//------------------------------// // An Epic Training Session. // Story: Twin Blades // by Craigulus Twinblade //------------------------------// He woke up from another nightmare. The one thing that crossed his mind went a little something like this: "Thank God. Now I can just calm myself down with breakfast." Snatching the sheathed blades off the counter and equipping them on his back, he wandered into the hallway to go to the kitchen where they had been preparing him breakfast. To Craigulus, it was a pretty sweet deal to have this sort of hospitality. As he approached the kitchen, he could smell the pancakes being cooked on the stove. The aroma was intoxicating and his tired self woke up a little the more he could sniff the breakfast. Opening the door to the foyer, he just couldn't stand it anymore. Beginning to walk faster, he easily found where the dining hall was and he burst through the entrance to see an extremely long table. The princesses had been sitting at the head of the table while his other friends were sitting across from each other on the ruler's side of the table. Smiling, he grabbed a chair next to Rainbow Dash. Everyone noticed his presence and Celestia was the first to speak to him. "Good morning, my subject! How was your rest?" she joyfully asked. "Well, I think I had more nightmares. Aside from that though, It was good." Craig smiled at the end of the sentence. Luna sipped her tea and let out a small breath as she put it back on the saucer. "Today in your training, I will be teaching you how to channel magic through your blades as well as gather the energy that helps you use it. After that, you will be boarding the train back to Ponyville tonight with your friends to practice what you have learned. You will return to Canterlot once a week for additional training instructions." Luna informed the warrior. Craigulus enjoyed that plan because not only will he have time to meditate on his teachings and the memories within the swords, but he will have some fun with the citizens of Ponyville as well! "Seems legit." Craigulus quickly answered back to Luna. Before Luna could ask what 'seems legit' meant, the kitchen workers came out with the food. Craigulus took a gander at the food and it was everything he loved at breakfast. Fruits, pancakes, sausages, eggs, and everything in between seemed to be handed to them on a silver platter. Literally. "Oh boy! Craigulus, doesn't this look amazi-" Craig rose his palm toward a certain pink pony. "Pinkie Pie, i'm sorry but it's way too early. Please try to be a little quieter, okay?" Pinkie Pie made herself smaller and spoke in a whisper. "Okay." The rest of the meal was quiet. Everyone silently enjoyed their meal which was an all-you-can-eat affair. After 15 minutes of eating, Luna spoke to Craigulus. "So, are you ready to learn more about the magic of Equestria?" "Heck yea!" Craigulus raised his voice enthusiastically. They lifted themselves from their seats and entered the foyer. With a turn to the right, they opened the door to an empty, closed off courtyard. The courtyard was never open to the public this early so that left tons of room for training. Craigulus stopped to take a whiff of the clean Canterlot air. "First off, let's see what you already know." Craigulus nodded and smiled a cocky smile. He unsheathed his blade and cut his right arm with it. Thus, letting out a small grunt at the sting of the wound. Luna gasped as her eyes widened. "What are you doing!?!?" She raised her voice. Craigulus then raised his left arm and placed his hand over the wound. His hand began to glow yellow as he aggressively brushed his hand down the cut. To Luna's surprise, the injury was gone! "You posses healing magic? Nobody in Equestrian history has been able to pull that off! Only Galaxia knew how to do that, but she wasn't even good at it!." Luna stopped herself and smiled whilst talking to herself. "You truly are special, Craigulus." she began to blush. Craigulus put his blade back into the scabbard and clenched his fists tight. Immediately, orbs of raw magic expanded within his fists, thus spreading his fingers apart from one another. He vigorously launched orbs of energy out of his hands which exploded on impact with the ground. Luna admired his natural skill in the art of magic. "It appears you have already learned how to use some magic. That is an absolutely great start! One thing you should know is the art of gathering energy. When you use magic, you begin to drain your energy levels and as that happens your spells become weaker and weaker. Your energy naturally comes back over time, but in battle it is quicker to do forced energy collection. To do this, you must focus solely on your own energy and flex every muscle in your body. Try this out for yourself." The more Craig listened to this, the more he kept on thinking about Dragonball Z. So, he got into the mood and began focusing on his energy levels. Standing in the way Goku did, he flexed every muscle in his body and to his misfortune it wasn't as easy as he thought it would be. Luna cheered him on. "Come on! I know you can do it! The first try is tough for every pony but after that you can easily do it again, and again, and again! Power up Craigulus!" As time went on, the human began to feel a strange warmth crawl through his body. It coursed through his veins from his heart to the rest of his body and before long, a dark blue aura that appeared similar to Luna's mane exploded into existence around him. Luna began to think to herself. "So his first eclipse magic will be Lunar magic. That's something I can work with." She smiled on the outside as she watched Craigulus. Clouds began to roll in seemingly out of nowhere and they slowly began to circle around the sky as the wind became slightly more violent. Luna became confused, this never happened to any being who merely powered up normally. Craigulus began to be lifted into the sky and he began to look around, he developed a look of concern on his face. "Luna? Should I stop? Am I doing something wrong?" Luna didn't know how to respond, she became so confused at the developing situation and just before telling him to stop, Celestia and the bearers of harmony burst out of the gate. "Craigulus! Keep focusing! Don't let anything distract you and just keep powering up your magic!" Celestia yelled toward Craigulus. Giving a thumbs up, he continued his training. Developing more and more power began to feel stressful to the human who was not yet used to the ways of magic. It felt so good to feel so powerful though and, after awhile it began to hurt. Craigulus let out a series of loud screams. The clouds began to flash with lightning and the wind had become so powerful that you would think a hurricane had begun. The ground had started to shake, but it wasn't enough to damage any buildings. Outside the courtyard, the citizens of Canterlot had taken to the streets to see what was happening. All the attention was on the human in the sky. Craigulus's pupils had disappeared as he began to glow brighter. Screaming and grunting even louder than before, he involuntarily unsheathed his blades and pointed them to the sky. A dark blue beam descended from the center of the swirling clouds and straight into the aura-covered swords. The colour of his cape turned to the colour of the aura and so did his hair. Dark blue aura swirled around him and he saw a vision of a wolf. The wolf was running through the forest, jumping over any obstacle in his way. It began to develop the colour of Luna's mane and as the wolf reached the top of a giant boulder, the animal howled towards the moon. The warrior, whom had snapped back to reality, noticed the energizing beam had been fully consumed. Feeling a sudden pain on his back, he turned his head as far back as it could go. To his surprise, the cape began to morph into something different. First, he saw that feathers started to appear on it. Next thing he knew they became attached to his shoulder blades. That hurt ALOT and Craigulus let out another ear-piercing scream. Twilight grew noticeably concerned on the ground below. "Celestia! I think he's going to cripple himself if he keeps doing what he's doing! Tell him to stop!" Twilight demanded from her fellow alicorn and former mentor. Celestia turned to Twilight and smiled proudly. "There is no need to fear Twilight. Right now, Craigulus is discovering the current extent of his power." Celestia reassured her ex-student. Twilight's eyes widened. She couldn't believe her eyes and ears because she had never seen any being generate so much magic before. Previously, she thought this was impossible. Luna explained even more, now that her thoughts were set back on track. "This is the pinnacle of the magic that I use which is called lunar magic. My sister uses solar magic in response to my magic. Only alicorns have their own brand of magic but this is something none of us can do." Luna turned toward the direction of Craigulus and looked at him. "This is what we call an eclipse form. Lunar eclipse form!" Luna proudly exclaimed. In the sky, Craigulus swiftly pointed his swords to either side of him and a bright flash of light occurred which temporarily blinded those staring at him. As the brightness faded, the lunar eclipsed human was revealed. Craigulus donned a subtle look of anger and his eyes glowed white. The hair on his body was similar to the colour of Luna and his wings were keeping him afloat. His armor barely changed. The shoulder armor donned spikes and it was emitting a blue haze but aside from that, it was all the same. He hovered there, motionless. "My subject, how do you feel?" Luna tilted her head in curiosity. Craigulus looked deep down inside of himself and answered as honestly as he could. "To be honest with you,-" Craig looked down on his friends and teachers. "Absolutely perfect!" Everyone stood in awe while Celestia and Luna looked at each other and smiled. They both knew that they had both just helped their student ascend to greater heights and they were proud of it. Rainbow dash broke the silence that was blanketed over Canterlot. "SO AWESOME!" she said in a high pitched voice. Shortly after breaking the silence Canterlot exploded into applause. Word had already spread through Equestria about a human in existence but no pony knew that it would be able to control magic. The crowd shouted various questions toward the human but Craigulus couldn't even hear them because of the overall volume of the crowd. They started chanting his name over and over again, as if he had already saved the world. The human rose his swords into the air and crossed them over his head. "We should probably tell him to avoid letting all this fame get to his head." Celestia became displeased at how her student was handling attention. "No, let him be cocky. He deserves it!" Luna began to giggle. Suddenly the crowd began screaming. Craigulus was confused as nothing had gone wrong around him. "WATCH OUT!!!!!" Luna screamed at the top of her lungs. "For wha-" *BOOM* Craigulus was hit by a massive fireball from his left side, thus smashing him into the ground below. Rage built inside him and he powered up once more. "What the hell just did that to me!?!?" Craigulus bellowed. "A big s-s-s-scary d-d-dragon!" Fluttershy squeaked. The eclipsed human looked to the sky and saw the black dragon circling around the sky, torching the various buildings and ponies that stood below him. The streets burst into panic and ponies were trampling each other just trying to hide inside their houses. Craigulus rose to his feet and he immediately burst into the sky, flying as fast as he could. Knowing that this was his time to prove his worth he prepared to attack. "Craig! Don't do this! Your not prepared to take on a dragon yet! I know you feel really powerful, but you don't even know how to maintain this power properly! Stop!!! Luna pleaded to him. Craigulus stopped and looked back at her. He smirked and began to talk in a deeper voice than normal. "Don't worry princess, I'm fireproof!" Craigulus began to laugh at his own joke and blasted toward the dragon who was still in a rampage. Flying by the dragon at top speed, he tried slicing him up with his swords. It wasn't the best way to kill it because every time the blades made contact with the scales, it would be like hitting a titanium wall. Even when he found the weakness was its soft underbelly, the dragon would just start evading him almost every time and that would continue for fifteen minutes . Craigulus grew tired of it so he sheathed his blades and created two energy orbs in his hand, then combining them to make a larger, more powerful bomb. Throwing it he screamed at the dragon to get his attention. "HEY! Big teeth! Try to fight me, I dare you too!" The dragon roared and breathed fire towards it's adversary, only to have the attack fail as the eclipsed one dodged it. "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!" The dragon roared. Craigulus began to use his magic instead of his swords because he really wanted to test his limits in this new body he had given himself. He threw dozens of his orbs at the dragon but that didn't seem very effective against him. There needs to be some way he can manipulate magic with his swords though. Craigulus didn't hear about how to do that as he was rather rudely interrupted by the large, fearsome creature. Deciding that he was more comfortable using his bare hands, he forgot about the blades. He charged up for another attack and as he was building up his magic, the dragon breathed fire toward him. Craigulus crossed his arms bracing for the inevitable but instead of being burned, the flames separated before hitting him. The dragon stopped to hover in place, surprised at the humans resistance to his fire. "Well, now I know how to use a magic shield." Craigulus thought to himself in relief. Craigulus heard a voice run through his head. Recognizing the voice, Craigulus responded. "Sir Canter, can you help me?" Craigulus asked aloud. "Yes, do you know how to use an energy beam?" The deceased general asked him. "No! Why is that important?" Craigulus wondered aloud. "It is a known fact that it is a dragon's biggest weakness! All you have to do is channel the energy you have gathered through your arms and just as it reaches your wrists,lay both your palms flat in front of you!" He instructed the bearer of his soul. Craigulus had become confused. How did a pony know how a human used magic? He grew skeptical. "How do you know how a human uses magic?" Craigulus asked the soul. "Long story! Just power up a little more and let that beam rip!" He yelled. Dark blue aura exploded around Craigulus once more. He had begun to scream due to the sheer amount of magic that he generated. His veins began to visibly show and the dragon dove down on him from above. Noticing the danger, the warrior dodged and continued pouring magic into his heart. The dragon slammed into the ground, but immediately got back up. The human felt that he was ready to send the dragon to it's death and capture his soul. Craigulus put his hands together and well, he just had to make a Dragonball Z reference. The inner nerd in him rejoiced! "KA-ME-" "What is he doing?" Luna looked completely lost "HA-ME-" Celestia didn't even know what was going on. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Craigulus unleashed the gigantic wave of magic down upon the dragon. The beam was Luna coloured and emitted a white haze. Upon impact the dragon screeched in agony as the beam began to rip the beast apart. It frantically flailed its arms and legs every which way as the beam crushed the beast in the Canterlot main street. The beam slowly died down, and so did the noise. Craigulus took a deep breath and unsheathed his blades. "Canter, how do I encase a soul within these blades?" Craigulus spoke calmly at this point. "Easy, all you have to do is point the swords toward your fallen adversary and the soul will be guided in." Sir Canter explained. Craigulus landed next to the dead dragon and unsheathed his blades. Instead of pointing them toward the dragon though, he pointed the swords skyward. Dead bodies were lying across the city and he wanted to make sure the souls could rest somewhere. As the ponies exited their houses, so did all of the souls. The souls were beautiful, as they seemed to travel through the air ever so gracefully while leaving a faint, white trail behind it. As they entered the blades, a wave of sadness entered the fortress-city. Mares and colts alike had began weeping as their loved ones had been killed. Celestia and Luna began to weep as well as they trotted next to Craigulus. Letting his lunar eclipse form subside, he sheathed his twin blades and put his arms around Celestia and Luna. "Did I do good?" The hero asked somberly. Celestia spoke up as she cried. "Yes you did, student. You did much better than expected." The rest of the day was uneventful aside from learning how to channel magic through the swords. All you have to do is imagine that the weapons are part of your arm. Nothing that special really. Galaxia looked through the universal mirror. Watching as Craigulus packed his belongings in preparation for the trip back to Ponyville. Griffthor entered her presence and looked through the mirror. "The hero has arrived in my daughter's kingdom. I must say, he really does learn magic rather quickly!" The god of the griffon race began to smile. "That human is going to be quite the story once his destiny is fulfilled, eh?" The griffon laughed as he took a huge bite of the boar meat that lied in his arms. Galaxia looked down to to the stone floor. "I just hope he truly can defeat the God King, for he is almost finished gathering the un-dead centaurs and alicorns to his banner." The griffon, with his mighty orange beard, laughed at Galaxia's worrying. "Oh come on, he is the legendary human! There is no way he can possib-" "HERO'S HAVE FAILED BEFORE!" Galaxia's shout caused two lightning strikes to pummel Mount Haven. "I do not want the same thing to happen to him as Sir Canter." Galaxia's tone grew saddened at the thought of the failure of Sir Canter. He was never meant to perish in the fight against Discord, whom has now embraced the magic of friendship. "Oh yea, that's true. You know what? I don't understand why you didn't just destroy the centaur's evil soul when you had the chance. Did you even know what you were doing?" Griffthor wondered. "Just because we are gods, doesn't mean we know what the future holds. We can manipulate what we want it to be but that doesn't mean we can't make mistakes while doing so. I didn't know the way souls work back then, with one part of a soul being good and the other part being evil." The Queen of the Universe grew impatient with the griffon. Griffthor simply left the room while grunting in annoyance. Galaxia ignored him and kept looking into the mirror. "Whatever happens on your journey, I hope that you end up being the victor Craigulus." As he finished packing, he began hearing a melody from down the hall. Walking out of his room, he noticed it was coming from Luna's room which had the door slightly open. Craig sneaked down the hall ever so stealthily. Knowing he would be invading his teachers privacy, he prepared for the worst in the event of being caught. Graceful singing had been heard though, and it was the most beautiful thing to ever grace his ears since some of the music he heard back in Ponyville the first time he was there. Luna began to sing. Come Little Children, I'll Take Thee Away Into A Land Of Enchantment Come Little Children The Time's Come To Play Here In My Garden Of Shadows Goosebumps crawled along the skin of Equestria's newest hero. Follow Sweet Children, I'll Show Thee The Way Through All The Pain And The Sorrows Weep Not Poor Children For Life Is This Way Murdering Beauty And Passions Hush Now Dear Children, It Must Be This Way To Weary Of Life And Deceptions Rest Now My Children For Soon We'll Away into The Calm And The Quiet Come Little Children I'll Take Thee Away Into A Land Of Enchantment Come Little Children The Time's Come To Play Here In My Garden Of Shadows Craigulus just had to talk to her. He had never heard such a magnificent voice in his life. He knocked on the door and before he could say anything, Luna spoke up. "I know it's you, Craig. You may enter." Luna sounded depressed. Craigulus opened the door and embraced Luna. Beginning to speak, he looked into Luna's eyes. "Your voice is absolutely beautiful." The human began awkwardly. Luna began to smile, then blush. It wasn't often that she had time alone with someone she liked. "Thank you so much, you're so sweet." she complimented. After that, Craigulus released his teacher from the embrace and they stood there awkwardly for what seemed like five minutes. Craigulus decided to set things straight. "Luna, just so you know. I have a girlfriend back home and I don't really want to get in a relationship with an equine creature. You are a nice ruler, but I just can't see myself dating a pony. Sorry if i'm coming across as a jerk, but this is the only way I can avoid letting things get weird between us." Craigulus explained himself. The princess of the night nodded and fully understood him. "I knew you would catch on to my behavior. It's quite alright, my student. It would be quite strange for such different species to be in a relationship when you think about it." Luna chuckled. "Glad you understand. I would love to talk more at the moment, but I have a train to catch." Craigulus ran to the doorway, stopped, turned his head back, and waved. "See ya next week!" The hero concluded, smiling. "Goodbye, my student." The truth was that Luna did not understand. Who would turn down the co-ruler of the most powerful country in the world? Her heart had been shattered that night. Luna was still madly in love with Craig. Craigulus made it to the station just minutes before departure. It wasn't a very busy train that night as it seemed his friends were the only passengers at the station that day. "Hey! Where have you been!? The train leaves in two minutes! We were worried sick!" A certain cyan pegasus pony lectured. Craigulus was annoyed and tired. He didn't want to hear about how he was late or anything so he just pushed Dash aside and hopped on the train. Following his lead, the bearers of harmony hopped on as well. The conductor yelled 'All aboard!' and the train left the station. The warrior was now deathly tired, so he shut his eyes, sunk into his chair, and slowly drifted off into his dreams. Hoping that Luna was truly alright.