Chapter Eight: Training Pt. 1
Chapter 8
You woke with the sun, cracking your eyes open as the celestial body made it's light known to the world yet again. You groaned slightly and sat up, stretching and yawning as your muscles woke themselves one by one. You exited out of your makeshift tent, and looked around at the area you and your companions decided to settle in last night. There was a decent amount of trees, but it was far from overgrown, and there was many areas of empty field.
Perfect
You got straight to work, setting up obstacle courses, designating trees for either climbing or fighting dummies. After about an hour, a good amount of the work was done, and you could hear stirring coming from the camp area. You made your way back to see that Twilight had awoken, and was cooking breakfast over the now re-kindled fire. She looked up upon hearing you approach, and gave a faint smile.
"Good morning J'Dagna. Sleep well?" She went back to cooking, and you walked over and took a seat on the other side of the fire.
"I hardly ever sleep well anymore," you responded. "It is far from a burden, but still it has a fair impact on my physical health. To say nothing of my mental, what with all of the nightmares." You sighed heavily. Though you wouldn't trade your life for all the gold in Cyrodil, there were many things that still haunted you till this day. Most of them likely would till you passed to the winds as nothing more than dust, or ash.
"Nightmares? Of what? I-if you don't mind my asking, that is." She was scared of you, you could tell. Despite all that had happened, she still feared what you might do, should she incur your wrath. Though that was unlikely to happen.
"I do not mind your inquiring, Twilight." She seemed to relax a bit, and looked up from her cooking to listen. "I do not, however, wish to share any great details of their nature or cause. Though I suppose a vague explanation is in order. I have told you of my homeland, Elswyr, and of Skyrim, correct?" She nodded. "Well, then you know my world is a dangerous one, and many things happen that should have otherwise been prevented. Twilight, I have done many things that I regret, and there are many things that I regret not doing. I am constantly troubled by the events of my past, and I sometimes wonder, if some things had gone differently, would I still even be hunting dragons?" You gave a small sigh, thinking back on all you had done. The bandit raids, the war, all of the people you had slain under the Dark Brotherhood. Though some deserving, many were only trying to make it in the world, or protect their homes, or had made some small mistake to anger another. But the two things you regretted most of all was killing Paarthurnax to sate the blind rage of the Blades, and not being there when...
....
GAH! You couldn't even bring yourself to remember it! So horrified were you with the events of that day that your mind had shut it out, preventing you from thinking about it for too long. It pained you to not have the nerve to bring the memories back from the depths of your mind. You were married to her for Mara's sake! If you could not remember the day she died then did you even love her!? Did you?
_____
Outside, Twilight had finished cooking breakfast, and was about to rouse the others. She looked towards J'dagna, and noticed a tear moving slowly through his fur. She moved closer, and sat beside him, a look of worry on her face.
"J'Dagna? Are you... are you okay?" He did not respond, and only kept staring at the ground. A tear fell from his chin, splashing silently on the ground below. She tentatively put a hoof on his shoulder. "J'Dagna, what wrong?" At this, he picked his head up slightly, and turned to look at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Twilight, have you... have you ever loved someone?"
"Well of course, all of my friends and-"
"You miss-understand. Have you ever had feelings for another pony?"
Twilight was taken aback at his question. It was a strange one coming from such a seemingly hard creature, and it was also something she had never even thought about very hard. She stopped, and decided now to be a good a time as any to determine this for herself, so as to better help her friend.
_____
You gazed at the purple mare, awaiting her response. You opted to let her take her time, as this was likely a touchy subject for her. Heh, as if it wasn't for you as well. You waited for her to speak. The tension was palpable, and it seemed to be coming to a head.
"I... I don't know. I mean, what do I even look for in a... mate. Should they be strong and protective, or delicate and caring? Handsome, smart, or funny? I'm just not sure. What would being in love feel like? I mean, there are some stallions in Ponyville and I think 'Well maybe' but I just don't know." You smiled at her answer, and laughed a bit. She looked up at you in confusion, "What?"
"My dear Twilight, you just answered your own question about love." She looked at you with confusion. You laughed a bit again, at her expression and at how the tables had turned. "You listed several different qualities, wondering which one a suitable lover should posses. Well, the answer is all of them. As for what it feels like, it is like no other feeling in the world." As you spoke, you thought back to your wife, thinking of all the good times you had had with her. Adventures, exploring, just sitting in the woods talking about nothing and everything. It brought a smile to your face, the first in a while when you thought of her. Your thoughts had always been of the day she died, but now, you remembered the good times. The times of joy and peace, love and kinship. It was pure bliss. "Love, Twilight, is the feeling that is coupled with all of the others, all at once. Happiness, joy, laughter, peace, pain, heartache, sorrow, anger, and regret. It is up and down, good and bad, wonderful and horrible all at once, and yet never at the same time. Sure these can be experienced with your friends, and you can love them, but you will only be IN love with one person throughout your entire life. When you find them, you will know who it is."
She sat in silence, drinking in your words. Then she smiled, a look of pure joy crossing her features. She looked up at you, and her smile grew wider. She leaned forward, arms moving around you, her face close to yours, and whispered, "Thank you." Then she gave you one of the most powerful hugs you had ever received. You were a bit shocked at first, but eventually returned the hug in full. You broke apart, and both of you stood.
"Well, I had better go wake the girls so they can eat. I'll be right back." She turned and trotted away towards the tents. She looked back and gave you a smile, then vanished into the trees. You stood there for a moment, thinking about what had transpired between you and Twilight. While it was hardly intimate, it was something you had never shared with anyone. It was a sort of connection. A strong bond of friendship and trust. You smiled again, a moved to finish setting up the training grounds.
_____
About thirty minutes later, Twilight and the ponies showed up. They were talking idly among themselves, but when they noticed you standing in front of them with your arms crossed over your chest, they grew silent. They sat in an arch in front of you, ready to listen to what you had to say.
"Ponies, up until this point, we have not known each other very well, with a few minor exceptions." You flashed a quick glance at Twilight. "Today, you will start your fist of two days of training. Day one, you will be put through your paces for endurance, strength, speed, and precision. I will work you hard and without mercy. You will all have had some degree of skill in some of these fields. Today, you master all of them."
"Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie please step forward. Fluttershy, Rarity, you may do as you please." The ponies you had requested to do so stepped forward, and Fluttershy and Rarity moved to sit on a nearby log and watch.
You turned and pulled some weapons off of a rack. For Rainbow, you had two Ebony daggers. For Applejack, and large Dwarven war hammer. For Twilight, a few spell books and a staff of firestorm. And for Pinkie, an Elvish sword.
"So, awesome!" "Yes they are, but be careful," you warned
"This is a might heavy." "You will get used to it."
"Fascinating." You gave a small nod.
"No need, I've got my own!" You looked at Pinkie with confusion. She smiled big and gave a laugh. Then, from seemingly nowhere she pulled out a large blue canon. You were about to ask how and why, but decided against it. You merely shrugged, placing the sword back on the rack.
You moved to a chest filled with some armor you had modified to fit the ponies. For Rainbow, leather. Applejack got Steel. Twilight was given an enchanted circlet and some robes and boots. And Pinkie was given studded armor with an iron helm.
"This is cool, but shouldn't it be... stronger?" "You will be able to fly faster in lighter armor," you replied.
"This is still pretty heavy, and it'll slow me down." "You are our powerhouse. I'll explain what that is in a moment."
"Are these enchanted?! Amazing!" You smiled, "Glad you like them."
"Just like the cover of the game!" Again you looked at Pinkie with confusion. Something told you that she was the spawn of Sheogorath. You just sighed and watched as the ponies put on their armor. They all looked combat ready, but looks were far from everything.
"Ponies, I have given you these weapons and armor now so that you may acclimate yourselves to their weight and presence. You will train, eat, sleep, and use the restroom in this armor. You will not remove it unless I say so. When your training is complete, you will keep your armor, and be responsible for it's upkeep. If you lose it, then Akatosh help you. Now then, a few things before we begin. All of you have a role to play in this quest. Rainbow Dash, you are our scout and fast hitter. It is your job to let us know what sort of fight we are facing, and to preform hit and run attacks on specific weak points on a dragon. Applejack, you are our powerhouse. You move slow, but hit hard and are able to take a lot of punishment so we don't have to. Twilight and Pinkie Pie, you are support. You deal the majority of the damage, and bring our foe down as quickly as possible. And Twilight, if you know any healing spells, take care of that as well. Now I will be doing all three, and acting as the leader and coordinator during a fight. Understand?" They all nodded, and brought their weapons to bear, though a little clumsily.
"Good. Now then, let's get down to business."
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ITS ALIVE!!!! And you should sing bro.
3352670 Yep, still kickin'. I'm not giving up on you guys... I'm just...
There is so much crap going on right now, and I'm having a pretty bad last couple of weeks. Everything just feels so... wrong. Maybe I'm just being soft and naive... I don't know.
Anyways, more to come some time soon I hope. Hang in there guys! In the mean time, I'm gonna try to do the same...
3353022
Hey, keep your head up and
3333517
I'm scared. HOLD ME!
3433874 *holds Warrior Kitten* What troubles you so my son/daughter?
3441113
Lolwut
I'm just still worried about reading this. But as soon as I'm done reading my story updates, I promise you I will read it. I'm just scared.
3442098 If you don't want to you don't have to. I won't be upset or anything. Though I'm still a bit confused as to why you're scared?
3446158
Ah screw it. Forget I said anything.
I just read it and I LOVE IT!!!
I reckon you could try singing it to Mulan's I'll make a man out of you
Warning: Team Fortress 2 Parody:
I like this one better :D
3468272 Glad you liked it, lol.
Those videos were priceless. Though, I did alter the lyrics a great deal to better suit the world of Skyrim. Song title: 'Be a Dov'. So you can kind of tell I put a great deal of thought into it. Anyways, I'll see what i can do to have the next chapter up soon. After I'm done I'll do a bit of touch up, then a dramatic reading by yours truly, and then my next project: 'TBA' (to be announced, because I have no idea)
I really need to make a picture of this for Deviant Art.
Now I know it is clear that the main character is a vampire, but you should mention him take potions of blood every once in a while, or a scene where one of the ponies wake to see him feast on them… just a thought.
-Lightning
Did they send me daughters?... oh wait... i guess they did.