//------------------------------// // 5. Meet the Sniper // Story: Magic Fortress // by AppleTank //------------------------------// Meet the Sniper “Sniping’s a ... simple job.” The interviewer sat next to the pink alicorn in a warehouse/machine shop. There were stacks of metal tubes, several chalkboards, and a lot of heavy equipment, like a six foot bandsaw and a 20-square foot table saw. And this wasn’t even counting many compact power tools. At the far end of the room, there were two large racks. One was labeled with “Experimental.” The other was “Practical.” “The main reason I chose it was that all the other spots were taken from my indecision. I used to be an Alicorn of Love, and I’m not a very physical mare. Despite my appearance, I’m not 100% alicorn. My genes are more biased onto the Unicorn and Pegasus side, leaving not much Earth pony strength.” Cadence slowly stood up, stretching. “It all worked out, in the end, as you might notice. A Sniper is generally further from the action, a long ranged assassin." Cadence fluttered up high into the sky, a few hours before sunset. She was looking for a good vantage point. She eventually settled upon a spot with a good view of the front door and the small section of the fort that the Engineer had decided to focus on. She made sure her saddlebags and its contents still had the cloud-walking spell before shrugging it off. “I decided to make my own warehouse after we finished basic training and found out what we were allowed to use,” Cadence explained as she showed off the shop. “In our wargames, I was only allowed to use a basic bolt-action rifle.” She picked up a bag she left on a cabinet and pulled out a sniper rifle with a wooden stock and a scope with a laser sight. “Simple, yet still deadly in competent hooves.” She racked the bolt, making sure it was empty, before dissembling it a a fluid motion with her magic. She pulled out a cleaning cloth and began cleaning it. “In retrospect, it was a smart decision: it trained one to understand the basics, such as tracking a target and how much to lead if the target is too far away. Plus, this thing is relatively easy to maintain, no complicated springs or wires, besides this little laser pointer. That thing just needs a change in batteries every 6 months or so. Half the time, I don’t even use it.” Cadence checked her watch. She had about two hours left. Might as well practice. She pulled out the Sniper Rifle in pieces from a case in her bag and assembled it. A suppressor was fitted to the end. Practice would be pointless and become Combat if she was heard, and a team based assault was much preferable to Solo Fortress. She pulled out a small clay pigeon shooting machine and pointed it away from the compound. The sunset should be enough to hide her coat. If it didn’t, she still had a few simple illusion spells running. At this distance, you might just notice a mildly interesting shadow pattern on a far away cloud. She started up the machine and took aim. *Fwump* She waited a few seconds, then easily shot the object. She kept this up for another four clay shots. She switched the machine to fire clay pigeons with pink stickers. These swerved erratically, but she managed to bounce along with it and shot these out of the sky too. She opened the bolt and took a break as she watched the smoke spiral into the sky. That was long range. Now for short range. *Fwump-Fwump* Two blue-marked clay pigeons swirled in front of her cloud. She took in a deep breath. Suddenly, the rifle snapped up and blasted one of the objects. In one smooth motion, she racked in another bullet and clipped the edge of the second shot, sending it spiraling into the forest. She gritted her teeth. “More practice. I shouldn’t have missed that.” She set up the machine for another round. “I found out something interesting while we were getting ready for our first assignment. Though we were supposed to get used to what weapons we had, we could technically use whatever we wanted, as long as we felt comfortable with it. Most of our team was fine with their current loadout, though some made modifications. I’m sure Engi told you about some of them, such as Firefly’s shotgun and Nightmare’s rocket launcher. I’m not sure how much she contributed to Sombra’s minigun, but I’m pretty sure she helped blueprint it.Some of them were made in here after I figured out that it would be a great help for all of us. We all pitched in to get much of this equipment shipped to this shop, though I still spent a good portion of my time here. “I started thinking after that tidbit. Oh, just so you know, a Sniper technically doesn’t have a skill ceiling, and I’m not talking about just me. A Sniper’s main skill set involves tracking and evading notice, which was taught in our wargames, as I mentioned.” We started moving towards the back of the room. “As you improve these skills, you get faster at locking in, more accurate in general, which eventually equals a heck of a lot of damage outputted. I soon realized that the main limitation was rate of fire.” Cadence wiped a bit of sweat off her forehead and checked the sun. Sunset was coming. She put away the machine and dissembled her rifle for storage. She put its case at the bottom and pulled out a larger case and a large (faux) leather sheath. She put the sheath aside for the moment. We walked past a small pile of half built stocks, barrels, and firing mechanisms. “Those were failed ideas. I’ll turn those into scrap metal later.” We stopped in front of the two crates. “This is the Experimental bin, for things that might work. I occasionally ask others for ideas, and if it seemed interesting enough, I make it. My first tries are now scrap metal: I wasn’t very steady nor good at metal working, I’m afraid,” she chuckled. “Engi was a great help.” She levitated a rifle with what appeared to be four barrels attached to the front. “This was influenced by Sombra’s minigun. It seemed like a fun idea at first, until I found out how hard it was to keep it accurate and still have a better RoF than my old Rifle. I might show you how fast I can shoot that magazine-less gun, if that suspicious gaze is to be judged. I got nearly a thousand hours on that thing before I stopped guilt tripping myself.” She put the rotary rifle down with its “broken” brethren and went to the next bin. There was much less in this bin. She levitated a standard military rifle. “This is one of the first things I made. Really plain, I practically copied it off some military hardware. It works, but really, it’s kinda boring. I want to show you these two.” She put the rifle down and picked up a case and a heavy sheath. “I use this pair a lot now, though I still practice with the Sniper Rifle first before practicing with these.” She picked up the case and put the sheath to the side. She popped off the lid with her magic. An extended barrel with a muzzle break floated out, along with a box of belted bullets. She floated the separate parts together, ending at laying the belt across the top and snapping the cover close. “This is my primary. Yep, this is a .50 caliber machine gun, my little Tyrant.” She had one hundred rounds. She had time. Time for heads to roll. Cadence racked the bolt and placed her eye against its telescopic adjustable sight. Right now it was set to 10x. Her horn glowed as she set a few spells into the round to splash around into her target’s surroundings. Discord wasn’t the only one with mass confusion. She wiggled her legs a bit to get comfortable. She glanced inside the sheath, making sure her side arm was loaded. She turned her focus back to the scope once she saw the edge of the chambers and a brass glow. A deep staccato thump reverberated through the forest. Cadence waved the interviewer goodbye. She closed the door behind her and went to get a broom to recycle some metal. She paused in front of the broom. Something sparked deep within her mind, but she couldn’t put her hoof on it. It was ... purple. That pony. She seemed ... familiar. The feeling was gone after a few seconds and she forgot about it minutes later.