Author's Notes
Due to the fact of how short this chapter is, and the fact you can skip it if you so choose, I am going to be posting a second chapter along with it
Thanks to Deadinlight for beta-reading and helping me edit
Common Era Chapter Twelve/MLP Season One Chapter Four: A Short Chapter;Luna’s Sadness/Dealing with the Firearms
As the sun set, Masao and Sharp Sword awoke again under the wings of Luna, who seemed to have decided in her own she was not going to let them out of her reach whilst they sleep. Carefully extracting himself from the princess’s grasp, Masao crept to the bathroom. However when he closed the door, the click of the latch made Luna shoot up, making Sharp Sword mumble as she rolled over and go back to sleep. Luna looked around the room, she knew that—There was a whoosh as Masao flushed the toilet followed by the sound of running water as he cleaned his hands. When he walked out of the bathroom Luna tackled him and held him close with her wings and hooves. Shocked but not completely out of it, Masao wrapped his arms around the mare and held her as she started to cry. Luna cried for the loss of her friends over the years she was banished, she cried for not being there when Masao needed her, but most of all she cried because for a thousand long years she was alone, so very alone.
- - -SKIPPABLE
Masao took to teaching the mare how to fence with the new type of sword, her old broad sword being far too slow in this era. Like Masao, Luna chose a rapier styled sword, much to Masao’s amusement as when she attempted to use it, she almost managed to break the blade rather than blocking it with the base of the sword. It took him several months of teaching her how to use the blade, but she flat out refused to use a flintlock which made Masao sigh heavily…
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“Luna, I understand how you feel about them, but the fact remains, refusing to use them does not protect you from them. Just because you do not use them does not mean your opponent will be one to do the same, and I would feel much better if you learned to use them and kept a few near by, just in case.”
“They are naught, but tools to kill” came the retort, and Masao frowned before suddenly lunging at her, causing her to become off balance and Masao’s flintlock now pointed between her eyes, the mare’s eyes locked on the barrel of the gun as Masao pulled the trigger…
Click… Masao pulled the gun away.
“Luna, my dear, dear friend, a sword is a weapon with no other purpose than to kill. A firearm, in the hands of a carnivore, or omnivore, can be a weapon to save his or her life, or that of their family from starvation. I guess in a way the only thing it can truly do is kill, but that does not mean it can not save a life” said Masao point blank and Luna looked at him with annoyment. Something that Masao groaned about. “OK how about this. You sleep with a dagger beside your bed, someone breaks in,what do you do?” asked Masao and Luna looked at him with a deadpan look.
“Simple, I would use the dagger to defend myself”
“And what if the intruder was stronger than you or your magic?”
“Then… Then I’d die” Masao nodded before holding out the flintlock
“Now imagine the same scenario, but instead of a dagger you have this flintlock, you point it at the intruder, and one of two things will happen, one, the intruder will surrender, or two, you pull the trigger killing said intruder. Is this any different from killing the intruder with a dagger? Is the intruder any less dead from being killed by the dagger than he would from the flintlock?” Luna remained quiet, she didn’t like his example, I mean who would be foolish enough to threaten her in her own home? Her own home where she was protected by guards and… Their… Weapons… “I see you understand if only partly. I will tell you this right now, I am not happy that firearms have been introduced to this world, not in any way shape or form, but know this, now that they have, there is nothing we can do.”
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It was several conversations between Masao and the royal sisters about the course to take with firearms, Masao staunchly for allowing the citizens to own them, within reason. While Luna was all for forcefully disarming the populous and destroying the entire cache of weapons Celestia was torn, she wanted to side with her sister, but Masao’s arguments, while some of them did not make total sense, were sound, he had called the firearms, ‘the great equalizer’ and how making them illegal would so nothing to stop gun crime. In the end they decided to make it impossible to own a firearm if you were found mentally deficient or if you had a violent criminal record. Something that made Masao extremely happy…