Hoof and Claw Versus the World

by Chythar

Act 1, Chapter 10 - Strategies and Skirmishes

After I had completed my training, Nightmare Moon had given me her final exam - an aerial battle with the dark mare herself. Her intention was twofold: to give me a taste of Equestrian warfare, and demonstrate that she was much stronger than I was. But to her surprise, I tricked her into thinking I was MUCH more powerful - and served her her first defeat since her banishment ended.

---

Our walk back to our cave was quiet and uneventful. The trip would have been much faster if we had flown instead, but my Mistress did not seem to be in the mood to fly. I tried to talk to her and ask why we were walking, but she cut me off with a curt response. So, we walked.

At last, we arrived at our 'home under the mountain'. A short walk down the tunnel brought us to our now-familiar room. Nightmare Moon paused in front of our shared bed, and began to levitate her armor off of her ebony form. There was a beauty to her motions, as each piece of armor seemed to dance its way to the armor stand. Mesmerized, I peered at the pirouetting plate metal until their carefree cavorting ceased. Shifting her body sideways, the now bare mare gestured to the ground in front of her with a hoof and uttered her command.

"Sit with me, we have much to discuss."

The Night Incarnate also sat down in the dirt next to the bed. She immediately flinched as if bit. Letting out a grunt of pain, the mare sat up slightly and lit her horn. A sharp rock, shrouded in her magical glow, floated out from underneath her shapely rump. The ebony mare carelessly flung the rock over her shoulder, then sat back down on the ground. The rock clattered against the wall and settled somewhere in the room. Nightmare Moon sighed to herself, then commented out loud to no one in particular.

"What I would not give for marble tiles to sit upon, rather than this filthy floor."

I was more concerned with her rump. No 'junk in the trunk' here, this gluteus maximus was all sleek muscle under the fur. The large splotch of purple only accentuated what she had, and the curve of her crescent moon cutie mark looked like it matched her curves perfectly.

Niiice.

Unfortunately for me, the Moon Mare had noticed my...attentions. I guess I must have been staring a bit too long. Her smirk was broad, like a cat who had cornered a mouse.

"See something you like?"

I couldn't help but blush at being caught, but decided to double down instead of apologizing.

"Yes, Mistress. I do."

Her teal eyes widened in surprise at my defiance. Yet, her smirk grew a bit bigger.

"Is that so? Perhaps I should turn around and give you a better view?"

Woah! Almost too good to be true. Was I dreaming? Better answer before she changes her mind.

"Oh yes, that'd be very nice thank you."

"Hah! Thou has not earned the right to see under MY tail. I am not such an easy mark as the common rabble. Now, cool thyself off and sit before me, lest I drench thy head in a shower of cold water."

Dammit! Busted AND shot down. But I wonder...

Ah, better let this one go before she stings me with another one.

I cast the spell I was taught. My armor instantly disappeared from my body, and appeared on its stand in the corner of the room. I then sat down in front of the Night Mare as bidden, and crossed my legs for comfort. At once, she began.

"Now, my student: in the time we have left this evening, we will discuss my plans for conquering this world."

Wow.

It's actually happening.

We're planning to take over the world.

Narf!

The impact of her words was enormous. I mean, I knew conquering the world was the whole point of training me in magic; but still, it was an awesome thought. Nightmare Moon did not wait for a reply before continuing.

"Our first conquest will be at a nearby fortification. From there, we shall spread out and continue our swath of destruction until the rulers of this land surrender to us. We shall use the surrendering armies to bolster our war machine. As this world does not have magic, our victory is assured. The only variable is time. Do you know how many fortifications this country has?"

Where did she get this plan from? A hacked copy of Civilization V with an 'I Win' button? Do all herd species surrender so quickly and easily? I only know warfare from video games, but I do know her plan isn't going to work. She's severely underestimated the US Military.

"Several hundred bases - er, fortifications, Mistress."

"So many?"

"Yes, Mistress. Some are large bases, but quite a few are small and can likely be skipped. But taking over won't be anywhere as easy as you say. You put too much faith in your magic, and too little in my people. Like you, we have much experience in waging war."

"I understand your concerns, but I have been waging war for thousands of years. This strategy, if executed correctly, never fails. Attack hard, attack fast. And I have only shown thee a fraction of my true power. Do you doubt me?"

Good thing I have a close friend who's a big military buff. He's filled my head with more military trivia than I care to remember, so I actually have the right facts to argue my point.

"It's not a matter of doubt, Mistress. You just have no idea the weapons we can bring into play, what we have been able to do without magic. For example, we have flying machines that can fly several hundred miles an hour and fire explosives that can hit a target over a mile away."

"These issues are of no real concern. I can fly faster than that, my student, even if you cannot. And hitting a target that far away is possible for a magically-enhanced trebuchet."

She's not taking my concerns seriously. And being ignored always pisses me off.

"I said nothing about a trebuchet. These explosives fly through the air on their own at two to four times the speed of sound. Some of them can even steer themselves."

"Impossible!"

"Impossible on your world, perhaps. But not on mine. No magic here, remember? We had to do everything with science and technology. And we figured out how to do it. Shall I explain the concepts of non-magical flight to you, Mistress?"

The Moon Mare looked at me in disdain. If she was wearing a pair of glasses, she'd probably be looking at me over them.

"Perhaps later. For now, I shall believe you. But understand, your tales of flying explosives are fantastical at best."

"These principles of flight and rocket technology are so commonly known on this world that even children know the basics. You denying them is the fantastical part."

"Hmph, perhaps. We shall be cautious of these flying machines until their mettle is proven to me. Let us move on. Will there be some of these flying machines at the fortification we will attack tonight?"

"I don't know, it depends on how big the fortification is. But if they are there, it's very likely that they'll be on the ground when we attack."

"Excellent! We shall target them first before they take to the air. Then the skies will be ours."

If only it was that simple.

"Perhaps so, but we will not be much safer. Our armies have many ground machines that can fire these same flying explosives as the flying machines can. And many heavily armored vehicles which can throw explosives that cannot steer on their own but can still fly far and fast. If we face a large enough force of these machines we will be sorely pressed to survive, much less win."

"You are surely overestimating their capabilities. Such power does not exist."

Why don't you just call me a liar, you witch? I'm supposed to be your adviser, why are you ignoring me?

"And I'm telling you, it does. Take that huge fake fireball I tricked you with, make it real, then condense it this small."

I moved my hands apart to about the size of a basketball.

"That's about the power of one of these shells. If the flame doesn't get you, the concussive force will pummel you. And we can cover the sky in these shells. They don't even have to hit us; enough near misses will knock us out of the sky."

"Hah! Now I know you are pulling my hoof. Not even all the unicorns in Equestria can do such a thing."

"You've underestimated us again. There are over 30 million of my people in my country. Something like 2 million of them serve in our military. Even if a fraction of them have the firepower I've quoted, that's an incredible force to fight against. A direct assault on any fortification gives good odds we will fail."

Eyes narrowed, Nightmare Moon's intense anger distorted her muzzle.

"You LIE. So many ponies cannot exist in one place. And even if these...powers exist, we will simply attack hard and fast and destroy their machines before they can be used against us. Their armies will scatter in front of us like ants."

She's too overconfident. I need to derail her thoughts somehow, and get her to listen to me.

"Who was the one that handed you your first defeat in HOW many thousands of years?"

The Mare in the Moon went silent, but her muzzle was scrunched up in a huge frown. It was clear to me that she was absolutely livid. If she could, I swear smoke would be curling out of her ears. After several seconds of silence, I pressed my point further.

"While I clearly have less battle experience than you, I have many years of experience living in this world. I have no military training at all, and yet I still managed to defeat you. We do not have magic, but we are CLEVER. How do you think you will fare against thousands of specially-trained fighters?"

"You defeated me with a TRICK. One which, I shall add, shall never work on me again. And you used magic to defeat me, which the armies of this world do NOT have."

At this point, I was almost as incensed as she was. Both our tempers were boiling over and threatened to explode at any moment.

"I'm telling you, magic is not enough to win. If you make a head-on attack against this country's military, you are going to get creamed!"

Despite how infuriated she was, she still managed to look puzzled. It was so obvious that she did not understand my meaning; I decided to preempt her obvious question.

"Creamed, killed, slaughtered, smeared across the desert floor like so much offal. Magical shielding is horribly ineffective against our military might! You'd have better luck begging them to buck you senseless then hit them over the head with a stick while they were busy for all the good your magic will do."

Fierce anger distorted the Night Mare's muzzle into a snarl. Her tail lashed the air behind her like a whip, and her mane squirmed like a trapped animal. She stood up abruptly and showered me with dirt.

"How DARE you!"

Rising to her verbal bait, I jumped quickly to my feet and stared the Moon Mare down. I was sure the snarl on my face rivaled hers.

"Dare? ME?! You'd better believe it! I know you didn't bring me on and train me like that just because I had a pretty face. If you were smart, and I know you are, you'd bring me on because I know this world. And if I don't know what you want, I know how to find it. And I'm telling you, a headstrong attack on our military will get you killed!"

"ENOUGH!"

Her shout had undertones of the Royal Voice, shook the walls of our little cave and stung my ears something fierce.

"I will brook no more argument. We shall attack the military base tomorrow, just after dark."

"This is NOT over! You are not going to ignore--"

"I said, enough!"

Nightmare Moon sucked in a deep breath, then let out a frustrated sigh.

"I will think over your advice, although I still believe it to be...overly cautious. But advice or no, we will still attack the base tomorrow evening. Is that clear?"

"FINE."

I never had any objections about attacking tomorrow, just to her head-on attack methods. I care too much about her to see her die so foolishly.

Wait, what?

Where did THAT thought come from?

"Hmph. Good. Then, let us retire for the morning and rest."

"No."

Her cat-slitted eyes snapped open wide in surprise, as wide as I had ever seen them.

"What?!"

I couldn't just let this go. I had to get out of here so I could try and think. My feelings expressed themselves in a pronounced scowl.

"I said, NO. I'm too wound up now to sleep."

I was too angry at her to share a bed with her anyway, but I wasn't going to tell her that. With a thought, I summoned my armor on to me. I squirmed and fussed around to try and get the straps to settle properly.

"I'm going for a quick flight to burn off some energy."

The Night Incarnate tilted her head slightly; worry clearly showing on her muzzle.

"As you wish."

---

Nightmare Moon watched her student storm out of the cave. Faintly, she heard his curse:

"Stupid mare, going to get herself killed!"

A slight wind blew down the tunnel, stirring up dust. Experience told her that her student had angrily taken off to the sky with a furious beat of his wings. Then, all was silent. The mare sighed and wondered to herself where things had gone so wrong.

Truly, I was sure he would be eager for battle. Why does he hesitate?

Lost in her thoughts, the Mare in the Moon walked slowly to her side of the bed. A quick spell to verify she was clean of any dirt or sweat, then used a quick bit of levitation to pull back the sheets. Moments later, she was in bed. Rolling over to her back, unable to sleep, she lay there for many minutes. Over and over, she poured over the argument hoping to find some flaw in her plan. Could her student be right, and her tried-and-true methods would fail her? They had definitely failed earlier that evening, to her immense surprise. And he was right, he knew this planet's denizens better than she did. Perhaps his caution was not unwarranted. Yet she had never shown him her full power, not even close.

As she lay there in thought, she realized what bothered her most was not what they were arguing over, but the fact that they had argued at all. The reason why hit her like a slap to the muzzle. It was an uncomfortable realization. She had not known these feelings for so long, she had nearly forgotten they existed. But still, even though these feelings were no longer familiar they still felt...right. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she resolved not to deal with that issue for now. However, she did decide to listen more closely to her student's concerns when they awoke the next evening. Eventually, sleep overtook her.

Comments

[Chythar]

Early post for Memorial Weekend her in the States! I'll post another chapter on Monday, which will end Act 1!

[Ales]

Nice to see that Moon is going to get a wake up call when it comes to basic physics.

[Chythar]

9643002

Oh yes, Nighty is in for quite the wake-up call. She does eventually figure things out, the mare isn't stupid. But when you've had over a thousand years training your instincts in a magically-fueled world, it's a bit difficult to re-adjust to a non-magical world. Just because you think your way is superior, doesn't mean you actually are.

[SlyBesker]

I mean, yes, she could like make solar eclipse in the sky and make an ultimatum to the government. But going head-on while knowing nothing about your enemy is not bery clever.