• Published 22nd Nov 2015
  • 12,220 Views, 856 Comments

Gunsmoke - Wanderer D



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

  • ...
30
 856
 12,220

Chapter 09: Ride

Gunsmoke

by Wanderer D

Chapter 9: Ride

Mirage headed south of the map while the others worked. Once she was alone, almost where the edge of the jungle met with the edge of the map, she leaned against a trunk and sighed. She opened a personal channel to Nightmare Moon.

"Hey, Moon."

"Mirage," came the cool reply.

"Are you up there now?"

"Yes, I have finished my preparations... Surgeon's plan is a bit crazy, but it might just work."

"Yeah, I hope so," Mirage grumbled. "Make sure you're fast enough, Moon."

"I will. You take care of yourself as well, Mirage."

"Will do."

The place was quiet for a minute or two. "Mirage?"

"Yes, Moon?"

"If we win... would you like some Thai food?"

Mirage blinked, then grinned. "My place?"

"If you wish."

"Are you going to get me some Thai Iced Tea?"

"Is there any other way of enjoying Thai cuisine?"

Mirage chuckled, grinning at the distant temple. "Now there's no way I can lose."

"Alright everyone, I'm in place," Surgeon's voice said over the radio. "Get ready, Moon."

"I'm ready," Nightmare Moon reported immediately.

"Roger. Lion Team, are you ready?"

"Why is it 'Lion Team', why not Collar team?"

"I'll take that as a yes. Mirage? Coyote?"

"Ready."

"Ready."

They could all hear Surgeon take a deep breath. "I'll see you all on the other side."

Among the trees, Surgeon lifted his belt buckle up, poked his rifle out of the branches and tried to catch the sunlight with it.

Nightmare Moon concentrated, finger on the trigger, breaths steady. Any moment now.

The shot rang across the field, and she immediately saw Surgeon's HP indicator flash and go to zero, but his sacrifice hadn't been in vain. Her return shot blew part of the wall of the southern tower, but she managed to see the 'Dead' marker appear just before she jumped.

The tree's trunk splintered where she had been a mere second before, and before she knew it, she was speeding down the durasteel cable Collar had secured from her position to the nearest safe spot.

She let go at the last moment, dropping a few feet and rolling as soon as she hit the ground. She ran as fast as she could to her next position, quickly jumping up from the lowest branches to the ones above. Once she was there, she turned on her radio. "I'm at my second position!" She brought her rifle up, just as a prediction line went over her last location. She grinned.

Mirage let out the breath she had been holding since the exchange had happened the moment she heard Nightmare Moon's voice on the radio. When the second shot by Nightmare Moon was fired, she heard Lion's team trading fire with what was—if she went with the sound of it—most likely the two minigun users.

That was her cue. Putting away most of her stuff into her item storage to keep her weapons dry, she ran out of the foliage and dived into the small lake, swimming as fast as she could under water. Up ahead, she could see the drain that Thunderbird had discovered earlier.

It didn't take her long to reach the drain, and she slowly made her way through, keeping as low as possible. Emerging on the other side, she stuck to the wall and followed it until she could peek around the corner at the other side. She could see—not too far away—an armored woman shooting a minigun, presumably at her allies.

Her radio turned on. "Collar is down!" Thunderbird reported. "You guys better make this quick!"

"Dammit." Mirage muttered, going into her storage and equipping her armor and guns again. "I'm in position, I can see one of them, I think it's Valentine. No sign of patrols."

"Coyote here," the radio responded. "I'm on the other side as well. I can see Panda King. Her armor is really thick, I'm going to need you guys to keep her distracted so I can toss a grenade under her!"

"Any sign of Longshot?" Nightmare Moon asked.

"None," Mirage and Coyote echoed.

"Curses. She can really turn this around. Be careful! I have already moved to my next position, I'll keep an eye out for her."

A loud explosion drew the attention of Valentine northwards, and Mirage took off, Sunset and Twilight at the ready, but something on the periphery of her vision made her stop and jump back. "I've been spotted!" She shouted, as two shots whizzed past her to blow chunks of rock from the wall. "Storm King, coming at me from the southernmost tower!"

"I got him." Nightmare Moon's voice sounded calm.

"Hurry up!" Coyote hollered. "I'm holed up here!"

"If she tries to rush you, we'll take her out!" Lion called.

"Chinga!" Coyote shouted. "I don't think she needs to move!"

Mirage rolled under the twin prediction lines of her opponent, and shot back, cursing under her breath as Storm King simply backpedaled out of the way. But just as a smug smirk crossed his face, a single shot got him through the armor and he crumpled to the ground like a sack of potatoes, followed by a red marker saying "dead".

"Thanks, Moon!" She shouted, dismissing Twilight, and throwing a plasma grenade at Valentine.

"I'll always have your back, Mirage," Moon's voice responded, making Desert Mirage grin. She dove into the shallow water just as the plasma grenade blew Valentine apart.

"Valentine is down!" Coyote called.

"Moving in!" Thunderbird responded.

"Wait!" They could hear the Lion cursing as he ran after Thunderbird. "We don't know where Longshot is!"

Mirage had barely made it uphill and turned to look down at the entrance to the temple grounds. She saw the pair take cover on either side of the doors, but at that moment, the whole center area went up in flames.

"No mames!" Coyote's voice was almost completely drowned.

Her HUD's interface marked Thunderbird as dead, and the Lion's HP was close to zero.

'I have to take Longshot down now!

She ran out of cover, quickly making out the figure of the rocket-launcher kneeling down and aiming at the door again.

"Graaah!" Mirage shouted, both Twilight and Sunset shooting simultaneously. The bullets left glowing red marks on Longshot's arms, and she dropped her rocket-launcher.

Mirage put in a burst of speed, just as Longshot reached behind her back to pull out her shotgun. As she was bringing down, Mirage kicked the barrel back up, making her opponent waste the first shot, and the time she had processed what was happening, Sunset had blown a perfect hole through Longshot's head.

At the same time, she saw Coyote's HP go down to zero, and a line of bullets shot through her arm a second later.

"Aah!" She rolled, but her arm burned. "Dammit! Dammit it hurts!" she gasped.

She looked up to see the last of their opponents, Cringe, running at her with his SMG already blazing bullets.

He didn't get far before his body was riddled by shots courtesy of the Lion, and his head was torn off by one of Nightmare's shots.

Mirage gingerly put her weapons away and collapsed, staring at the sky as the announcement went up:

Congratulations!

Winner: Team Surgeon

Sunset opened her eyes and winced.

She slowly sat up, taking off the Amusphere before rubbing her arm where the 'bullets' had hit. She grimaced when she noticed she had bruises. "Just great," she muttered. "Wait until Twilight hears about this, I'll never hear the end of it."

Getting up, she stretched before stumbling over to her closet. She needed to change into something presentable for Luna's arrival. Preferably something that covered her arms. After a bit of browsing, she settled for a sweatshirt.

She made herself busy, making sure the kitchen was all cleaned up and setting up the table for dinner, but that didn't take too long either.

She was severely tempted to jump into the GGO News website and check what the Gazette had to say about their match, but since the next match wouldn't take place for a couple of days anyway, and she had other things to worry about, she forced herself away from the computer.

She glanced at her backpack and sighed. There was one thing she could do while Luna arrived.

She dug out her diary and pondered her words for a few moments before writing.

Dear Princess Twilight,

I feel like I should feel guilty, somehow. You see, I haven't been hanging out with the Rainbooms as much as before. It's not that I don't like them, although Rainbow Dash although I've had some problems.

I've felt for several months now that I don't have much—if anything—in common with them. They're lovely girls, and I regret so much what I did to them in the past. But, being meek and submissive and doing everything they want without them asking what I want... that's not me. I want their forgiveness, and what I did to them is not something that will go away that easily, even months after the fact, but my guilt is forcing me to be somepony I'm not.

I'd rather be honest and be myself and work to earn forgiveness. I'd rather be kind without losing my strength of character. I'd rather be generous but still do things I like to do. I want to share laughter with people that make me happy too. And I want to be loyal to my friends... even if we don't hang out every day, or even if they have other things to do or like things I don't.

I don't think I have to give up everything of what made me me to be friends with someone, right?

I could use your help, Twilight, I'm so confused. I want to follow your advice, heed your teachings, but, how much should I sacrifice for friendship, if it feels completely one-sided?

On the other hoof, when I'm with Luna, I can be myself. I can talk Death Metal (it's a type of music with a tragic name, don't freak out) with her and she knows my bands. I just discovered she has a motorcycle as well, although hers is more of a sport bike, unlike my café racer—which I know doesn't make sense to you, but there's a big difference.

I talk to my other friends about things besides the contest we're participating on. They get my interests, and that competitive streak I felt I had almost lost until the past Friendship Games. I hang out with Science Twilight all the time, and she has the most adorable relationship with Lemon Zest, who actually takes her headphones off when she's around her.

We talk about music, we talk about raves and the last Metallica concert that we never got to go to. I talk science and magic with Twilight.

Until I started hanging out with all of them I never realized how alone I still felt in some ways.

Is it wrong that the way my friendship with the Rainbooms didn't go as fantastic as I had hoped? I'm somehow transitioning to these other friends, some of which I only know through a computer, and I don't want to I just don't know.

I don't know if I gave up too easily.

I don't think I did. I did everything they wanted to do, Twilight, I promise! I hope you're not too disappointed in me.

~Sunset Shimmer.

"Red curry, green curry, both chicken," Luna listed as she took out containers, "Tom Kha Gai, lots of rice, and I brought Pla Mug Pad Ga Prow, although I know not if you like squid."

Sunset shrugged, a smile plastered on her face as she greedily took in the sight of all that food. "Never tried it, but I definitely will!"

"It's spicy," Luna warned with a chuckle. "Oh, and of course Thai Tea. Iced, and plenty of it," she added, bringing out a large container.

"Luna, you're an angel. Heaven-sent. The moon's brilliance doesn't do honor to your awesomeness."

"If you keep that up, Sunset, I might blush," Luna retorted with a smile. "Now, let's eat."

They ate mostly in silence, broken by the occasional sounds of food enjoyment. True to Luna's warning, the squid dish was spicy, but Sunset loved the texture of it, and the contrast in flavor of the squid and basil.

Soon, both of them leaned back, sipping their tea and sighing in content.

"Best celebratory dinner yet," Sunset chuckled, patting her belly. "That was great. Ugh, but now I'm too warm..." she rolled her eyes and took off her sweatshirt, fanning her face a little. "You weren't kidding that the Pla Mug thingy was spicy." She chuckled, but stopped when she heard Luna gasp.

Sunset blinked, but then her eyes widened when she noticed where Luna was looking. She cursed under her breath, suddenly very aware of the bruises in her arm.

"Sunset!" Luna had almost stood up in shock. "What happened?"

Sunset cringed. "Um, do you promise not to freak out more?"

"But—"

"Seriously, Luna, I will explain if you calm down and promise to remain calm."

Luna visibly struggled and snapped her mouth shut, drawing in a breath before she very obviously forced herself to sit down and nod curtly.

"You know how I am originally a unicorn, right?"

A cautious nod.

"Well, my nervous system has developed differently than a human's, even when I am turned into one. As you know, the Amusphere interrupts the brain-signals to the body and interprets sensory information so what when you go into any VRMMORPG, you can talk, move your body and control all of your actions as if it were a real body. When I'm in the game, my senses are all transferred there, with the additional baggage of my magical sensibility. That interacts in a different way with the Amusphere.

"Under normal circumstances, the automatic settings of the MMO prevent any level of pain reaching the human brain... that's... never been the case for me." Sunset grimaced at Luna's gasp. "Every time I get shot I feel it. Usually it's just a passing burning sensation, but yesterday, before the game, I used an experimental interface to allow my magic more access into the game... and although at the time it didn't seem to have done anything, well..." she trailed off, not knowing what to say.

Luna stood up, walked around the table and sat down on the chair next to Sunset. She carefully traced her fingers down Sunset's arm. "Oh, Sunset."

"I-I'm—" Sunset bit her lip, eyes watering. "I don't want to stop playing, Luna. Not right now, please?" She took hold of Luna's hand, holding it against her arm and looked up at her friend. "I'm just starting to make sense of things, of who I want to be and it's all thanks to GGO and-and you and Surgeon and the others."

Luna drew her into a hug. "It's okay Sunset. Do you think this is a one time thing? Or are your senses going to be like this from now on?"

Sunset sniffed, embracing Luna as well. "I don't know," she admitted, giving her friend a squeeze and letting go, so she was only holding Luna's hands and could look at her. "I'm usually very good at not getting hit," she laughed and hiccuped. "It might have been just residual energy from earlier."

Luna nodded. "If... if it gets dangerous, you promise to tell me?"

Sunset nodded, "I promise. I'll make sure to get Twilight's help in getting this under control."

"Then I will not stop you." Luna sighed, squeezing Sunset's hands. "However, if I do notice that you are suffering from real pain in the game, I might ask you to unplug, is that understood?" She looked at Sunset straight in the eye. "I'm your friend, Sunset, right here, right now in the real world too, and I promise you that won't change at all."

Sunset threw her arms around Luna and nodded onto her shoulder. "Thank you."

"Anytime... do you want to go for a drive? I brought my bike."

Sunset rubbed away the stray tears. "Sure, why not? Let me get changed into something better for riding."