Chapter Six
A single pair of stallions stood facing each other on the track field, which was now devoid of any tables or podiums. Only the natural grass of the field was there to grace their hooves. Surrounding them were their compatriots, watching with interest as Shining Armor spouted his monologue.
"When I blow the whistle, you will begin," he promptly stated. "Ready..."
The two armored guards took on their battle stances.
"Set..."
Their glares hardened, but like everyone else, they kept silent. In that brief moment, the tension could've been cut with a knife.
Then the whistle sounded, and the two ponies blitzed towards each-other with great force.
Shining Armor had to admit that the ensuing struggle between the two fighters was impressive, but he quickly confirmed that it was just as he had previously hypothesized. They were still trained in the old ways of Equestrian combat. Judging from these two, he could guess that the rest of guard would fight like they would as well.
Shining Armor had some work to do, but that was alright for him. He rather enjoyed this part of the job.
A stallion was thrown to the ground, while the other quickly pushed his advantage and followed up with a painful hold. It didn't take a genius to figure out the forelegs weren't supposed to bend that way. Some of the observing guards had even winced in ghostly pain.
After a bit of listening to the poor stallion's grunts of pain, Shining Armor stepped in. "Alright, that's enough. Dusty, release him." The cheers of the watching stallions died down as Dusty Ore complied. Walking back to join the crowd, the pained stallion rubbed his legs in an attempt to soothe his deescalating pain, and Dusty Ore sported a wide grin as he received praise from all who placed their bets on him.
"Well, wasn't that interesting?" Shining remarked out loud, earning a few murmurs of agreement among the crowd. "I certainly learned a lot from watching you two go at it. You all want to know what I gathered?"
Only eager silence met his ears.
"I learned that you scrubs need some serious work! What I just witnessed was barely passable!" he half-lied at them. Many bewildered looks met Shining's eyes, but he continued. "It seems that even combat techniques have changed in the past thousand years. Don't worry, I don't hold it against any of you. It just means it's time to run a lot more drills!"
Hushed whispers were passed in the sizable crowd. "We can't really be that bad, can we sir?" a curious voice among them demanded.
"There's a multitude of things that you all need improvement on, if that sparring match was anything to go off of. Outdated techniques, missed opportunities for well placed..." his voiced trailed off as an idea popped into his head. "You know what? How about rather than try to explain it, I show you?" He repositioned himself where Dusty Ore once stood in the ring. "Who would like to face off against me?"
Nopony immediately volunteered. It took a few seconds of the guards looking at each other expectantly before one did take up his offer and walked out of the surrounding crowd to face his captain. A few shouts of encouragement from his fellow guards helped to boost his morale.
Shining Armor regarded the tall ruby unicorn for a moment. Shining mentally admitted he was impressed by the size of this guard, but he knew it wouldn't help him in the end. "And your name is?"
"Coral, sir," he replied.
"Well Coral, come at me," Shining told him, getting into a battle stance of his own.
And like the obedient subordinate he was, Coral did just that and charged headfirst.
A confident Shining was ready for him, galloping to meet the unicorn halfway through his charge. Coral did not stop his sprint,as he was intent on delivering a lightning-fast hoof to Shining's face. To the surprise of the spectating guards, Shining ducked under Coral's jab faster than anypony thought was possible, and wrapped his forelegs around the outstretched hoof above him. Utilizing his incredible strength, Shining lifted Coral off of his hooves and threw him across the field.
Coral had been rendered a mess on the ground in less than ten seconds.
"Practice is over, Coral." Shining gleefully mocked with a chuckle. "Why don't you show me you're really made of?"
The stallion lifted himself off the ground, shaking his salmon mane out of his eyes. Looking at his surroundings, he realized that Shining Armor had tossed him right where he was originally standing. The fight may as well have not even started.
As he readied himself to engage his captain again, Coral wondered what he had gotten himself into.
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I don't know how long I sat there in the shade between the two buildings, just moping. It couldn't have been very long though, as the shadows had hardly moved since I sat down.
I'm if sure somebody else were here in my situation, they'd be able to find out where they were, or make a plan and follow through. They'd find out what the hell the story is behind this alien city, and find their way home with ease.
I really wish I could be that guy. I wanted to be that guy, but I just wasn't. That guy would be on his feet by now, looking for clues or whatever. That was the kind of guy she deserved. Not the one pathetically whimpering in a dark corner.
Every once in a while, I'd spy one of those shimmering pony things walking by. It only served to remind me of my current situation, and my wallowing would start all over again.
My hand rustled around in my pockets, searching for my cell phone. I figured that now that I'm inside this... weird bubble force field, maybe by some miracle it would grant me service. I had to pull out everything else in my pocket before I could get it out of there, and when I did I was not amused. Still no service.
"Yeah, great. Just fucking great." I ran a hand through my hair, taking a deep breath. I really didn't have a way out of this.
One by one, everything went back into my pockets. Phone, swiss army knife, gem that damn near impaled itself on my foot. I was doing it all subconsciously until I picked up my wallet. Instead of slipping it back in my pants, I opened it up. I needed a bit of relief. I needed to see her face.
I silently mulled over the small picture I pulled out. There was Janice, smiling back at me. Her short brown hair, her flawless skin, and her bright green eyes. The mere sight of her was so comforting to me that it managed to curl my lips as well.
I was pushed back onto my feet as I put the picture away. Maybe I really couldn't get out of here, but I wouldn't let it be said that I didn't try my damned hardest to get home. Because Janice deserved just that.
I couldn't give up. I had a wedding to get to.
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Shining Armor stood unscathed, and didn't even break a sweat. Coral was a collapsed wreck on the grass.
"Is this really all you troops have to offer? My little sister could probably fight better than this!" he fibbed as Coral managed to slowly pick himself up. "If this the way you all handle unarmed training, I can't imagine what your skills with weapons are like!" He badgered the guilty audience of guards. They all knew in the back of their minds that they wouldn't have fared much better against Shining than their compatriot.
"You all better brace yourselves, because we're gonna wail on each other! Get in formation!"
At his command, the surrounding crowd quickly transformed from an unorganized clump to five organized rows of ten. Shining gave a subtle smirk upon seeing Coral back on his feet as though he didn't just get the snot beaten out of him. Maybe these guards had more in them than Shining had initially guessed.
"Now, everypony! Starting with you," Shining pointed to the stallion in the front corner. "The guard to your right is now your enemy. Show me what you can do!"
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I decided to try and keep a low profile, as I was still not sure about these things being completely docile. So I kept to the shadows, wherever I could find them, and moved when hardly anyone was in sight or paying any attention. Where I was going, I had no idea. I just continued on forward in hopes that I would find something of interest.
Great plan, I know.
One thing I hadn't noticed about these aliens before was that every single one of them seems to have a tattoo right on their ass. No tattoo was the same, though. I saw images of gems, pillows, musical notes, elements, animals, and more. Sometimes it was hard to make out what the tattoo was depicting because their skin would shimmer in the sunlight so god-damned much.
What the actual fuck are these things? Why do they all have tattoos?
Boy, I wish those were the only questions on my mind. I could go on forever about this place and how I didn't understand anything about it. Why go through the trouble of living in the arctic if none of you can tolerate the cold temperature? I'd silently inquire. Why not just build your city somewhere else more habitable? Or maybe their entire world covered in snow?
I really needed to stop asking questions. It wasn't getting me anywhere. Speaking of getting anywhere, I didn't know where I currently was. I mean, it was kind of hard to get lost seeing as how there's a gigantic white spire in the center of the city, but everywhere in this city looked the same. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was the area of the city I had entered in.
"Wait..." Up ahead of me behind a couple crystal houses, I could see a large crowd of those pony creatures. What they were all doing over there was beyond me.
Now that I thought about it, most of the areas I had been in had been somewhat sparse in population. Maybe this was where they all went? But why? What was going on over there?
Ignoring the part of my brain telling me I'm not good at being stealthy, I strode up as quietly as I could and hid in between the two houses. What I saw caused my stomach to grumble in desire.
A market, mostly consisting of food.
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Everypony was beating the stuffing out of each other, and Shining was loving it.
With every match he passed by, he would call out something they were doing wrong, or give them both advice. He was flattered to see that some of them were even attempting to pull off some of the moves he had performed on Coral. Some were met with success, but most of them were off with their execution, and Shining reprimanded them for it.
He did so adore this part of the job. Training the guards to become better fighters was something he prided himself on.
Just when he was getting caught up in it all, a voice behind him sounded. "Captain."
Shining Armor turned to see a guard half a head shorter than he was, saluting and standing at attention. "Oh, hello. Aren't you supposed to be wailing on somepony else right now?" Shining asked.
"Yes. I called for a brief pause while I talked to you about a problem I encountered before I came to the guard's fitness training."
Shining raised an eyebrow. "A problem? You didn't think to report this earlier?"
"I never got the chance to. Besides, it isn't exactly urgent."
The exasperated captain sighed. "Well, you're here now. What is it?"
"I recently received a couple complaints from some of the locals, telling me about some sort of deformed bovine roaming the streets."
"First of all, minotaur, if you will," Shining clarified. "Second, what's wrong with a visitor to the Empire?"
"The citizens seem to believe that the bovi—" A hard glare from Shining forced the guard to rethink his wording. "Minotaur... will cause some sort of trouble."
Shining contemplate this information. A deformed minotaur? It sounded to him like the citizens were being a bit paranoid. And racist. But he couldn't very well ignore it in case it did turn out to be trouble. "Fine, I will deal with this." He finally said. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. You can return to your fight."
With a final salute, the guard ventured back to his enemy. Shining watched him for a short while before turning to his left, where two familiar guards were already going at it.
"Coral! Dusty! Front and center!" He barked at them.
The two stallions, wrestling each other on the grass, perked up upon hearing their captain call for them. They promptly released one another from their iron grips, and swiftly made their way to their intimidating captain.
"Sir!" they said in unison with a hoof raised to their foreheads.
Shining began his debriefing. "I have a task for you two..."
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God damn it! When you stop post filler chapters and start main action?
You should post more chapters, and update more frequently. Especially considering this chapter is only a little over two thousand words. You'd get even more attention then.
Additionally, there were a few sentences in here that randomly cut off, or something similar to that nature:
It just stops there. Anyway, keep writing.
3613680
Yeah no, you're right. I am guilty of doing this. Though I wouldn't call them "filler chapters" as they're needed for the plot, I do need to get to the main points now. Expect it within the next two chapters. (Which, since my classes are over with, will be out within a few days of eachother.)
3613691
I've got a lot of things goin' on in my life right now, and it doesn't help that I'm actually a very slow writer. I'd love to post 6,000 word chapters, but a much longer wait for each chapter would come with it. So, small periodic doses have been doing the trick for now. Maybe next chapter will be a lot longer? We'll see. Also, thanks for pointing out the error.
Thanks for your patience, guys. You're still the best.
Finals... *shudders*
Anyways I wish you would release chapters more often, I understand that Finals are a bitch but nothing much seems to happen in the chapters and the releases are so far apart.
3613946
Gonna pull a George R.R. Martin here and say that the real action is coming!
As I've told some others, now that I'm done with classes, my schedule has been freed up quite a bit. (Not completely, but still significantly.)
GAAAHHH! Fucking cliffhangers! I'd prefer a longer wait and a longer chapter more than this...
Makes me wonder how the good captain will react to our very out of Place human.
You don't wanna be the guy. Trust me.
Good question.
Spacing error
I imagine you meant to have the word “what” in there
Should be:
"Practice is over, Coral," Shining gleefully mocked with a chuckle.
"Fine, I will deal with this," he finally said.
"Coral! Dusty! Front and center!" he barked at them.
Be sure you're not capitalizing said tags, and be sure never to end a quote with a period when the quote is followed be a said tag. You make this mistake a lot.
You’re missing the word “is”
Forgot the word “is” again
Forgot to make the word “contemplate” past tense
You accidentally an "is".
Oh no...no, no no no no no. Shining, don't make this obvious mistake. Do NOT do this. They're all from a different time, they're all horribly racist without even taking issue with it because the minotaurs were their enemies in their time! Don't send them after the deformed minotaur! I know you're smarter than this!
3615523 lol that reference.
5568729
Welcome to the mentality of 21st-century governments when it comes to non-white people.
Don't wish to be that guy BE that guy, just be careful not to become that guy.
5568729
Thing is that they were not being racist by calling the minotaur bovines, minotaurs are bovines same way ponys are equines. Unless you saying it would be racist to call a pony equine.