I felt agonizing pain in my head as I struggled against nothingness. It was just darkness and pain, but then my eyes snapped open and I shouted, then I saw I wasn't in my room at the castle anymore. My eyes were weak but I saw that it looked more like a dungeon of some kind. The walls were made of cobblestone, there were no windows, the door appeared to be made of solid iron, with a small opening that I'd guess was used for food trays or something like that and there was what looked like a small fireplace to my right.
But it wasn't the fact that I was in a dungeon that bothered me, it was the fact that I was shackled to the floor by a chain on each of my legs that hooked through a hole in them, and the fact that there were three Griffins in this cell with me; one of them wearing full body armor and had a sword, another was well dressed like some kind of minister or something, and the third wore some dark robes, a black faceless mask, and was holding a branding iron. And it was that branding iron that bothered me most… because the top quarter of it was glowing red like it was just pulled out of a furnace.
The masked Griffin pressed the iron against my chest hard causing me to thrash and shout in pain again. He held it there letting it burn against me for a few seconds before taking it away.
"I'm getting tired of this game of your's, Changeling." The well dressed one said as I tried to recover.
"Oh… oh really…?" I said painfully with a fake smile. "I'm not. B-because I'm having more fun right now than I've had all year. Hahahaha…” Talking, breathing, heart beating and thinking were painful at best. I had all kinds of cuts, burns, and dried blood across my body that still ached.
"This isn't a game, you know. Your kind is becoming an incredible annoyance, and the sooner you cooperate, the sooner your pain ends. Do you realize how much trouble you're in, insect? You've caused enough trouble to get me permission to do just about anything I want to you." He explained as I laughed a little more.
"And this is the best you could do, Councilor? You're an insult to torturers everywhere. Though technically he's the torturer, not you." The Councilor grabbed my throat with his right talon and squeezed hard, choking me.
"You attempted to assassinate a very important member of the Griffin Empire, and I am willing to do everything in my power to make sure your kind pays for it."
"S-seems unfair that you get to kill us… when we didn't even kill you. S-sounds like you just want the excuse." He let go of my throat and began walking towards the door. "Same time tomorr―"
We have them. A voice in my head informed me in the middle of my sentence.
"Hahahahaha!" I laughed as the Councilor turned around and glared at me.
"What's so funny?" He asked as I put on a very dark smile.
"Why are you stopping? Shouldn't you be getting home? Although I'm not sure who will be waiting for you there." The Councilor lunged at me, slamming me to the floor.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" He shouted in rage.
"Did you really believe that a Changeling's shapeshift would reverse because of a sneeze? HA! Shows how little about my kind you know. I dropped my form and failed to assassinate the Minister on purpose to put your attention on me so you wouldn't notice the abduction and replacement of your family. You've been so preoccupied with me you didn't even notice as we one by one foalnapped them. And now we have you right where we want you." The Councilor snatched the branding iron from the other Griffin and jabbed it into my chest causing a cracking sound on impact.
"If you hurt any of them I swear I'll―"
"You'll what? Kill me? If I die then my friend Räuber will be given permission to do whatever he wants to them, and you don't want to see what he'll leave behind when he's done." I saw a tear in the Councilor's eye as he hit me in the head with the iron, knocking me out...
"AH!" I shouted as I leaned up in my bed. I brought both my hooves to my head to try to ease the pain that coursed through it as I saw that there was almost no light in my room even though both windows' curtains were wide open. I cast a spell that projected light from my horn, then I turned to the clock and saw it was four sixteen A.M, but how early it was was the least of my concerns at the moment.
What in Tartarus was going on? I was being tortured for fuck's sake! And I helped get a Griffin Councilor's family foalnapped! I seemed more like Gezähnt than myself... Is that what I used to be like? Just some psychopathic servant of Queen Chrysalis? I wondered in silence as the pain slowly subsided. I'm not going to spend more time thinking about that. I'm not like that and I never will be. Who I was is irrelevant to me now. As I calmed down, I tried to forget about the flashback then I laid back down, shut my eyes, and hoped that was the last I'd see of that memory.
Unfortunately for me, I wasn't done having flashbacks as I found that I was siting on a barstool with my vision focused on a small shot glass in front of me. My forelegs were crossed and my head was resting on them as I stared at my drink. The bar that my cup sat on was a dark brown colored wood.
"Dun?" That voice, it was none other than Gezähnt's. "Dun, are you listening to me?" Gezähnt asked as he nudged my shoulder to better get my attention.
"Yes I'm listening, Gezähnt." I said but just continued to stare at the cup.
"Really? Tell me what I was just talking about."
"Something about bashing in a Diamond Dog's head?" I asked as I glanced at Gezähnt out of the corner of my eye.
"Well... yes, but something's bothering you."
"I don't want to talk about it..." I said as I lifted my cup with my magic and drank the whole shot in one gulp. "Another drink, please." I said to the bartender. The moment my cup was filled Gezähnt took it away with his own magic. "Give it back, Gezähnt. I'm in no mood." I warned.
"What's wrong? I've seen you upset before, but you've been so distant lately that I'd say you're downright depressed." Gezähnt explained as he kept my cup away from me.
"Give me, the damn cup." I said with a throaty growl.
"This is about the Councilor, isn't it?" Gezähnt asked as I let out a sigh. "You can talk to me about this. You know that right?" Gezähnt said as he placed the cup back in front of me.
"I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to think about it, I don't want to remember it ever happened." I said as I quickly gulped my drink again. "Another." I demanded as Gezähnt let out a sigh. "Since I know you're going to ask, it's about what we did... How am I supposed to just go home, hug my kids and kiss my wife like everything's fine after what we do something like that? It's not right." I said as I felt a tear come to my eye.
"It wasn't easy, it's not supposed to be unless you're as twisted as me, but we had to do wh―"
"What's best for the hive. But it wasn't best for the hive. The Councilor is the only one who had to die... I feel like sometimes we don't care who dies and who doesn't as long as we can say 'it was best for the hive'... Maybe we are monsters..."
"We do what we need to in order to survive. Nothing more, nothing less."
"And we use it as an excuse for everything wrong that we do. Our crime is far worse than any punishment we can be given." I said as the memory began to fade...
My eyes snapped open as I woke up again in the darkness of early morning. I used the light spell again and saw that this time it was four fifty-one in the morning. My thoughts instantly went to my newest flashback. What happened? What happened that made me so depressed? This is driving me crazy! I need sleep but I keep getting these flashbacks and waking up again. What am I supposed to do? Maybe a walk through the castle will help clear my head.
I slowly pulled the blankets off of myself and crawled out of bed. Once I got out of bed, I looked out the window to Canterlot, seeing nopony in streets, making it almost seem like Canterlot was abandoned. I could see the night sky was filled with stars, and the moon consumed much of the sky, shining like a dim sun in the darkness. I closed the curtains of both windows with my magic and turned away from them, heading for the door.
I opened the door of my room expecting to see Striker or Blast Shield, but nopony there. I quietly stepped out of my room, looking around the hallways, I saw they were completely empty. With only the moonlight to the hall, I began walking around aimlessly.
What happened to the Councilor? Did we kill him or something worse? In that flashback, I said it's what we did, so I wasn't talking about the torture. Though that might have played at least a small roll in my behavior. As much as I don't like it, I think I'll have to talk to Gezähnt if I really want to know what happened. But do I really want to? I asked myself as I stopped and looked to the moon. I told Gezähnt I didn't even want to remember what happened, but now that memory is haunting me and I don't even know why. What are the odds of having two flashbacks in one night that seem to be very closely related events?
I let out an annoyed sigh as I turned towards the dungeon to talk to Gezähnt about those flashbacks. As I walked through the castle, it seemed like I was the only one awake. I saw three guards as I walked, one was on patrol using his magic as a light source like I did, and the other two were just door guards. I was kind of surprised that nopony questioned why I was wandering the castle halls at four in the morning, but at least it made my walk quicker.
You'd think they'd have more security after the Changeling attacks. I thought as I came to the dungeon's doors, which was guarded by a fully armored and completely asleep guard. Wow. I thought as I quietly opened the door and walked into the dungeon. There were no guards actually in the dungeon, just three sleeping Changelings.
As I walked up to Gezähnt's cell I noticed that Hofnarr for once wasn't talking. I'm amazed he doesn't talk in his--
"Stop right there... criminal... gum..." Hofnarr mumbled.
Never mind. I thought as I rolled my eyes and turned to Gezähnt. He was sleeping on his side with his back facing the cell door and without his blanket covering him. "Gezähnt." I whispered. Gezähnt didn't react, so I used the light spell to shine light onto Gezähnt's head, causing him to groan and sit up as I canceled the spell.
"Whoever you are, you're going to die for that..." Gezähnt said as he rubbed his eyes and looked at me. "I'm not sure if it being you makes this better or worse. What do you want?" He said as he walked up to the bars and sat down.
"There's something we need to talk about." I told him as I also sat down.
"I'm getting tired of these little talks of ours, because they never go anywhere but to an argument."
"This time's different. I want to talk about a flashback I had." I said as Gezähnt looked around the dungeon.
"What time is it?" Gezähnt asked.
"About five in the morning." Gezähnt growled pretty loudly when he heard that.
"Why? Why did this conversation have to take place this early?" He said as he leaned closer to me with a very unhappy look on his face.
"Because the first flashback woke me up at about four sixteen, and when I tried to go back to sleep I got another one that woke me up about fifteen minutes ago."
"So because you can't sleep you decided neither can I?"
"I don't think my brain will let me sleep until I get some answers, and you're the only one who might have them."
"Arg, fine. What were these damn flashbacks about?" Gezähnt said as he facehoofed.
"I was imprisoned and tortured by Griffins." Gezähnt's ears fell and he looked to the floor when he heard that. "And the other flashback is after that, and we were in a bar of some kind. I--"
"You've said enough for me to know what you remembered. But I must ask, you told me at that bar that you never even wanted to think about that event again, so are you sure you want to be digging up things you've tried to forget in the past?" Gezähnt said as his gaze slowly met mine again.
"My flashbacks won't let it go, so I'm hoping that learning what happened will make it stop." I explained as Gezähnt sighed.
"Before you ask a question, ask yourself if you're ready for the answer. But it seems you think you are, so fine. The Councilor was there for your torture, correct?" He asked and I nodded. "That Councilor was a Griffin Imperial Diplomat. He was pushing the Council to a possible alliance with Equestria in the interests of 'benefiting both nations.' Normally we don't care about the politics of non-Changeling kingdoms, but this was two months before the invasion of Canterlot was supposed to be enacted, and if the Councilor's plan to ally with Equestria had been made, then the Griffins would undoubtedly come to Equestria's aid, and that was a war we would not have won, so naturally this member of the council had to be eliminated."
"One of our most ingenious minds, Lieutenant Klinge, came up with a plan that would; kill the councilor, gain valuable resources, and make it look like we had nothing to do with it. Klinge's plan was quick and masterful. Fake an assassination attempt on a different Councilor, then while the Diplomat was detracted with the assassin, you in this case, other Changelings would slip into his home, capture his family, and inform you via Hive Mind, and then you reveal the false plan to the Councilor. I was in charge of the captives, you were the assassin, and Klinge over saw everything personally. The false plan you revealed to them was that we had captured his family for ransom and if he didn't bring you and five-thousand bits to us, we would suck his family dry."
"We weren't surprised when the Councilor brought a small brigade with him. They 'peacefully' exchanged you and the currency for his family, but when they turned their backs Klinge ordered an open fire on the convoy. The Griffins put up an amusing fight, but our magic gave us the edge. We killed the Councilor, his convoy... And his family." My jaw dropped when I heard that.
"Klinge said later that the risk of loose ends were too great and needed to be dealt with. The mission was a complete success; we killed the target, got the coin, and pinned it all on a band of Changeling renegades, which Queen Chrysalis had put on wanted posters a few days earlier to correspond with Klinge's plan. That memory of us at the bar was about a week after those bandits had been publicly executed by the Griffins. Now do you see why you wanted to forget? Because of Klinge's orders four children and a woman died unnecessarily, and the guilt you felt for letting it happen ate you from the inside out. And now you once again hold the burden of knowing what we do for our own good."
I was stunned by what Gezähnt told me. Were we really so cold as to kill four children? I couldn't begin to describe how I felt about this. "How... How could we do something like that? Did anyone tell the Queen about that? something must have been done." I said as Gezähnt shook his head.
"The Queen was told every detail of what had happened... Klinge was given a medal and was praised for his dedication to the well-being of the Hive. So you see, 'Fragment,' in The Hive we judge good and bad outcomes by how much The Hive benefited as a whole, and we gained not only simple coin for trading, but the security that our plan wouldn't have undesired occurrences with another army." Gezähnt explained in such a deadpan way, it made me so mad that he could say we do all of this like it was fine or acceptable. I almost slammed my hooves against the bars of Gezähnt's cell in outrage, but managed to stop myself. I really didn't want to explain to a guard why I was talking to a Changeling prisoner at five in the morning.
"How... I can't even... Why?" I was so stunned and angry by this that I couldn't even form a sentence. We killed four children, there's nothing I can say about that. How could we do something like that? Did we actually think that children would be able to tell them that it was a conspiracy to prevent an alliance between the griffins and the Equestrians? They would have just watched their Father get murdered and would likely be traumatized by the ordeal. "How could we be so cruel?"
"Somehow I don't think getting the answers you're looking for will help you sleep tonight. Don't say I didn't warn you." Gezähnt said as he got up and began walking back to his bed. I had to take my mind off of what I just learned, so I asked the only other thing I could that might make sleeping easier. Might.
"In my flashback... you referred to me as 'Dun.' Is that my name?" I asked as Gezähnt peered over his shoulder at me.
"Dun was your nickname." Gezähnt said as he crawled back into bed. "And if you ever wake me up this early again, I will do everything in my power to kill you." After that, I slowly made my way out of the Dungeon. I gently pushed the doors open and walked back to my room where I planned to try my best to forget what I just learned...
I felt exhausted as my eyes opened. I had barely gotten any sleep and my mind was still plagued by thoughts about those flashbacks and what Gezähnt told me. I really shouldn't have asked about those flashbacks. Do we really just not care about anyone but ourselves? I don't want to believe any of it, but I can't deny the facts. I can't even deny that me and Gezähnt were friends anymore. I really don't want to believe it but it's ignorant to act like it's not true. But I shouldn't be thinking about this so much, because there's nothing I can do about it now. No matter how much I hate what we did no one can change it. I need to let it go.
I thought to myself as I slowly got out of bed. I rubbed my eyes and looked at the clock, I saw that it was seven twenty-one A.M. I wish I could have slept more. I thought with a groan as I Walked over to the door and opened it slowly. As I walked out into the hallway I saw Striker heading towards my room.
"Fragment? You're up early." Striker said as he walked up to me.
"You don't know the half of it…” I said as I yawned.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't want to talk about it." I replied as Striker raised a brow at me.
"Whatever." Striker said as he rolled his eyes and put on a small smile. "Well anyways, we have sometime before breakfast is ready so if you want to practice some more combat we could."
"We have nothing better to do, so let's do it." I said as we began heading for the training room. I hoped that training would help me forget about my flashbacks, and I was looking forward to learning something useful again, which helped me shake some of the tiredness.
"So how long have you been up?" Striker asked.
"Since four sixteen." Striker's eye widened when he heard that. "I had trouble sleeping."
"Why? Or is that what you don't want to talk about?" I didn't reply. "I'll take the hint and not push it."
"Thanks. So where do we start?" I asked as we entered the training room.
"We start with actually practicing those counter attacks I showed you yesterday." Striker said as we reached the center of the room. "Let's begin with that Evade Kick move." The Evade Kick is a pretty straightforward move, and like all the other moves Striker showed me, it was meant to be used in melee combat, not against magic. The idea of this move is that your opponent either charges or lunges at you, and you wait for the last possible moment to duck to one side or the other, and then kick one of their hind legs, knocking them off balance and dealing a good amount of damage to the limb.
"So are we just going to practice the motions again or we going to actually try them?" I asked.
"For now, we'll just go through the motions. After we've both had something to eat we can actually try them. Now, I'm sure you remember how to execute the Evade Kick, but can you execute it on the proper timing? That's what we're going to find out. What I want you to do is on my mark, duck and roll diagonally to your left and buck your hind right leg at where whoever you're fighting would be." Striker explained.
"Sounds easy enough." I said as I got up and stretched my limbs.
"This is just a warm up. After breakfast you're going to try it on me. Along with a few other moves."
"Wait, you want me… to fight you?" I was quite confused by this plan.
"Not a real fight, but yeah. It adds to the realism to give you better training than practicing on nothing. I'd just use dummies if it'd work, but dummies are more for target practice with magic and stuff. Now lets get back to work. On my mark, duck forward left, then buck with back right leg." Striker said as I took a battle stance, with my right foreleg drawn back and with my head lowered as I listened for Striker's command. Striker seemed to be testing my patience, because it had been more than ten seconds and I hadn't heard anything from Striker.
"NOW!" He finally shouted, and I almost instantly rolled to the forward left and as soon as I was back on my hooves I bucked at where my enemy would be. I bet it looked kind of stupid doing that with no obvious target, but I looked back to Striker for confirmation on how good I did. "Not bad for your first practice try, but you need to work on your stability. You didn't recover from your roll fast enough to give a good kick when you tried, so that's something we'll need to work on. Also that roll itself was kind of sloppy. You need to really put your weight into it to roll quickly and effectively." Striker reviewed as I listened.
"Regain stability quickly and put weight into the roll. Got it." I said as I walked back beside him and prepared to try again.
"On my mark... NOW!" We practiced the Evade Kick for about half an hour before Blast Shield told us breakfast was ready. As we walked to the dinning room Striker and Blast Shield talked, and as they did I couldn't stop my mind from drifting back to those memories of the torture and the bar.
I still can't wrap my head around the fact that we killed four children and someone's wife as some kind of safety measure. We planned to frame some Changeling bandits anyway, and it's not like those Griffins would've been able to pick us out of a crowd, so killing them was completely unnecessary and cruel. As I thought about it I felt pain building in my head. I shook my head and tried to think about something else, but my vision had already darkened and I was starting to feel lightheaded. I stopped walking and brought a hoof to my head in an attempt to ease my pain, though it didn't work.
"You okay Fragment?" Striker asked as he and Blast Shield stopped.
"I will be." I said as I tried to refocus my vision. "Let's keep moving." I said as we started walking again. Then, my vision faded...
My vision returned, with me in an entirely different area. Instead of the castle's hallway, I was standing outside of a wooden door. I was wearing dark blue armor and held a helmet of the same color with my right foreleg. It was a cloudless sunny day, it was kind of hot but there was a cooling breeze that kept the heat from being an issue. I was smiling brightly as I switched from holding the helmet with my hoof to my magic and knocked on the door.
"Käfer, could you get that please?" A female voice asked as another voice replied "Yes, mom!" I waited patiently as the sound of hooves got closer to the door. I leaned down so my head was only about two feet off the ground. When the door opened a few seconds later, it revealed a small average looking Changeling, whose face lit up when he saw me.
"Da―" He almost shouted as I covered his mouth with a hoof.
"Shhh. Let's surprise your Mother." I said to him as he nodded his head excitedly. "Where's Hornisse?" Before Käfer could answer, his mom called again.
"Käfer, who is it?" She asked.
"Uh, it's just the mail." He replied as we walked into the house. The house wasn't anything special, it had a living room that had a couch, two wooden chairs, a coffee table, and a small bookshelf with three shelves that each held roughly fifteen books. "This way." Käfer whispered as he lead me further into the house.
As we walked quietly down the hall, I looked around, seeing a few pictures in frames hanging on the walls. Most of the pictures were of two young changelings playing together, one of them being Käfer, who was slightly smaller than the other. One picture I saw was of the same two changelings with two larger changelings standing behind them. One of them I recognized as myself, and the other changeling was nuzzling my neck as she looked into the camera with a smile. She had very dark blue eyes compared to mine.
As we passed a closet, we came to a door that was slightly open, and Käfer slowly pushed it in showing another small changeling sitting in the middle of a bedroom. There was one unmade bed with a blanket, a sheet, and two pillows. There was one window that looked out to the street and there was a closet that wasn't shut properly because of a few wooden toys that blocked it. there were a few toys in the room that weren't in the closet, and there were two books next to the changeling, one of which had a bookmark in it. The changeling in the room, who I figured was Hornisse, was holding a small black ball, which looked like it was made of glass, with a black eight in a white circle on it.
"Does Tulpe like me?" Hornisse asked as he shook the ball. Once he stopped shaking the ball he looked at it as me and Käfer tip-hoofed closer so we could see what the ball said. After a moment, the words "Ask again later" appeared. "Stupid ball." Hornisse mumbled as he rolled that ball away.
"I told you those things were a waste of time, didn't I?" I said as Hornisse spun around and instantly smiled upon seeing me, but before he could say anything that might ruin the surprise, I shushed him and motioned him to follow. Käfer lead us to the kitchen where there was a changeling washing some glass dishes as she hummed to herself.
"So who thinks we should go out to eat tonight?" I asked as the other changeling jumped a little and turned around. When she faced me her dark blue eyes lit up with joy as she walked towards me with a smile.
"Hello, honey." She said as she wrapped her forelegs around my neck and pulled me into a deep and passionate kiss that I happily returned.
"Ewwwww…” Käfer said as Hornisse rolled his eyes at us.
"Good to see you too, Saphir." I said as we broke the kiss. She pulled me into a hug that Hornisse and Käfer joined in on. As my vision began to fade again, I heard Käfer's voice say:
"We're happy you're home, Daddy."
My vision slowly returned to reality as I rubbed my head, then I noticed I was still walking with Striker and Blast Shield with the dining room in sight, which meant I did not pass out like the other times.
"I don't know." Striker said to Blast Shield. "He told me he woke up at four this morning, so he might just be tired."
"Why was he awake so early?" Blast Shield asked and Striker shrugged.
"He doesn't want to talk about it, but if I had to guess I'd say it was something that jerk changeling what's-his-face said." Striker said as he opened the door to the dinning room. The table had all kinds of assorted fruits and vegetables on it. Princess Celestia and Prince Blue blood were already sitting at the table and eating when we got there.
"Good morning." Princess Celestia said as we bowed and then took our seats. "Are you alright, Fragment? You look exhausted." She said as Striker and Blast Shield looked at her then to me.
"I, uh, had trouble sleeping last night." I said simply and then took a bite out of an apple, hoping she wouldn't pry too much about why. Princess Celestia seemed to think I was hiding something, but didn't ask about it.
"Maybe you should go to bed sooner." She replied as she took bite of her food. "So Striker is teaching you how to fight?" Princess Celestia asked.
"Yes. We decided that since I'm going to be a Treasure Hunter I'm going to need to know how to fight by non-magical means. If I was relying on just my magic I'd be in a lot a trouble in a fight." I explained. "Hey, as long as were on the subject of my training..."
"No, I haven't found you a new magic teacher yet. These things take time, Fragment." She said as she took a sip of tea.
"That's good to know, but that's not what I was going to ask." I regained Princess Celestia's attention with that. "I want to know what we're going to do for flying and shapeshifting. Are you going to teach me those things or will you hire someone to teach me?" I asked.
"I think I know somepony who could teach you how to fly, but I'll have to speak to her before I can say for certain. And as far as shapeshifting goes, I think the two of us will have to try figuring it out together."
"I hope it won't be too difficult to figure out how to do either of those." I said as we continued eat. Breakfast was quiet after that, which helped let my mind force itself to think my most recent flashbacks. I couldn't stop thinking about those flashbacks no matter how hard I tried or how badly I wanted to. As if just knowing that I have a family wasn't enough to bother me, I was getting flashbacks that were telling me about them, which made the emotional influence on me stronger. I tried to stop thinking about my family by thinking about my training, but I would still think about my memories from time to time as I ate. After about ten minutes, we finished eating and me and Striker headed back to the training room with Blast Shield following.
"So what are we going to do next?" I asked as we walked.
"First, we're going to try something more offensive, then we're going to give the Evade Kick a real try." Striker replied.
"I'll try not to hurt you too much." I said as we chuckled. After a few minutes we reached the training room.
"So as I said, now I'm going to show you an attack, we'll practice it a few times, then we'll have a practice fight to see how well you've learned what I've showed." Striker said as we walked to the center of the room and Blast Shield stood by the door.
"This move I'm going to teach you is really good for knocking your opponent off balance or disarming them, which also gives you a good opportunity to get in another hit before they're ready to defend themselves. This move is called the 'Crutch Knock.' using the word 'crutch' as a reference to a weapon or something that's generally relied on in a fight, and you're 'knocking' it away from them." Striker explained.
"Now unlike the Evade Kick, this you can't just do to the open air, you're going to try to knock me off balance while I basically try to beat you senseless in order for me to really tell if you're doing it right."
"Wonderful. So how do I use the 'Crutch Knock' aggressively? It sounds more like a defensive move to me."
"You use it aggressively by taking the initiative and striking first. This move is a two step attack, the first part being attempting to hit their head, which opponents usually try to block, then you attack the limb that's holding the weapon by hitting a joint." Striker explained as he walked over to one of the dummies and took a wooden sword from one of them with his mouth, then he walked back over to me and placed the sword in his right hoof.
"Now, you're going to try to hit me, then try to disarm me. If you can do it in five seconds you'll have done it at average time. And in case you're thinking it, no I'm not going to make this easy by just standing here doing nothing, I will attempt to counter attack. Try to read my moves and find a opening."
"Let's see if I can do this." I said as we both took a fighting stance and Striker took a few steps back. It didn't take me long to make my move.
I charged at Striker at full speed, and when I was only about three feet away from him I changed course so that I was more to his right than in front of him, then I turned and punched at Striker's head with my left hoof, which he blocked with the sword, then Striker slashed at my chest with the sword, scratching it a little. Not enough to cause bleeding because it was a wooden sword, but enough that you could see were it made contact.
As Striker's sword finished passing, I struck his ankle causing him to grunt from the pain, but he quickly recovered and tried again to hit me with the sword, this time aiming for my left foreleg and hitting it between the ankle and knee, I could feel that Striker had restrained himself so he wouldn't hurt me too much, but it still hurt. I tried to ignore the pain and once again hit Striker's ankle, and this time the wooden sword came out of his grip, and with that the practice fight was over.
"So… how'd I do?" I asked as I examined my leg for injuries.
"Well, it was pretty clever to switch from front to side like that, but you weren't very good at the actual disarming, which was the point. It didn't seem like you tried to read my moves at all, which would've help you a lot. So that's something we'll have to work on. Other than that you did good. Now, are you ready to try again?"
"Bring it." I replied with a smile. We practiced both the Crutch Knock and the Evade Kick for awhile until a butler told us that lunch was ready. Me, Striker, and Blast Shield made our way to the dining room, this time neither Princess Celestia nor Prince Blueblood were there. Lunch was rather short and uneventful and we were done eating quickly, and with that out of the way, we headed back to the training room for me and Striker's practice fight.
"So everything I've taught you so far is truly going to be put to the test this time. Do you think you're ready?"
"No but I think it'll be fun regardless." I said as we walked into the training room.
"Let's see if you can hold your own." Striker said as I took my place on one side of the room and Striker on the other. There was no way I could win this fight since Striker had a lot more training and experience than me, but I was determined to try my best. We took a fighting stance and waited for the other to make the first move. For almost thirty seconds we just stood staring at the other, then, we charged at the other simultaneously, as if we read the other's mind. We were closing in on the other fast ready to fight, then we heard a loud whistle and we both grinded to a halt and turned to see who the whistler was. We saw a black Pegasus with a dark green and white mane and tail and was wearing standard gold armor.
"What in sweet Celestia's name do you two think you're doing?!" He sounded like he was angry, but I could smell that he wasn't, though Striker and Blast Shield seemed very uncomfortable with him.
"I, uh, we, Sir―" Striker stuttered as he was cut out by this guard.
"Dammit, Striker, do you think I give two sweaty shits about what you're doing? The shipment of new upgraded refined steel plate armor is here and all guards are getting them. You two need to get down to the barracks and get your own armor." The guard said as Blast Shield and Striker relaxed a little.
"Yes, Sir!" Striker and Blast Shield said as they started walking away with the other guard. "What are you going to do, Fragment?" Striker asked as he stopped in the doorway.
"I guess I'll take this opportunity to finally write back to Pinkie Pie." I said as I started walking to the doorway. "So I guess I'll see you later." I said as Striker nodded and ran to catch up to the others. I thought about what I would tell Pinkie Pie as I walked back to my room. I was happy to be communicating with Pinkie Pie and maybe the others again, and I was wondering how everypony was after the changeling attack. I was sure that the second attack did nothing to make me look better in Rainbow Dash and Applejack's eyes, especially in Applejack's considering the fact that her sister had been foalnapped. Hopefully I could find a way to prove I'm not like Chrysalis' changelings. After a few minutes I finally reached my room and walked into it. As I walked over to my bed I picked up the bag of writing supplies with my magic and set it on my bed. I crawled onto the bed and took a quill, scroll, and an inkwell out of the bag, then I put the bag back on the floor next to the bed. I carefully opened the inkwell, unrolled the scroll, dipped the quill into the the ink, and began writing.
Dear Pinkie Pie
Sorry it's taken so long for me to reply to your letter, but things have been pretty hectic around here lately. I'm sure you've heard about the giant Cockatrice attack on Canterlot. Speaking, or writing in this case, of attacks on Equestria, I heard about the attack on Ponyville by the Changelings. The three Changelings involved with the attack that you and the others captured were brought here for questioning, which was very unsuccessful. After Shining Armor and a Night Guard by the name of Sinistar tried to interrogate them and failed, I offered to try, thinking that maybe they'd cooperate with me because I'm a Changeling as well, but that plan fell apart quickly as the Changeling I tried to talk to used the 'Hive Mind' to try to speak to me mentally, which only affected me by causing extreme pain.
This Changeling, 'Gezähnt,' refused to talk to ponies and would only talk to me if we were alone. I think he really hates ponies. My conversation with him was the most unpleasant conversation I can remember. He tried to convince me that the Princesses and everypony else was trying to trick me so they could use me against the Changelings. I almost punched him because of it. But as if him trying to make me turn against the Equestrians wasn't enough, just as I was leaving he claimed that I have a family in the Changeling Kingdom.
I don't know how I feel about that. At first I denied it and said Gezähnt was lying, but I've since had flashbacks that show that he was telling the truth. Somewhere I have a wife and two sons who think I'm either dead or missing and I don't know what to do about it. I'm going to change the subject because I don't know what to do or how to feel about my family other than hope they're doing okay without me. So besides those Changelings things around here have been fine. I'm learning a good amount of magic and Princess Celestia told me that once we think I have learned all I need to from her, she will teach me how to fly. Well, she said she has somepony in mind who could teach me to fly but she hasn't told me who that is yet. That's basically all I have to say for now, and I think I'll visit you in Ponyville after I'm done learning here. Tell the others I said hi.
Sincerely, Fragment.
P.S Could you send me another mint cupcake? Those things are really good.
As I finished the letter I put the cork back in the inkwell then began going over the letter for a few minutes for spelling errors and other things. After about ten minutes of going over the letter I decided it was fine and rolled up the scroll. I put the ink and quill back in the bag and got off of the bed, but before I could take another step, I heard some kind of pulse. I looked out the window and saw what I quickly identified as Shining Armor's forcefield had just passed my window. What in Tartarus? I thought as I walked over to the window and saw that only the castle was within the forcefield. Before I could question any further the door to my room swung open. I turned around and saw two guards I hadn't seen before. One of them was a white Unicorn and the other was a dark grey Pegasus.
"Captain Shining Armor wants to see you right away." The Pegasus guard said.
"Why? What's going on?" I asked as I walked over to them and they began leading the way.
"The Changelings have escaped."