“Wake up! You’ll miss your first day of training!” a voice said, a paw prodding her in the side. Twilight opened her eyes, squinting in the sunlight. “Come on Twilightpaw!”
Twilightpaw got up on all fours, using her tail for balance. At least this new tail is good for something, she thought to herself. Lilypaw sat impatiently in front of her, then they both padded out of the apprentice den.
“Lilypaw! Want to share some prey with me!” another voice said from farther off. Twilightpaw and Lilypaw looked to the side to see Seedpaw coming over to them.
“Sure, Seedpaw. I was getting ready to get some myself,” Lilypaw replied. She then turned to Twilightpaw. “Maybe you should get some Twilightpaw.”
“Sure, I’ll grab one of my friends in a bit and we can get some,” Twilightpaw replied. She padded over to where she saw Fluttershy enter the night before. She walked closer to the den, where she could hear voices coming from.
“Cobwebs are used to bandage wounds, and marigold is used to keep wounds from getting infected. Before applying we chew up the leaves to get the juices, got that?” Twilightpaw could hear a voice ask.
"Yes, this isn't hard so far, I think I got this." Flutterpaw's voice sounded from in the den.
"Good. Now why don't you get something to eat, you've been in here all morning."
"Sure Jayfeather," Flutterpaw said as she walked out of the den. "Oh hello Twilight, uh, paw." she said, correcting herself.
"Would you like to go get something to eat? Pinkie, er, Pinkpaw and Derpypaw went out to train already, I think, and Cele-, I mean Sunfur went out on patrol, possibly." Twilightpaw said awkwardly. "I still don't fully understand all this 'Warrior Names' and how the Clan works yet."
"Neither do I, I'm just going with the flow so far, which is learning herbs." Flutterpaw shrugged.
"Well let's see what happens next so far, I'm hungry." The two cats/ponies walked towards the pile of food(They didn't know what exactly it was called yet), and they saw Lilypaw and Seedpaw walking off with... "Is that a bird?!" Twilight asked, quite loudly.
"Uh, yeah. What else would we eat, plants?" Seedpaw replied, looking at Twilightpaw with a confused gaze.
"It's just, ugh. This is getting way too confusing for me," Twilightpaw said, facepawing.
"And how's that?" Lilypaw asked, putting down the bird.
"Let's just say we aren't 100% used to eating animals, and that kinda stuff," Flutterpaw said sheepishly.
"Uh, if you say so..." Seedpaw said, as the sisters padded off towards the apprentice den.
"You sure this is a good idea?" Twilightpaw asked, then her belly rumbled. "Okay, let's try this." The two cats/ponies walked off to the pile, and grabbed a mouse to share.
"Don't worry Twilightpaw, it's only natural. Hopefully we can get back to Equestria and eat plants again in no time," Flutterpaw said quietly, but assuringly.
"Okay then," Twilightpaw said, taking a small bite of the poor creature in front of them. She then took several more bites of the mouse. "This is good!" she said, before she realized only a little more than half of the food was left. "Oops, you can finish this off."
"Teehee, I knew our new bodies would effect our taste buds," Flutterpaw said, as if she knew it would happen. A pink whirr passed by them and the pile got a bit bigger.
"HeyTwilightpawHeyFlutterpawLikethefoodWejustgotbackfromhuntingand-" the pink cat was cut off as a purple paw was stuck in her mouth.
"Calm down Pinki-paw," Twilightpaw said, remembering to correct herself. "You may have just got back from hunting, but shouldn't you at least be tired?"
"Her? Tired? The only one tired out right now is me, and I barely hunted at all!" a gray tom said, trudging up to the pile and setting down a squirrel. "I need a nice long nap to get my energy back."
"Okie Dokie Lokie, Bumblestripe! I'll just stay here with my friends!" Pinkpaw called to the tom, who was heading straight for the warrior's den.
"Twilightpaw! How about some training? It's nearly sunhigh!" a voice called from behind the three apprentices. Twilightpaw looked towards the voice and saw the golden tom who was her mentor, Lionblaze if she remembered right. "Cinderheart and Lilypaw are coming with us, come on."
"Uh, okay Lionblaze!" Twilightpaw called. "Looks like I'll see you later." She said to her friends as she followed after her mentor.
* * *
When she, Lionblaze, Cinderheart, and Lilypaw had all made it to a clearing in the forest, Twilightpaw managed to say the one thing she needed to ask since she left with Lionblaze.
"What kind of training are we going to do exactly?"
"Hey, wake up! Wake up already!" Rainbow Dash's voice bombarded Rarity's ear.
"Can't a lady have her beauty sleep?" Rarity said back to her friend.
"No, ya can't. This ain't Carousel Boutique anymore, we got some kinda 'training' to do." AppleJack's voice said. Rarity groaned as she woke up, remembering that she and her friends were cats.
"Let's get this over with."
* * *
"Gempaw! Keep your body low to the ground! And keep your tail above the ground!" Trouttail called to Rarity/Gempaw. Gempaw had gone to do some hunting training, while Rainbowpaw and Applepaw were exploring the territory.
"I'm trying!" she almost whined to the she-cat. "Why do I need to learn this anyway?"
"Why do you-?!" Trouttail groaned. "A warrior's job is to hunt and protect the Clan, they can't do that if they don't know how to hunt."
"Okay, fine," Gempaw huffed. She lowered her body to exactly one inch off the ground, keeping her tail level with her body. She crawled forward slowly, touching the ground like it was the softest, most fragile thing in the world. "Like this?"
"Exactly Gempaw! I've never seen better from an apprentice," Trouttail said happily. "Now how about we try those skills for real?"
"If it can get me out of repeating these same old boring movements over and over, let's try it."
* * *
Who's terrible idea was this?! Gempaw thought to herself as she watched Trouttail stalking a mouse. The older she-cat pounced on the small rodent as soon as it realized she was there.
"Now that you've seen how a warrior catches prey, why don't you try?" Trouttail said the apprentice, covering the mouse with dirt. "Then I'll teach you to fish."
"Why on Equis do we need to fish?" Gempaw asked, although the words didn't sound as silly in her head.
Trouttail rolled her eyes slightly, then turned to Gempaw. "Fish are the main source of RiverClan's diet. Without it, we would starve."
"Oh," Gempaw said, lowering her head slightly. "Still, let's try this 'hunting'."
Her mentor smiled at the young cat. "Okay, now first you must scent out the prey."
Gempaw nodded, sniffing for any of the tell-tale signs of the prey she had already seen. She caught scent of what she thought was a vole, and instantly went into the hunting crouch she had practiced or so long this morning. She crept forward slowly, making sure to be quiet and stalk the rodent with precision. She got maybe a foot away from the vole when the wind changed direction, sending her scent to the vole. Oh no you don't! she thought, chasing after the fleeing vole. She pounced with a small burst of energy, and landed right on top of it. Her cat instincts kicked in, as well as a bit of the training, and she bit the back of the rodent's throat, killing it. She lifted her head up for her mentor to see her catch, her eyes shining like a filly's who had been complimented for a good deed.
"Good job Gempaw! For an apprentice who's just started training, you did spectacular!" Trouttail said happily. Gempaw beamed at the older she-cat, and followed her after she had grabbed her mouse.
Maybe this won't be so bad, being a cat, Gempaw thought to herself. But still, why exactly are we here? And how long will we be staying?