A powerful beam smashed into the dirt next to me, reflecting of my shield. Even angling the shield to direct the power away from me, the impact of the spell drove me to the side and I turned it into a dive to the side.
Rolling to get away, I dropped the shield and returned fire with a simple telekinetic punch. Luna didn't even move, her magic simply flicked out and dissolved it before it got within two meters of her.
As she was distracted... well... for a degree of distraction at least... I got back onto my hooves and fired of a concussive blast at the area between us, throwing up a cloud of dust to limit her vision before I dodged to the side, anticipating her to return spell-fire as I fired off another two beams. One cutting and one piercing into the cloud of dust.
The dust quickly dissipated to reveal... nothing.
I barely had time to register it before something hit me hard from behind, sending me rolling across the dirt.
Hngg!
I just laid there, gasping and struggling to breath. Fucking hell, I felt like I had just been struck by a eighteen wheeler. My everything hurt.
I let out a small whimper of pain.
Luna pulled her punches. Of course she did, if she didn't the first one would turn me into a bloody puddle on the floor. But she didn't pull them any more than necessary to avoid permanent damage.
Sprains and bruises didn't count.
Fucking. Ow.
I felt more than heard something moving as Luna settled down next to me. She leaned down to nuzzle at my ear as her horn started to glow faintly and I felt my pain slowly drain away as her healing spell crawled across me, doing it's work, taking away the worst pain and started healing the bruises.
“Just because you can not yet teleport does not mean your opponent can not as well.” she chided me gently, “If fighting a magic user, you need to keep it in mind, Page.”
Groaning I struggled to roll to bring my legs beneath me, wincing as as muscles in my side protested , “Not... that easy.”
Luna smiled softly and shifted to lay with her side against mine, gently spreading her wing over my back, “No. I am well aware... and it is a rare skill to be able to gather the focus to teleport in the middle of battle. In my life I have personally known less than a thousand unicorns able to do it with any reliability. But it is still something to keep in mind.”
Nodding, I allowed myself to lean against her warm side, it had started to get cool outside, especially during the nights, “I... will try.”
She gave my ear a small nip with her teeth before nuzzling, “You are improving, Page. You are not a War Mage yet, but you might be at least of the rank of Apprentice.” she said before she sighed, “If they still existed that is.”
I frowned slightly in thought, “Luna... I can't help but notice that what you are teaching me seems to be completely different from what little I learned of guard training.”
Luna smiled at that, “That is because it is, My Page.”
“Huh?”
“What I'm teaching you is in some ways the opposite of what is taught to the Royal Guard.” Luna explained as I shifted to look up at her, “The Royal Guard is training in ways to protect ponies from threats and to contain and capture that threat.”
“And I'm not?” I asked and got tired of craning my neck to look up at her and rolled onto my back.
She grinned briefly and relaxed a bit more, looking down at me almost nose to nose, “What I am teaching you is more the arts of the old Unicorn War Mages.” she explained, “The purpose of this training is that I wish for you to be able to defend yourself, not others. Often the best way to do that is to remove the threat.”
“...Ah.”
That made a lot of sense.
“War Mage, huh?” I finally asked, looking up at her against the light of her moon. The training ground was lit up by torches in the corners, but most of it was only dimly lit.
Luna looked amused, shaking her head, “Not quite yet. As I said, at your current level of abilities you might barely rank as an apprentice. But for somebody without a cutiemark involving combat magic, you are doing quite well. You have only been training a couple months after all. I doubt you will ever be able to reach the level of a Master, very few do without a special talent for it or spending their lives perfecting it, but I do expect you to be able to at the very least be an Adept in a few years.”
“I don't feel like I'm improving.”
“Keep in mind who your opponent is.” She teased and folded her wings again, “You are doing quite well.”
More like feeling like a cats chew toy at times.
“...Speaking of which, do you have to put that much power into things?” I complained, reaching up to tap her nose with my hoof, “That last hit almost broke something.”
“It has worked to motivate you to improve so far, has it not?” Luna answered before she frowned, “But I do not wish to hurt you. I can adapt the training. This was the way I learned.”
Not like she wasn't healing the worst of the bruises when we were done. And really not wanting to get hit did motivate me to get the hell out of the way...and I trusted her to not hit me too hard.
Letting out a breath I shook my head, “No... if you think I am improving, it is clearly working.” I admitted, “I just have to get better at not being hit.”
Luna seemed relived for a moment before she relaxed against me, resting her head against my chest, “You remembered the trick with the shield.”
Putting my forelegs around her, I nodded, “I know better than trying to block one of your spells head on again. It's easier to redirect energy than trying to block it.” I said before I frowned in thought, “What was that thing you did that dissolved my spell?”
“I used my own magic to ground your spell.” She explained, “I would not advise you try it until you are more skilled. It requires quite a bit of precision and you only have one chance to get it right.”
“That was so cool though. You are so teaching me how to do that.”
That elicited a giggle from the princess and she raised her head, “When you are ready. Now though, I believe that we should get cleaned up. It's only a few hours until it is time to lower the moon.”
Nodding, I rolled onto my hooves and groaned as my side protested at the motion.
...Ow.
I love that you post to three places. So useful when the other are blocked.
Hells yes! War Mage (apprentice) Blank Page!!
You know that their is a pic of this coming!
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Hey Sipioc, your previous fanarts had Blank Page with yellow/blonde hair, how comes he's gotten it dyed black here?
6756387 the story originally called for his hair to be blonde, but when I originally did it I missed that part and did it black. Once I realized my mistake I did one correct.
Hiver them told me that he likes the black hair better.
What do you think?
6756531
Both good really ^_^ I suppose I'd just gotten used to seeing the blonde in my head whenever I reread it.
6756704 Both? I've done like four....img00.deviantart.net/0037/i/2015/261/c/6/your_not_nightmare_by_sipioc-d9a0x56.jpg
cdn-img.fimfiction.net/story/hfk1-1441011629-279271-full
pre03.deviantart.net/8a6b/th/pre/i/2015/246/5/8/page_and_luna_by_sipioc-d98aob2.jpg
6756756
Both, as in both blonde and black haired version look good. Totally not because It completely slipped my mind that those pieces had blank page with black hair, not blonde.
6756831 Hah! I see. Personally, I like the black best.
What do you hope to happen in the story?
Learning combat magic from the moon warden herself, nice.
6757021
Not sure. I haven't actually watched the cartoons and only know a few main things. I suppose I'm mostly looking forward to seeing the changelings be something other than monsters and maybe changeling army vs tirek or something.
6757353 That would be pretty Epic. From the start I have always pictured Page standing between a depowered Luna and Tirek, murder in his eyes as he holds his ground.
"I will KILL you if you touch her!"
In the description, I noticed this:
The two "is" remarks should be the word "are", since the subject is "you". Also, "changed" should be, ha, changed to "change".
img01.deviantart.net/90d7/i/2015/357/0/9/luna_s_training_by_sipioc-d9l6pfp.jpg
Training session
6763551 Luna looks really malicious in this picture...
6823565
I'd go with smug
6837179 6823565 6763551
Honestly i'm getting more a pervy 'I'm-gonna-do-dirty-things-with-you'/more of the Molestia 'and your consent matters not' sort of vibe. Sorta rapey.
Maybe that says more about me, but that's what I see in those eyes.
Or its just my knowledge of the two's relationship mixing with Luna's sorta evil look on her face (plus the fact that Page has obviously had the stuffing knocked out of him by Luna.)
6763551 Strikes me as a prepare for kink look...
6763551 Do you have a DeviantArt or something?
Piccolo: "Dodge!!!!!!"
Gohan: "What?"
Piccolo: Hand pointed at Gohan's face. 'BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!'
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9093162
in luna's defense it IS a time honored teaching technique, i believe the term is 'throwing the cub off a cliff' the cub either climbs back up or they die...its harsh, but if it does get results the results are typically massively impressive.
Ah good, no easy way out with the puppies!
War Mage?
...Is that an 'Orcs Must Die!' reference?
Mortal combat music playing in my head
Heheh... I know it doesn't fit this particular narrative, but I always considered battle mages to be more like siege weapons or artillery than anything else. You know how grenades go "Whomever it may concern"? Battle mages go "Dear grid coordinates..." :D
10963576
That is the most amusing ways someone has described grenades so far.
Also in theory, where would magic disperse to? I doubt it grounds like electricity, but couldn't one create a "sheet" of not-copper along the spell's path linked to wherever magic disperses to?
10963576
My personal favorite depiction was sword of truth. Where they were sort of, unpredictable demigods that even the war wizard THEMSELF couldn't fully control the power of. and how by the end of the series, despite accomplishing some of the most powerful magic ever the protagonist could barely make the most basic of spell circles "work"
Ah I got another metaphor of Blank Page a Blank cheque. He can do anything and can be good at it but he cannot be a master of a suject basically a jack of all trade. But he is much more proficient at wrinting and making story as that is what the literal meaning of his cutie mark.
"You are hitting too hard"
Git gud, scrub.
War mage Blank Page, I love the ring of it
Royal guard: sees trouble, protects civilians by herding them to a safe area & setting up a perimeter to contain/control the trouble.
War Mages: sees trouble, protects civilians by beating the trouble into a bloody pulp.
No pain no gain, especially wi5h tough love in sparring season with a goddess
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High offensive power is a great defense