Chapter 33
When Short Flight stepped around the corner of the hospital, to where Admiral Mantle Core was teaching Princess Cadence some introductory swordcraft, it was to find the two facing each other in the middle of a small field of craters.
“Alright,” Mantle Core told Cadence. “Ready to try it for real?”
Cadence nodded, stepped back, and took her stance with her blade. “Ready.”
Mantle Core nodded, stepping back and raising her blade.
Then the two flashed towards each other, and their blades sang out several times before they separated.
Finally, they bowed, sheathed their blades, and turned to Flight, as one.
“Yes, Princess?” Mantle Core asked.
Twilight, who had walked around the corner with Flight, snapped her jaw shut. “How-!?”
Flight looked at her. “When ponies die at twenty, you learn how to teach fast,” she informed her. “Admiral Mantle Core happens to be a fencing master, and I’d guess that Princess Cadence found a pretty good incentive to learn.”
“Twenty?” Mantle Core asked.
Flight nodded. “Equestrian years. I’m curious where the craters are from?”
Cadence blushed, and nervously rubbed one cheek with a hoof. “Oh, heh heh…”
Mantle Core smiled. “I opened by having her come at me like I was making off with her foal,” she stated. “She had a lot of power, but very little accuracy and the technique of a cavepony.”
Cadence grinned abashedly.
“But nopony’s making off with her foal now, are they?”
She shrugged. “Depends. I’d say she’s now about a one point five on the skill scale.”
Blacklight, on Flight’s other side, let out a snort. “There isn’t a single pony in Equestria- that we encountered, at least- that’ll take a foal from her, then. Our estimates for most of the Royal Guard were about zero point one- and their Captain, Shining Armor, was the best we saw- at about zero point six.”
Princess Cadence blushed and stood up straight, looking pleased with herself.
Flight tilted her head. “I wonder how the other Princesses rate?”
She shook her head. “We didn’t get the opportunity to evaluate them.”
Mantle Core scowled. “Sounds like we should send a fencing instructor back with our diplomats, doesn’t it?”
Flight shrugged. “Certainly sounds like we could, yes. To me, though, it sounds like I already have one.” She looked at Blacklight.
“Don’t look at me,” Blacklight answered. “I’m only at twelve thousand. Night Skies is the one that’s knocking on the door to seven digits.”
“Twelve-!?” Mantle Core blurted out. Then she let out a sigh. “And here I thought I was one of the finest.”
“Hey, you are one of the finest,” Flight answered her promptly.
“But I’m only at eighty-nine hundred,” she stated. “I can’t even compare.”
Then Flight looked at Blacklight. “Come to think of it, how’d she even get to six digits? I thought nine thousand was the limit.”
She shrugged. “We trained with Pinkie Pie.”
Twilight scowled. “But she doesn’t use swords…?”
“Anyways,” Flight interrupted, deciding it wasn’t the time to learn exactly how the thestrals had learned swordcraft under the mare for whom the laws of physics were optional. “According to Skies, we’ve got about five minutes before those diplomats from Earth get here in their limousine.”
“Spendy,” Mantle Core noted.
Flight shook her head. Limousines were one of the most expensive modes of travel in Equineothame; even suborbital jumps were cheaper. “Showoffs. Anyway, I figure you Admirals should probably be there for it too. You know, since they’re asking for military assistance and all.”
Nineteen and a half lightyears away, six and three quarters of a hair about halfway up the inside of Pinkie’s left ear twitched, and one of them quivered. She let out a gasp. “Somepony is talking favorably about me to two- no, three- Princesses and… Huh, I wonder who that means. Apparently, I’m a good… teacher? But I haven’t taught anypony anything for years! … Right?” She scowled at the cake she was baking for Bonbon, as her earth pony magic urged it to cook inside the compressed time she had created with the same earth pony magic, and tilted her head. “Right?”
Short Flight very nearly slept through the hours-long proposal the Earth diplomats had prepared. She kept her appearance professional, though- exactly like any ruler should in that situation. It didn’t stop her from mentally raising her eyebrows at the proposed compensation.
She could even see Twilight, who was watching from the sidelines, raising an eyebrow when they talked of paying four million credits per pirate cruiser captured.
Finally, they finished talking.
“I don’t see why I should send my ships to Earth space,” Flight began.
“Think of the safety,” the lead diplomat began. “The freedom of trade, the-!”
“The price of the warships it will cost to do that,” Twilight barked. “Or the ponies to crew them. Four million won’t be nearly enough.”
“Besides, completely aside from that,” Flight interjected, “those pirates are in your space. If you want them out, you have a bigger navy than I do, and I expect you to use it before you ask for mine.”
“Well,” Admiral Mantle Core muttered, as she and Flight watched the diplomats return. “I’d say I’d worry they might attack us for that, but by the time they manage to mobilize enough of their Navy to do that, we’ll have the bigger Navy. And we already have the more experienced one, to boot.”
Flight shrugged. “And if they do, they miss out on the Distortion Drive for a dozen years.” She turned to Twilight. “So, how do you know how much a starship costs…?”
Twilight shook her head. “I don’t. But I could tell they were trying to slight you on it.”
Flight nodded. “Yeah, me too. He’d have to increase that offer by at least a thousand times before I’d be willing to even consider it.” She sighed. “Anyways, wherever Princess Cadence has gone, it’s time to get her home.”
“You will not depart with thestrals aboard!”
Flight raised an eyebrow. They were back on her ship, and had just taken off, with traffic control clearance, when the Queen’s Own Air Regiment had surrounded her ship and demanded she stop, brandishing their gatling turrets at her.
“I am the Queen now,” she transmitted to them. “And you will stand down.”
“We operate under the Queen and only the Queen, and you are not the Queen! You will land your vessel immediately for examination!”
Flight sighed, then looked at Night Skies. “What would you recommend?”
“GD nominal,” Lunar Wing announced, from her tactical console.
Blacklight leaned back in her seat. “These idiots don’t have any shielding whatsoever,” she announced. “Analog controls, though.”
“Switching drive schemes,” Flight announced, striking the keys. Immediately, the Gravity Drive took over holding the ship airborne, while the atmospheric engines wound down and started the retraction process. She’d already powered down the forward engines earlier, so it only took a couple of seconds before the wings started folding. She glanced up at Blacklight. “Analog controls?”
She nodded. “Means I can’t take control of them. Also means they have no active stabilization, though.”
“Meaning, if we make the air a little bumpier, they could easily lose control?”
“Uh, yes. They’re all equipped with parachutes.”
“Alright.” She smiled nastily at the three of them visible out her windshield.
“Polarize the hull.”
“What?” Cadence asked. She, like Twilight and the Admirals, was on the bridge to watch the launch- and had up to that point remained quiet. She sounded very confused.
“Polarizing the hull,” Wing announced, and struck the switch.
The effect was instantaneous. ‘Queens Own’ quadcopters went flying in every direction, often tumbling through the air as the massive magnetic force placed on their ships screwed with their aerodynamics. They recovered, though, and reformed their ring somewhat significantly further out.
“You dare polarize your hull!” their shout came in, over the receivers. “Depolarize it at once, or we will have no choice but to shoot you!”
Wing let out a snort of laughter.
“Uh, isn’t that…?” Cadence began.
“Hull polarization is our main shield,” Flight informed her. “With the hull polarized, they can shoot at us all they like with those gatling guns and they won’t even scratch the paint.” She switched on the transmitter. “Go right on ahead,” she ordered them, and turned it off again. “The part I’m most amused by is that firing directly into a hull polarization field like they’re talking about is suicidal- there’s a better-than-even chance the bullets will be deflected right back at them.”
“Orbital Control to the First Light, is something going on, over?”
She chuckled. “First Light to Control, yep, the Queen’s Own decided they wanted to pick a fight with a warship, over.”
The orbital controller actually laughed as well. “With the Queen’s warship, to boot. Well, you’ve got about thirty seconds before you’ll need a fresh clearance… Mark, over.”
Flight nodded. “Roger that, over.”
“They’re shooting alright,” Wing announced. “Looks like they’re aiming for our Gravity Drive coils, so they’re managing not to shoot themselves.”
“Eh,” Flight muttered, before kicking the Gravity Drive to full power and swinging the ship around at maximum fully-compensated acceleration. She made a quick sweep around the line of errant atmospheric gunships, knocking them all out of control, before she snapped across the sonic barrier- which they couldn’t even approach- and returned to the orbiting autopilot control. “We won’t be back for quite a while, I expect.”
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Yea. And the only real FTL capable ship there is. A heavily armed and highly advanced ship that can outmaneuver and almost match a Pirate Fleet on it's own! Good luck trying to shoot it down! I'll start a timer! See how long it takes you firing those Gat-Guns till you manage to scratch the paint!
it's like throwing pebbles at a wall. If that wall was made of Osmium and was shielded.
10681495
Considering the only limiter on how long Flight could hover there with hull polarized would be power... she could've stayed there literally all week long, and they could have gone back to reload a dozen times a day... but since the bullets were being magnetically deflected before they got anywhere near the paint, it'd just be a massive waste of ammunition in exchange for no scratches.
Meanwhile, the landing spread below would not be unscratched.
Nice course in improvised weaponry there.
Haiku dirge:💀
Is the story dead
Be nice to see where it led
Your muse—has it fled
11287040
... Yes, it is. I'm doing a rewrite, though, found here. Or, if you're wary of clicking strange links in the way that we all properly should be,
- MLP: FiM
- Adventure
- Mystery
- Sci-Fi
The stars were made to be explored. One could find all sorts of worlds out there. One could even find magic- or other survivors of the ancient apocalypse- if they would only believe it!11287075
guess I already read this.