Chapter 15 - The Bolt Within
Princess Luna sat upon a throne during the waning minutes of her night court. It would not be long before she and Celestia would partake in their sisterly ritual—and probably some cake snacks as well. However, one obstacle remained between the diarch and sweet freedom, and that obstacle was Bonecrusher.
The lime-colored earth pony bowed before the princess, demonstrating an unusual level of decorum that made even Luna’s brow furrow. “Good morning, Your Highness. I know it’s almost time for your shift change, but there is something important that I’d like to bring to your attention.”
“And what would that be, Private Bonecrusher?” The princess leaned forward as though she were preparing to stand.
The responding mare lifted her head from the depths of her bow. Muscles tightened along her legs, producing bulging contours that outlined Crusher’s steeling nerves. “I believe that Ms. Tail has received unfair treatment during the course of our training. Captain Barrier is pampering her. She’s been given two days of leave and was sent home early during this week alone. She’s not a guard, Princess.”
Luna’s foreleg flinched. “Indeed, Ms. Tail is not a guard,” the alicorn answered. “That is why the best of the best was called in for her training. That is why she needs the focused instruction—to get her to where we need her to be. There is obviously a purpose for her involvement. Do you not think she is putting in the necessary effort?”
Bonecrusher snapped to attention. While her lips drew a deadpanned expression, her sockets contorted to sculpt a resolute scowl. “She does not understand our culture, Your Highness. Does an enemy of the state grant days off to underperforming guards? Of course not. She’s been pampered like a foal, and foals don’t belong in service.”
At that, the princess stood and stretched her foreleg to silence the mare. “Captain Barrier’s reports have been read. This week saw its share of problems. Your complaint on that front is recognized. However, Ms. Tail has shown nothing but progress.”
Crusher’s coat bristled. She cringed and sneered in a collectively unified motion before she shouted, “If Captain Barrier calls that progress, then he’s as much a part of the problem as she is!”
Arcs of unbridled magic spiraled along Luna’s horn, and Bonecrusher backpedaled from the jarring cracks of flaring light. The retreating pony made it a few steps until the weight of the alicorn’s power buckled the smaller mare straight into the bowing position. “That will be enough, Private. Captain Barrier’s word on his course is absolute. He has served in capacities the likes of which you could barely fathom. You have no right to question his methods.”
“But I do have a right to question it when his coddling is depriving others from something—”
“We said enough!” Luna’s voice shifted into the Traditional Canterlot mode. “The training was created for Ms. Tail, Private Bonecrusher. It wasn’t created for anypony else. The fact that you were put in the program was by the grace of your merits. The same as it was for Indar. Tail did not deprive others of the position. No pony did, but if you’d rather see it as such, then you took the position from your friends—no one else.”
The noise of the door swinging open had been concealed by Luna’s tempest, but when the scorching scolding ceased, the audible pops of moving, armored hooves snatched the room’s attention. “Get out now,” Barrier demanded, severing each word in the sentence with a bite that could tear Bonecrusher’s jugular. “Field. Laps. Many of them. Unless you faint or die, you keep running until I personally tell you to stop.”
Dread stretched a feigned smile on Bonecrusher’s muzzle in the seconds prior to her swift exit, and Barrier made sure to keep his stern gaze affixed on her form until she disappeared into the hall. Concern greeted the stallion after he turned around.
Luna stood stoically—as she often did when it came to his matters—and waited.
“I’m tired of her attitude.” The anger finally emerged from his muzzle. “Every damn day, it is the same thing. She’s concerned more with Tail than her own improvement, and it is pathetic. Bonecrusher might inject the asshole experience for Tail, but if she isn’t getting anything out of it except misplaced rage, then what is the fucking point?”
The distinct sense that she should have already been bathed in twilight dawn sat upon Tail’s mind. “Maybe Amora screwed with my clock again,” she commented idly as she moved through the castle corridors. Hope showed in her stride, driving her to get to the pitch fifteen minutes early, as usual. “Mm, she wouldn’t do that now, though. Perhaps Princess Luna got hung up in a boring court again, or perhaps, Captain Barrier is trying once more.”
At that declaration, Tail took a detour. It couldn’t hurt to check in on her advocate, after all. It certainly couldn’t hurt to catch another glimpse of her captain attempting what most ponies would deem impossible either. She headed towards the courtroom first, and a swish accented each step until what sounded like Luna’s voice crept through the hall.
“You’ve made your case, Captain, and I agree with your assessment,” the lunar diarch spoke with a tone that froze Tail midstep. “‘Tis a shame things ended this way. I believed that the arrangement would have perhaps facilitated you two getting closer.”
Barrier responded with a groan. “Conniving, as always, but this was just a distraction. I can’t have her in my course, not anymore.”
The pegasus stood there with her ears splayed for a few seconds. Her feathers ruffled as the sounds of their hoofsteps grew louder and more defined. Move! Tail thrust her wings downward, leapt into an adjacent alcove, and practically clung to the wall to hide. This conversation is not meant for you!
Silence reigned very briefly before the princess continued. “Do you want to break the news to her, or shall I?”
Tail’s heart sank as they passed. Her mind reran the words through her brain over and over, verifying through the resulting pause that she had actually heard what she thought she had heard.
“I’ll tell her today at the end of training and see to it that she finds her way out without issue. I think she will make it one day. She’s just not ready, not yet. I owe her that much—to tell her directly.”
“I know that tone.” Luna’s voice became harder to discern the farther and farther the pair got from the strained pegasus. “Her shortcomings are not your fault. You did the best…”
Deep breaths filled Tail’s lungs as she held her position. It wasn’t until she was sure that Barrier and the princess were long gone that she dared to pry herself from the wall. Her head lowered and her barrel slumped below her shoulders as she began the crawl to the field.
Maybe I gave the wrong answers yesterday, she pondered. I’ll have to talk with the princess about what will happen with EqNA. Maybe I can still have a say.
She sighed, struggling to hold back the waterworks that yearned to break free. “No, don’t start that. You heard him. One day, just not today.”
Tail trudged onto the field. Her sights meandered over the blades of grass as her thoughts desperately clung to the most positive part of Captain Barrier’s assessment. “How am I going to get through the day?” she whispered. “I can’t let him know that I know.”
She perked to the thunderous cadence of Bonecrusher’s gallop. The mare was running at what the pegasus considered a ferocious pace, and the grimace that gripped the earth pony’s countenance projected whatever fire was burning within.
After a few minutes of following Crusher with her sights, Tail gradually gravitated towards the track. On several occasions, the lavender mare lifted a hoof as if she had planned to burst into a sprint; however, she just could not find the spark. While you’re here, you’re working, didn’t seem to mean much when today would be the last day of work.
All Tail could manage to do was set an impassive mask as her expression and pray that nothing would prod the lurking sorrow. On cue, Bonecrusher made another pass. A snarl split the earth pony’s muzzle while her pupils traced Tail’s indifferent countenance. “What’s wrong?” the private taunted. “Afraid to get on the track with me?”
“No,” Tail replied with a murmur, “I’m just not in the mood to deal with your antics today.”
Bonecrusher’s ears quivered to the noise. The sidelong glance she tossed over her shoulder made it clear to the pegasus that something had been heard. However, the slight tilt of the earth pony’s head and the lift of her brow indicated that the meaning had been lost. Crusher came to a quick, skidding halt before she spun around to face the smaller spectator. “Did you say something to me, Civvy?”
Tail took a deep breath and sighed. Of course, Bonecrusher had to be acidic. Of course, she had to complicate things on a day that would be inevitably chalked down as one to forget. “If you want to run, then run,” the physicist replied with a bit more volume. “I’m not going to get in your way.”
“Throwing sarcastic crap at your superior?” Bonecrusher spat. Her glare threw daggers at Tail as the lumbering earth pony continued to close the distance between the pair.
“I really don’t need this, Bonecrusher—”
“Ma’am!” she roared, sending Tail into a meaningless two-step retreat. The aggressive charger rushed forward, devouring the separation to press her muzzle against the snout of the pegasus. “You are nothing!”
A grunt splurted out of Tail’s muzzle once the lime-colored mare drove her armored forehooves into Tail’s breastplate. The image of a satisfied smirk was corralled by dilated pupils while the academic pony regained her balance. “I’m not in the mood for drama today! Just run and leave me alone!”
“Leave you alone?” Maniacal laughter erupted as Bonecrusher rammed one of her forehooves into Tail’s armor. The pegasus stumbled, catching herself with her wings right as the earth pony drilled her muzzle with a right cross. “Are you going to ask a foe to please leave you alone when shit gets hard?”
Knocked over, Tail groaned from her suddenly prone position. Blood trickled from her nose, and a throbbing ache radiated from the impact point through the rest of her head. Indar wasn’t around to step in this time. Barrier was probably still with Luna. There was no one else there to help quell the hatred. She was alone with her own devices—alone with reasoning. “Bonecrusher, we’re on the same side—”
Amethyst irides pierced Tail with relentless rage. Before the pegasus could react to her backfired peace attempt, Bonecrusher reared up and delivered a scream-inducing stomp to a spread wing. “We are not on the same side! You’re a manipulative little hussy who gets hoofheld every day. Look at what happens when you get an opponent who won’t walk you through every move. Your ass is in the dirt! There’s blood on your face. And there’s no damn room in the guard for a cripple with a busted ass wing!”
Broken! Broken! Broken! The cadet’s mind clawed for answers. Tail’s head looked around, hoping to spot anypony who could help her—anypony that might hear the horrid wails that were fleeing her little lungs. The splitting crunch that had jabbed her ear still lingered in her thoughts and spurred jarring swirls of mental fog.
“We look out for our own!” Bonecrusher railed. “But you! You! You made it so nopony looked out for me! They let a sideshow diversion push my warnings to the wayside! After watching so many others lower themselves for you, I don’t give a shit if I get kicked out to ensure that you go nowhere! It’s a miracle that you even made it this far because only an emotionally damaged stallion would ever let somepony like you be his fucktoy. And that is the only way—”
Emotionally damaged… The pegasus rolled, planted her hooves into the grass, and yanked her wing free with a thrust that brutally pulled feathers from the broken appendage.
Emotionally damaged. The inferno cut through the haze, and an ardent amber glow reappeared where it had been lost. Adrenaline-jacked hyperfocus forced Tail’s pain from her awareness, and her limbs responded by immediately throwing her body towards Bonecrusher.
“Don’t you ever say that about Captain Barrier again!” Tail cried as one of her gauntlets collided with the earth pony’s face. The lime-colored mare, tilting to the left, staggered from the blow, and the pegasus did not let the opportunity pass. She slugged Bonecrusher in the muzzle again, bloodying up the greenish fur as the bulkier cadet listed. Emotionally damaged! He’s not— Two legs are up. Tail leapt onto the mare’s back, and a lavender foreleg moved in the moments after to wrench Bonecrusher’s dangling limb to her barrel.
The sudden application of a top-heavy weight heaved Crusher’s center of mass beyond the coverage of her planted hooves. She wailed upon trying to throw her snared appendage, for her muscles and tendons were strained by Tail’s use of Barrier’s lock.
Tail pushed off Bonecrusher when the behemoth began to tumble. The jump sent the earth pony careening into the ground with more energy, and it gave the pegasus a snapshot of reprieve to cock her foreleg once more. Her eyes beamed with a fiery fury that met the sprawled student’s shellshocked stare.
As Tail descended, swirls of vapor formed around her hoof and compacted into a tiny black tuft. “At least he gave me a fucking chance!” The pegasus crashed upon Crusher before the primed limb hashtag-wrecked the underside of the gaping green jaw. Cracks, echoing through the training grounds, pierced the air as bolts of lightning burst from the compressed cloud to pitch the earth pony straight into the depths of unconsciousness. “At least he let me try…”
Pants preceded the agonized cry that popped from behind adrenaline’s veil. Stabbing pain assaulted Tail’s chest from the realm of her shattered wing, and the pegasus could no longer remain upright. Her breathing hitched as a fresh dagger cut into her nerves, and she crumpled—into the warming tingle of his magic.
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Oh halfway point! The chapter! The chapter's calling!
When you say heavenly, are talking about the moment Tail finally managed to pummel the living daylights out of Bonecrusher?
8108668 Shifty eyes. Noooo, of course not, whatever are you talking about? ;)
Yessssss.
Ah, finally. Bonecrusher put into her place by all 3 in a matter of hours. When she wakes up, I don't think Bonecrusher is going to have any room to speak ill of Tail ever again. If she ever speaks again, given Barrier's nature/and or her broken jaw. Go Tail!
8108691 Wing's amusing tidbit of the day. :P This was the last chapter written during one of my kidnap Sober events. The reason why hashtag-wrecked appears in the text is because when I was writing that line, I spoke it aloud and actually said it. So it had to go in, clearly. ;)
8108708 I was wondering about that.
8108713 There are a few of those kind of things splashed about here and there. When I was younger, I was really keen on scenes where the narrator would 4th-Wall break.
Yussssssssss
it is about time. but now Tail is vary possibly crippled for life.
in the long run this all kind of sucks.
8108724 Hehehehe.
8108729 Pulls Amora out of the Wingbox. ~Hun, don't forget her roommate is the best medic of the modern age.~ ;)
Tail used Thunder Punch. It's Super Effective!
8108676 And just think: Crusher would have possibly killed Tail if the latter hadn't done anything.
It's like Bonecrusher was crying for a dishonorable discharge.
7935472
This comment I made over 9 weeks ago still holds true.
8108826 And it still makes me chuckle. :P
8108788 Best part, you can still cry with a wired jaw. ;)
8108784 I think my favorite thing about this is looking back on all the comments from people, or even the messages I got on Discord/Skype. Folks wanting Barrier to kick Crusher's ass, or Amora, or Luna. And then Tail does it her damn self, and it amuses me to no end. :rofl:
8108708
That explains it. That said, it has no place in a serious story. The fact that you spelt #rekt like some non‐internet savvy English professor would insist upon does nothing to make it appropriate. It’s utterly immersion breaking, and more so than simply having written #rekt would have been.
A thing of beauty is a joy forever
#rekt
8108967 Seriously? Geebus, it's one damn word that brought Sober and me a little chuckle when we were writing together. I'm not going to evaluate the nature of 'serious story' here, but I will say that there are plenty of instances in literature of 4th Wall breaking, stream of consciousness junk, and the like. It has a place because it's part of the history of putting the story to the page.
Bah. I would have had Bonecrusher standing on the red carpet before Shining Armor long before it got to this point...
Disrespecting a Superior Commissioned Officer
Disobeying a Lawful Order from a Superior Commissioned Officer
Attempting Unauthorized Access of Classified Military Secrets...
Now we can add Assaulting a fellow Royal Guard to the mix.
She'll be lucky if she even gets a glimpse of the outside of a jail cell for the next decade or so.
8109023 In principle, I completely agree. Though, this is also the universe that goes about reforming its most dangerous, magic stealing, time altering psychopaths every 20 episodes or so. ;)
Huh, it looks like Tail just winged it.
I guess Tails emotional barrier was crushed.
Well Bonecrusher is so boned when she wakes up.
That's good, Barrier caught the tail end of the fight.
I give this chapter four out of four puns and several happy dances. Not that I know how to dance, mind you.
8109166 People in my office are confused because that made me snort and chuckle and all sorts of laugh. Bravo!
8109167 I guess you'll have a tail to tell your coworkers then? That and thanks for the unexpected follow.
8108870 Especially since you're the co-author of this story.
8109186 Oh geeze, you did it again.
8109254 Your coworker's probably think that you're a Lunatic because of the laughing fits. I mean, these puns can't possible be that punny.
I have to stop before its-
-Bonecrushers dreams got crushed-
- too late! Help, the puns won't stop! I might break like Tail's wing if I don't stop!
8108735
I was thinking of that but at the same time I try really hard to not give out any kind of spoiler.
8109284 'Least no one's asked you if your C.O. has lifted your namesake lately.'
Nowhere is it given in Celestial writ that reforming someone must be done with puppies and fuzzy kittens. Some self entitled bullies will not relent until their favorite chew toy rears back and takes a junk out of them. Luna got a thousand years on the moon and then a face full of rainbow cannon. Discord got a thousand years in stone , got out with his attitude intact was returned to his Gneiss home and then seemed to get the idea,
Just perhaps this has gotten Bonecrushers attention, but I wouldn't bet on it.
8109975 lol, you okay there, Shachza.
8109017
All of which fit the narrative being crafted. This doesn’t. This isn’t a character breaking the fourth wall which, depending on the character, might be routine. This isn’t the narrator breaking the fourth wall which, depending on the story, might be integral. This isn’t even the author breaking the fourth wall which, depending on the seriousness of the piece, is excusable.
Above all it was not even well done. Almost any alternative was a better choice. (hashtag!) wrecked would have been the least weird looking and an obvious aside since its surrounded by parentheses. #wrecked would have the best chance to slip under the radar and is almost forgivable its own right. #rekt would have been obvious and still out of place but not broken the flow like reading the word “hashtag” was.
Honestly, at best it belongs in the notes. This isn’t a greentext, nor is it a troll‐ or crack‐fic.
8110299 It's one word in 72000+. If Shakespeare can have fart and dick jokes, I can write hashtag-wrecked. You don't like it? Fine. That's your opinion, and you're welcome to it. But what you're not entitled to do is tell Sober and me what we can and can't write.
8110299
8110729 Oh no! People have varying ideas on what constitutes 'good writing!' I guess we'll all just have to accept that no story is going to be right for everyone and move on with our lives. ):
In conclusion, media.gettyimages.com/photos/baby-covered-in-spaghetti-picture-id99276889?s=170667a
8110756
8110299
That is quite true. I'm gonna add one more thing on this front, and then I'm going to be done with it. Xoid, I sit back on this one and I think to myself, "What was your goal?" Is it your hope that I'll go in and change it? If that was the aim, it would have been far more effective to come in and say something along the lines of:
I would have sat back and pondered it. I probably would have taken it out and left it in the print-run as some cheeky grin joke. Or maybe I would have changed it back to #wrecked as it was before the editing squad got to it and suggested otherwise.
With what we've got going on here, I'm put on the defensive from the get-go. NLD in an incredibly important story to Sober and me. It pretty much is the reason why I didn't fall into a depressive spiral after some shitty end of year events. So the implication that it is suddenly not a serious story because of 0.0014% of the tale doesn't make me want to take any action that is in the direction you'd probably want.
That's pretty much all I've got left to say on the subject.
With Tail actually beating Crusher by herself, it's possible Crusher could change her opinion and she and tail could end as tight comrades. That sometimes happened in the service.
8114793 Amora says that every day.
8116476 And I posted from Sober's land. Whoops! lol
8117617 'Sweety, that happens around Chapter...SPOILERS, TAIL! Hehehe.'
8118828 Trigger: "Shachy gets mah shit, Wing."
8118842
Another contender for squeeland.
8122275 "The one time I get to be the voice of buckin' reason, huh?" ~T
Y'know, when Tail started pondering the phrase 'emotionally damaged,' I honestly thought she was going to apply it to Bonecrusher, and then later start to analyze how to make Bonecrusher a better person, no matter how violent their fight was.
8122281
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh...! You're responding on the main story page instead of on the individual chapter pages. No wonder there are so many replies that I didn't get notified of. Responses done on the main story page default to being on the most recent published chapter. And if a reply happens on a chapter other than the one the linked post is on, then the original poster gets no notification.