On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

manatherindrell · Thursday at 4:35 PM

Tanya gains the desire to win after she discovers that she just genuinely loves racing. It's such a weird sensation for her to just like something that she concludes that she must be suffering from some sort of psychotic break and attempts to withdraw from school.

Jubjub3000 · Thursday at 4:52 PM

manatherindrell said:
Tanya gains the desire to win after she discovers that she just genuinely loves racing. It's such a weird sensation for her to just like something that she concludes that she must be suffering from some sort of psychotic break and attempts to withdraw from school.

Tanya having a genuine smile on her face and laughing may result in her being dogpiled on by happy umas.

Greatazuredragon · Thursday at 4:59 PM

WrandmWaffles said:
They passed the endline without much fanfare, this practice race only having a couple of spectators, which was probably for the best, as there really hadn't been much to see in regards to her sound drubbing.

As usual, Tanya utterly fails to realize she is exceptional. A fresh student with zero official training managed to keep up fairly well with one of the school's stars. Nothing to see here carry on. xD

WrandmWaffles said:
"Hmmph." Rudolf did not seem to know whether she should be affronted or impressed. "You have guts, I must give you that."
"Having guts is rather necessary for living, after all." Losing them was fatal and unfortunately all too common in war.
"Ha!" Shirogane blinked as the president's stern demeanor vanished into the aether, the older uma's ears twitching excitedly. "Hehehe…" Then, for some reason, Rudolf broke in a fit of giggles.

Lol.

WrandmWaffles said:
"It will also be important for Shirogane to develop the face she will put up when facing the public, or at least to learn what part to stress and what part to downplay."
"Shirogane-chan seems too serious to play into making jokes."
"Ah, but that makes it better!"

Gap Moe is a thing after all.
^^

Great chapter, nice work.

Neo3932156 · Thursday at 5:02 PM

Qiun said:
But that's casual Tanya, not serious Tanya

Extremely unlikely. Tanya prefer firing at range, and she only enter CQC range only when she has to and usually against other mages.

Besides, pretty sure that horses and Uma Musume have vastly different shape as to be unrecognizable. She's more likely to react badly to human shape, and it seems like she's relatively well-off aside from the occasional loud noise triggering her ptsd.

Emsteak · Thursday at 5:08 PM

I'm looking forward to the tryouts races, it'll be interesting to see who her year mates for the Triple Crown will be. If it's with BNW she'll really be known as a devil.

Cataquack Warrior · Thursday at 5:11 PM

WrandmWaffles said:
Shirogane does have an urge to run as an Umamusume. She does not have an urge to race. There is a strong instinct in her for getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, but it is not in a race.

That's what I mean. Shiro has the body of an Umamusume, and that includes the instinctual urge to run. But unlike other Umas, Tanya doesn't have a horse's soul to go with the body, so even if she enjoys running, she doesn't have a particular interest in racing, beyond its raw utility.

Nuthenry2 said:
i had an idea that Shirogane should start her own fan site early to kick start her retirement fund, where shes posts POV races and have a monthly donation system (with the hope that some people forgets to cancel the payments) and end up unknowingly being an 'Kuudere' Race Star

That could be neat. Might be fun if she also combines it with some of her studies into past races in the video archives, giving a thorough examination of past races that may be drier and less enthusiastic that most media coverage of uma races, but nonetheless gets a following due to her unique perspective.

I'm also wondering how Shirogane's social interactions with other students play out, particularly in regard to chatting about racing - something very popular among umas, but something that Tanya has only ever had mild interest in. The interesting thing is that, due to researching the past races in the archives, Tanya will actually have some stuff to add to the conversations in time, but since her goal is focused on practical purposes - getting insights on racing and how to improve her effectiveness - so I feel there will be a dissonance between her peers' knowledge of races (often focused on recent and popular races, and more about the thrill and excitement) and Shiro's (who can be just as interested in a decades-old, minor race and a new, heavily-covered race, depending on which one she considers more useful in studying).

Darth Bayes · Thursday at 5:38 PM

WrandmWaffles said:
What kind of motivation is Shirogane weak to? Encouragement? Money? Early Retirement? Perceived Expectations?

...maybe 'not getting beaten by someone she doesn't respect'?

I feel like Tanya does have a tendency to look down on people and think they are objectively incorrect, and could wind up feeling actually motivated to not let them 'validate their incorrect beliefs' by winning.
Just put her up against a communist.

Jetsmillion · Thursday at 6:14 PM

WrandmWaffles said:
Another thing that might freak out other umas is Shirogane's willingness to eat things that taste bad or are tasteless if it will help her.
"If you consume it quickly then you don't have to worry about taste.

If Agnes can prove her concoction are safe, despite questionable appearance and taste, she might fine a loyal customer in Shirogane.

Qiun said:
But that's casual Tanya, not serious Tanya

The real question here would be what would cause Shirogane to go serious death aura mode? Racing certainly won't with her current attitude.

Now, if some crazy threatens the school, they had better hope security gets them before Shirogane does.

globalwarmth · Thursday at 6:32 PM

WrandmWaffles said:
a designated gate filler.

Not untrue...
Gacha filler

WrandmWaffles said:
Shirogane passes on her technique of weaponizing past life trauma. Which might actually be fairly effective for Haru since she did have quite a bit of it.

HARU has learned [SPITE GOD] Oh shit ^$#₩□◇• RUN!

Jetsmillion · Thursday at 6:35 PM

globalwarmth said:
HARU has learned [SPITE GOD] Oh shit ^$#₩□◇• RUN!

If Haru learned that, she'd likely use it to try to fix Rice's bad luck.

CantFocusOneThing · Thursday at 6:48 PM

Mystearical said:
The Salaryman was never "average". He came in second place in pretty much everything he ever tried his hand at, remember? Unless we're suggesting that whoever beat him in X activity is the only person involved who had "will and passion" then it's ridiculous to say that she needs that herself to be exceptional. If the past holds true then she'll need to find that "will and passion" eventually if she wants to stop being runner-up, but I dare you to look me in the eyes and tell me a racer who comes in 2nd all the time is average. I would argue consistency is just as valuable as will and passion, and the Salaryman canonically has superhuman consistency.

Gamblers would love her consistency

Lyrista · Thursday at 6:49 PM

Eternal Third Place Nice Nature feels an unexplainable affinity with Shirogane she can't understand

CantFocusOneThing · Thursday at 6:53 PM

Lyrista said:
Eternal Third Place Nice Nature feels an unexplainable affinity with Shirogane she can't understand

Would Eclipse or Maruzensky be their metaphysical mom? Althought i dont remember if Maruzensky was also undefeated on her racing days

Pollyamorous · Thursday at 7:05 PM

Jetsmillion said:
If Agnes can prove her concoction are safe, despite questionable appearance and taste, she might fine a loyal customer in Shirogane.

"Perfect, just perfect, another Schugel! I'd expected an institution such as this would avoid such insanity but clearly the-"

"Before I give you anything, I just noticed I'm missing data on your top running speed. Could you fill out these forms and film a video of yourself at twelve different angles first?"

"...Sh-She wants raw data? In clear and well thought out forms? On an excel document? I take back everything I ever thought of her."

"By the way, this drug will also make you grow a new pair of ears."

"She's even outlining the side effects before the test begins! She's everything I could have ever wanted out of a scientist!"

Dissimilate · Thursday at 7:15 PM

WrandmWaffles said:
What kind of motivation is Shirogane weak to? Encouragement? Money? Early Retirement? Perceived Expectations?

As much as I hate to think about this considering the mood and feel of the story thus far (a.k.a. Slice of Life), the biggest motivator I can personally think of that would kickstart Shirogane's racing mindset would be the need for the prize money as a result of something totally outside of her control: Family member in an accident as she needs the prize money for recuperation or rehabilitation. Or a family member develops a progressive medical condition and they need specific expensive care.

For Shirogane, her family is the biggest motivator. Salaryman family was not active enough to be rememberable, Soldiergirl was an orphan, whereas Uma has a real honest to kami 'they give her hugs and make her feel feelings and she thinks about them every day' family.

And Kami help the rest of the racing field should she actually become motivated.

(insert edit here) This is not to say that the family event needs to be permanent like someone needs extensive medical care for the rest of their life. But an event like this would give Shirogane an actual reason to go all out and time for self-reflection about whether she really likes racing or not.

Emsteak · Thursday at 7:43 PM

Darth Bayes said:
Just put her up against a communist.

Considering most the horse girls were racehorses, I'm not sure there's a communist amongst them, the closest thing might be some umas professing to love sharing.

Jetsmillion said:
The real question here would be what would cause Shirogane to go serious death aura mode? Racing certainly won't with her current attitude.

Outside of threatening her family's business, I'm not sure what would motivate her to ~~play goo goo babies with her life on the line~~ race to win seriously.

Which, with the amount of money thrown around in the betting circuits isn't out of the realm of possibility, though definitely not a route another Uma would use against her.

Shirogane desperately needs a Rival to push her into emotionally investing into racing and running, and doing so without putting anyone's life/career at risk. Which if the first "race" she had as a kid was a taste test for how The Zone™ feels to her, she's going to need it.

On Haru, part of me hopes she'd be such a Rival to Shirogane mostly because they have such opposite approaches to what is essentially the same path off the race track (Tanya with supporting her family's business and Haru supporting those local small businesses). If anyone (outside of Trainer-san in game) can inspire Haru into winning any races it's Shirogane, mostly by getting Haru to make delivery runs for her fans' businesses as a form of training.

Three Goddesses help everyone once Shirogane teaches Haru economics on the sly. With proper investments, even a losing career can provide a secure retirement.

Cataquack Warrior · Thursday at 8:15 PM

Not sure if this would really work outside of a gag omake, but imagine what would happen if there was a novelty hypnotist performance in the area, and Shirogane's comrades convince her to give it a shot to put her mindset in a drive to win. Only it works a bit too well, and they see just how dangerous a truly motivated Tanya can be.

KaneLives · Thursday at 10:30 PM

I could see it if her trainer can figure out how to make her think winning is an order. Trigger her "do it no matter what" part of her brain.

FarJackal · Thursday at 10:51 PM

Darth Bayes said:
...maybe 'not getting beaten by someone she doesn't respect'?

I feel like Tanya does have a tendency to look down on people and think they are objectively incorrect, and could wind up feeling actually motivated to not let them 'validate their incorrect beliefs' by winning.
Just put her up against a communist.

For more comedic reasons have the person believe their views are still correct win or lose. Tanya looking down on people and think they are objectively incorrect is funny too since her Chicago economics that she looks up to doesn't really match her actual views because of her Japanese collectivism and surprisingly democratic socialism ideas. Anyways here's the happy horse that loves to race with Tanya I can see that bothers her.

Wild Transient · 2025-11-07T00:31:09+0000

WrandmWaffles said:
Shirogane even means silver, lol.

You know who else also collected a lot of silver until they actually won a G1 on their last ever race? Stay Gold.

WrandmWaffles said:
Shirogane passes on her technique of weaponizing past life trauma. Which might actually be fairly effective for Haru since she did have quite a bit of it.

I for one would love to see Haru Urara in fic actually win a race,a G1 even! It would be a miracle in of itself and if Shirogane ever got credited in any way with helping Haru win she'd get the undying thanks and support of Harus fans.

WrandmWaffles said:
Shirogane does have an urge to run as an Umamusume. She does not have an urge to race. There is a strong instinct in her for getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, but it is not in a race.

Yeah. Being born to run is not the same thing as being born to race. They're completely different things.

WrandmWaffles said:
Another thing that might freak out other umas is Shirogane's willingness to eat things that taste bad or are tasteless if it will help her.
"If you consume it quickly then you don't have to worry about taste.

All her experience eating K-brot during her second life is paying off.

IbnAurum · 2025-11-07T01:40:18+0000

With Shiro not being much of a racer herself mindset-wise, she could look into the trainer career track, learn stuff from Toujou-sensei, graduate from Tracen either double degree as racer and trainer, or enter some kinda trainer academy? Im not sure of the institutions. Tho I guess she'll balk at spending even more time invested in her own education when she could be productive for her family.

RogueInquisitor · 2025-11-07T02:10:42+0000

Uma races have a lot of betting associated with them. What if Shirogane's family starts to put money on her as a show of support, and Tanya decides she has to win to protect their finances?

``` · 2025-11-07T02:11:10+0000

Cataquack Warrior said:
Beyond Shirogane's lack of a strong drive/dream to race, I think there's something even bigger holding her back, something unthinkable for an uma: Tanya cannot see racing as something precious, something that truly matters.

Think back to Chapter 5, and how Shiro's reaction to Steady Distance's high stakes win is...disinterest. She doesn't belittle Steady's victory, and is happy for her friend, but to her it's just an achievement like any other - something to be pleased about, but nothing more than that.

Tanya sees value in racing, but only in terms of its social/economic benefits, rather than something valuable in itself. She enjoys races in her own way, but they're just one of multiple things she likes, not something she sees as a lifelong passion. If forced to be entirely honest, she'd probably admit that there are careers she'd prefer instead of racing.

This disconnect, in my opinion is an even greater hurdle to her future as a racer than simply forging an ambition to win. Because at the heart of it, races aren't important to Tanya in the way they are for other uma. She'll seek victories to ensure she has a stable income and for her own pride, but her life as a racer doesn't actually matter to her, and that's the foundation for racing.

I think her trainer and comrades might gradually pick up inklings of Shirogane's divergent view of racing - when she treats reviewing old races as more of a tedious homework than her actual "leisure" homework, when she doesn't show particular excitement one way or another in others' races or her own. But it's probably going to be hard for them to piece together, and will hit them all the harder with shock if they even reach the revelation.

Because from what I understand, this disconnection from racing is a fundamentally alien perspective for an uma to have. Uma are born to run - partially in body, but more deeply in spirit, reborn from souls that wished with all their hearts to race once again. But Shirogane was born from Tanya, with no such dream fueling her at the core. Racing is just something to do like anything else, and that disconnect makes me all the more curious on where her journey as a racer will carry her.

WrandmWaffles said:
Yeah, racing is just another sport to Shirogane, one she happens to be rather good at, but there's no real added significance to her. Racing is something her classmates dreamed of doing and many of them really desire to win races, which is something Shirogane really doesn't have. Instead, she has an absurdly high threshold for acceptable training and rather high standard for adequate.

On that note, one of the more subtle barriers Shirogane may have to overcome, if she wants to succeed, would be her own form of 'arrogance', for lack of a better term.

That is to say, her perhaps semi-conscious assumption that she has nothing to fear from any of her peers because she can walk over anyone if so moted. Which is the sort of assumption that can certainly get you into trouble at one point or another.

To shoehorn an analogy, folks familiar with the fight game might know of Tim Kennedy, who was a talented ex special forces operative, but was 'merely' a perennial contender in the cage. Certainly good success at a high level by any reasonable standard compared to the average man, but it was other even more talented, more dedicated, more dangerous fighters who would win consistently at the highest levels against the best in the world and take the championship belts, making people who can make people who can make you look like an amateur, look like amateurs. 'Theres levels to this shit' as the saying goes.

Experience with something is no substitute to doing it for a living, as the saying also goes.

Rudolf and Air groove vibe checking her can be brushed off sure enough, but they're also acting as teammates helping to onboard another fellow teammate, not contenders putting down a rival challenger.

If she were for whatever hypothetical situation to decide crossing some throwback like Gentildonna or Orfevre is fine because nothing can threaten her with real consequences, she'll have run into trouble. Not to say that anyone in particular in this example would be anything but reasonable of course, nor even precluding the possibility of more interesting relationship interactions, just illustrating the design space for the insidiousness of hubris. Roll the dice of fate enough times, and anyone can turn up snake eyes eventually.

manatherindrell · 2025-11-07T04:17:19+0000

I'm watching the anime and most of the way through the second season right now, and I have to say, Team Spica members sure do get badly injured a lot. Like, often enough that I have to wonder why people aren't asking their trainer some hard questions. I wonder if Shirogane will ask them.

Naphtali · 2025-11-07T04:43:00+0000

Darik29 said:
I admit i am sad she still hasn't learned that Uma are Idol's as much as racer's.

The moment she realizes she will have to Dance and Sing for others is going to be Hilarious!

Her grandparents are into racing, And she's been in this world for about a decade and a half. It would be strange if she wasn't already aware.
And she's sung in a choir in her second life. Albiet briefly.

She might not exactly be pleased, but Tanya was definately the type who would bite the bullet and force herself through it, if properly motivated. Outwardly, I'm sure she'll be the height of professionalism. (Her internal narration will be full of cursing though.)

Jubjub3000 · 2025-11-07T04:53:35+0000

Naphtali said:
Outwardly, I'm sure she'll be the height of professionalism. (Her internal narration will be full of cursing though

Who knows, maybe she will enjoy it if only due to the marketing opportunities?

Naphtali · 2025-11-07T04:58:52+0000

WrandmWaffles said:
What kind of motivation is Shirogane weak to? Encouragement? Money? Early Retirement? Perceived Expectations?

For Shirogane specifically, her family is another one. As demonstrated when she dug her heels in to start doing food deliveries because of her fathers injuries/trashed bike.
Not super practical. I don't think her folks would be willing to do what is needed to pressure her to win. (Like going into debt, or betting the buisness on her.)

Dredging up past life miseries might also do it, but that would be damn cruel.

Neo3932156 · 2025-11-07T05:04:14+0000

Naphtali said:
It would be strange if she wasn't already aware.

But not completely unheard of, Oguri Cap being the only other Uma who, although completely aware, choose a traditional dance routine in the Cinderella Grey series after her first win.

View: https://youtu.be/KBydgS_5jsk?si=wkUrNdvh0amrIHU7

Don't get me wrong, I'm in the 'Shirogane are aware of the post-victory concert' camp due to how dedicatedly thorough her trainer is regardless of Shirogane own, albeit understandable, misunderstanding of the sport.

But, you gotta admit, seeing her panicking and having to improvised a song and picking a traditional Polish song, as suggested by OP sometime ago, taught by her mother is an appealing hook. Not to mention her potential initial confusion why there's a dedicated dance studio and singing stage for idol training in Tracen for some reason, not until its too late anyway.

Hotroman · 2025-11-07T07:54:39+0000

One way to get her to race at full power would be to have her lose then force her to be a backup dancer for the winner, the shame will power her for eons.
But seriously I assume it will be some form of trauma or forced responsibility like one of her friends running delivery's now gets hit by a car and the restaurant goes into debt for insurance since she got hit while working or something similar.
I am a super hyped waiting for Shirogane to meet some of the real characters of tracen, like the gold family, and excited to see everyone's reactions to Shiroganes lack of drive or normal Uma desires, like handing one of her flavorless gel packs to oguri and everyone watching oguri refuse to eat and panic.

``` · 2025-11-07T09:46:17+0000

``` said:
Cake or parfait.

Not because it's correct, but because it causes gap moe; and thus is correct.

If we could direct your attention to Exhibit B Your Honor -

On the 4.5 year anniversary, Cygames released one of the most diabetes inducing things this side of the decade; and just who can you can find listed there in the voice credits?

The prosecution rests.

On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

Experienced.

Experienced.

Connoisseur.

Versed in the lewd.

Getting sticky.

Versed in the lewd.

Getting sticky.

Not Gay if it is Cute

ruining the weather.

Not Gay if it is Cute

It can get better and definitely can get worse

The Eternal Procrastinator

It can get better and definitely can get worse

Please be patient, I'm horny.

Not too sore, are you?

Getting sticky.

Versed in the lewd.

Plotting lurker of stories

Behold my Radiance

Whimsical Dakka Worshipper

Getting some practice in, huh?

Know what you're doing yet?

Versed in the lewd.

Experienced.

Getting some practice in, huh?

Experienced.

Getting some practice in, huh?

Versed in the lewd.

Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?

Versed in the lewd.

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