Twilight stood just inside the entrance to the maze that had been erected in the live fire range. Captain Hunter had led her there from the engineering lab after he had come for her. He was now standing at the bottom of a set of stairs that on a raised platform. Sunset was conspicuously missing.
Twilight looked at the entrance to the maze trying to discern what it is that she was meant to do.
Captain Hunter crossed his arms with a slight smirk and a twinkle in his eye
“So we are going to play a little game. This was a training exercise that Nightshade used to have us run. Its main objective is to teach you to pay attention to your environment. It is also a good way to learn methods that work for both offensive and defensive stealth. Like how I learned that you can fly up above a situation with a good rifle and take out multiple opponents before they know what is going on, because most ponies have bad habit of never looking up for danger.”
“How does it do that?” Twilight asked. She looked around at the entrance of the maze a little more warily feeling like she was being watched. She warped herself deeper into her shadow cloak as if ward off the unseen eyes.
“This is no ordinary maze my lovely fresh faced lieutenant,” the captain explained. His smile grew even wider on his face as he continued, “This is a hunting ground my dear. While this is a maze of sorts, there is no exit. Instead, you get out when one of two things happen. Either you catch Sunset, or she shoots you. Have fun!”
With that, the door to the maze slams shut in front of Twilight. She was now locked in here like pray to be hunted.
“Umm…What did you mean by shoot me?” Twilight asked to the open air above her, not entirely sure that she wanted to know if he was serious or not.
No reply came to her inquiry. After waiting for a while Twilight took off into the maze. The walls of the maze were seemingly made of large white panels. There was very little light making its way into the maze causing long shadows to stretch down hallways. The shadows cast some of the pathways into full darkness even.
Twilight made a left turn and then a right, she made little note of where she was going as she searched out Sunset. She felt that if she moved fast enough that she would be able to take Sunset by surprise.
Where the hell is she?
*Crack*
Twilight felt pain bloom from the back of her head. A spark of electricity coursed through her body as all her limbs went stiff as if they were locked. She toppled to the ground like an unbalanced statue that had been placed on its edge. Twilight struggled to move but she was almost paralyzed, but she could make out the sound of boots on the hard concrete of the floor. While most of her vision was stuck on the ground, she could see the fringes of a black duster out of the corner of her eye.
Sunset squatted down, smoking revolver in hand, and rolled Twilight on to her side so that Sunset could look Twilight in the eyes.
“Poor situational awareness. Again,” was all Sunset said before her horn lit up.
Twilight found herself teleported back to the entrance of the maze. The stinging sensation and the sparks of electricity also seemed to dissipate. Twilight ran through a few motor function tests to ensure that she had full control again before she took off again into the maze.
This time Twilight took much better care to examine to maze before her so that she would not miss any movement that would reveal the location of her opponent. She moved slowly sticking to the sides of walls. She started was steps away from moving from one corridor to another when a light gust of wind brushed the back of Twilight’s neck.
Twilight initially dismissed it as a ploy to distract her from her surroundings. That was until she felt the cold gunmetal push against the back of her head just before another round of shocking electricity coursed through her extremities.
Once again her limbs when stiff as she toppled over onto the concreate ground. As she fell, a hand reached out and twisted her as she fell so that Twilight wound up landing on her back staring at the celling of the live fire range.
Sunset once again crouched down next to Twilight and lowered her aviators just enough so that they could look each other in the eyes.
“Failed rear security. Again.”
Another flash of light from Sunset’s horn and once again Twilight was back at the start.
This pattern repeated itself for some time. Twilight would stalk her adversary through the maze. Every time that she thought she had found some edge on Sunset, a shot would ring out. Then Twilight would fall to the ground only to have the fire haired mare walk up and tell her what she had failed at this time and then ‘Again’ followed by a teleportation to the start. All throughout this ‘game’ Capt. Hunter walked along a catwalk above the whole scene, observing and taking notes.
Twilight had started to notice a few key aspects of the Sunset’s approach to the exercise. Sunset always shadow-walked out of a nearby shade before she fired. Sunset also seemed to have an affinity for sneaking behind Twilight. Once Twilight had picked up on this she started to pay more attention to where each shadow was in relation to her. She also took greater care to constantly check what was going on behind her. Not too often, as that had gotten her shot from a shadow that had been in front of her at the time.
The most interesting times had been when Sunset had come at Twilight with a short sword. Twilight wasn't entirely sure why the Gunslinger had changed up weapons. This seemed to work in Twilight's favor as all she had to do was activate her spell blades and fight hand to hand for a few seconds before Sunset would disengage and vanish into a shadow to try again later.
Twilight tried twice to see if she could tip the fight in her favor by creating a fully realized ethereal blade. However, both times she tried all her blades seemed to do was pulse with power and then fade back to their normal state. Eventually Sunset seemed to get frustrated with the hand to hand combat and just resorted to using a stunning shot from her revolver.
The most annoying ones where the times that Sunset would tag her with her stunning rounds and then double tap her after explaining to Twilight the folly of making the same mistake twice in a row. This seemed come with a greater sting then the stunning rounds provided, due to the fact that it was not only Twilight’s body that took the hit, but also her pride.
This wasn’t to say that Twilight had not had any success. Multiple times Twilight had been able to catch a glimpse of Sunset moving about. Twice, Twilight had even been able to get a low powered magic missile off in an attempt to get a hit. They weren’t to a level that would do any damage more than a light sting similar to the shots that Sunset was taking. They were always for naught though. Each time that Twilight thought she had Sunset trapped the Gunslinger would simply vanish into nearby shadow and the Twilight would have to start her hunt again.
Twilight was even starting to react to subtle cues that she had been missing before. The light tap of a boot around a corner. The small click of a revolver hammer being drawn back in the preparation of being fired. The gust of a light wind that signaled that Sunset had just walked out of a shadow. In fact, the closest Twilight had been to securing a round was when she had felt the slight breeze similar to the second round. Reacting much quicker then she had at the beginning, Twilight had wheeled on the source of the gust only to find Sunset stepping back through to reappear on the other side of Twilight and once again take her down.
“Just because you think you know where the enemy is doesn’t mean that you can forget about the rest of your surroundings. Again.”
For what was possibly the tenth or twelfth time, Twilight was returned to the start of the maze by Sunset’s magic.
Right. Once more unto the breach.
Twilight once again moved off into the maze. She noted the location of all twelve shadows that she passed that were large enough for Sunset to use. Twilight categorized each one and placed them in a mental map that she was starting to form. Twice a stray sound or sense of movement tipped Twilight off that she was about to be found. With the aid of her shadow cloak, she was able to vanish long enough for Sunset to move on. Once she was out of the disadvantages position Twilight resumed her hunt.
At one point Twilight was scanning the area around her to find the next spot to move to that would limit her exposer, when she looked slightly upward. For the first time she noticed that not only were the tops of the maze walls thick enough to walk on, in this section they were also well within reach of a good jump.
Ponies have a bad habit of looking up do they? Let’s see about that.
Twilight took a quick peek around her to ensure that she wasn’t going to get spotted then took a running leap for the top of the wall. She managed to get a good hold on the edge of it, and with only a little strain, she was able to lift herself onto the top of the wall. Once she was perched upon her vantage point, Twilight vanished with the aid of her shadow cloak. From where she stood, Twilight was able to map out the entire maze in her head as well as locate all of the prominent shadows that Sunset could use.
A plan started to form in Twilight’s mind. Twilight scanned the maze from where she hid on the wall. After a few moments, she caught a glimpse of red and yellow moving down the corridor a few walls from her. Moving slowly enough to not draw attention, Twilight slinked over to the top of one of the walls that lined the path that Sunset was patrolling. Twilight ran some quick calculations in her head as she waited for Sunset to pass below her perch before she made her move. Twilight dropped loudly enough to alert Sunset of her presence. As Twilight had predicted Sunset didn’t panic but quickly made for the nearest shadow to disappear into.
Acting fast Twilight ignited her horn and tapping into her vast reserves summoned a giant ball of indigo light above the maze in a very specific location, just as Sunset diapered into the darkness. Twilight smiled as she saw that her mapping of the shadows and her geometry calculations seemed to have been on point. The ball of light acted as a second sun, and due to its location banished all of the shadows from around the maze. All of which, except the one that Twilight now stood just to the left of.
Preparing a single low powered spell blade on her right arm, Twilight waited under her activated shadow cloak. Thanks to her understanding of the layout, this shadow was the only exit that Sunset still had in the maze. Eventually, Twilight sensed the light breath of air. She whipped out her right arm so that the ethereal blade came to a stop just in front of a startled Sunset. Another quick flare of her horn and a second, much smaller, ball of purple light formed and dissolved the remaining shadow.
With her free hand, Twilight lowered her hood so that Sunset could see Twilight’s good-natured smirk. Twilight was sure that if Sunset hadn’t been wearing her enchanted aviator sunglasses, Sunsets eyes would have been either wide in surprise or squinted in irritation.
“What do you say Wolf? Again?” Twilight asked.
Sunset looked between the spell blade, the spot where the shadow formerly existed, and then eventually at Twilight. Then she let a light breath she had been holding and holstered Eclipse under her duster.
“Well, about time kid,” Sunset finally commented.
A voice from above called out to them. “Outstanding! End exercise, and debrief.”
Twilight watched as Sunset lit her horn and enveloped both mares in an orange aura of magic before they both teleported out the maze with a bright flash.
As soon as they were back on solid ground, Twilight turned to face Sunset and Capt. Hunter who had descended from his catwalk above. The captain looked pleased while Sunset cast a stony gaze as if trying to grade Twilight.
“Consider me at least slightly impressed,” the Captain began. “That was certainly some out of the box thinking to solve the problem.”
Sunset nodded in agreement. “That may not have been exactly how we intended for you go about winning, but it did take a pretty good understanding of the layout to properly take away all of my escape routes except the one that you wanted me to have.”
Her words may have been kind, but her look was far from it.
Twilight started to beam a little at the praise. It wasn’t often that you got compliments from a Guard captain, even if one of them was your BBBFF.
Sunset then crossed her arms over her chest as she continued his evaluation of Twilight’s performance.
“There was however two issues with what you did.” Sunset began. “The first was we wanted to see you use a full realized spell blade. I noticed that you seemed to pulse your blades but you never activated them. Why?”
Twilight adopted a bit of a sheepish look. She took pride in her magical abilities so she was loathe to admit to her short coming but she had no choice here.
“I couldn’t get them to activate. That pulse was me pushing power into them, but the magic didn’t want to focus on what I was telling it to do. It was almost like I was trying to bend fire to my will with only mind.”
“I see,” was all Sunset had for a response. She seemed to get lost in thought.
Capt. Hunter took over from there, “The second issue was that it took you eleven attempts…”
“Twelve,” Sunset interjected looking over at the captain.
The captain looked down at his notes and nodded before returning his look to Twilight, “Right. Twelve attempts to come to a decent plan. In the real world you only get one.”
And just like that Twilight’s happy pride wilted back into its traditional humble state.
“I understand. I’ll do better next time.” Twilight replied.
“Don’t get me wrong Lieutenant, you did well,” The captain said, “This is why we do training, so that you can make your mistakes here and not in the field. Besides, if you had beaten Wolf too quickly I would have been concerned that she was taking it easy on you. ”
“You know I don’t take it easy on anyone. You also know that with her background I would never give her a quick pass.” Sunset said turning her cold gaze to the Captain.
This comment struck Twilight. It was one part insulting that something about her background offended her partner, and another part curious about what that portion of her background could affect Sunset in such a way. Twilight wanted to quell this curiosity and get some answers.
Twilight turned to Sunset and fixed her with a curious look that drew Sunset’s attention back from the captain.
Twilight pointedly asked, “And just what about my background makes you want to push me so much?”
Sunsets eyes slitted a little at the semi-accusatory question. Twilight watched as Sunset’s arms uncrossed and moved to her hips. While Sunset’s right hand went to rest on her hip, Sunset’s left rested on the grip of Daydream in its holster.
“It you really must know it’s about your relationship with Princess Celestia,” Sunset started. She fixed Twilight and even fiercer stare then was normal.
“I want you to ask yourself one question. I’m not going to leave it as closed off as Princess Luna did with only two options. No it’s very open ended so it’s really on you to answer it for yourself. Why are you here? What motivates you?” Sunset asked with more than a hint of ice in her voice.
*My relationship with the Princess? Why would that bother her? She is Princess Luna’s student not Celestia’s.*
Twilight was about to voice her confusion at Sunset’s answer, but she never got the chance. Any words that she was going to say were cut off by a sudden interruption of a wailing base alarm.