We Have Forged the Type of Bonds That Only Battle Brings
The two iron dragons, fully grown beasts that were easily as tall as a five story building, were a menacing sight to behold. The metal armor they wore protected their torsos and limbs, but left their wings unprotected. Even their heads were protected, a large metal helmet that also covered their eyes, leaving only slits to see through. None of the ponies or humans knew how thick the armor was but if it was something this big, it had to be very thick. The upside to their armor, for the Equestrians, was that it appeared to be very heavy and the two dragons seemed to be heavily impaired by the weight of the armor judging from their flying speed.
They didn't fly through the air at the speeds that the Equestrians expected from normal dragons. By the time the dragons closed the distance from their lairs to the airships, the airships had reached decent combat speeds and had their weapons to bear. Also, this gave enough time for the airborne forces of the Equestrian side to completely mobilize into the air, including a very irritated alicorn that was carrying a human as a passenger. All across the decks of each of the three airships, machine guns raked the bodies of the dragons with rifle caliber bullets but it seemed like it was as effective as spitting at the dragon. Every now and then, a yak would fire their small portable cannons and hit the dragon with a direct hit. These were obvious to tell because a small explosion would appear on the dragon's armor. Unfortunately, because it was a low velocity 20mm high explosive round being used against something as big and powerful as an iron dragon, it was barely any more effective than the machine guns. The only visible effect those yak cannons did was they'd leave slight dents across the light grey armor or the slightly lighter grey hide of the dragons.
The entire time the dragons were closing the distance to the airships, the airships were flying as quickly as they could, away from the dragons, trying to make as much time as they could before the dragons were within their engagement range. As hindered as the dragons were from their armor, they were still significantly faster than the airships. While the airships were attempting to fly away, the airship's cannons were firing back at the dragons. However, at the angle the airships were facing them at, only a few of each of the airships' guns could be aimed at the dragon. For the gunners of the airships' cannons, it was a daunting task. They were firing from a very fast moving platform with a single shot weapon and even though the dragons were enormous targets, they were still a very fast moving target.
Hundreds of pegasi were charging towards the dragon, nearly all of them were setup with heavy bombs. The princess and her team of pegasi (and griffon) were using all of their effort to catch up to the aerial pegasi bomber fleet, having been amongst the last to take flight. Luckily, this was a team that included Gilda and Rainbow Dash, two fliers that were speed demons. As for the princess, she was a powerful alicorn so she could decently keep up with the speedsters. However, the princess's bat ponies were trailing far behind the trio. By the time the princess and her team closed the distance, one of the dragons had taken a direct hit from one of the airship's cannons. Despite it being a larger caliber artillery round, compared to the yak's small 20mm cannons or the rifle caliber machine guns, it didn't have nearly the effect some of the airship's crewmembers had expected. It blew a chunk out of the dragon's armor but that was all it did, there was no visible damage to the dragon's hide underneath the armor aside from some black blast residue that stained the dragon's hide.
That direct cannon hit, a 75mm cannon by the way, did have the unfortunate effect of angering the dragon. It was still at least somewhere between one and two kilometers away. The dragon that was hit stopped flying forward and hovered midair. No one was sure what it was doing until a bolt of lightning shot towards the airships, originating from that dragon's mouth, barely missing the airship the dragon had been targeting. The sound of that attack was deafening and all three of the airships had immediately started taking evasive maneuvers.
Tran tightly gripped the saddle strapped to Princess Luna. "How often can they do that?!" he yelled over the sound of the high speed winds as the duo soared through the air.
The princess kept most of her focus on flying but she did indeed hear the human's question. "It's very taxing for them and takes up a lot of energy and mana! It's not an attack of easy repetition!" the princess answered back.
Tran patted the princess on the neck as a thanks. The princess wasn't sure to be thankful for the return acknowledgement or irritated that she was being treated as a mere pack animal. Anyways, Tran had noticed that the dragon had to stop to make that attack, as did the princess and the other fliers that accompanied them. At the moment, both dragons were more focused on the airships than the ponies that were about to swarm them. The dragons probably assumed that none of the ponies would pose a threat to them, especially with the armor that they wore.
Luckily for the Equestrians, the moment the iron dragon had stopped to make that lightning breath attack, several of the bomber pegasi teams had soared above the dragon to make a bombing run. Whether it was an act of hubris from the dragon to ignore the pegasi or if it simply couldn't see the pegasi bombers because of the helmet it wore, the pegasi bombers took an unimpeded flight path above the hovering dragon that had stopped charging forward to make that lightning breathe attack. Several teams of the bomber pegasi managed to drop their bomb loads with impunity.
Several bombs struck the dragon's head and explosions rang off on random sections of the dragon's head. Several chunks of the dragon's helmet were blown off of the helmet but the dragon looked relatively fine. It roared in anger and swung its head around, looking up at the sky to find out who dared to attack him. It flew up higher while swinging its arms around, trying to take out some of the pegasi that attacked him, but the bombers and their escorts were too nimble and fast to strike down.
Princess Luna took this distraction as a moment to charge forth, her escorts following behind her. They quickly closed more of the distance, until they were only a few hundred yards away from the dragon, holding a position where they were probably in its blind spot. Sooooo, Tran took aim with his bazooka. The bazooka sang its unique song of death and a rocket streaked towards the dragon, managing to strike its neck. Where the rocket impacted, its armor looked perfectly fine, other than black blast residue. However, a few seconds passed and blood started fountaining out from where the rocket had struck the dragon as the black blast residue was replaced with large splotches of red that drooled down. Finally, it showed a sign of injury.
Once again, the dragon roared out, however this was a roar of pain instead of anger and irritation like it previously did, a roar that was distinctively different, resulting from the beast finally finding an opponent that could pierce it's hefty armor. The other dragon stopped where it was flying and looked back to its partner, finding the problem the other dragon was dealing with. The other dragon's ears perked from the rear dragon's roar, having noticed that it was a roar of pain, he stopped going after the airships. He started retreating, to help the other dragon and immediately noticed the blood gushing out of the other dragon's as there were two neck wounds gushing out blood, Tran's efforts having wounded the first dragon even further, despite the fact that it was quite difficult to see through the paltry slit on the dragon's helmet.
Tran and the princess had daringly closed more of the distance to the first dragon, close enough that the dragon could have swiped at the duo with its claws, though Princess Luna was literally flying circles around the dragon to prevent that. With this peculiar flying strategy, the first dragon was hovering where it was, circling around in place for the purpose of attempting to try to knock the princess and Tran out of the air with its claws. Naturally, this dragon was unsuccessful in its attempts to get rid of its comparatively diminutive pest and two's efforts were effective in forcing the dragon to do something it didn't notice, keeping it in place.
The dragon's anger grew and it paused to open its mouth, everyone and pony seeing a bright ball building up and growing in its open mouth, a bright ball of light that had several lightning bolts arcing and shooting out in many random directions. At that exact moment, before the dragon could release the tremendous build-up of a powerful lightning breath blast, bombs rained down onto its head and face. While the princess and Tran had been engaging the dragon, they had been distracting it and been keeping it in place to make it an easy target for Rainbow Dash and Gilda to take aim and drop Tran's special EFP HEAT bombs. Both Gilda and Rainbow Dash rained down two bombs each and both bombs from both dogfighters managed to successfully strike the dragon on its armored head.
The effects were immediate. Even though the dragon was wearing a metal helmet armored enough that it would have made a bunker jealous, it did nothing to stop the EFP (Explosively Formed Penetrators) from turning its head into swiss cheese. From the outside, the EFPs looked like it didn't do much, but anyone knowledgeable in bomb science would know that properly shaped copper sufficiently propelled by explosives would form into a hypersonic 2km/s jet of molten copper, that had been punched straight through the dragon's helmet, head, and skull before turning its brain into mush. One of the bombs, Gilda's, had missed the dragon's skullcap and hit the dragon on its armored nose, punching a hole straight through the helmet and then through its nose before the jet of molten copper exited through the roof of the dragons mouth and went through the ball of lightning the dragon had been building up, causing the ball of lightning to explode. Bolts of uncontrolled lightning shot in every direction, one managing to hit Luna and Tran but the lunar alicorn had the foresight to have been holding a shield spell the entire time they had been engaging the dragon, just in case.
The dragon, much to the shock of the second dragon, immediately froze in the air, its wings no longer beating. It then immediately started falling, where it hit the ground with a ground shaking thud, causing what seemed like an earthquake to everyone who witnessed the impact. The other dragon was in a state of shock, having stopped where it was in the air to watch its brethren fall out of the sky dead, not believing something as tiny as these ponies could take out something as great and mighty as them, an iron dragon with their impervious iron armor. Even the ponies, the bombers and their fighter escorts, had stopped whereever they were in the air, having paused to watch the iron dragon fall out of the sky. Everypony was shocked, even Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Princess Luna, and her bat pony sentinel escorts, having also stopped wherever they were to watch the dragon fall out of the sky.
Tran smacked Princess Luna on the side of her neck to get her attention. "We ain't done yet!" he shouted. That had managed to shake her from her stupor and she nodded before flying forth towards the second dragon. The princess's escorts and then the two dogfighters soon followed forth, all of them following the princess towards the dragon. The second dragon noticed the movement in the corner of its vision, rapidly heading towards itself and reacted by building up a powerful amount of energy in its mouth.
At the exact moment the dragon blew out a blast of lightning, Tran had fired his bazooka. The rocket had soared a short distance away from the flying duo before it detonated midair when it made contact with the charged lightning breath. While the rocket exploded harmlessly and stopped where it was, the blast of lightning kept going towards the flying princess and rider. Try as she might, Princess Luna was unable to dodge the blast despite her aerial skills and weaving attempts but fortunately, she still had her magic shield up and it took the brunt of it, however, the shield shattered into millions of magical light particles even though it was a powerful shield spell casted from one of the almighty diarchal alicorns, from taking such a mighty attack. The destruction of her protective shield resulted in Princess Luna being immediately knocked unconscious from the magical overload and resulting backlash. Luckily, the lightning breath only managed to hit the duo, most likely them being the primary aim of the dragon considering their paired up size and the fact that they were leading the charge of attackers towards it.
While the princess had started tumbling out of the sky, unconscious, Tran was unscathed and very much conscious as he was strapped to the alicorn, falling out of the sky. Considering that this battle took place high up in the sky, Tran had a good amount of time before he would impact the ground while still strapped to the princess. At their current altitude, it would take about half a minute before they'd splatter so Tran did the only thing he could. He started shaking the princess's head and neck as hard as he could while shouting at her while Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and the night sentinel escorts that were with them, when they realized the situation that Tran was stuck in, had immediately darted after the falling duo. When the shaking wasn't enough, Tran drew his .500 S&W and positioned it near Princess Luna's head before firing it once. The princess's head immediately jerked violently away from the source of the hellish eruption of sound and she yelped in pain upon hearing the explosion-like report of the hand cannon. Her eyes darted around and she quickly figured out what situation she was involved in, flaring her wings out and flapping them as quickly as she could. With a couple thousand feet before splattering, she leveled out in flight just as their escorts caught up to them.
The princess rubbed at her ears, feeling the weight of having to carry Tran on her back, as she remembered what she had been previously doing. She looked around and saw her escorts catching up to her, flying up to be beside her. She watched as one of her night sentinel escort's mouths moved but she heard nothing, nothing except for a constant ringing in both of her ears. Her attention was redirected towards a rapping against the right side of her neck. Craning her head around, she saw Tran slapping the side of her neck with his right hand, his hand cannon held in his left hand. She quickly realized what had happened and she frowned in irritation. Tran's mouth was moving and she could hear nothing but the ringing but she realized what he was trying to tell her when he pointed at the other dragon they were still flying towards. She nodded her head and continued flying towards their target. With the ringing in her ears, the princess tried to fix them but when she lit her horn up to cast a spell, her mind exploded in pain as the effects of magical backlash still plagued her. The princess groaned as she realized she would have to continue enduring the effects of tinnitus.
Tran signaled to the following fliers with him and the princess and they broke off to reengage the dragon, going high up to drop their next clutch of bombs. The other nearby bombers regained their composure and rejoined the assault, flying towards the dragon. This dragon took no chances and was swiping at any pegasi that got near it, meaning the bombers had to fly higher and higher to drop their bombs. Considering they were dropping a bomb from a high speed moving platform targeted at a different high speed moving platform and only using instinct to aim, the grand majority of them missed the mark. Of the first flock of bombers to attack the dragon, only one bomb managed to hit it and it impacted the dragon's head, doing nothing other than angering it. The bombers would only attack the dragon only when a sufficiently large amount of them gathered up to attack the dragon en masse but by now, most of them had either scattered too far away from each other or had dropped their bombs and had to return to the airship to rearm.
With less pegasi bothering it, the dragon was freed up enough to start building up another powerful blast of energy, again aimed at the princess and Tran. The princess's eyes went wide and she immediately started diving. At the moment, she didn't have the speed to make any effective evasive maneuvers because she lost most of it earlier due to her momentary loss of consciousness so that was all that she could do at the moment. Right as the dragon was about to release a bellow of lightning, it turned its head at the last second. The explosion of energy and lightning arced through the air and impacted the side of one of the airships.
The forlorn airship immediately had various small explosions erupt from random assorted places in addition to the many stray fires immediately erupting and the doomed airship immediately started descending, rapidly. Whether it be luck or the airship's pilot being sufficiently skilled or possibly both, the airship managed to land despite its unplanned significant loss of altitude, albeit a bit rougher than normal landings. The dragon bellowed out a sadistic bellow of pleasure as it revealed in its achievement, a thunderously loud roar that rattled the minds of many ponies. As if out of spite, one of the downed airship's guns then fired and successfully impacted the dragon's chest with an HE shell, exploding harmlessly against the dragon's armored chest. The dragon snorted, taking the hit in stride but then had its attention torn away when it felt pain in its back.
It tried to sharply turn around in the air as Tran started reloading his bazooka again, getting ready to hopefully land another hit. Since it had been effectively hovering in place, Gilda and Rainbow Dash had dropped their next pairs of bombs each. This time, the pair weren't so lucky with their aim due to the fact that the dragon was trying to spin in place to face its next victims. One bomb from each of the two dogfighters missed while another bomb impacted the dragon's back and the fourth impacted the dragon's left arm. The bombs were still effective in what they did though. The bomb that impacted the dragon's back punched a hole through its chest that the dragon absolutely felt and the other bomb blew off the dragon's arm, just above the elbow. The dragon grabbed its severed arm, before it fell to the ground and it stared up at the pegasus and griffon ace dogfighters.
It growled in anger and before the two of them could react, the dragon threw its severed arm up at the two. Both of them weaved to the side, barely dodging the dismembered limb. Rainbow Dash, befuddled from the idea of such an attack, stared at the arm as it soared away from them. "Did it just really?" Rainbow Dash yelled out, asking her fellow ace.
Gilda, who was in an equal state of befuddlement, was also watching the arm fly off in the distance. "I know, right?" Gilda responded. When the two turned their attention back to the dragon, they were horrified to see another object fly towards them, the dragon's helmet. Try as they might, there wasn't enough time for either of them to dodge the attack and both of them were smashed up against the massive iron object. With the second projectile being as big as it was, the two were taken flying away flattened against one side of the helmet and by the time they peeled themselves off of the helmet to take flight, the normal way instead of being attached to a giant thrown iron dragon's helmet, they found that trying to fly was a painful and arduous task. Both Rainbow Dash and Gilda, even if they wouldn't want to admit it, were definitely no longer in any condition to fly like they previously were just seconds ago. They could feel that something or possibly many somethings were probably broken and they spent the rest of their time in this massive air engagement, painfully descending to the ground to relieve their bodies of any more agony.
The dragon, now that its face could be seen, was smirking, having been able to get revenge on its attackers. Having not learned from earlier, another rocket struck the dragon, this time, impacting the dragon's neck. Since the dragon so graciously exposed its head and neck by removing the armor from aforementioned body parts, this rocket had a much greater effect than any of the previous rockets it had taken. However, it wasn't like this iron dragon was just as squishy as its more delicate non-metallic dragon colleagues. The rocket only blew a small hole in the dragon's neck, creating a marginally bigger wound than the other rocket impacts, unlike the decapitation that Tran was able to perform on a regular portable red dragon during the Dauntless incident. That didn't mean it didn't hurt. The dragon was absolutely angry, judging from how loud it was roaring in reaction
The dragon turned its head in the direction of the attack, seeing the ever present alicorn and human rider. With the dragon's attention torn away and redirected at the princess and the veritable knight, once again, the princess's night sentinel escorts were attempting to make their way above the dragon to make a bombing run and unlike every other bomber teams of ponies, they tried to fly to their intended bombing run bomb drop start position without drawing the dragon's attention. It was a mere simple task for said elitist soldiers and they made their way to their desired positions.
A rocket soared past the dragon's head as it whipped its head to the side, the princess and Tran, her lightly wincing and him angrily grinding his teeth respectively. With the dragon dodging the rocket, it knew it would have quite a good number of seconds, roughly 25 seconds as Tran had to reload the bazooka by himself in quite a stressful difficult situation(while riding a horse((Alicorn, Faust damnit!)) that was flying at very high speeds that was also performing aerial maneuvers), had decided to look up to find out if there were any threats up above. Right as it looked up, it got a very good view of the two night sentinels after they had long dropped a single one of Tran's special EFP HEAT bombs each. The night sentinels had taken their time trying to aim the bomb drops and it was absolutely worth it as one bomb struck the dragon in its left eye while the other one impacted the dragon's forehead; even if the dragon wouldn't have look up, the bombs would have absolutely struck the top of the dragon's exposed head.
The dragon, from an outside view, appeared to have frozen midair as he stopped performing any actions like it had been doing seconds prior, such as flapping its wings. The bomb's explosions and resulting EFP copper jets easily punched through its vulnerable head and mulched its brain. As a result, it immediately started falling out of the air as it no longer had any life in it, the bombs having been exceptionally effective. Everyone(griffons and humans included except Tran) immediately started cheering like earlier but with even more energy. The princess couldn't hear the cheering but she definitely saw it, from the other fliers in the air surrounding her. Unexpectedly, especially to her night sentinel escorts, the princess joined in the exhilarated rallying, not showing any hint of royal etiquette.
The dragons had been defeated and the battle had been won.
-X-X-X-
The one airship that had been struck by the dragon's breath attack had its damage controlled and the fires had been put out. Casualties were low, with no deaths, all of them quickly being rushed to medical treatment. When the airship was crash-landing, everyone inside had braced for the impact, minimizing injuries. It was a miracle that the pilot was able to land the airship without destroying the aircraft, whether it be luck or the pilot's skill, or both.
Finally, with nothing major happening, Princess Luna had her tinnitus removed by a unicorn mage medic, restoring her hearing. She also wanted to incinerate the saddle now that Tran was no longer riding her(...that's what she said, ~Logan(I will murder you in your sleep, Logan, ~Tran)) but decided against it, believing that an event like that could happen again in the future. Much to her chagrin, no tackplay was involved(Luna was very disappointed, ~Dash(We doth believe somepony will gain quite a new torturous future tasking, ~Luna)
Now that she was free, Princess Luna was meeting up with Tran on the top deck of one of the undamaged airships, without her escorts. He was leaning against the railing of the ship's deck and looking off in the distance, surveying the land. As she trotted up to the lone human, she used her magic to levitate a bit of rubbish and tapped the human on his shoulder to get his attention. Tran turned to look at the princess and nodded at her to acknowledge her presence. "Hello, Tran," she casually greeted.
"Aye," Tran responded.
She took a position beside Tran, standing beside him. Tran was staring at the corpse of the dragon that they had defeated and the princess joined him in his leisurely activity. "We make quite the duo," the princess commented.
As usual, Tran had the same dead expression on his face. As he leaned against the railing, he made no other movements, not even twitching. He appeared to be like a statue, as it was even difficult to see any movements in his chest as he breathed. "Aye," Tran responded again.
The princess gave a deep sigh, as she finally had time to relax, considering all of the excitement that had happened today. She was calming down her body, adrenaline still coursing through her body. "I appreciate the relationship we have, the manner in which you treat me, my fellow warrior," the princess said.
Tran, still unmoving and not making even the most minor of twitches or body language, still pretending to be a statue. "Aye," Tran once again responded.
The princess turned to look at Tran, with a look of concern on her face. "I unintentionally overheard your conversation with that guardsmare, rebuking her seductive advancements. All of your companions have indulged in their carnal and bestial urges, as natural for anyone who is alive, in addition to their usual leisurely breaks from this war but you have done nothing but work. I hath never seen you spend nary a leisurely furlough for yourself unless forcibly invited. It's not healthy, acting as if you are a mechanical machine, for somepony's mental health," the princess vocalized.
Tran said nothing this time. The princess waited for a response but after a few seconds, sighed and the concern on her face grew. She sidetrotted closer to Tran and her body was now up against Tran's. Even to the lunar princess, his body felt cold, as if he were a corpse. "Ever since my return from my imprisonment, I hath nary met a pony who doth treats me as an equal. Everypony tiptoes around me, worried that they will offend me and I will use it as an opportunity to pounce their soul being a former ghastly 'myth'. You are a true friend to me," the princess spoke, drawing from her mind's true feelings. The princess's face went crimson, realizing what the situation looked like. "Not as a romantic partner but as a lifelong friend."
Tran finally moved, breaking away from his performance as a statue. He chuckled and put an arm around the princess's neck. "We haven't known each other for long but the time we've spent with each other, is more than a lifetime's experience. I enjoy the bond we've made and I pity for your former history. Everyone deserves to be treated as equals," Tran finally said breaking his silence. He was not oblivious to the position he was in with the princess, especially with his arm around the princess. "I would also prefer to not advance our relationship into a romantic one, I'm content with our relationship as it is. A bond forged in fire," Tran added in. His face turned grim for a short moment. "In war. I hate that it had to be from war. War is fucking terrible," he further added in while his face slowly returned to its usual dead expression. "Alright, I'll spend some time for myself. Fucking, I'll figure something out." Tran pulled his arm off of the princess's neck and returned it to his side. The princess chuckled and gave him a quick nuzzle before side trotting a few hoofsteps away from him. Tran looked back at the princess. "I'm still not getting a fucking mare or filly friend, whatever it's called. Bachelor until I'm dead."
The princess chuckled and playfully smacked the human with a wing. "Your terms are acceptable," the princess responded.
The two were once again just standing close beside each other, looking at the dragon's corpse that they defeated. Tran looked at the Princess who was still wearing her armor and sword. "Fucking, my turn, get a gun," he grumbled.
The princess snorted. She pressed her wings closer to her body, pressing them against her swords for a warrior's comfort. "Neigh, as a true warrior, I use only proper weapons, fighting up close, not as cowards!" the princess declared.
Tran turned to look at the princess with a raised eyebrow and a playful, challenging look on his face, surprising the princess as she was used to the usual dead expression on his face. "Are you implying that I'm not a warrior?" he cheekily asked. "And what about everything we just did with the dragon? Does that mean we weren't fighting a dragon and were, what, just trying to have fun giving an acrobatics airshow while entertaining your interest in tackplay?"
The princess scrunched her nose, realizing the trap she was put in. She wanted to teleport away but that would mean she was a coward trying to run away from this intellectual skirmish. "Bah, fine, I yield!" she pronounced. She then adopted a similar cheeky look on her face. "I will only adopt a so-called, gun if it is a true warrior's weapon!"
Tran stared back at the princess, still with a challenging look on his face. "Am I, a true warrior?" he asked.
The princess raised an eyebrow at his question but then nodded. "Aye? You have proven that you are a true warrior with your skill and achievements," the princess answered.
Tran immediately removed the holster that was currently holding his 1911. He held it out to the princess, with the grip end facing her. "Here, a true warrior's weapon, that is also a, so-called, gun," he responded.
The princess took a deep breath and steeled herself, as if she were entering a battle, an intellectual one instead of a physical one, but released the breath and sighed. She knew it would have been a losing battle going against the implacable man. Her horn lit up and she levitated up the pistol and holster. She attached it to a free section of her armor by magically fusing the holster to a strap. Afterwards, she used her magic to draw the pistol, holding it in the air. Looking back at Tran, she had a flat look on her face. "Are you aware I hath never used a, so-called, gun in my long life?" she deadpanned.
Tran shrugged. "Everyone starts from nothing," he responded. He pointed off in the distance. "Do you know how it works? If so, try firing it off into the distance," he further added in. He himself drew his signature hand cannon and pointed it off in the distance.
The princess grumbled, levitating the pistol where it was pointing off in the distance. "I have witnessed others utilizing them and am aware of the intended steps to wield these so called, weapons, but I have never done so myself," the princess responded.
Now, Tran continued his attempts to tutor and coax her to finally join the modern world. Since Tran had given the princess a pistol meant for humans, that meant she would be incapable of firing with her hoof. In the future, he or someone else would have to modify it for pony hooves, ie, making the trigger guard big enough that she could fit a hoof in and fitting a massive trigger meant to be pulled by hooves, if Princess Luna wanted to fire the 1911 by hoof. For now, she would utilize her new and first firearm with magic. This was a skill field that was nigh impossible for the average unicorn, wielding a firearm with magic.
Anypony capable of levitation would very much be capable of levitating a firearm and using it as a melee weapon, but it would further require more magical skill to levitate a firearm AND be capable of firing it with magic. The challenge of trying to fire a firearm with ONLY magic is that you had to hold only a portion of the firearm and not the entirety of it. If you were to levitate the entire firearm, you would be holding all of its components where each moving part would be frozen in place. For a unicorn, alicorn in this case, were to levitate a firearm AND fire it, they had to levitate, ONLY onto the grip or stock of the firearm and then magically pull ONLY the trigger of said firearm in order for it to fire. After that, the unicorn would then have to control the weapon recoiling in their magical grasp which was a further challenge to the caster's casting/levitation field strength. This required a significant amount of practice for a unicorn to be able to do this so it was a very rare skill in Equestria. The sheer amount of magic practice, magical dexterity, and magical strength meant that anypony capable of doing this showed/proved that they were a great and powerful mage.
Tran had been explained this before by none other than, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Equestria's premier expert on magic, who proved that she was quite capable of simultaneously firing multiple firearms with her magic field when asked to demonstrate, to which she did with great zeal and expertise with multiple different examples of standard Royal Equestrian Army firearms. Tran was able to explain a simplified version of this to Princess Luna, as he wanted her to join the modern age, in terms of weaponry. The princess had already regained her ability to use magic, having fully recovered from the magical backlash that she suffered from earlier. Between the alicorn princesses, she was the alicorn with the best magical dexterity while her sister was the one with the most raw magical power.
The lunar princess levitated the 1911 in the air, past the railing of the airship's top deck, being aimed off into the distance at nothing in particular. For the first time in her life, Princess Luna fired a gun. The 1911 barked its deadly roar of death as a .45 caliber bullet was sent flying off into the distance. The princess stamped her hooves as if someone was clapping. "Huzzah, a mere simple task!" the princess exclaimed. As usual, she had been protecting her ears with magic, as she hated how loud guns were.
Tran held a thumb up with his free hand, the other one still holding his S&W model 500. "Keep going," he encouraged.
The princess smiled and fired again. Then, again. Then, again and again and again. Before she knew it, she was out of ammo. The princess looked at the pistol and then back at Tran. "I can see why you prefer these," she admitted. There was a certain allure to it. The act of firing it was quite the desirably, entertaining experience, with the sound it made and knowing the power it possessed. She smirked again. "Swords are still superior."
Stats
Page generated in 0.03 seconds
Total duration
923 users online
569,675 hits today, 2,328,677 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
So, what's the deal with the little back-and-forth banter parentheticals? Kinda breaking the fourth wall, no?
11890139
the story is written like notes/book after the events has happened.
11893685
Ah, I wondered if that was it. Must have just forgotten the last time I saw it here.
11856575
you are correct
What is going on with the parenthesis and tilde in this paragraph?
11895410
I'm kinda writing this as if its a book long after the events, the parenthesis are comments from the "authors"
11896482
Not even close. Germans and the allies are all human. Gryphons, ponies, and humans aren't the same species. Being from a different country doesn't make you a different species.
11896567
Still eating a sentient being is just messed up
11899409
That wasn't the topic you were objecting to. The topics being compared were straight-up cannibalism vs eating a species that was different from one's own, not whether or not something was sentient or sapient or the morality of it. Animals, insects, etc are sentient. People are sapient. But regardless of which the deceased Gryphons were, the ones on their battlefield are just dead. A corpse is neither of those conscious states of being, and still not a human or a pony. Besides, few things strike fear into the hearts of an enemy like the knowledge that your foes will freaking EAT YOU if you die to them. That's the main reason that most dangerous critters get culled or moved away on the regular surrounding where humans choose to settle in the real world. Being someone's dinner does not appeal to most (only most because some people are into vore). Them roasting a Gryphon over a spit might give the remaining enemies pause before charging in again.
As to me being curious about what Gryphon tastes like, the only show I've ever seen Gryphons being sapient in is MLP. In every other book, cartoon, video game or movie that I'm aware of they're majestic beasts at best, and violence-craving monsters at worst. Delicious in Dungeon/ Dungeon Meshi anyone?