Chapter XXVI: Demonstration
The rest of my talk after my little revelation came out far smoother than I would have thought. After a little discussion, Celestia agreed to take back the second core, where she would keep it safe in some vault in Canterlot, only bring it out when it is truly needed. I in turn have to reel in my tendency to hurt ponies that annoy me, especially with throwing stuff at ponies. Celestia then clued me in that all the stuff I brought from the other world, along with the remains of the robot, was moved to a secure location in some remote part of Equestria for study. Though the core took some time to find, for the thing went flying after Celestia blasted the robot with her magic. It was later found near the edge of the Everfree forest, where it was sparking off electricity for a couple hours before anypony dared to pick it up. Before Celestia made her leave, she also informed me that some ponies may be coming over soon, to present me with some recent inventions they came up with after studying the weaponry that was in the containers.
Afterwards, Pinkie woke up, only to engulf me in another hug as she tried to comfort my pain, only for me to sit there until she realized that I was okay. She then went on to talk about throwing me that party she was planning, but I told her that I’d rather not have a party for my return, considering all the things that had happened. She looked a bit depressed about it, that is until I saw a sparkle enter her eyes and a disconcerting grin spread over her face. Sadly she didn't tell me what cheered her up, though I suspected that she had some sort of plan in the works. Of course, she went off to get the rest of her friends, who all tried to comfort me as well when they arrived; except for Rainbow, who laughed after seeing that I was getting a bit sick of all the attention. Then I received the typical scolding from them on how I treated the princess, to which I just simply nodded and replied that I wouldn't do it again. Thankfully no one made me do a Pinkie Promise.
Silver was the next pony to come in, who told me that despite me being incapacitated, he knew that I would want to keep the recruits on their training regiment. Thus, he kept the recruits going, and asked me on what training exercises they should do that he could have them perform. I told him to simply tie up the wings of the winged recruits, and then have them climb the trees of White Tail Woods and jump from branch to branch. I also told him to make sure that the unicorns didn't use their magic to help themselves out, everypony had to do it the hard way.
In the end though, I was stuck in the hospital for a few more days. When the researchers finally made it to Ponyville, I managed to get the doctor to let me out, or I would have just left on my own accord. It helped that Silver was there to help get me out of the place, citing that the researchers were here on behalf of a government project set up by Princess Celestia herself. After getting out of the hospital, Silver took me to a field far off from Ponyville proper that had been roped off from the public by the Royal Guard. That was where I met up with my recruits, the researchers, and Twilight, who of course showed up due to wanting to see these new inventions herself.
"So... these are the researchers..."
"Yes madam."
"...Is there a reason why every time I met a scientist or a researcher, they're a unicorn?"
"Huh? Aether, you know only unicorns, and alicorns, can actively use magic," Twilight answered.
"I really don't see how that applies to math and science. Cause if you think that being able to use unicorn magic is a requirement for those fields, I'll like to point out to you the various interdimensional species that are far more highly advanced than Equestria and completely lacked access to magic," I countered, my look clearly indicating I thought she said something stupid.
"I... err... because only unicorns can enchant jewels and objects to have magical effects?"
"...Good point," I conceded, as the three researchers finished up setting the field for the demonstration. That was when the head researcher, a green coated pony with a dirty yellow mane, came over to our little gathering. Looking over to where the pony was coming from, I saw that a series of targets were set up which really started to get me excited at what these ponies could have come up with.
"Greetings Princess Twilight," the researcher said as he gave her a bow, before turning to me and giving me a respectful nod, "And good day to you Dame Aether. My name is Light Pulse, and my colleagues and I are here to present to you the fruits of our labor of intensive research into the gifts your... 'world' has given to us."
"Nice choice of words there Light," I simply replied, before noticing the wide smile on Twilight's face at the thoughts of new scientific discoveries. "Umm... don't get too excited Twilight. I think I know what they may have come up with, and you may not like it."
"What do you mean I do—wait... it's something violent, isn't it?" Twilight asked, to which I simply answered with a nod that caused her to let out a disappointed sigh.
"It's from the society I once belonged to, so what do you expect?" I smirked up at her before returning my attention to Light. "So how about you show us what you and your... 'colleagues' came up with?"
"Gladly, if you three will please follow me then," Light replied as he began to head back to his fellow researchers.
"Um... Aether, on the topic of objects from your world..." Twilight started to say, to which I rolled my eyes before I gave her a response.
"You want to know about all the stuff I gotten from the world, along with just what is that thing that attacked us. I'll tell you about them sometime after this demonstration, though I'm surprised you waited so long to ask."
"You were hurt and upset, Aether. I would be a terrible friend if I just asked without giving you some time to recover," Twilight replied, to which I gave an appreciative nod to before Light told us to stop.
"Now, I know what you're all wondering, what did we come up with after studying the alien weapons. I will te—" Light started to say before I shot a hoof into the air. "...What is it Dame Aether?"
"I need to know, what safety... measures did you and your fellow researchers take as you studied the weapons? I personally would like to know how many weapons are still left intact as well."
"Oh, I assure you that we took every safety precaution, as ordered by Princess Celestia herself. I'm proud to say that no pony was harmed during the examination of the weapons, though I have to admit that we lost a few of them due to possessing some kind of volatile nature. I however can say that we at least still possess one intact unit of each kind of device. Do you have any further questions Dame Aether?" With a shake of my head, Light continued with his explanation, though I noticed that Twilight had a notepad out as she listened intently.
"Very well then, where was I... oh! I remember now. After studying the purposes of the alien weapons in general, we came to a conclusion that your former society preferred to using ranged weaponry. In comparison to Equestrian weaponry, our military forces wouldn't be able to last in a prolonged conflict with any of the alien species. Even with our advantage in magic; that would only have a third of the population having any sort of advantage while the other two tribes would be left helpless to any alien aggression. Hence, my colleagues and I have came to a conclusion that we needed to create a weapon that would allow non-unicorns to be more capable of defending themselves. After studying the basic mechanisms of some of the alien weaponry, we were able to come up with this."
At his cue, one of the researches reached into a nearby crate to pull out what look like a simplistic gun. It was similar in design to a rifle, though the trigger was composed of some lever mechanism. "This was our first prototype, where we successfully enchanted a gem along with a firing trigger that anypony could use. For safety, we enchanted the gem to fire a stunning spell, though the gem could only fire a few shots before the enchantment was depleted. Of course we knew that this wouldn't suffice, but we once again looked into the nature of the alien weaponry. Due to their design incorporating some kind of removable component that seemed to fuel the device, we modeled future prototypes on that designed. We instead enchanted a gem to cast the spell while drawing upon another gem which would serve as its power source. After some trial and error, we came up with a weapon that relies on a removable magic capacitor!"
At that cue, the other researcher pulled out another 'gun', this one similar to the last one, though it had the addition of a cartridge that I figured was the magic capacitor. Looking at Light, I asked, "Guessing by the targets you set up, you also desire to demonstrate your new weapon?"
"Naturally, my colleague Volt Switch will show you," Light said as he pointed a hoof at the red coated unicorn as he carried the gun over to the firing range. Volt sat down, using his left foreleg to support the rifle while the end of the weapon was placed underneath his right foreleg as his right hoof was on the lever. Taking aim at one target, any guards that were near the general vicinity of the painted wood scurried for cover, Volt depressed the trigger. I saw a green orb with a trailing stream of green sparks come out of the barrel, which traveled to the target, hitting it on one of the outermost rings.
As everypony let out some kind of impressed response at the sight, as the other two researchers patted Volt's back at some apparent success of hitting the target, I asked, "Good to see that we're one step closer to being able to defend ourselves against an alien invasion, but can you show us how fast that weapon can fire?"
This quieted everypony down as Volt said, "O-of course Dame Aether!" After his colleagues stepped back, Volt took aim and began firing the weapon as fast as he could. I watched as he let out nineteen more shots,I could see that the gun could only fire one shot per second. On top of that, his aim was horrible as only three of the nineteen shots hit the target, the rest missing it and zipping off into the distance. I was glad that Ponyville wasn't behind the targets, or we would be dealing with any fallout those stray shots would create.
"Hmm... a decent starting firing rate... you can change out the stun spell for a more... dangerous spell?" I asked as the three researchers looked at me prospectively.
"Oh course! It would just take some time to make the enchantment work with a power source!" Light answered.
"Hmm... how many working prototypes of that weapon do you have with you?"
"Well... we only have three so far, dame."
"I see, then I would like you to leave those three here, and later send at least twenty more copies."
Giving me a bewildered look, Light asked, "You want more of the prototypes?"
"Yes, I need to get my recruits practicing their aim with them as soon as they can. As good as a weapon is, it doesn't matter at all if they can't hit their target. Though, I would like them all to be the stun variety, don't want to get anypony hurt from any accidents that could occur. Also, I do recommend that you continue your experiments, if you can somehow match the destructive power of the 'alien weapons' as well as their firing rate, then I can say that Equus stands a chance of defending itself from interdimensional aggression."
As the trio look at each other nervously due to my expectations, I simply said, "Oh, relax. The work done so far is quite impressive by itself. Though... can I get a closer examination on one of the prototypes?" Smiling to themselves after getting some praise from me, Light levitated a rifle towards me, which perked my curiosity. "Hey, would holding these with magic affect the weapon?"
"No, gems are shielded from outside interference to prevent any problems. We just used our hooves to better demonstrate how other tribes would be using it," Light explained as I grabbed the gun, though since it was longer than I was, I had a hard time holding it up. I ended up having to hold the lower end of the rifle with my magic as I held the rest of it with my hooves, upon which I turned around and aimed the barrel at my shocked recruits. This instantly sent them into a panic, as a third of them simply jumped to the ground and shielded their heads with their hooves, while others ran off in random directions; the winged recruits simply took to the air in fear.
Before anypony could do a thing, I simply lowered the barrel as I addressed my cowering recruits. "This is why I kept throwing stuff at you all, to improve your ability to dodge and your reaction time. Though... I'm really disappointed at how you all reacted to me pointing the weapon at you all. You all really need to take more aggressive action instead of panicking like a bunch of idiots."
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this is the perfect way of explaining her training technique!
These endings always crack me up xD
Is it just me, or at the end, I was already looking for a tree or other bunker wall to get behind before the test was even complete a totally normal reaction, especially around Aether?
be intresting if the firing spell was modular as well, not just fast change from stun, to damage, to plasma bolt, but also EEDoc Smith class blow the whole spell in one shot burnout overload mode?
Ive also heard nasty things about superglue covered parcel straps. Something about Mech breakers.
Don't simply dodge or take cover. Shoot back ya bloody idiots.
6460874 Ya would think that they would already know that she would aim it at them.
I'm surprised she didn't demand to see an earth pony scientist.
Part of me doesn't mind getting the unedited chapters so you can keep your schedule, but its becoming quite bothersome how many errors there are in there.
That aside I have one thing to say about it. You really need to work on your tenses. The most common error I'm noticing (as someone who isn't an expert, or even close) is tense. Happen in stead of happened, and such like that. I realize you have an editor, and that being busy is delaying them, but you should really look into something (I honestly have no idea what) to help you learn to use tense properly.
Sadly the only thing I know to do that with is grammar books for school kids... not the best way to learn it outside of school.
I bring this up because my inherent dislike of bad grammar and such is starting to win out over my built up curiosity and enjoyment of the story from previous chapters.
And no, I did not take part in your little poll about editing. If I had I probably would have leaned towards publishing first, editing later like you're doing, but now I'm leaning the other way.
I'm really hoping that puberty will throw a wrench into her plans in the coming chapters. I find it highly amusing to watch her breakdown over her sliding sense of self. Aether still sees herself as male and because she didn't have any mature urges before it was easier to ignoring that she is now female. However, now that she is entering puberty, her discovering that she is attracted to both genders (as far as I can tell) is throwing her for a loop. It be fun to watch Aether deal with such feelings while trying not to cause problems for whoever she has feelings for. One such scenario I've come up with is that a family (can be non-pony) moves in and their son/daughter befriends Aether. I went with griffin cause griffins are rather aggressive beings.
Oh Aether and her personality
stayclassy
6460956 You sir, are a glorious, Brilliant troll. You have my respect.
They need to add a safety to the training units, just incase something happens, they also need a proper range.
My thoughts immediately jumped to Pokemon. I prayed for a Pokemon joke.
6460956
I'm not sure if Aether really identifies with either gender. Doesn't seem to care about being male or female really. It just she didn't want any forced feelings thrust on her.
At this rate, I imagine Aether is going to search a age spell or a gender bender spell, she could even try to ask Discord.
Not all that good, really. That kind of makes it into a self-fulfilling prophecy: without research into something that isn't magical objects, of course you're never going to have any use for researchers that can't create magical objects. I bet you that the dirt pones would make excellent chemists, for example - the ability to actually survive all those toxic gases, explosions and acid spills you're inevitably going to cause in the process of doing research in the field is something I certainly wouldn't say no to. I'd have a few less scars... and know people who would have a few more fingers. Well, less fingers, on the balance, but you know what I mean.
They certainly can't be a worse bunch of butterfingers than I am, even for not having any. Am I ever thankful for the invention of acid-resistant (and unbreakable) plastic test tubes these days...
6461039
Dunno what you mean by trolling. That looks like a pretty reasonable suggestion for where the story can go with that in the future to me. Seems like the logical next step for it, given the way it has been talked up so far.
Unicrons, distant relatives of the holocrons.
6461200
I think you mean Megatrons.
Well at least they now know why they were assaulted by various heavy objects. And it looks like Aether has started to develop a more socially acceptable personality.
6461039 L33T!!!!!!!1
6461180
I don't see how anything you wrote could be seen as trolling, either.
You didn't even criticize, which usually earns you downvotes and angry replies from fanboys ...
*Of course
6461180
Just because it's a sound idea for a story (which I'm also a fan of) doesn't mean you're not trolling the character who actually has to live through said story.
6461950
Fair point, that. I certainly do approve of that part of it very much.
6460952 Something I did a lot when I was first writing was reading my work out loud before I posted it. It makes two different parts of your brain have to engage with the words and helps you find your own errors.
I'm disappointed.. I was hoping for at least ONE of the recruits to do what aether expected... Specifically the unicorn noble.
img12.deviantart.net/deeb/i/2012/363/6/6/unicron_destroyer_of_worlds_by_cgfelker-d5pkpya.jpg
Equestria is doomed.
Awesome new capter mate! 8'D
6462494 One little error on an unedited piece and I will never hear the end of it.
6462530 EEYUP
6462545 But 4 real it even says UNEDITED in the title Chapter thingy so lay off her please
6462530
6462555
I know I know but its not like, a bad error, it was a funny one
Jeez, I'm not hating or being that guy, it made me laugh and reading Sil's reply made me laugh.
Sorry, jeez.
What about the heavier weaponry for heavier enemies?
I tend to compare these other Sci-fi tech with Starcraft tech...And right now, Starcraft basic infantry weapon [C-14 Impaler Gauss Rifle] is winning.
Why starcraft? It is a lot less nonsensical than many works but also a lot less realistic compare to some other works. The right balance for me.
6460874
I agree with this idea.
Great chapter tho.
Ya got me wondering, How does the robot armor handle Extreme temperature shifts? A spell round that superheats then flash freezes the target would be handy against highly durable enemies.
Aether really is an ass hole
The first half of this chapter needs a lot more show, not tell. Basically Aether summarising it up.
The second half...hopefully Celly has made other rulers well aware of ALIENS!!! or else they might get nervous about these long-range weapons...if your Equestria even has any zebra or minotaur or griffon nations, in any case.
Oh man I've caught up both the first and now this!
About this chapter, I was hoping she would demonstrate her (hopefully completed) laser spell ability. :)
Also, I've always wondered, for combat magic why not use telekinesis on someones throat, or eyes, or give their heart valves a quick yank. Or teleport a 1mm slice of their spine into their stomach.
Pony made guns.... oh boy. While I'm glad the ponies are making great strides towards protecting themselves, I'm sad they have to do so.
6460853 Agreed!!
6462670 I usually compare weapons to UT.
6471400
Yeah.
6461180
I agree. I feel like she just gave up on that. Again, the non-magical societies had no issues not using magic in their research...
On another note, the "researchers" just "discovered" a bunch of facts that Aether could have told them, made a magical flintlock, and destroyed an unknown but large number of actually useful weapons to boot. And again, Aether could have told them (had anyone ASKED) the few details they managed to glean from their wanton destruction.
Sigh.
6471400
oh, you should read the famous "Fallout Equestria"
9717177
if he's sad by this... fallout Equestria would break him, never mind if he read Project Horizons. in both, pony's learn the true nature of war.. by living in the ruins of what little is left after it.
never give Fluttershy access to mega spell research, she will end the M.A.D world