Chapters Just a Normal Vocation, Until.....
Twilight finally took some time off her duties and decided to take a break. In the mean time, she received a letter from her parrot friend, Captain Celeano. She's inviting Twilight to come over to her ship for a vocation. Along side with all of her friends she made to defeat the Storm King a while ago. Sadly, Twilight's friends couldn't come along due to their tight business; Rainbow Dash had trainings in the Wonderbolt, Rarity had to go to Manehattan, Fluttershy is currently at Discord's, Applejack is at her bucking season, and Pinkie Pie was busy baking cakes for an upcoming party. Spike have to take over Twilight during her vocation.
Twilight then went on packing her stuff for the vocation.
"Hey Twilight," the little purple dragon saw her, "What are you doing?"
"Oh, Captain Celeano invited me to her trip on board her airship." Twilight replied.
"Well that sound fun." Spike said, "It's a shame we can't come."
"Yeah, everyone had some business to do, but I figured out I could really take a break from all my writing stuff." Twilight said, she closed her suitcase. "Spike, you and Starlight are looking over the castle for me, okay?"
"You have my words, Twilight." Spike smiled.
(~)
Captain Celeano told Twilight to wait at the harbor, that's where she'll pick her up. Princess Skystar, Capper, and Tempest are also coming, which Twilight couldn't believe it at first thought.
After a few minutes, a familiar airship approached the harbor. Colorful seals were on the airship, Twilight immediately recognized it.
The hatch opened, and a certain parrot came out. "Heya Twilight." she waved at the princess.
"Hi Cap Celeano!" Twilight greeted as she walked into her ship along side with Celeano. "Wow, your airship is even prettier than last time I've been here."
"Well, I managed to repair my ship after a certain pony wrecked it." Celeano said, "And improved it."
They talked as they walked onto the bow of the ship, and there she spotted a dark purple unicorn with a broken horn, a tall cat, and a yellow hippogriff.
"Hey Twilight!" Skystar exclaimed, "I'm so glad you're here! By the way, where's Pinkie?"
"Hi Skystar, Pinkie's busy, so she couldn't come." Twilight said.
The hippogriff's ears slightly dropped a little.
"Sadly, my friends has tight schedules, so, yeah." Twilight explained.
"It's a shame they can't come," Tempest sighed.
"Maybe they can come another time." Twilight said, cheering them up, "Now com' on."
Captain Celeano nodded and shouted to her crew to start the ship. After a few minutes, the airship raised up into the air, the sails were wide open, as the wind blew through it, it started to move the ship forward. Twilight loved the view, she sighed as she thought of her friends, I wish they can come too. She thought.
They'll be flying across the ocean for a few days before returning home.
A few hours later, Celeano's ship was above the ocean. As the warm ocean breeze blew through the ship, everyone was relaxed. Twilight, spending a lot of her time inside of her castle, relaxed the most. Turning away from her writings and other stuff was quite a relief.
They spend the day talking about their daily businesses and their own time. Skystar was lucky Queen Novo didn't ground her for too long, cause her mom bored the hell outta her already.
As the friends talked, Celeano noticed something unusual was approaching; a massive storm cloud.
"Huh, that's weird," she muttered, "I checked the course today and they didn't say anything about a storm."
Skystar had the biggest reaction; every since the Storm King incident, she had a PTSD in storms, especially massive storms. She immediately ran into the ship faster than Rainbow or Pinkie.
"What's wrong with her?" Capper asked.
"PTSD from the storm king." Tempest sighed, "We should go back too."
The crew went into the cabin, they expected the storm to be a quick pass-by.
Unnoticed by them, flashes of light flickered in the clouds, with sounds that were definitely not thunder....
(~)
JUNE 6, 1942, NEAR MIDWAY.
"Jap carriers! 10 o'clock low!" Dick heard his teammates yelling, "Shit they saw us!"
Just as he spoke, explosions begin to bang around him. The Japanese anti-air guns, god how Dick hated the sound of this.
"All pilots on me!" he spoke through the radio as he turned his SBD Dauntless dive bomber and began to dive. The squadron followed him, one by one the began to dive. Dick opened the speed brake on his wings, he immediately lifted back into the air. His hands were on the bomb lever, finding the right time to drop a 500 pounds bomb onto the Japanese carrier.
As he got closer the the carrier, the AA guns were getting thicker, so thick that he can hardly see the carrier through the iron sight.
BOOM!!!
An explosive rang next to his plane. H turned and saw a SBD being torn in half by the AA fire, no time to morn, he thought to himself.
One by one, this fellow teammates begin to drop bombs and turning back, escaping the AA fire. Soon, Dick is the only one that's still diving.
The bombs missed though, it only created splashes. The Japanese crew cheered. "あなたが得たのはそれだけですか?! (Is that all you got?!)" one of them teased. But their face turned to horror as they saw Dick's plane coming in. They shouted as the AA guns focused their fire on Dick's dive bomber.
A Japanese admiral was outside the control room, he put on his binocular, seeing Dick's plane came down, not dropping down. It's almost like it's gonna crush them. He was shocked.
"あのアメリカ人は私たちを神風にするつもりです! (That American's gonna kamikaze us!)" he shouted to the AA gun crew, "彼を倒せ! (Take him down!)"
"1500!" the rear gunner shout to Dick, who's focusing his sight on the carrier, looking for a clear shot, "1400!"
Finally, when the attitude reached 1200 feet, Dick pulled the bomb lever, he then reached out and pulled the control lever hard as he could. "UGH!!!!" he grunted as the dive-bomber flew passed the bow, nearly crushing. Luckily, the plane then flew up, both Dick and the rear gunner sighed in relief.
BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!
The bomb that Dick dropped pierced through the bow, landing in the carrier's ammunition storage. It ignited the ammo rack. A massive explosion covered the carrier. The strong looking carrier was torn in half by that massive detonation.
"WHOOO!!!" Dick exclaimed, "SUCK IT!!!! THAT'S FOR PEARL!!!!"
Suddenly, he spotted a storm cloud ahead, "The hell?" he frowned, "I don't remember seeing a storm cloud on the way here."
Suddenly, his eyes widened as he saw something came out of hit. A ship! To be specific, a literally floating airship! With wired looking sails on the bow. It's unlike anything he seen before.
Well, it's definitely not a Japanese aircraft, he though to himself. As they got closer, he saw creatures on board. He's jaw dropped. Two of them were weird colored horses, one bird-human like figure, a cat-like human figure, and a... yellow bird-horse thingy?
"Dick?" the rear gunner asked. "What...what are those creatures?"
"Holy shit...." Dick muttered. "We're dead."
The creatures on board of that ship also stared at them. "WHAT IS THAT?!?!" the yellow one shouted.
"Hey Dick!" The rear gunner shouted , " Did you hear something? "
"Uh... I dunno, but I may have heard some voices coming from that airship. " Dick answered.
"Shouldw we go check it out?" The rear gunner asked.
Sick thought about this, he has duty, but leaving those creatures to the Japs? Hell not!
Dick sighed, "Alright, we'll go take a closer look."
Author's Note
There's my first chapter! Based on the movie Midway. Enjoy and feel free to leave comments to help me improve!
(REWROTE)
JUNE 6, 1942, NEAR MIDWAY
"What the hell are you guys?" Dick muttered. Suddenly, he saw a Japanese warplane flew towards him, guns flickering. To to to to to!!!! Pom! Pom! Pom! Pom! The 7.7mm machine gun and the 20mm gun begin to burst at the SBD.
"Shit! Zero!" Dick cursed as he shifted his palace to dodge the incoming fire, "Dude! Shoot that bitch!" he yelled to the rear gunner.
The rear gunner did not waste a second, he loaded up the twin browning gun and fired at the incoming Zero. Dadadadadada!!! The twin 30 cal begin to roar. The Japanese fighter was a good one too, it keep shifting positions to avoid the bullets.
Clang! Cling! Clang! The bulltes hit the SBD's side, but due to the armor protection, the 7.7mm bullet left only a few holes, but that did scared the hell outta Dick.
"Hey bud!" he yelled, "You wanna hold still!"
"DICK!!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU-----WHOOA!" The rear gunner's question was cut short when Dick suddenly lifted the nose of the plane up. He increased the air speed into max.
"I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS!!!" The rear gunner cried.
The Japanese Zero was finally running out of air speed due to the vertical chase and shifting positions. Dick saw the Japanese fighter goes down, he immediately lowered the air speed, allowing the SBD's nose tiled towards the Zero. Once he lined up the Zero, Dick immediately pressed the trigger. The two 50. cal in the nose of the SBD bursted. The 12.7 BMG easily pierced through the thin wings of the Japanese Zero. He increased his air speed again to avoid falling.
BOOM!!!!
The Zero erupted into flames, killing the pilot instantly.
"WHOO!" The rear gunner cried, "Man that was crazy!"
"I can do more than that." Dick smirked.
"No thanks!"
(~)
TWILIGHT'S POV (Third Person)
Twilight was shocked to see a metal bird flying their way, but what;s more shocked was before it happened...
Twilight and her friends was in the room, boring out. Suddenly, she heard explosions outside of the ship. Thunder? She thought, but next thing she saw cancelled this thought.
A white metal bird with a red circle marking on its tail zoomed by their air ship.
"What the hay is that?" Capper asked, "The storm is a no fly zone for any pony, and griffs."
"We should go check it out." Twilight suggested, she ran out of the door, everyone else followed her.
The moment they walked out, the group of friends were shocked. There was many metal birds flying around many ships. Loud explosions and noises were heard. Suddenly, they saw a metal bird dive towards a giant ship with a red circle marking on it, then it flew away. A second later, BOOOM!!!! AN explosion torn the ship in half.
Even Tempest, the ex-commander, was too, shocked. This isn't anything she saw before.
Suddenly, a blue metal bird approached them. As it got closer, the friends saw what it appeared to be a window. One on the front and one on the back. There are two figures in it. Two black tubes were expanded from the back window. Twilight looked at the front window, the creature in the window also looked at him. A shocked expression on both of their faces.
It yelled something, but due to the explosions, she couldn't hear them.
Suddenly, the white metal bird she saw earlier appeared behind the blue one and begin to spit fires at it. No, not fire. Because Twilight heard metal clanging. Some kind of ranged weapon, Twilight thought. The blue metal bird suddenly flew upward, the white one followed. But a moment later, she saw the white bird fell, and the blue one suddenly jerked its head towards the white bird and fired.
Next thing she knew was that the white bird exploded.
"WHOA!!!" Skystar exclaimed, "That was AWESOME!!!"
The blue metal bird then flew around them, it seemed like it was checking them.
(~)
COMMANDER DICK BEST'S POV (Third Person)
"So what are we gonna do about it?" The rear gunner asked.
"Well I can't leave them here to get screwed by the Japs," Dick said, "we should bring them onboard Enterprise."
"What?!" the rear gunner frowned, "You wanna bring these...creatures aboard?"
"That's the safest choice!" Dick demanded, "Who know what the hell are the Japs are gonna do to them, they'll become test subjects in their lab! Or maybe killed! Can't just leave them like this to rot!"
"Fine." the rear gunner sighed, "But if the Commander gets pissed, not my fault."
Dick then lowered the plane's attitude, he flew next to the airship, close enough for him to talk and hear them.
"Hey! You there!" He shout to the bird one with a pirate hat on, "Follow me!"
He then flew towards the Enterprise.
(~)
CAPTAIN CELEANO'S POV (Third Person)
"Did that thing just talked?!" Capper asked.
"He said to follow him." Twilight said, "Should we?"
"I don't know, but we shouldn't trust strangers." Tempest said.
"Well check the surroundings," Celeano sighed. "We either get blow up by those... flying machines, or we can follow that creature like we've been told to; he seemed friendly."
"Plus he just saved us from that white bird with red marking on it!" Skystar agreed.
"Well then, let's follow it." Celeano said as she changed course and followed the blue flying machine.
(~)
COMMANDER DICK BEST'S POV (Third Person)
"Can't believe that actually worked!" the rear gunner exclaimed, "They're on our tail!"
Dick lowered his air speed and preparing to land. But he turned and saw AA guns were pointed towards the airship, his eyes widened.
"This is Commander Dick Best speaking!" he called the radio, "Hold your fire! That's not Japs!"
To his relief, the AA guns did not fire.
He landed the SBD onto the bow of the carrier. The hook was blocked by the wires, which stopped the SBD from going forward. It put an immediate stopped to the plane.
The airship slowly approached the carrier.
"What the hell is that?" one of the soldiers asked.
"Is it japs in disguise?"
"Should we shoot it down?"
"Holy Cow!"
"Clear the bow! Clear the bow!" Dick yelled. He turned and faced an admiral, "What the fuck is this?" he asked.
"They're no enemy, I found them from the storm cloud." Dick explained, "They're attacked by the Japs, I shot the Japanese down, and incase they get shot down by the Japs, I took them in."
"Keep an eye on these...holy shit!" he gasped as he saw the airship landed, a purple horse with a wing and a horn waled towards him. "What the fucking hell?" he stared at the purple horse.
"Hello, my name is Princess Twilight Sparkle," it said, "and we're here to---"
The admiral fainted.
"Oh boy..." Dick face-palmed himself, "There's gonna be a lot of explaining to do..."
(~)
Dick took the creatures into his room, along side with his buddy Wade McClusky.
"Hey Dick, how's your---" he saw the creature, "WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE?!"
"Easy, Wade, they're friends. They don't bite." Dick sighed. He looked at the purple horse, "You said your name is... Twilight, is it?"
"Yes, I'm Twilight Sparkle, these are my friends: Celeano, Capper, Tempest, and Skystar." the purple horse said. Shocking Wade even more.
"They...they talked!" he turned to Dick, "Mind explaining?"
"I found them on their airship coming out of the storm," Dick said, "They were attacked by the Japs, so I helped them got here."
After a few minutes of explaining, Wadfe finally calmed down and began to talk to them. The purple one said that they came from a land called Equestria, which both Dick and Wade had no idea where. Then she explained about how their world uses magic to do stuff, which confused Wade even more.
"Magic?" he said, "These things doesn't exist in this world."
"What?!" Twilight exclaimed, "Then...how did you guys do stuff?"
"Simple, we use our brains," Dick explained, "we invents stuff that helped our life more easier. But In the meantime, we also do stupid things like starting this war----"
"Wait your world's at war?" Twilight gasped.
"Unfortunately yes."
"But why would you want war?" She asked.
"We don't want it too, but the Japs attacked us first." Wade said.
"Japs?"
"The Japanese, the ones that started the Pacific Warfare." Dick explained, "They attacked our Pearl Harbor a year ago and killed a lot of our men. Our president took that as a challenge and declared war on the Japs. They're behind this whole shit. Along with their allies; Italy and Germany."
Dick spend 5 minutes teaching history while Wade just rolled his eyes, bored.
"And so, We decided to charge them at Midway, which is here." Dick finished.
"Uh.. Mr. Dick?" Celeano asked, "What are those... flying machines you're in earlier?"
"Those are called planes; to be specific, warplanes. These you saw were SBD Dauntless Dive-Bombers. They carry bombs to attack the Aircraft carriers and warships. They're armed weapons called guns. Two M2 Browining; or we call it 50 cals and the two 30 cals in its rear. They're built for dogfights and bombings."
"What's an aircraft carrier?" Tempest asked.
"They're large warships that has small and short runways on them for planes to take off and land on. We're on one right now; the USS Enterprise." Dick said.
"Cool name." Capper said.
They're about to talk more before an alarm went off. Dick and Wade immediately got off their beds and put on their gears.
"What's happening?" Twilight asked.
"The Japs are attacking!" Wade shouted, "That's what's happening!"
"Alright, you guys sit in here." Dick said before leaving.
"No, we want to help." Twilight said.
"How? There's AA guns and Zeros all over the place!" Dick said, "Especially these explosions, they send shards towards every direction, it can kill those who flies instantly. Well, without armor."
"You could take us in in your....planes." Tempest said, "plus, you saved our lives before, now's time for us to help you."
Dick was about to argue when he heard Wade yelling, "Hurry up! The admiral got orders!"
Dick sighed, "Fine, you can come, but don't stick your bodies outside the plane, especially you." he said, pointing at Skystar, "I know you're curious, but this is a war. No joke."
Skystar nodded. Dick then tossed them caps. "Follow me."
(~)
"Are you sure you wanna bring them along?" the admiral asked, "They're not prepared."
"You'll see how powerful they can be." Dick said, "They can help. But I'll keep my eyes on them, sir."
"You better be, and don't let the Japs touch them." he warned, "God knows what happens."
"You have my words sir." Dick said, saluted.
After a few minutes and preparations and explaining, the creatures were ready to go. Due to Twilight and Tempest's sizes, they can fit through one plane. Skystar is with Wade, Capper and Celeano were flying their own, which the admiral disagrees, but Celeano said that she flies an airship, and she knows how flying machine works, plus Dick just taught her the basics. Capper was the rear gunner, after a few minutes of explaining, he can use a gun.
"Commander Dick of the Bombing Squadron Six, you're clear for take off." the control tower spoke through the radio.
They started the engine, to Dick's surprise, Celeano actually had no problem starting it. She did flied an airship after all, just need some few more lessons and she'll be fine on her own.
"Alright everyone," Dick spoke through the radio, "Get ready for battle. Welcome to the Pacific."
Author's Note
Well, here it is pals! I tried my best to make the gun sounds as realistic as possible. Also, for those who's good at grammar, correct me if I'm incorrect about something, thank you. Enjoy! :)
Magic > Guns & Bullets
COMMANDER DICK BEST (3rd POV)
Dick slid into his cockpit, with Twilight in the red gunner's seat. Dick saw Twilight studying the twin .30 cals curiously, "Hey Twi!" he asked, "ya know how to use that thing?"
"How?" Twilight asked.
Dick sighed, "All right, so the belt are fed already, now all you do is to pull that lever back, to load it up. Then you pull the trigger under the handle, after that, you kill." But he was cut short by Twilights outburst of fear, "YOU WHAT?!"
"You kill, any problem?" Dick frowned, "I suppose killing is forbidden where you're from?"
"Not really, but we don't usually get into war or kill anypony." Twilight said.
"Welp, you'll have to get use to it," Dick said, "cuz we do that A LOT." Twilight shivered just thinking using this .30 cal to take away life from a living thing, but war is war; you don't kill your enemy, he'll kill you.
"I prefer magic than this killing machine," Twilight said, levering the .30 cals away, "I know a few attack spell."
Now Dick is really intersected, can magic even do damage to the Japs' Zeros? Or at least scratch it? Guess have to find out in combat. But Twilight's attack spell us even madder than Dick thought, just see how she used it on Tirek, it nearly wiped out the entire battlefield. Though that's when she combined the Princesses's magic, but do not EVER underestimate her power.
"Just do what you can, and hang on, cuz we're going now." Dick said as he increased the airspeed. The propeller is spinning faster and faster as the air pulled the SBD forward. An instructor raised a small red flag and pointed towards the end of the deck, signaling Dick to go.
Dick gave a thumbs-up and pointed his hand forward, then the plane began to move.
"What are you doing?!" Twilight cried, "Your plane is going to fall into the water!"
Dick smirked, "Then GRAB ONTO SOMETHING!!!"
"YOU'RE CRAZY!!!" Twilight shouted.
"THAT'S MY NICKNAME!"
The landing gears of the dive-bomber sank the moment the plane reached the end of the deck. Twilight covered her eyes with her hooves. But cold feeling of water did not came, she opened her eyes and was shocked to see that SBD Dauntless is flying away from the carrier, instead of drowning, it flew upward.
"We're airborne." Dick said.
"Wha... How?" Is all Twilight could say.
"Well, Aircraft carrier's deck isn't that long, so the carrier itself have to travel in the right speed to help a SBD to take off. Or it'll just splash into the water. As for landing, we have a landing hook attached on our plane's tail, an arresting wire in also on the carrier's landing deck, once we're ready to land we'll drop the landing hook, then the arresting wire would catch it and force our plane into a stop. Speaking o which, your friends are having a little trouble." Dick said as he pointed his left hand at few SBDs struggling to take off behind them. Calaeno's SBD nearly crashed, but she pulled it up in time.
Though Dick couldn't see the expression on Calaeno's face, he's pretty sure the captain just came from hell back to the living.
Skystar is in Wade's SBD, instead of nervous she looked excited, must be an adventure type. Tempest is on Jackson's SBD, with a slightly amused expression while studying her twin .30 cals. Capper is behind Calaeno, same plane, playing around with the machine guns while enjoying the view. Dick sighed, knowing that the battle coming next would be beyond their imagination, PTSD is coming for them. But Dick's mind drifted away when he received an order from the admiral.
"Enterprise to Commander Dick, stay in formation until you have visual on the enemy fleet, and also, keep an eye on our new guests." The admiral's voice came from the radio, "The Corsairs will be with your squadron any minute now."
"The Corsairs?" Twilight asked, confused.
"Ah yes, the F4U Corsairs," Dick explained, "those Naval fighters never miss a chance to escort us. You'll see later, they've a pair of slightly tipped wings. And huge heads." He then looked to his right, "Speaking of the devil, look to your 4 o'clock."
Everyone (Except for the humans) gazed at their 4 o'clock, immediately they spotted more than 10 navy blue aircrafts flying along side of them. They're much smaller than the SBD, their wings bended in a slightly upper angle, each wings has three holes in front of it, must be the .50 cals the humans been talking about. The Corsair looked '20% cooler' than the SBD, as Rainbow Dash would say, and their maneuverability is also, obviously greater than the SBDs. Though they have the Corsairs as shields, none of them want to encounter and deal with the Zeros.
(~)
The journey towards the Japanese fleet is dead silence and tense, especially the fact that the Japs also send a bunch of bombers to them, not wanting to encounter with them is nearly impossible... Maybe possible if Twilight casts a invisibility spell. But one of their objective is to intercept the Japanese bombers, that'll be the job for the Corsairs.
Suddenly, one of the Corsair shouted, "CONTACT! 11 O' CLOCK! DEFENSIVE FORMATION! SQUADRON ONE GO WITH JIGSAW 1 AND 2 TO INTERCEPT THE JAPS! SQUADRON TWO STAY WITH THE DAUNTLESS!!!"
Then, half of the Corsairs immediately broke and lunged towards the incoming Zeros and the bombers, while the rest of the Corsairs formed a defensive formation around the SBDs. Soon, gunfires was heard from the other side.
"All right, the rear gunners! Pay close attention to the Zeros, for the newcomers!" Dick glanced at Twilight, "You see a plane with bright red dots on them, shoot' em like your life depends on it, with you do!"
Twilight nervously glanced around for the Zeros while everybody else loaded their .30 cals. Dick saw Twilight without the .30 cals out.
"Twi, ya sure ya don't need the MGs?" he asked.
"I'm not going to touch them," Twilight said, charging up her horn with bright purple aura, "my magic can do the work."
"Just make sure you hit' em." Dick said before switching his attention back to flying. To be honest he don't trust those peaceful creatures that much, this is an actual gun fight, people die from it. One small mistake can lead to their unfortunate deaths. But little does he know, what happens next really cleared his doubts.
Without warning, six Zeros suddenly flew out from the clouds and lunged at them, probably escaped from the Corsairs.
"SHIT! BANDITS! 9 O'CLOCK! REAR GUNNERS GET READY!!!" Dick shouted into the radio, Twilight had her horn focused on the incoming Zeros, she shot blasts of laser-like magic beams, but only a few reached their destination, most of them missed.
"Twilight! Wait till they reach the distance for firing!" Dick reminded her.
PAPAPAPA!!! PAM! PAM! PAM! PAM!
7.7 millimeter and 20 millimeter guns were fired upon them, Twilight could even see the widened-eyed Japanese pilots staring at her, but that expression turned into an evil grin as he continued to fire at her. A few shots nearly got Twilight as she let out a frightened screams.
"TWILIGHT!!!" Dick yelled.
"I'm all right!" Twilight shouted back.
Dick managed to dodge a few Zeros coming their way, send three of them in flames with the .50 cals and his amazing piloting skills, unfortunately for Twilight, she missed almost every singe shots with her magic beam.
"UGH!!! I'VE ENOUGH!!!" she growled. She charged up a HUGE, BRIGHT, PURPLE aura on her horn. Dick heard the humming noise made by the charge of massive amount of energy and turned back.
"Twilight! What are you----" his question is cut off when Twilight let out an ear-piercing battle cry. Her horn went bright as the sun, the tip o her horn shot out the biggest, longest, brightest, hottest plasma beam she could make. It swiped across the sky, wing out every singe flying Zeros, she casted the spell to do zero-damage to the friendly planes, so no need to worry about friendly-fires.
Dick's jaw dropped, "DAMN! You never told me you could do that!"
"It used up most of my energy, so don't expect me to do use this every-so-often." Twilight said, panting.
Dick had learned the most important lesson for the day:
Magic is ALWAYS greater than guns and bullets.
