• Published 22nd Nov 2015
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Gunsmoke - Wanderer D



Sunset Shimmer and Desert Mirage... what exactly is the connection?

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Chapter 16: Tactics

Gunsmoke

by Wanderer D

Chapter 16: Tactics

"I'm not doing this," Luna stated, glaring over her tea at Princess Luna. "No offense, your highness, but it's my life and Sunset's we're talking about here. If I let this turn into a gossip festival just so you can have fun—"

Princess Luna raised a hoof, still smiling. "Please, we have no intention of forcing the issue. We would not appreciate it either if an inter-dimensional visitor decided to take interest in our love life. We were merely teasing."

Luna released a breath and arched an eyebrow. "Then what do you have in mind, and do you have to use the royal 'we'?"

"Just an offer," Princess Luna said. "The reason I am able to talk to you is because of the magical seal on the scroll Sunset gave you. As a kindred spirit... and somepony who knows what it feels like to be alone, not as a filly—or a teen—but as a full grown mare, I wish to offer you somepony to talk to. A friend."

Luna's eyebrows shot up and she stared at the pony princess in front of her. "A-a friend?"

Princess Luna nodded. "Indeed. While accessing your dream, a passing thought of yours echoed in your mind—the value of Sunset's friendship and the fear of losing her friendship if things were not to solve themselves into a relationship."

"Are you able to read my mind?" Luna growled.

Princess Luna chuckled. "Nay. The thought echoed in your dreams. I wouldn't invade your mind even if I could."

Assuaged by the princess' claim, Luna relaxed into her chair. "It's silly, I know."

"Silly?" Princess Luna tilted her head. "How so?"

"I'm an adult. I shouldn't be so afraid of rejection."

Princess Luna laughed, a clear non judgmental laugh. It sounded almost fond. "Nay again, my dear Luna. 'Tis not childish, nor silly to be afraid of losing something as valuable as friendship. Often, too many ponies forget that."

Luna nodded, looking down at her tea. "I am going to tell her in my own time."

Princess Luna smiled. "I know. And fret not, I do not intend to pursue Sunset Shimmer."

Luna sighed in relief. "I'm glad to hear that, but it was mean of you to say that in the first place."

Princess Luna laughed. "It might be true. I have become a bit of a prankster thanks to Twilight Sparkle and our friends, and sometimes I might push things. I do apologize."

"No need, Princess." Luna chuckled. "I'd rather stay on the good side of inter-dimensional royalty, after all," she teased.

Princess Luna nodded. "A wise choice indeed." She smirked. "Then you should make sure not to upset Princess Sunset Shimmer."

When Princess Luna started to suddenly fade away, the smirk still in her face, Luna gaped. "Wait, what's going on?"

Princess Luna beat her wings, raising into the moonlight. "It's time for me to go, we shall speak again!"

"Wait," Luna called, raising up. "I still have questions! Wait!"

Luna snorted awake, and blinked in confusion at her ceiling. She shook her head, cleaning the drool from her chin and glaring at the innocent-looking silver clasp. "Curse you, Princess."

She lowered her fist after shaking it at the clasp and chuckled before laying down in bed.

"Wait." Luna sat up in bed, eyes wide. "Did she say Sunset's a princess?!"

"Oh, so that's why..." Twilight muttered, looking at the several scrolls of notes Princess Twilight had sent her way. "That makes sense..."

Lemon Zest blinked as she studied the texts over Twilight's shoulder. "You understand pony handwriting?"

"It's more like mouthwriting, to be exact," Sunset spoke up, fiddling around with some levers and looking at her diary for any changes. "Although in the case of unicorns and alicorns, we can use our magic to hold the quill. Everypony else uses their mouth."

"I see."

"In any case, to answer your question, I do," Twilight said after she rolled up a scroll and picked up another one. She looked up at her girlfriend. "Princess Twilight used a magical item to fuel a translation spell which she shared with me, allowing me to understand their written language. Since the spoken version is the same, it simplified a lot of things, otherwise communication for scientific discussion would be complicated."

Lemon Zest hugged Twilight and planted a kiss on her cheek. "Aww! I love it when you're nerdy!"

"So, today I'd like to just have the magic input as low as possible," Sunset said, sitting on the bed and readying herself for Full-Diving into GGO. "We're going hunting a level boss, so I don't want to spoil the effort by cheating with magic."

"And presumably you don't want them to know that you can do that at all, cheating or no, correct?" Lemon Zest deadpanned.

Sunset blushed. "Yeah, that too."

Twilight giggled and nodded. "We can work on recalibrating everything with a much lower input of magic into the system. We might find out something the higher energy levels might've hid."

Sunset smiled in return. "Well, I'll get going then. You two behave."

"W-we're not going to—" Twilight started to stammer, but Sunset didn't wait.

"Link start!"

Desert Mirage emerged from the pine forest, where a beaten path led to a large, excavated gap on the side of a large mountain. Several metallic structures were half-covered in rock, with old platforms attached to them for the mining crews.

Beyond those metallic, inaccessible structures, a very large cave gaped into the world outside, a small river trickling out of it to eventually join a larger one far below in the valley.

Some of the cave's insides could be seen even from the distance: more metallic parts inside, some lit up with mysterious energy, and humongous stalactites and stalagmites of rock, metal and electric components gave it the look of a giant mechanical hive of some sort.

Sitting on a rock on the side of the road leading up to their eventual destination, her large plasma sniper rifle leaning against her shoulder, was Nightmare Moon, looking pensive. She glanced up and blinked against the sunlight when she noticed Mirage's movement, and soon her face had a dazzling smile on it. "Mirage, nice to see you."

Mirage giggled and went to sit next to Nightmare Moon. "You too, you were pretty busy today. I barely caught a glimpse of you."

Nightmare Moon chuckled, shaking her head. "No RL talk, remember?" she teased, poking Mirage's ribs and earning a swat on her hand. "It was a long day, paperwork-wise and I didn't get much sleep last night."

Mirage grimaced. "Well, if you're not feeling up to it—"

"Don't worry, I have no problem with this. It's my free time and I couldn't be spending it with better company."

Mirage's grimace disappeared, replaced again with a smile. "Couldn't have said it better myself." She looked around at the forest, the impressive entrance to the dungeon, the snow-covered top of the jagged mountain and took in the feel of the air and the companionable presence of Nightmare Moon. "I wish you and I could visit places like this more often just to spend time together."

Nightmare Moon blinked, turning to look at Mirage. She hesitated. "Do you really mean th—?"

"Hey! If it isn't our princesses!"

"Don't call me princess!" both Nightmare Moon and Mirage snapped at Coyote, then looked at each other and giggled.

"Heh," Coyote shook his head, smiling at them and looking up at the mountain. "You two, I never imagined I'd hear giggling. Son muy serias, most of the time."

"I think they're just starting to trust us more," The Lion said, emerging from the forest path and waving at the three. He whistled as he looked around. "That, and how can you not be happy with a view like this? It's the first time we're taking a break as a team too."

"Lo que necesitamos son chelas, tequila y una parrilla," Coyote declared walking up to a tree and sitting at its base.

"I'm not entirely sure what you said, but if it involves tequila it can only be good," the Lion retorted, chuckling.

Nightmare Moon and Mirage shared a smile.

"Were you going to ask me something?" Mirage asked.

Nightmare Moon shook her head. "It can wait. Would you like to meet tonight? I know this lovely ramen place, it's designed to look and feel as if you were in Tokyo."

Mirage grinned. "Sure!" She poked Nightmare Moon's rib. "Didn't you say no RL talk tho?"

Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes. "You love talking about food."

"Hey guys!" Thunderbird called, walking into the small gathering. "I hope you're ready for hunting today!"

"I know I am!" Heavy Collar said, walking into the gathering along with Surgeon a few seconds after Thunderbird. "I brought plenty of explosives, too!"

The group greeted the last three arrivals before Surgeon urged them together to gather in a circle. "I'm glad to see we're all enjoying ourselves," he said sitting down on the ground. "So let's make the most of this break. Since we all want to make it to the level boss and beat it without any losses, how about we talk a little about how our weapons affect our approach?"

Mirage nodded, pulling out two futuristic-looking guns. "Unlike my usual fare, I use two plasma guns for hunting mobs. My battle style is mostly the same, so close-combat and quick dodges, but the firing rate is slower than Twilight and Sunset, so I concentrate more on trying to score criticals in boss battles." She shook the left gun. "My off-hand has a Burn DoT effect that lasts for fifteen seconds."

"I have a similar issue with my plasma sniper rifle," Nightmare Moon said, lifting the weapon up so the others could look at it. "It has a lower resistance than my sniper rifle, and a slower firing rate... however, as an opening shot, I double my chances for a critical hit. This specific rifle is a rare drop that grants 4x unlike the usual 2x damage on CRIT, and I have been known to one-shot high level mobs with it." She nodded and smiled at the appreciative whistles and murmurs, then patted the plasma sword on her belt. "For close combat I still have this. Needless to say, I work better at long distance and I brought a grappling hook to get some height advantage in areas where that is possible."

"I use a scatter-gun," Surgeon spoke next. "Pretty similar to a shotgun, so I need to get close for effectiveness, except it's a highly damaging laser weapon. It has a high chance of Blind for 10 seconds. If I lose it, I have a second one, just no effect. Like Mirage, I'm close combat."

The Lion pulled out a minigun with one third of the barrels glowing red, one third green and one third blue. "I present to you Sara Jane," he said as the others stared. "I made this beauty myself. The long-distance aiming is abysmal, but it was never intended for precise shooting. Its shooting speed is equal to a regular minigun, but it shoots laser, plasma and electricity blasts. The other downside is that it requires a lot of bullets, but... I came prepared." He smirked.

"Dude. That's just... crazy." Thunderbird muttered.

"Wait until you see it in action," The Lion replied with a grin. "But I use it as my ace-in-the-hole for boss battles. For most of the raid I'll be using this laser heavy assault rifle. So mid-range combat for me, then static."

Thunderbird nodded, and pulled out two laser submachine guns. "I love the ALOK-AR," he said. "It's a shame I can't use it myself with my style. I have two LT-SMGs, nothing fancy. I'd say I'm still better off mid-range."

"Cazando mobs, I use either my plasma rifle, or my laser assault rifle," Coyote said with a shrug. "It depends on the battle. I complement either with plasma, pyro and cryo grenades."

Heavy Collar nodded. "I have a fast-action plasma shotgun for close encounters, but when mob hunting in a team, I usually stay mid-distance to serve as support. I have smoke grenades, flash grenades, cryo, pyro, shock and concussion grenades as well as a healthy amount of stimpacks and medikits. I also have a few grenades that give party members in the area of effect boosts to speed, perception and dodge."

Surgeon nodded. "Then I believe we have our marching order. Mirage and I will scout, Coyote, Collar and Thunderbird stay in the middle and Lion and Moon keep the back. Whenever we have encounters Mirage and I will draw their aggro while everyone else gets into position. Everyone keep an eye out for Collar so that he doesn't have to abandon his support roll, understood?"

"Sounds good!"

"Va que va!"

"Let's do this!"

Twilight and Lemon Zest watched the group get up and head up towards the dungeon.

"Aww, they're adorable," Lemon Zest gushed. "And they sound so serious about this!"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "It is! It's very involved, maybe one day you should try it!"

Lemon twirled and sat on Twilight's lap, wrapping her arms around her. "Only if you teach me."

Twilight chuckled nervously.

"Didn't you say you used to play?"

"I-I did, but there's a lot going on an—"

"Don't you want to play with me?" Lemon Zest asked rubbing her nose against Twilight's. "I want to play with you. And I have the best songs for it."

"Meep!"

"Am I interrupting something?" a voice asked.

Both girls jumped to their feet and turned to stare at the door, faces red.

"P-professor Sombra!" Twilight forced a grin. "What a pleasant surprise!"

Chuckling, Sombra made his way into the room, glancing at the equipment and readings. "How goes your investigation, Miss Sparkle?"

Twilight cleared her throat. "It goes well professor, right now Sunset is doing a high-involvement activity that is testing low-input levels of our modifications to the server. The readings of the Seed's reaction to such small amounts should help us pinpoint better ways to clear up garbage and random spikes from the analysis and allow us to have a much more precise method of implementation."

Sombra nodded, glancing at the screens and smiling. "Very well, it seems everything is in order and the progress acceptable to the loss of some of my extra equipment. Carry on, I'll close the door behind me."

The pair of girls waited until the door was shut before sharing a look.

"I'm so embarrassed," Zest muttered.

"I have no idea what the stuff I told him even means. I think it made sense... maybe..."

The looked at each other and giggled nervously. Lemon Zest casually made her way to the door and peeked outside before closing it and locking it.

A sudden "Ding!" made them both jump, then chuckle when they realized it was the popcorn.

"I guess I can't complain. Alone, in a room..." Lemon Zest said, watching a nervous Twilight get the popcorn and drinks ready to partake while they watched the monster raid. "Monster movie on screen, comatose body of friend lying in the only bed in the room... cute-as-a-button girlfriend to share the experience with... and count dracula randomly visiting." She grinned. "What's not to like?"

She dodged the popcorn Twilight threw.