Raindrop sighed and stretched unhappily, grimacing a little bit and then placing down the next card in the sequence, finishing her game of Solitaire. That was at least twenty games she had beaten now; she had lost count after seven or so.
Boring.
There was nothing out here. Just an old, empty gravesite, and a high-strung, surly pegasus guard.
Even now, Sentinel was working out. He was running in place, and then doing wing push-ups. And then he was doing an inverted front-hoof lift. He went through a series of training motions again, and again, and again.
If it wasn’t for the utter contempt Sentinel showed towards her, Raindrop would have been certain that he was trying to impress her.
“Will you stop that?” she asked with a sigh, as she began to re-lay the cards, peering at the royal guard and shaking her head.
“I will not,” Sentinel stated in response, glaring at her for a long moment and then beginning to work out with increased fervour.
“You’re making me tired just looking at you,” Raindrop said with a shake of her head. “Get a deck of cards or something!”
Sentinel snorted at her, and then began to do vigorous wing push-ups, keeping his fore-hooves folded in front of him, glaring at her.
Raindrop rolled her eyes and shook her head again, pursing her lips and returning to focusing on her card game.
“I hate you,” Sentinel said after a few minutes of silence.
The young pegasus lifted her gaze from her cards to give him a long, patronising stare, before stating calmly, “...Yeah, I kinda got that.”
Sentinel scowled, returning to a resting state, and narrowing his eyes at her. A long silence stretched between them.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why?” Sentinel blurted after a moment.
Raindrop glanced at him coolly, flipping over another card. “Not when it’s obviously eating you up inside so much, no.”
“You’re a changeling!” Sentinel accused with a scowl, his eyes narrowing.
The young pegasus blinked at that, her ears splaying backwards. She gave voice to a stunned protest, “...I am not.”
“Yes you are,” Sentinel spat, lifting a hoof to point at her accusingly. “I don’t know why Celestia wants to help a changeling find the Elements of Harmony, but I know what you are. I can sense it.”
“I’m not a changling!” Raindrop protested, rising to her hooves, bristling with anger, her eyes narrowing.
“I was raised from birth to find your kind. You think I can’t tell?!” Sentinel demanded, rising to his hooves as well, head lowering aggressively.
“I’m not a changling!” Raindrop repeated, her tone hurt. “I can’t help what my grandmother was! It’s not my fault, and I’m not a changeling!”
“You admit it!” Sentinel cried, triumphant.
Raindrop recoiled slightly, shaking her head, her ears splaying backwards fully. “I-I’m not a changeling...I’m not...”
Sentinel advanced on her, striking her chest with his hoof. “You’re a changeling. I can sense it. Stop. Lying.”
The young cloud chaser pegasus recoiled from his hoof poking her chest, turning her head away, biting back the tears threatening to well up.
“I’m not a changeling!” she cried defiantly, and lifted a hoof to strike the guard across the face.
Sentinel wasn’t ready for the attack, and bore the full brunt of her blow across his unprotected brow and cheek. Her hoof hit with surprising force, stunning the royal guard with the sudden impact, sending him reeling sideways unsteadily, seeing stars.
By the time he recovered, Raindrop was already a speck in the sky, quickly lost among the heat haze rising from the savannah.
Raindrop ground her hooves into the rock beneath her, scowling deeply at the swaying grass in front of her. She was angry. She didn’t cry. That wasn’t her. Instead of crying, she got mad.
Her teeth were gritted, and she was trying her very best to squeeze the boulder beneath her until it cracked and shattered. Of course, she wasn’t nearly strong enough for that. But it was satisfying to imagine that her anger could make her that strong.
More accurately, she wanted to grind Sentinel’s face under her hooves. Squeeze his armour together and crush him inside it.
Raindrop heard the heavy sound of something landing behind her, but she refused to turn around. If she caught sight of Sentinel again, she was going to hit him. She was going to hit him until the yelping stopped or he knocked her out. One or the other.
“I know you’re a changeling,” Sentinel said quietly. “I was trained from birth. Celestia used the Elements of Harmony to make our entire generation of guards immune to your magics. And we can sense you. We are the first line of defense against your kind. And if I wasn’t told to help you by Celestia herself, then I would have you in the Canterlot dungeon already.”
Raindrop scowled, remaining facing forwards, refusing to answer, or even acknowledge the guard.
“Your kind injured my mother when she was a filly. And she died giving birth to me. My father abandoned me to the royal guard because of that. Your kind ruined whatever life I could have had. There will be no friendship between us. I will not be cordial with a demon and pretend like you’re some normal pony!” he exclaimed, his tone harsh.
“I have one thing to tell you...” Raindrop murmured, her tone quiet, level. But there something in her tone that made Sentinel recoil a little bit. There was something in her tone that spoke of danger.
The young cloud chaser pegasus turned around to face him, launching herself at him. She screamed at him as she beat him across the face with her hooves, slamming her hooves into his form again and again, punctuating each word with a fresh blow. “I! - Smack! - Am! - Smack! - Not! - Smack! - A! - Smack! - changling!”
On the final word, Raindrop spun and kicked him hard with both of her hindhooves, smacking them into his chin and jaw as hard as he could, sending the guard reeling backwards.
She rounded on him again, incensed, her chest heaving with her anger. Her eyes, normally a rather pretty light pink colour, seemed to glow with her anger, a shadow of green visible in their depths.
Sentinel bore her fury calmly. He was dressed in his full armour, and it deadened most of her blows, though she still caused damage with her vehemence. He merely stood there, watching her, blood slowly dropping from his nose.
“Defend yourself!” she screamed, raising a hoof to strike him again.
The royal guard just smiled smugly at her, and then gave a patronising thoughtful expression, before turning his head and spitting out a glob of blood into the dirt at her hooves in a completely contemptuous way, shaking his head. “I will not.”
Raindrop’s eyes narrowed, and she snarled, striking him across the cheek again as hard as she could, stumbling the royal guard, who just bore the blow, recovered his balance, and then stood tall again.
“Defend yourself!” she screeched again.
“I will not,” Sentinel stated, again with that smug smile.
Raindrop scowled, braying at him, incensed. She was so angry. She wanted to just wipe that smug smirk right off his muzzle. But her hooves were already hurting from the blows against his armour.
Instead, she turned away, staring out across the savannah, growling in her throat. Quietly, she stated; “I’m done.”
Sentinel just smiled, tilting his head slightly to the side, spitting out another small amount of his blood. His tone was utterly subservient as he said, “Very well, ma’am. If that is your wish.”
Raindrop grit her teeth, but didn’t say anything in response. She didn’t say a single word, waiting impatiently, standing stock-still. After several long moments, she heard Sentinel turn, and then take to the air. Moving back towards the rock.
The young storm chaser stared out over the savannah, filled with rage. She wasn’t going to do anything with the royal guard. She was on her own. Celestia be damned. Sentinel be damned. She would find the elements herself.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH
FIRST
YEAH! SCREW THEM! (Gets out bag of popcorn, eating eagerly.)
he is a bitch
Ahh, I'm going to claim that Sentinel's parents being injured/killed in the wedding attack would have been my third guess had I posted it!
This is gonna be a tragedy, isn't it?
fight the power
629362 Hmm....I don't see a tragedy tag anywhere!
And your back.
Here I go, reading cautiously.
Wow, what a shallow asshole. Say a black man killed my grandmother. Suddenly all black people are evil hellspawn. I mean, I can understand where he's coming from, but wow. Well, I certainly know who I'm NOT rooting for. He'll obviously come around eventually though. Or not. Maybe. ...Probably.
Well, er, good luck Raindrops.
629425 Well it's not a black person. It's a changeling. They are literally evil. It would be like the KKK killing your black grandfather, I would say. You have a legitimate reason to hate the KKK as a whole.
629435
They're more or less evil by nature, though. The KKK chose to be evil. For Changelings it's a biological need. Like orcs, I guess. There's a trope for that.
I dunno, I'm just bass-ackwards and ass-backwards. He certainly enjoys ignoring the fact that the entire point of her quest is to purify herself of her heritage, though. That's less very much justified hate and more a complete unwillingness to see the bigger picture. Like others have said, he's a bitch.
So...Sentinel is one of those blame people "who blames others for the sins of their father" kind of guys. He really needs to get off of the cross, build a bridge and get over it. I agree with shardfff he's a whiny bitch. "You ruined my life, because of reasons that weren't your fault." This chapter should be renamed: The Bitchy Royal Guard because let's face it Raindrops is on the verge of losing everything and this complete asshole is only making it worse. He's smug, arrogant, selfish, hateful and vane; This makes you wonder how did he get into the Royal Guard, were they recruiting at a Madden/Call of Duty tournament or at Nickelback concert? The odd thing is I think the story is going to end up pairing them together.
He's kinda like this guy.
chzgifs.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/funny-gifs-no-comfort-for-the-old.gif
Peace Out.
629463
629462
Oh, but neither of you realise that no one has ever told him that she's not a changeling. No one explained to him. And Raindrop was too busy beating the shit out of him to elaborate on the finer points of her lineage.
Oh, oh. Well then it's just a bastardly dastardly misunderstanding.
629477
It seems that you turned him into what the writers of Batman in the 90's turned Jason Todd into, you didn't mean for him to become a jerk, but he kinda evolved into one as the story progressed.
629497 Oh but it will make for some interesting scenes down the line though, right?
Like Sentinel trying to apologize to Raindrop while still retaining his dignity. Celestia explaining to Sentinel exactly what Raindrop is, him feeling bad about it. Etc etc.
Nothing says tension like childhood trauma.
Foalhood trauma. Whatever.
629586
......
Liked how Sentinal could just take it like that, still a jerk though atm.
And I was right about the first half of my call, about the second part........ meh, 1 outa 2 aint bad....i need a shrug emote
The first story in this set had me crying near the end.
This story looks to be trying to do the same. You are a credit to authors everywhere, right up there with Pen Stroke himself!
Faved, liked, and looking forward to more!
629980 Actually, I don't think there will be many tears in this story. At least...I'm not going to AIM for that. There might be some sad scenes though, what with old grave sites...and certain events that are coming up. Not to mention Celestia's inability to bring herself to give any pony a chance. And Cadance losing Shining Armour...
629998 Whatever the case, keep up the good work!
Also, I demand more Luna. Luna is best pony. Which makes the lack of a proper Luna emoticon a tragedy.
630004 dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Luna_apple.png
630009 WHAT SITE IS THAT FROM.
630419 I have no clue. Someone used it in my comments.
come on, everybody with me!
DOUCHE-BAG!
This is going exactly as i have predicted.
Just with less dancing tubas.
630419
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Luna_apple.png
I have a feeling that Sentinel and Raindrop are gonna either:
A. Kill each other.
B. Bang.
And they are gonna be friends in the end... Well let's hope not, at least that would be original. If Sentinel is beaten to death or something, I would expect her to let him die.
I'm going to send you with a guy that will probably let you die. I mean you'r ea changeling, so you're the perfect fodder to find the elements.
I like how she's only proving him right by lashing out at him like that.
570258
I just would have expected her to care a little bit more. It's not so much a morality issue as not making sense. If she cared so little about them, why would they have made it as far as trying to invade Canterlot and why didn't she just let them starve in the first place instead of sneaking out to see them? A little remorse or at least a bit more sadness over the passing of her own species, and up til that point her only family, would have seemed more reasonable.
637989 She doesn't have the same morality as a human or a pony. She's a changeling. To her, it was a logical choice. She decided she wanted Evergreen, and her changelings became an obstacle to that goal.
629477
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the problem is that she is technically a changeling. Taking the story line as is I can only suppose that Chrysalis' transformation (via the Elements of Harmony) balanced her out somehow and and blocked her changeling "magic". Obviously, it didn't erase her being a changeling, it only moderated/suppressed it somehow.
That and I kinda assume she's still in a sort of state of denial.
638011 She's not a complete changeling. But there is changeling blood in her. More half-changeling. I don't intend on her requiring love energy to survive, but rather, she takes said energy as a matter of course. Perhaps it powers latent changeling magic, or somesuch?
But either way, yeah. She's part changeling. Whatever the Elements of Harmony did to Chrysalis are wearing off off Raindrop.
638083
Would she be capable of the changeling disguse spell thingy?
I know shine is sick and all, but that doesn't prevent me from disliking him.
On the other hand, as bitchy as Sentinel is being, i think that the romance tag might be better applied to him. That or i'm crazy
647348
Nah I'm getting that vibe too, but then, I used to read a lot of X-men. It's like Wolverine and Deathstrike. He knows she can never do enough to him to really hurt him, so he's just sitting back cutting loose with the barbs and taking it all on the chin! Not to worry, they'll get to the makeup sex eventually!
And then beat the buck outta each other once again.
Actually come to think of it this happened with Jasmine and Conan in Conan the Adventurer a lot too... A well worn trope this be!
648675 It's just like what Chrysalis did to Evergreen, too. Except Chrysalis wasn't so violent
648692
LoL if you're going to be that obvious you should have added spoiler tags!
I don't quite know how to link to another fic's comment directly, but at the risk of turning your head into Twilight's balloon it seems you're thought quite highly of around the site. Aziraphael has some high praise for ya!
(I prefer to link authors/artists to praise only, unlike the rest of the internet. It means less ragequits all around! )
629479
your avatar pops up every where i go... is there a change that you two are reading imposble amound of fan fic on a daily base???