom. He was lying on the stone floor in a puddle of his own vomit. The smell, once ignorable, seemed to ignite his nose. With an irate grunt he pushed himself off the floor and unsteadily onto his feet. Looking around, he saw no sign of Luna, but the colossal, steaming pool in the corner of the room seemed to call to him. The rest of the room seemed so bright and intense that it all blurred into one shapeless mass, but the pool was his anchor, the pool had form. The pool was carved into the stone floor with soaps lining the edge.
He stumbled toward the pool and simply fell into it. For a short time he was content to lay in place but the need to breathe forced him to bring his head to the surface. He floundered there soaking in the sensations of warmth and wetness, reveling in his sense of touch. He listened to the quiet lapping of the water against the sides of the pool. Looking at the water, it was crystal clear so he opened his mouth and took a huge gulp of the water ignoring the minor taste of stomach acids which had washed off his clothes and skin. The water was hot and it tasted like water. Looking back, he would always remember that day as the day he realized water had a taste. His senses tingled, everything seemed so alive and vibrant.
Chris raised his eyes and finally took in the room. The walls were sandy brown stone with little niches carved into them for soaps, towels, cloths for washing, shampoos, brushes, combs and all sorts of other implements of personal hygiene. The room itself was quite wide, close to eight Fathoms from one side to the other and was almost perfectly circular. Illumination crystals lit up everything in the room in pure white light, giving the room a steady glow and there, in the middle of the massive bathroom, lying right next to where Chris pulled himself up from, was Luna. Her head was down, eyes staring at the floor sadly. She didn't move a single muscle except to breathe.
Chris' blood boiled at the sight of her. His anger spiked and he scrambled up out of the pool, roaring like an animal. Rising to his feet, he bounded toward her with his hands outstretched and swiping at empty air. Luna never moved a muscle even as Chris crashed into her in a flying tackle and sent them both rolling on the floor. Chris ended up on top, straddling her stomach and grabbed her by the horn with his right hand. He pulled her head up off the floor and raised his left hand... but nothing happened.
His rage filled eyes locked with her sorrowful ones and something beyond words passed between them. Chris stared into her eyes and his anger burned bright, but he could not bring himself to follow through with the motion. He released her horn and let his arms drop limply to his sides, but he stayed on top of her panting heavily and trying to clear his head.
"I knew I had made a mistake when your senses returned." the Alicorn Princess whispered softly, "I will not be using that method again. I am sorry for what I put you through Christopher." she laid her head back down against the floor and blinked slowly, "Everything had been going so well, I... I foolishly assumed that you would be alright with whatever I did and... I made another mistake." she took a slow, deep, trembling breath, "I was wrong... again. I never meant to hurt you Christopher and obviously you are hurt. Next time... I will discuss with you how to proceed..." she looked up at him sadly, "If there is a next time."
Chris was confused. His mind was busy trying to play catch-up, his body was sending him all sorts of insane signals of wants, and needs, and his emotions were as turbulent as a tornado. Without really realizing what he was doing, Chris reached his left hand behind Luna's head, gripped her mane, lifted her head and kissed her roughly right on the mouth. Luna's eyes shot open and she screamed into the kiss. She flailed and screamed and panicked and cried as Chris meshed his lips to hers. She tried to push him off, but she could find no purchase for her hooves. After a few seconds he let go of her head and broke the kiss.
Luna's head flopped back onto the floor with a thump and she stared up at Chris with wide, frightened, tear-filled eyes, panting and afraid to move lest one of her hooves shatter a bone. Both panting breathlessly, they each stared the other down.
Chris was the first to speak,
"I didn't surrender control to you. You took my senses, you took my freedom... twice. It's not so pleasant when somebody takes your freedom is it?" he hissed.
Luna blinked as tears fell from her eyes like a waterfall and slowly shook her head,
"N-no... it... it was... terrifying..." anything else she had to say was lost in broken sobbing.
Luna's title should be Princess of Tactlessness.
And incapacitating enemies with nonlethal portals can only end in hilarity.
I think I see what the problem is here.
Back in the old days, all soldiers were stallions, and all stallions were sex slaves. Luna's training methods are 1,000 years out of date, and they reflect that time, more about keeping the stallions in their place than teaching them anything useful.
And she's too old and proud to learn the rules of a new age. Also kind of dense.
5510759 You are surprisingly close! It isn't so much Luna trying to keep Chris 'in his place' so much as it is that both she and Chris have extremely different expectations and both assume the other will do certain things. And while they are both very intelligent, being smart and creative you can still be dense as they both are.
Was Chris exploiting the Natural Magic that makes mares afraid and submissive from intimate actions to terrify her?
5512269 That's the thing, the only Human who even knows about that is Artex. Chris was only trying to prove a point.
5511773
What exactly did she expect to gain by humiliating him in front of everyone in the castle?
5512609 It never even ocured to her. Worry not, nobody laughed at Chris.
5512648
If you're trying to write her as socially awkward, you're way overdoing it. Shes coming across as someone with almost no empathy or conscience.
5512738 She has empathy, but she is still adjusting to a world where such emotions are shown as openly as they are now. You will see sir.
So thaumaturgic energy doesn't last long in organic containment systems.
How does it do in inorganic things? How long can magic doohickeys go without maintenance? How long do power crystals hold a useful charge? Can magic things be made self regulating by applying some programming logic to spellcraft, or using a create soul spell? Are there devices for soaking up ambient thaumaturgic energy that could be used to recharge things?
To me, it appears as if they both have different ideas as to how things will be done. Luna wasn't expecting Chris to react as he did to loosing his senses, and certainly not to kiss her. Chris wasn't expecting her to just blank his senses like that, and he has no idea how ponies work when it comes to intimacy. So, you've just got a recipe for disaster. Misunderstandings following over-reactions over misunderstandings.
Luna may be 1000 years out of date, but I believe the stallion-revolt thing happened before her banishment, else she would have most likely been exempt from it, due to being on the moon and all.
5515800
5515943
All valid points, these points will be addressed, some sooner than others.
Not exactly a magic question, but relevant to the story.
That kickass armor that Luna had made for the CWG, that comes in 4 legged versions as well as 2 legged versions, right? So far the story spotlight has only been on Chris and Eduardo showing off what the armor can do,
Will the Royal Guard eventually get a matching set, or would it be too labor intensive to fabricate them in such a large quantity? Sounded like Luna spared no expense making them.
5519034 Not quite, that armor is unique to the C.W.G. the E.P.U. Guard have their own and the Civil Guard do too. The defining difference between the E.P.U. Guard, Civil Guard, and the C.W.G. are their purposes. The Civil Guard is primarily meant to keep the peace or deal with the odd criminal and the E.P.U. or Royal Guard function like a combination of the Presidential Protection and Army. The C.W.G. keeps the peace and they serve as firefighters, emergency first aid responders, and quick response military. They need the best armor because of their wider range of responsibilities. (That and Luna was easing her guilty conscious and wanted to do something constructive and help out New Humansville).
5519333
Seemed like a thoughtful gesture on Luna's part. A lot of the trouble that the humans went through was because of the princesses being unwilling to give them the benefit of the doubt. Making the New Humansville peacekeepers the best equipped fighting force in the country is a huge show of trust on her part. Works not only as an apology but as a pledge that she's done judging the humans for things they might do, rather than things they've actually done.
Also the armor is just plain cool, in a Robocop/Iron Man kind of way.
Don't know what Celestia's secret construction project is, but it's going to be hard for her to match Luna's gesture.
5519400 I would have thought it was obvious. Chris used his boon to start up a transportation center between New Humansville and Canterlot, and Celestia is going to expand the transport centers to each of the villages, towns, and cities in Equestria. Her gift is financial stability. Imagine how rich New Humansville will be after news spreads that goods can be moved from one place to another almost instantly and that Humans were responsible for the teleportation pads and the telegraph. Investors from all over the world would would be clamoring to throw money at any Human idea.
5519429
Eh.
Luna is still Best Princess.
5519441 Chris likes her the most, I rather like Cadence.
I hope Luna is going to get a severe talking to or punishment for this.
5522567 There are consequences you have not seen yet.
That black mineral that Luna's anti-magic necklace is made of, can they get more of that stuff?
I'm picturing bullets tipped with the stuff that could let their conventional soldiers bring down the most dangerous villains, from a safe distance. No more gambling the fate of the kingdom on 6 untrained civilians and their rainbow cannon.
Of course, that would mean sanctioning the creation of a weapon that could be used to assassinate the princesses.
5523418 The material the necklace is made from is common, but not weaponized. There are plenty of other things to use as weapons. I do agree with you though, the Mane 6 need a break. There is finally the possibility of somebody being capable of doing so.
@_@
Without your sense of touch, you cannot feel when you need to breathe (if you're taking in too much or too little oxygen), you cannot apply the proper pressure needed to keep from voiding your bowels, bladder, and you'd also void your stomach.
The first (breathing) and last (vomiting) are why people die when they're high.
Ever seen Breaking Bad?
Where what's-her-name chokes to death on her own vomit.
That's what would happen if you suddenly lost all sensory input except smell.
(Your brain would also not have the necessary information on when to send the signal for your heart to beat, so you'd also go into cardiac arrest, and I'm sure there are many other things that would cause you to drop dead if your brain no longer recieved all but one of your lesser forms of sensory input.)
Also, taste and smell are almost fully integrated with one another.
If you can't smell, you can't taste. If you can't taste, you can't smell.
Entirely severe one, and you lose a good ~85% of the other.
I know this personally, as I had some serious nasal damage as a kid from a camping accident (a glass bottle with the cap on fell into the camp fire, unbeknownst to the bottle's owner until it was too late, and I had my face hovering right next to the fire roasting a marshmallow on a stick when the bottle couldn't take the heat). The pressure in the bottle increased til it couldn't take it anymore, and it blew up. A piece of sharp, hot glass sliced clean through the bridge of my nose, and burried itself pretty deep in my nasal cavity. The smaller pieces peppered my face, but they didn't do enough damage to scar, and miraculously nothing hit my eyes or my throat (though my throat was more-or-less shielded by the jacket I was wearing).
Long story short, ever since then my sense of smell has been almost entirely shot (silver lining: I can barely even smell dead skunks or other rotting road kill, it's unpleasant, but no more unpleasant than most people find walking past someone with a slight BO problem).
A side effect to that is that my sense of taste hasn't been the same.
I have to put about 3x as much seasoning as most people do to enjoy a meal to even taste the seasoning, and finer tastes are entirely lost on me.
For this reason, I can't stomach red wine. All those faint flavors that make it enjoyable aren't present for me. I just taste grape flavored vinegar. It tastes like piss.
I generally enjoy foods that have very powerful flavors. Things like anything teriyaki/soy sauce flavored, salty foods, rich drinks like fruit juice and hot chocolate, strong cheeses, etc.
It would be better to tear them to shreds in my opinion. That way you don't have to deal with them anymore.
10145714 If you hate me so much, as your comments to me in other stories have suggested, then why are you reading my works? Did you come to downvote my stories to spite me? I am on the defensive right now. I tend to get that way when someone tells me to 'fuck off'.