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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2013 2:32:33 GMT -5
Hoplite blinked, this scene was a bit familiar. Perhaps a gentler version of...whatever Watermark had done that night, that feeling where he dared not turn away from the zebra's gaze. He had to answer, it was only fair since Hoplite had already asked plenty from him. "It was...well, fun. When we weren't helping out with farmwork, we were playing about in the field just behind the house, watching Dad work, testing out his latest creations, pretending we were soldiers...y'know, kid stuff. It kind of stayed that way for a while, until Dad's business went under. He had to start tending to the fields as well to make enough money to get by, so we started seeing him less and less. Not a few years later Long Haul went off to see the world at large, he wanted to travel to every corner of Equestria and maybe even beyond that...he took his cart, loaded it with his things, then took off. A while later Fal and I joined the militia, and we just starting seeing them less and less..." Hoplite zoned out, seemingly lost in his own story, or possibly reliving a memory before finally snapping back, "What about you? Learning magic that early must've been interesting, right?"
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Post by Red Charge on Aug 11, 2013 2:38:31 GMT -5
"As interesting as learning magic can get. Most of my childhood was spent going from ruin to ruin with my family, back when Red Charge was Prof. Rainlock." He said, "Got plenty of chances to test every magic I learned in real time. Red Charge trained me as a battle mage since I was a kid. It... wasn't easy, but it was what I wanted, being able to topple mountains with my magic or with my bare hooves..." He chuckled, "To think that you're complaining about training less hard than I did when I was just a foal." He grinned. Hoplite could pick up from his voice and tone that he admired Red Charge. He had an inkling that one of the reasons Watermark wanted to be a battle mage was because he wanted to be like him.
"Unfortunately I was never the best with fire magic, I can cast it, even the high level spells, but I'm really bad at it and usually it takes a lot out of me. I stuck with my field, water. I love water, I love swimming and ice skating and I love ice and snow and rain... It barely takes any effort to manipulate it, especially with Frostbite along."
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2013 2:46:24 GMT -5
Hopliet nodded, listening intently to Watermark's retelling of his past, grinning slightly as the whimsical Watermark came back into the spotlight as he talk about what he loved to do. Hoplite figured that if it came down to water or ice, there wasn't much keeping Watermark from either having an interest in it, or being able to do something with it. He'd always figured unicorns battlemages only really stuck with their favoured element and didn't know how to cast any of the other schools or types of magic. Then again, Lightning Blitz was a very poor example of what a battlemage was, and while the spell-favouring seemed to be the case, the inability to cast other types was not. Hoplite absently wondered what other spells Watermark was capable of casting.
Hoplite sighed lightly, taking one last, deep swig of the cider and revelling in the 'kick' it was known for. Moments later, he turned to Watermark curiously, "What was Red Charge like back then?" Suddenly the realization hit him, he might've just crossed a line there. "Uh, I mean," he scrambled to save himself, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to, I'm just a bit curious is all."
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Post by Red Charge on Aug 11, 2013 2:51:54 GMT -5
"Not any different than he is now..." Watermark said, staring at Hoplite, or rather through him. "Kind, strict, charismatic... mostly calm. I don't think I've ever seen Red Charge raise his voice. I don't think he ever needed to." He confided, "He's got a commanding aura, we've encountered savages and monsters... he had influence over them. I suppose that's how he was able to round up half of Equestria to join the cult. I could be like that, but the difference between being a true battlemage and I don't mean the mages you see around here, I mean a battlemage like Destrier's battlemages. Anyway, there's a difference between being that and being a leader, with so many responsibilities. I don't like it. I like laughing and playing and enjoying the company of others. I like doing silly things and playing jokes and pranks. I guess this war forces you to mature." The little Hoplite nodded at that.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2013 2:57:07 GMT -5
Hoplite sighed, "Yeah...it's weird, though. Back when we were young, Fal and I talked and played and imagined ourselves fighting in a war like it was the best, most entertaining thing we could think of. Now that a war's happened, both of us have broken at least once. Can't say we're the same Phalanx and Hoplite we were just a few weeks ago, and I'm starting to wonder if we had just been better off working the farm like our folks did..."
"Maturity and war have something in common, y'know? Both take your pretty little outlook on life, your innocence, and most of your dreams...and just squishes them under their boot. To make things worse, you're supposed to like it if you hope to last very long...what I wouldn't give to be a colt again..." Hoplite looked jokingly to Watermark, "I hope this isn't the part of the night where you magically turn me into a foal for saying that."
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Post by Red Charge on Aug 11, 2013 3:01:51 GMT -5
Watermark laughed at that, and leaned forwards, "No, turning you into a foal would make this illegal." He said, grabbing Hoplite's face and pulling him into another kiss, though it was not as good as the first one they shared, they both tasted of the cider they had both been drinking, which was not a bad taste at all. Watermark broke the kiss and immediately handed Hoplite another mug of cinnamon cider.
"Drinking Zap Cider is only for once in a while. Sides, it's the first batch I could get, so I think we'll reserve it for later." He raised a mug to Hoplite's name again before Hoplite could even register what had just happened.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2013 3:08:58 GMT -5
Hoplite's eyes widened as his slowing mind realized just exactly what was happening. Watermark had just pulled him in for another, absolutely random kiss. First one was from sleep deprivation, no doubt this one was from the cider...maybe it was just the cider talking, but this kiss didn't feel as weird as the first.
Sure enough Watermark soon broke the kiss, and passed a fresh mug of the cinnamon cider before Hoplite could compose himself. Hoplite raised the mug closer to his muzzle, thankful that he wasn't at odds with himself again. He could only feel weird about it once, after all. He shrugged widely, raised his mug then took a deep swig of the cinnamon cider. "Well, at least this way I don't have to deal with getting my cutie mark again, methinks there's only so many runaway carts these days it would be next to impossible to repeat that..."
Hoplite sighed, not quite yet able to compose another sentence to keep a conversation going.
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Post by Red Charge on Aug 11, 2013 3:12:34 GMT -5
"I actually don't remember how I got my cutie mark. It was just there one day, I didn't do anything different. I always liked making art in water and ice, I guess one day it just decided to pop in. Every pony I know always has this amazingly adorable story about how they got their cutie mark." He shrugged, "I got nothing." He grinned again, "Not that it's a bad thing, although I am a fan of being theatrical. How'd you get yours?" He asked, the little Hoplite jumped off of Hoplite's snout and landed on the ground, dissolving.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2013 3:24:53 GMT -5
Hoplite chuckled softly, "Well, it's a rather long story with an equally long set-up, so I'll just cut it short. The family was climbing up a large hill to reach a little picnic-type area so we could camp out and watch the sunrise. Long Haul took the lead with his cart full of the camping supplies, he *really* wanted to be the first one there. Mom and Dad followed behind him, with Fal and me taking up the rear. Suddenly we hear a snap, and the cart started moving backwards, and fast. Long Haul's harness had broken, now the cart was practically flying down the hill, likely to crash into somepony or something back at town. Mom, Dad, and Fal quickly jumped out of the way, but something told me not to, something I couldn't put my hoof on. I adjusted my posture and held up my hooves to stop it. With a loud series of creaks and cracks, the cart had stopped, and I had only given up about half a metre of ground, barely anything considering how fast it had moved. Moments later when the folks ran down to see if I was okay, Fal pointed to my flank in awe. There it was, my cutie mark had appeared; A mountain, tall and unmoving, forever resilient against all that tried to move it. Seemed I had a knack for being able to absorb force and stay firmly rooted...but hey, I'm sure if you could remember how you got yours it would certainly make for a better story. All I did was stop a cart from crashing into something, you probably stood up to a massive creature or cast an amazing spell or something."
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Post by Red Charge on Aug 11, 2013 3:29:11 GMT -5
"What a story-mark." Watermark said with a grin, "Story-mark is what I call those cutie mark stories, hehe." He quickly explained himself. When Hoplite mentioned that he must have gotten his cutie mark in an epic struggle with a beast Watermark waved him off.
"Ah well, there was that one time with the Ursa Major ah but that's a boring story, Prof. Rainlock did most of the work." He pondered for a moment, "I figured of all stories you'd want to hear how the whole thing with Eclipse went down." He said, raising his eyebrows suggestively, "You know it's not every day a deity drops by and tries to destroy the world."
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2013 3:35:18 GMT -5
Hoplite nodded, "Fair enough, fair enough. Y'know what, I've got all night and a mug of cider in my hoof," he raised the mug in emphasis, "If you want to talk about that, by all means. Should be interesting enough to hear, I would think." Truth be told, he hadn't heard nearly as much of the Eclipse event as he should've, and quite frankly hearing it straight from Watermark - and not getting a watered-down version of the story from, well, just about anypony else - was probably going to make for quite the story.
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Post by Red Charge on Aug 11, 2013 3:41:35 GMT -5
And Watermark did tell him, all the grisly details about the Equestrian attack, the strike teams assaulting the palace, his use of the golem the cunning traps they placed around the pyramid. He built the part of Eclipse arriving very skillfully, speaking volumes of the excitement in the final ritual. He conjured up a large battlefield of ice figures to display how things went, the golem's size in proprotion to ponies was amazing, it was huge and there was a hydra as well... little Stars and Red Barons fighting in mid air and then with a bang Eclipse arrived, every little bit of it was carried with the right inflection and tone, invoking awe, fear, excitement even though Hoplite knew how the story ended. The gigantic Eclipse figure decimated everything in it's path before it was finally stopped by the forces of Equestria and the Cult combined. By the time Watermark had finished the illustrated story, Hoplite felt as though he was affected by another sip of Zap Apple Cider.
"And that's how it went." Watermark finished with a grin, "I met Tongs after the battle in the party, she was part of the strike team that went after White Fire, she's the one who gave her that nasty scar. Took her a while but she was able to forgive her, they're good friends now." Watermark nodded at the two tiny ponies. The sheer amount of tiny ice ponies he was manipulating at once and the intricate attention to detail in each one was incredible. Each one looked exactly like the pony it was representing, he could see Princess Luna and even Watermark himself and tell them from the rest, he also spotted Tongs before Watermark pointed her out and Kuruka, his old militia leader. It was amazing really how skilled he was at ice art, moving or otherwise.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2013 3:50:27 GMT -5
Hoplite was amazed, Watermark certainly had a knack for the theatrical. Proper inflections, eye-catching visuals, and a retelling that made it sounds like a completely new story from what little he had heard of it. At the end of it, he couldn't help but wonder just how far Watermark's talents reached. Charisma, theatrics, story-telling, life-accurate miniature conjuration, insanely powerful water and ice spells, the shield, controlling thousands of tiny sculptures...it was reaching a point where if he heard that Watermark had power over time or gravity, he wouldn't question it.
"Sheesh, forget the military, I figure if you, Red, the Razorwings, Slate-Head, Iron Shoes, the princesses, the Elements Of Harmony bearers, and all those other legendary ponies all went to the Diamond Dogs, you could easily, *easily* single-hoofedly win the war," he commented, caught up in the emotional high the retelling had brought him.
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Post by Red Charge on Aug 11, 2013 3:57:56 GMT -5
"It's not that easy, they have Celestia. She was Destrier's prize pupil and probably the strongest battle mage in the world to date and that's without taking into account that she can control the sun. Even if you put that aside, these dogs aren't stupid. They know how to counter our magic with gems and blood bearers, they have an air force, terragons, wargs, eidolons and then of course... there's Blackmane..." He sighed, "She nearly destroyed an entire griffon fleet single handedly, with no effort." He sighed, "But don't worry, we'll win this war. Once Percheron gets back with the Sky Titan armor, he'll defeat Blackmane once and for all and from then on out we'll just have to deal with Sharp and Celestia and without the master, the dogs will run wild. Could even break the influence on Celestia if he beats her, which will make it all the better." Watermark concluded.
"But it's definitely going to be harsh times until then, Blackmane is not one to let up and without being able to use the roads, there's only so much we can do against the Diamond Dogs. So far they have the upper hand, but hopefully things change soon. But what I'm really worried about, is that they're doing nothing right now. Nothing that we can see at least. There's no one trying to attack us even though we're a glaring target. In fact, they haven't moved their forces towards anywhere and that's what concerns me the most." Watermark confessed, "If we didn't have magic, we'd probably have no food by now. But I have a feeling they're not trying to starve us out."
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2013 4:03:07 GMT -5
Hoplite sighed, "Well, there goes that idea. But that brings to mind, if that team-up idea I just had couldn't possibly work out, what chance do a bunch of ponies with pointy sticks hold? If magical talent capable of moving mountains, conjuring ice armies, raising the moon, or conjuring hurricanes can't possibly stand against the Diamond Dogs and Celestia, a legion of ponies couldn't do much more. It doesn't matter how well trained they are, a spear is a spear no matter who holds it...gah, now I'm overthinking just how poor our chances are, sorry," Hoplite shied away, taking another swig of his drink, "Hate to be a downer, but I'm running out of things to be hopeful about."
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