It’s just like you fuck things up royally. Gilda restrained herself when she grabbed you and her words weren't too damning. Maybe she didn’t want you to see her crying? She is a special operations agent so that may be the case. Your mind continues to race its way towards an answer as you made your way back to your room.
You notice a letter placed in you room’s mailbox, it’s from Rosetta and she wants help. Apparently you have to meet her in warehouse one in deck one, at least you won't forgot where to go. Rosetta might be able to answer some questions for you, no thats a dumb idea, she probably has a elephant on her plate if she is asking you for help. Guess you're going to warehouse one now. You left the letter behind so Gilda can find you if she needs to.
The elevator ride wasn't too bad but you had to walk a kilometer (otherwise known as half the length of the ship) to get to the forsaken warehouse. You pass through many dressed up warehouses to the one you looking for with the lioness you are looking for. She is in near panic mode, darting around talking to people having them write something down then repeating the process. The odd look of the warehouse had with new decorations reminds you more of a nightclub than a ballroom but you didn't do much better at the base.
Rosetta sees you standing around in the room but darts around a little more before talking to you. According to Rosetta the Equestrian Royal Guard didn’t believe the size of O’l Ceaseless so the route they planned would level half of canterlot, and now her entrance plan doesn’t work. All you did was modify her plan to work with using the heavy cargo elevators and move some security around, Rosetta thought you were a lifesaver and a genius.
During the exercise you learned some important information about the event. The guests included Princess Celestia and her Elements of Harmony among others you assume are important in Equestria. According to the documentation most ponies don't get that bringing another military force to incomplete base is a sign of trust and some of the guests are a little turned off by this. Anyway Ol’ Ceaseless is touching down the in the grasslands that divide canterlot and ponyville on the Canterlot side of the river.
Cultural differences, the Ponies don’t worship the military as much over there. You wonder if that is because they never had to deal with living on a continent literally filled with monsters obsessed with destruction. You remember when you were exploring the fog as a cub and got stuck in a cave while a giant tried to eat you with its ugly monkey face. Then there were the Dragons that took at least fifty Gryphon’s lives in a lifetime. Come to think of it how many threats did the Gunners have to shoot down on their way to the coastline.
Once you were done writing down instructions and schedules you bid Rosetta farewell and left for your room. The walk here was tiring but doable, your weakened body could not take another long walk so you decided to see where you could stop to have a rest. You took the elevator back to the shopping centre of the ship. You think you could kill some time in the nearby movie theater so you buy yourself a ticket and some snacks to go along with it.
You watched a good old fashioned wild west movie, a sudden headache made watching it difficult but you endured. Something about seeing the main character with boundless freedom made you feel nostalgic, while action scenes made you want to be as strong as the hero.
Your Courage has increased.
Your Expression has Increased.
Now you had more free time so you bought a puzzle book to entertain yourself with and some extra pens to counter the spike in ink usage. You still had quite a walk ahead of yourself so you bought a drink and went on your way. The walk was painful but you made it back in one piece so you counted it as a success with severe losses.
You weakly open the door to find Gilda inside trying on an ornate set of armour. She looks like she is a little embarrassed about you walking in on her but you sit down and decide to silently watch her anyway. Her suit had emblems for the many decorations she had earned over the years engraved into the breastplate, along with her name and rank. ”Valkyrie 1” The engravings must have gone through some chemical treating because they shined in comparison to the dull grey armour. The plates and chains hug tightly to her body, if she had the helmet on she would look like nameless faceless angel of death.
Time to make a move.
Gilda begins to strap one more parts of her expensive armour set regardless of your presence and your confidence quickly drains. You jam your hesitation down you throat and approach her with purpose and open your mouth to say something.... Fuck, you don’t have your pen and paper out.
Time to improvise... You take the her helmet off of her head and put on yourself, she mostly ignores you and continues armouring herself. Gilda did up a couple more buckles and tooks the helmet off your head and went to work on more buckles on the helmet. Once she was done she checked her range of movement then looked to you as if to ask how she looked.
You approved.
“Glad you like this is my ceremonial suit so any enchanted alloy on this thing is there just to look cool” she points to the helmet that blacked out her face behind it “So this thing is heavy as fuck” she extentends her wings out “I probably can fly in it just not as gracefully”
The helmet added a more threatening and unreadable bend to her, even if she was just simply standing in a room. For some reason that dragged your mind into the gutter as you silently looked over her.
One awkward silence later Gilda looks back at you.
“Guess you don’t have anything to do don’t ya?”
<Yes>
“Heh...” you start writing on your paper.
<I wouldn't mind another hour long story> You assume Gilda is smiling under her helmet.
“Just point to a decoration and I'll tell you how I got it.”
You decide to pick one at random, you land on one with a purple background and three golden stripes. Since all the medals are really just representations you decided to save the big shiny engravings for later.
Gilda reacts in some way behind her helmet and begins to put her story in context. She was assigned to take part in a raid of a known bandit camp that went belly up, and their sergeant and several others were captured. She had managed to take charge of the squad after the sergeant was captured and she got the rest out of the trap safely. The others were later busted out when a squad led by a Valkyrie was sent in to capture the Bandits and rescue the captives. Small world huh? You select more medals and she tells more stories, interestingly she has never killed another Gryphon only wounded them.
Although the numbers of monsters she has killed is purely ridiculous. She has ended the lives of ogres, giants, drakes, demons, witches, ghouls, centaurs and many more. This is where she has gotten most of her decorations and honorary memberships. She is actually an honorary member of the legendary Tenshi Sect after she distracted an invincible demon long enough for a priest to exorcise it. That was a particularly long story.
When you look back to the clock it read midnight.