Chapter LVI: Aegis
After the incident with the parallel world, things actually entered a period of calm, which after being in Ponyville for so long, made me feel nervous about the possibility of an imminent major disaster. About eight months passed where the only things of note were the Elements being sent on more 'friendship' trips by the map. Ponyville even had a lull in regards to the weekly madness that seems to strike it, with the exception of my troop's training and Discord's antics.
Speaking of my troops, they were making great progress and faced further growth. More representatives have came over to inspect my military branch, which resulted in more volunteers to join our little crew. Some species, however, were still on the fence, such as the diamond dogs and the highly-autonomous dragons; but eventually, as more species joined the fold, they too will see the utmost importance of the cause and join up as well. The zebras were easy to incorporate into the program, the minotaur volunteers were a different matter due to sheer size and unique stature. In sparring matches, I couldn't really put them against anyone in a one-on-one match, however, I ended up with a great idea instead. Good training for the normal recruits in regards to dealing with larger opponents, and swarming enemies for the minotaurs. As a downside, though, the influx of volunteers strained the housing capacity of the barracks, forcing the construction of a second one. I would say that having a military district in a village like Ponyville would be an eyesore, but with Twilight's towering over the entire town, I didn't think anyone would mind in the end.
The original batch, and a good portion of the second batch, was getting far enough along with the training that I was getting ready to give them a final test of their abilities. While it is only a year of training, I was running out of things to toss of them beyond more chaotic situations from Discord. If they pass the test, I would be sending the ones with the most potential to officer school, while a few would serve as drill sergeants that would either aid me in training larger groups, or serve as instructors at other locations. This would help to expand the military branch, which Celestia and Luna finally decided to name it as the Aegis Guard. It was a fine name, until Celestia told me the reasoning for the name, since my forces would be like a shield for Equus against interdimensional forces. Hence the name Aegis, which meant shield, which caused me to facehoof in response.
In the meantime, the scientists were making leaps and bounds in the research department, advancing several technologies or reverse-engineering some new ones. Personal shielding was moving along well enough that my troops finally got their own shields, which was incorporated into a piece of chest armor. The chest armor was also a new advancement into personal armor, drawing less in the design of the royal guard and built more for a much more mobile force. They also develop a new line of guns, with the advent of semi-automatic and long range rifles that sadly were too bulky for sniper use. Though they are trying a hoof in miniaturization due to the creation of an actual stun pistol, so it will be a matter of time till we have legitimate sniper rifles.
In the vehicle department, it started with a major disappointment when I saw one of the flying chariots armed with a cannon designed to fire magical blasts. It was a step in the right direction, except it was horribly inefficient and just a large shiny target. After telling them that they needed something heavily armored that didn't rely on ponies pulling it, they put it under development for a few months before showing me a real mechanized vehicle that was armored, using four-wheeled design that was propelled by a magic-based engine. The only flaw was that, due to the inability to support the weight of the canon, it was armed with dual-mounted semi-automatic rifles. There was still more progress before the scientists could develop a fully-automatic weapon, but better some progress than none.
On the dimensional portal issue, the project took on more and more safety protocols every time they opened a portal to another world, only to encounter some kind of obstacle that preventing them from simply taking a few photos. Regardless, after the lava incident, each discovery of a new world sent the scientists into a wave of excitement, even though we haven’t found any worlds that had an habitable atmosphere. This also led them to start taking air samples along with ground samples, if possible, as they started trying to determine the nature of each world, even if they are of no use to Equestria in the present.
My therapy sessions with Luna went well for a few months, until she decided to set up a meeting with the Elements in order to help me reign in my attitude. I was forced to keep my temper in check by the presence of Pinkie and Luna, the former causing me to try to behave better around her, the latter being more than capable of stopping me from tossing stuff around. Hence I was forced to sit through the meeting, enduring the talking about my feelings and Twilight's lecture on how to be a calm and rational pony. The next day wasn't a good day for my recruits.
"This round goes to Team Gamma," I yelled, as my troops started to shake off the effects of a low-powered stun. For today's training exercises, I had the troops divided into ten teams and set them against each other. As with most firefight exercises, we were at the edge of White Tail Woods to minimize the chances of any collateral damage or stray civilians getting shot. Thanks to some scientist's clever tinkering, we now had practice guns that fired off much weaker stun shots to allow my troops the capacity to return to training minutes after being shot instead of having a spasm while on the ground for a half an hour. The shots still caused enough pain to motivate my troops to avoid them. The new personal shields were incorporated into training exercises like this one, through the ones in use were also low-powered to match the weaponry. This way, the troops would learn how to react to being hit but not being harmed.
As I watched my troops return to their positions, I kept an eye on how each team leader gave out orders so I could gauge their performance today. In line with the need for more officers in the Aegis guard, Shining Armor sent over a bunch of guards’ officer books to me which he believed would help me both lead and train my troops more effectively, while improving my eye for anyone that had excellent leadership potential. Starlight, of course, was one of the team leaders today, with half of them being selected from the first batch and the rest from the second. I so far have selected just about forty potential candidates, which included a couple of griffons and even a changeling.
"Your training exercises have been more tame as of late, madam," Silver commented as we kept off to the sidelines with an erected shield generated from an enchanted gem.
"What do you mean?" I asked in a mock tone of curiosity.
"Lately, your training sessions mostly consisted of traversing obstacle courses or firefight scenarios such as this one. There even hasn't been an exercise set up by Discord for the past couple weeks now. It's like..." Silver started to say before he spotted the smirk I had on. "You planned this... didn't you?"
My smirk turning into a wide grin, I answered, "Eeyup, need to teach the troops another harsh lesson."
"And what is that lesson, madam?"
Still grinning, I kicked at a patch of grass to reveal that it was just fake foliage, revealing a chest that I opened with magic to reveal a set of colorful spheres. "The lesson is, in war, there can be a calm before a storm hits," I answered as I gripped onto a green sphere with my magic before tossing it into the sky. The moment the sphere reached the peak of my throw, it exploded with a massive force that the trees shook from it. My troops however simply braced themselves upon hearing the noise, as the magic of the sphere caused a rather powerful storm to appear in the sky.
"Madam! Wouldn't having a storm of this power be a danger to Ponyville‽" Silver shouted as we heard the winds of the storm kicking up.
"Relax, this storm is controlled. It only has a range of a mile from its center, and won't be able to spread any further than that," I replied as lightning started to strike the ground.
"Isn't lightning a bit too much?" Silver asked.
"Nope, cause I'm still going easy on them with this," I answered.
"Easy? This is easy?"
Nodding, I responded, "I was planning on using a hurricane, but I didn't really want to have my troops blown off the battlefield," only to have Silver gaped at me. Closing his jaw with a hoof, I continued, "Really, you still get surprised by me? I thought you knew me better by now, Silver."
"How can anyone not be surprised by you? Your randomness in how you set up your training scenarios can only be matched by your mother herself," Silver countered, as we watch the recruit's reactions to the sudden change in weather. The team leaders are already barking out orders, having their fellow teammates take shelter from the rain and wind, while keeping their distance from the trees due to the lightning hazard.
"I'll take that as a compliment," I countered while keeping up with my grin, watching my troops before I heard the telltale sign of a teleport going off. A familiar flash of purple caused me to look up just in time to see Twilight appearing, only to be hit by a lightning bolt. "That's going to leave a mark," I idly commented as Silver just looked at the scene in outright horror.
"We have to save the princess!" Silver shouted as he was about to charge forward till I held a hoof out in front of him.
"Sheesh, relax Silver. She's fine, it was just a lightning bolt. See, she's flying towards us right now," I said, watching as Twilight flying in a somewhat shaky manner. I temporary lowered the shield to allow her in before erecting it again to keep the rain off us.
Her coat and mane singed and wet, Twilight gave me one of those long-suffering looks as she asked, "Why do you have a thunderstorm going on?"
"Another hazardous scenario, with the added bonus of surprise," I explained, before tilting my head a bit in curiosity. "The bigger question though, is why you're here? Normally you just fly over here instead of teleporting, considering that the last time you ended up getting hit by so many stun shots that you were out cold for ten minutes."
Shivering at that particular memory, Twilight shook her head to clear her mind of it before she replied, "I came because I received important news from Celestia about the portal project!"
"Please don't tell me that the scientists open the portal to a hostile world and we're now being invaded," I asked, causing Twilight to roll her eyes at me.
"No, they finally found a habitable world!" Twilight said with her trademark smile, the one she gets whenever something of scientific importance occurs. Which is also a sign for me to barricade myself in my office.
"Well, that's good news then. We now have a world to either colonize, or use for that little idea Discord and I had," I started to say before noticing that Twilight's smile twitched a bit, along with the fact that there was a nervous look in her eyes. "There's something else you have to tell me, isn't there?"
Letting out an awkward laugh, Twilight slowly said, "Well... since this is a world that we think ponies can safely go to... but no ponies actually have experience in exploring a brand new world..." before I interrupted by letting out a groan.
"Which means that they want me to be the first one through the portal, or at least part of the group that goes through," I replied, only to have Twilight still have that awkward smile on her face. "Oh dear Luna, sometimes I hate this destiny thing that my Cutie Mark has given me."
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This is a time skip done right to me. You didnt just start at some future date without explaining whats happened. Ive seen way to many authors do a jump with out a explanation and they are all aggravating. So thanks for not doing that.
Holy fuck.
This is Helsing. Helsing I tell you but with dimensional shenangians.
Fuck me but that's a hilarious mental image. "*pop* *zap* Aaaaargh!"
6826975 And ponies...don't forget ponies...and Ather is Alucard.
is it wrong that I smiled at the image of Twilight getting pummeled by stun shots?
They should have a form of side squad or something for a real military force, like have:
one group of things that are very well at adaptability
One that is trained to be good at home world defense
One that is advanced with weapons
One melee/gorilla style
A ghost squad
And a special operations/assassins squad
That'll be simple as long as everyone around her stops doing monumentally stupid things.
6827051
That would be the easy, eminently sensible solution to things. This is ponyland, clearly we can't have things like that here.
no world is perfect I wonder if there be a new problem they would face like new super sickness unexpected things like things even beyond discord power or magic can fix.
Wait a minute! So are you skipping the first world they found?
I kind of want to see Aether & her team go in this world for a bit than time skip. Unless it's just not inhabited, which is fine.
By the way, the group name is awesome!
6827003 Nope. She's Integra.
Discord is Alucard.
CMC is Seras collectively as they are surprisingly competent in the art of war. ANd don't give me denial. Single handedly destroying a building? Please don't give me the crap about how that's not good for war. Quick in out destruction unit.
And Silver Shield is Walter.
This is getting Goooooood!
I have my money set on Aether hitting Celestia again.
If Discord's plan is to route invasion attempts to a different world, why would they use an eden planet as a scapegoat? Misdirect Evil Corp to the most flagrant hell world you can get away with. Preferably one with lots of volcanoes, gaseous acid, face-eating bacteria, or falling into a black hole.
I mean there's not really much point giving them another colony world that the ponies probably need more. Give them a raging quasar that takes out their base in the process.
Speaking of, they probably want to be running their dimension tests from one of the uninhabitable worlds that's at least not too hostile to set up a small base. Unless they want an ever-present chance to accidentally their entire planet opening a portal to the wrong place.
6827038 if it is, then we shall face the consquences together mine friend
6827197 hahaha
Ah, lots of different classes of troops, cross training leads to new and improved combinations. How are Minotaurs at Dwarf Changeling tossing?
How many of those auto targeting lightining storm generators does Aether have? Should make it problematic for most combat forces.
When is Pinkie going to suddenly turn up with a baseball cap, backpack, data pad, and portal ball, singing the theme tune Its A Whole New World?
6827258 Simple, to have somethings like that working, they have to set up a device that creates that effect. So if placed on another world, it has to be guarded or it will be easy to destroy. So better a world that the ponies can handle instead of a horrible one were setting up a defense force would be incredibly hard to do.
So, it finally looks like Aether's fun is coming to a close and she'll have to start earning the bits that's been expended on getting her teams set up.
6827038 6827311 Yes. Yes, it's very wrong, mister! *snicker* You should never, ever laugh at how Twilight gets beat up *snort*! She IS a princess, after all! *giggle*
uh, just a moment, I'll be right back
BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
So, where was I? *caugh* Oh, yeah. *snicker* So don't ever let us catch you doing that again!
.
.
.
.
.
*gigglesnort*
Something something Old dogs and their tricks.
6827404 OH TIA! TASER TIME!
But forming a mob and lynching people is fun! Especially against Witches, Warlocks, Authors, Werewolves, Wizards, OCs, Zombies, Frankenstine, Ponies, Aliens, and Humans!
I don't think I said this before, but I like to put one of my OCs on the fics I read, being a side pony that appears one time and doesn't mess with this story itself or just a background pony.
This time I put him as one of Aether's recruits.
I'm feeling bad now
Come get YOUR FRESH TORCHES!!! The pitch forks should be here in a few minutes...
byt.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/spongebob1.gif
lol jk
6827465 Oh Celestia! Don't tase me, bro!
MOB ASSEMBLE!
)
WE NEED PITCH FORKS, WE NEED TORCHES, WE NEED ANYTHING WE CAN USE AS A MAD MOB ASAP
COME ON MOVE IT MOVE IT!
...this is war.
(Seriously though it love it
6827258 In other words...the procedure that the oracle rock uses in Stargate: Infinity.
If anyone else knows what I'm talking about you get a prize.
6827834 Not tasing you but Celestia.
If I was Aether, I would have tased the feathers off of Twilight for that. I'm guessing Luna AND Pinkie Pie had to hold her in place and gag her somehow, especially if Twilight got prissy.
I've got the rope, we just need people with pitchforks and torches and our lynch mob shall be complete
Oh never mind! I understand now why we're getting a time skip now.
Because it's for us fans that want to make spin offs for the Auraverse. Makes a lot of sense!
Oh dear lord what's wrong with the planet? Horrifyingly unexpected weather? Parasites? Hordes of angry midgets hell-bent on universal domination via control of all forms of textual media?
This has inadvertently become the opening stages of the conversion bureau, have Twilight enter a world to seed the generation and growth of magic energy. A world we're not wholly sure isn't inhabited with sapient life, and would either suffer or benefit from magic's presence.
But let's see how things go before we go off the rails any further
This will fo well.
That was fun, may I have another? Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
Hmm, would you be a witch or a warlock?
Too bad, I was hoping to see more of EQGs. (especially with how much Aether was bitching at Twilight ans Sunset, I wanted to see more story on that topic, like Aether trying to seal/destroy the mirror only to get sucked in.) Ah well, maybe in the future.
I keep thinking about the Alien Exterminating Global Intercept System when Luna labeled Aether's army as the Aegis Guard
6826973 Adolf Jacob Hitler dropped out of art school, one thing led to another and so began World War 2.
Was that a good time skip?
This would be a great opportunity for her to take some of her more advanced recruits on a training mission.
Im not angry. Im just passive-zappy. More in the zappy though.
Any updates today?
Hey, that's a great idea, let's form a mob.
6853333 i've got the torches and pitchforks
i've got bows and arrows they might be handy
First off world mission eh? This'll be interesting~
Hmm. Now im tempted to tie you up and feed you to the typos...
Nah. I'll just keep reading.
Come now Twilight, why would you teleport, unannounced, into an (semi-)armed group of soldiers in training.
In all seriousness great chapter and I look forward to seeing what's next.
Glad to see they are finally fighting each other!!
6829769
oh, i just remembered: there's a type of Cruiser-class ships sometimes called "aegis" class because they are equipped with the Aegis automatic anti-missile system.