//------------------------------// // Range // Story: Mass Effect: Element of Kindness // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Chapter 172 Range Pistol - M-6 Carnifex. 35% "Well... I guess I'll take this one?" Twilight levitated the heavy pistol out of the bag and looked at it with some fascination. “Don't let the size fool you, it's a very powerful weapon,” Fluttershy closed up her bag again, taking the pistol back from Twilight as they'd have to arrange permits for her to carry it around first. “You know, this was the first weapon that was given to me. Garrus gave it to me on Ferros.” Twilight looked over the pistol again. “So... Did you, you know...” “Kill with it?” Fluttershy asked, Twilight giving a nod in confirmation. “Yes. On Ferros in defence of Garrus after I was given it.” “Oh...” “I'm not expecting you to do so, Twilight, we'll just be shooting at a fake target for practice,” Fluttershy reassured her friend as they arrived at the range. Soon they were checked in and after a quick safety instruction and application of ear protection, Twilight was ready to shoot. Levitating the gun in front of her she waited for further instructions from Fluttershy. “So, I pull the trigger, right?” “Yes, though make sure to brace for the kick of the gun. It's better to overcompensate on the first shots than have the pistol fly out of your grip.” Fluttershy instructed, moving the levitating pistol a bit so its sights lined up better for the unicorn. “Go ahead, try it.” Bang! Twilight flinched at the loud crack, losing concentration and dropping her magic. Fluttershy quickly snatched the pistol from the air so it didn't drop onto the ground. “Maybe hold it with your hooves if you're going to lose concentration like that,” Fluttershy smirked. “N-No, no, I'll get it,” Twilight stammered, getting the gun back from Fluttershy and floating it in front of her again. Letting out a breath she pulled the trigger again... and again, and again. Wait, hold on... Fluttershy's eyes perked as she observed the pistol staying nearly perfectly levelled even though Twilight was firing fairly rapidly. click, click Twilight looked at the gun for a moment as it stopped firing before realising it needed a reload. “Hold there, let's first see your hits before we continue.” Pulling in the target close with the rail system it was attached to, Fluttershy went and inspected the hits. The shots, though not having hit anyplace too impressive, were grouped incredibly tightly. "That's..." "Terrible?" Twilight filled in, her ears flat as she saw that her shots hadn't even gotten close to the centre of the target. "Remarkable," Fluttershy corrected her. "I'm pretty sure that if I'd gone a little more to the left then I wouldn't have hit the thing at all," Twilight interrupted again. "You don't have to spare my feelings you know..." she added in a mumble. "I'm not. Twilight, look at the places you hit again and tell me what you see." Fluttershy asked again. "They're at the side of the paper," Twilight bluntly pointed out again, not seeing what point Fluttershy was trying to get to. "They're also so close together that if they were any closer the shots would have formed a single large hole," Fluttershy provided. "Now imagine that instead of hitting the side here, you'd hit the centre of the target. Would you still say they were bad shots?" Fluttershy could see Twilight light up as she finally made the connection, a smile creeping onto her face as she realised she hadn't done half bad. "Can I go again?" The pegasus chuckled as she hung up a new target and sent it down the range. "We came here so you could put some rounds down range after all. I had expected to have to give more instructions but your magic makes a lot of things irrelevant. Go ahead, send a few clips into it to get used to the thing. We'll get to a few drills later." Loading a new thermal clip Twilight went at it again, getting closer to the centre on the second attempt and pretty much hitting dead centre on the third attempt. Twilight's proficiency with her magic showed as every single successive clip just got her shooting at the same spot in the centre of the target. The two of them continued to shoot at the range for a while longer, Fluttershy making use of a long distance simulator present at the range to get some long distance practice. By the end of the day, and a few broken range records, the two ponies headed back home, planning a few more times that week to head out and practice. Fluttershy was humming a tune as she went through her apartment and cleaned up some of the mess they'd created over the previous week. She and Twilight hade gone back to the range on three more occasions, each successive time Fluttershy had been putting pressure on Twilight as she shot to get her more used to firing while under stress. A feed with some of the local news played on the background to break the silence of the apartment while she worked. "Then there-... Breaking News, Earth has been attacked by an unknown force. There has been no contact with the Alliance after receiving this footage and feeds from Earth went dark." Fluttershy's head snapped towards the video feed as she saw video of a human city right as a reaper broke through the clouds and smash down into a skyscraper. A pit formed in her stomach as the sound of a deep blaring horn signalled the arrival of a dozen more of them before the video cut out. "The council has called for calm as they assess the situation and mobilise their fleet. We shall be covering this further as..." Fluttershy didn't hear the rest of the emergency broadcast as she'd stormed out of the apartment, not even grabbing her rifle as she sprinted. The need to assess what is going on?! They heard Shepard's warnings for years so they should know damn well what is going on and if they still don't get that I will make sure they finally do.