Into the Breach
Tiller weaved a path through the streets of half-timbered homes that filled Ponyville. She'd studied the layout of the town before the move, of course, but transitioning the map to a general sense of how to get around was proving quite a trite exercise. Nevertheless, she had to get the lay of the land if she was going to convincingly adopt this small town persona of Octavia Melody.
Just thinking about the name and it's now apparent inspiration made Tiller cringe. Where did Vigil get off on the idea of robbing her opportunity to guard the princesses. Be it walking besides the Canterlot elite with Celestia or touring the nation with Mi Amore Cadenza, the admiration of standing next to one of the Cs and basking in the jealousy of the rest of the EUP would have set her for life.
Now she strode down dirt roads in a town too cheap to lay out gravel.
Their first meeting wasn't bad enough to enact this sort of revenge. Vigil was losing as many opportunities as she was, so why?
These townhouses weren't all too different from those in the desert, all those years ago.
Tiller Draw stood tucked between two stallions in a line of cadets pressed against the earthen wall. The noon sun beat down on them to the sound of hooves anxiously crunching the sand underneath. They'd formed ranks for room clearing five minutes earlier in what was supposed to be a quick maneuver.
The swirling illuminated sigils that covered the space left by the door they'd knocked in had thrown a wrench in that plan.
"Sarge," the cadet in front of her called out, "I thought barricades on the entrances were against the rules."
She'd read the same parameters as the rest of them, before they were sorted into teams. The rules specifically said...
"-not to use the furniture to secure the door." Their Sargent finished her thought in his answer. With a nod towards the door's wards and the squad's unicorn examining it, he continued, "Door wasn't blocked."
"That's horse apples," Tiller interjected, pulling her thatcher closer to her chest, "and we all know it. Hey wiz, do you know where the thorn is?" Her question was directed at the unicorn studying the door.
"Uh, I think second floor, middle of the room above us." He answered, hardly glancing over his shoulder. A bead of sweat rolled off his brow as his aura ebbed and flowed over the threshold. His breath had grown deeper the past few minutes as he tested his magic against the unicorn inside.
"Sarge, we're not getting in there as long as that thorn is up." Tiller stated, checking her pouch of specialized bolts. They were all training rounds, their tips blunt or payloads swapped for safe substitutes. Most all could be loaded into the magazine of her magazine-fed crossbow, affectionately called a Thatcher by the EUP.
The Sargent looked back at and addressed her with a kurt, "Yeah, well we can't really do anything about them from here, Cadet Draw."
Her hoof rummaged through the ammo pouch a few more seconds until it found the one bolt too bulky to be loaded in a magazine. Gripping it, she pulled it out and flashed a smile at the Sargent. "Permission to break formation, sir?"
If the plan failed, she'd have a broken neck. If it succeeded, she'd have some of the instructors chewing her out for reckless behavior.
Either way, she wasn't just standing around waiting and soon the rest of her squad wouldn't be either.
Tiller Draw braced herself against the outer wall of the house and carefully walked up, slinging the slack of the rope below her on the way up. She hoped nopony inside had heard the bolt digging into the roof a few seconds earlier. She muttered a request to Celestia that it wouldn't slip free as she was rappelling up the side. In the middle of the second story wall, she took the bolt she'd shown the Sargent and dug into into a small slot. After fiddling with a dial near the back, she continued her climb up to the roof as quietly as she could manage. Tiller held the rope just slightly below where she'd stopped so it would be the right length later.
This would work better if they weren't expecting her.
She only had a limited amount of time to secure the room firmly around her flanks at the right length and steady herself further up the slanting tiles.
She braced herself on all hooves there, counting down the seconds in her head.
Three...
She took four short, confident strides towards the ledge before kicking her back legs as hard as she could, launching herself into the air.
Two...
She twisted her body in the air as she flew out over the street. For a moment, she saw the faces of her squad below her as they glanced up. The feeling of weightlessness fell way to an all too real weight within her gut as her body began to fall.
One...
The rope went taunt, pulling her back into a curve towards the second story of the training building. She flashed a grin. Exciting things didn't tend to happen back home, before she'd enrolled in guard academy.
Back home, property damage was discouraged. Here, it was just part of the job when the occasion called for it.
Zero...
A wave washed over her as the timer on the concussive bolt ran out.
It did nothing to slow her momentum.
Her body barreled through the hole it'd knocked in the outer wall, her body flying in with the chunks of plaster still drying from the days prior.
One hoof yanked on the knot about her hip, setting her loose from the swing and allowing her to enter the room unabated.
Her other hoof, she thrust out in front her towards the white unicorn sitting there. She only saw the flash of red eyes for a moment before her hoof made contact with their jaw, the whole of her body weight and its fall off the roof carried behind it. The figure crumpled to the ground as Tiller clumsily caught herself on her back hooves.
She'd hardly set her balance before being pelted with bolts from all sides by the confused dusts and quills of the other team. The tips were padded, but she'd certainly feel the welts the next day.
Now considered out of the scenario, she fell to the ground with a smirk on her face.
Their thorn must have thought it was being really clever with those wards. Her body was already beginning to smart from the snap in the air and the bolts. She looked up as her squad flooded the room and the Sergeant hopped over the white unicorn's limp form.
Worth it.
Turning a corner, Tiller Draw saw the local grocery down the way. Sure, there weren't many things she could best Vigil in, but at least she had that memory to look back on.
She lacked the armor, the thatcher, and the freedom to speak in her own voice, but at least she had this.
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There are ways to hyperlink something to text so it doesn’t just show the link. Fimfic has a lot of useful formatting tools like that.
I’m also eager to see how this develops.
10794895
Pardon? (With the link thing)
10795089
If you use the option on the toolbar under ‘more’ (the three dark rows) and select the one with a chain, you can properly format links. The help pages on the site should also explain things.
Huh. This was unexpected. Looking forward to more.
11157519
Nani, not the story I was expecting to get attention today.
Born of several ideas coming together, should get some more up for it eventually. It's got some narrative overlap with oDaM in a coming story arc.
11157533
Lol, I was reading the other one and this popped up as in it's timeline so I gave it a shot. Also, Vinyl and Octavia are always fun. Even when it's not really them.
11158515
I do like how this gives me the excuse to default to their more fanon selves than what we see in the show or comics.
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