The Equestrian Gourmet

by Gamel_Lightshow

Just an Average Day

Author's Note:

Sorry ran into some financial problems and had to put everything on the back burner. Also, this chapter came out late this week because of finals.

Liloth moves like a serpent through water as Armon roars and slams his shield into several guards causing them to fly backward. They roll across the ground and groan in pain. They hadn't taken much damage, but pain is still pain in the end. Armon ducks as beams of energy fire from the tips of Liloth's "fingers" above his head. They all find a mark sending them flying backward causing their weapons to fly through the air.

The guards skid to a halt beside the resting area where multiple other guards are currently crunching on bars of oats and grass mixed with various substances like honey, jam, and liquid kale. The recently put down guards get up groaning and make their way to a large box holding all these various bars where they begin to snake away on them. The wounds and bruises that were beginning to appear quickly fade away as they are filled with energy. As the five sit down five get up and rush out on to the battlefield picking up discarded weapons.

And behind the resting area stands Richard as he continues to make more and more bars while watching the training exercise continue. He sighs watching as unicorns try to get a hit onto Liloth only to be stopped by Armon's shield. His shield bash skill always seems to be up whenever a brave soldier rushes in with a spear or shield in order to attempt to distract him. They've quickly learned that Sanctuary is quite the battle reset skill when it comes to rushing too hard.

Liloth joyfully laughs as she jumps over the head of a Pegasus that decided he could take the pair by the air. A clawed hand comes from her paw and latches on the Pegasus as he attempts to fly away onto the ground. She kicks the poor stallion in the gut before turning her attention to everyone else who seems to be between plotting a way to win to simply just giving up at this point.

"Really makes you think who's training who..." Richard mumbles motioning for Seafoam to take the small box beside him to the larger box near the soldiers.

"Yea... It seems kind of unfair don't you think?"

"Unfair or not, it's probably a learning experience for the guards for sure. They handled themselves well earlier, but I don't know. They seem way too eager about all of this." Richard says stopping his cooking for a second and looking over all the guards currently present.

The captains are watching overhead due to the orders of Celestia and Luna. The emotions they're all showing are very mixed seeing as they all have some sort of ability that has made them all captains. From being great at offensive magic or having a very keen sense of combat, they all seem to get along to a certain sense from an outside view. But having to gotten to know them after a while is a completely different story. But at least with them, all fighting the same cause has calmed them down from their infighting.

And with the captains finally working more together the soldiers have been gung-ho to finally be able to see a lot more combat. Much to the chagrin of the captains and all his underlings. From here the miffed faces of the captains can be seen as Liloth and Armon make quick work of their soldiers.

Armon summons forth another sanctuary pushing all the soldiers back and knocking unlucky Pegasi out of the air and on to the ground. Magic from the Unicorns goes wide bouncing off the shield and causing a chain reaction of hit Earth Ponies. Seafoam flinches at the sight and glances at Richard for a moment before grabbing a box of food and bringing it over to Richard.

"If you're wondering if I can do that, no. Do I wish I could? Yea. I feel like I got the raw deal of this thing."

"Nah. Without you, I doubt the soldiers would be taking so much of a beating right now."

"Yea. We all have our jobs, in the end, don't we." Richard says putting the top back on the pot as the soldiers begin leaving the training field as the captains begin to jump and float down to the opposite side of Armon and Liloth.

"Clear out everyone. It's time for us to take a crack at the new guys. Champions or not, everyone has their limits." One of the Unicorn captains says.

The five captains stand in a line with a Unicorn standing on each side, a Pegasus on beside them, and finally Wild Ace stands in the middle a giant smile on his face.

"Wait... I thought Wild Ace was a General?"

"He is. But he's also captain of the Umbra guard as well. Specially trained to work both days and nights for guard duties."

"Okay? Well, I know Ace, but what about the others."

"Left to right we have: Flawless Gem who took over for Shining Armor after he moved to the Crystal Empire, Next is Lucky Hearts whose easy on the eyes but a maniac in combat, on the other side of Wild Ace is Onyx Dare, last is Solar Dawn. Not much can be said for the last two except they were chosen for their talents and not for their personalities."

From left to right they all look vastly different. Flawless Gem is a Blue coated male Unicorn with white almost see through hair that hangs well below most manes and tail, the picture of a diamond surrounded by what looks to be an aura dorns his flanks, and at his side are two cleanly cut green gems. He looks quite interested in the shield that just came down around Armon and Liloth muttering softly to himself of one thing or another. The gems held in his magic seem to hum with power as they circle around his barrel clockwise as if they have a mind of themselves.

Lucky Hearts is a pink coated pony with blood red mane tied into pigtails on either side of her head and tail. Her wings seem to always be arched at her side as if ready to hit or hug anyone that comes close. Her cutie mark is that of several hearts floating around what looks to be a four leaf clover. At her side looks to be metal or rubber ball that she seems to move about underneath her from time to time. She giggles as she as she seems to ramble on to Wild Ace about how her second and third in command are going to flip to hear that they missed they missed the fighting.

Wild Ace is the same as ever as he roles his polearm around above his head while standing on his hind legs. Richard has yet to ask him where he had learned that style of fighting, but it seems that he's not the only odd fighter around the area for sure. He seems annoyed and excited at the same time, but the annoyance could either come from the pegasus nagging his ear off or the fact that Liloth and Armon are wiping the floor with the guards. Speaking of guards Richard can't recall seeing any of the Umbra guards...

On the other side of Wild Ace, Onyx Dare seems to be glaring at the winded guards who seem to be shifting and squirming underneath his intense glare. Onyx is a deep shade of brown making him look almost black with his mane gray and cut short military style and tail almost the same way. His cutie mark is of a mountain exploding from the inside. Onyx, like the others, has quite a weird weapon at his side. Said weapon being completely invisible and entirely not there since he does not have a weapon or blade shoes.

"Why doesn't Onyx have a weapon?"

"You'll see."

With his question answered his eyes wander over to the last of the captains being Solar Dawn who, despite her or his name, does not seem as bright and sunny as the name would imply. In fact, Solar's mane is disheveled and bags are seen underneath the eyes. Solar's coat is almost a dirty white with blotches and spots of yellow indicating what might have been a yellow furred body. Other than the being unkempt, the tail and mane of said pony seem muted as well with various color sticking out here and there on top of what looks to be an orange base. From the base to end, it seems to be orange, yellow, white, light orange, red, then yellow again to finish it off. Solar yawns and at first glance would seem disinterested in the entire thing, but Solar's eyes seem to be completely focused on Liloth and Armon.

"Are you sure that's Solar Dawn? I mean, and I don't wanna be mean here but, it looks like somepony just got out of bed and didn't bother trying to make themselves presentable for the day."

"Yeaaaa Solar has always been a character. Don't let the appearance fool you. Solar's got the mindset of a genius but the body of a sloth."

"That... does not make any sense to me what so ever. Is this another one of those bad pony similies?"

"Wha- Bad? Oh, come on like you got anything better mister "just woke up out of bed". At least I'm trying to be creative." Seafoam says huffing and crosses his forelegs across his chest as he sits down beside Richard, "If you've got a better one let me know. I doubt it."

"Nah I've got tons, but you'd never be able to understand why for some of them. Different cultural experiences." Richard says chuckling watching as Solar pulls something out from thin air.

The object in question seems to be a greatsword with the sun's symbol engraved into the hilt. The entire blade glows a dull yellow and the blade fall sinking halfway into the earth in front of him. Solar walks up, yawns, and just leans against the entire hulking object as if it was completely normal. Richard can't help but mumble how useful magic is.

"Try me," Seafoam says narrowing his eyes and looking directly at Richard breaking him out of his own musings.

"Alright alright. I'll go real easy on you for the first one for ya. Solar looks like a person whose eyes get more of a work out than the person."

"Weak. Solar is a pony who would fall asleep and still complain about doing something while in his sleep."

"You're going to at least bring your B game if you wanna step to me. Solar is-"

"Shut up they're starting!"

"Defeat you!" Ace finishes after what must have been quite the motivational speech as the guards begin stomping and clopping their hooves on the ground and against one other.

The last line is uttered after spinning his spear around his body and stopping it to point directly at them like some sort of action star. Richard can't help but chuckle at the thought of a pony Micheal Bay. He considers whether it would be the same type of explosions here as to where he was, or if the explosion would be replaced with more dramatic features like glitter and enchantments. Then there's the question of if it's possible to actually enchant a fire in the first place or even an explosion let alone the entire chain reaction to--.

A gush of wind and a loud noise brings Richard back to the earth as Ace dances around Armon as he fights off Ace, Solar, and Lucky. Liloth seems to be taking on Onyx and Flawless. Both of the non-pony fighters are currently unable to hold their ground once being split apart, but Liloth isn't letting that stop her and neither is Armon.

Liloth dodges under a heavy strike from Onyx reach out a hand to touch his barrel when a gem flies in close before making small force field pop up stopping her hand and causing her to quickly jump back before Onyx comes down on her. Onyx and Flawless are working together perfectly with Flawless maneuvering one of the gems to always be near Onyx and the other around himself. The one around Onyx always covers a weak spot an opponent would try to take advantage of which Onyx gives out quite a lot. He doesn't seem to have any concern for his safety as he just recklessly attack his opponent.

Liloth growls and heads and begins to slowly move around the two who only watch with their eyes. Liloth holds up a hand and it seems the area around her grows darker. She lowers it to face Onyx and a dark hand shoots out to grab ahold of him while her other hand shoots five beams of energy at Flawless.

"Now that real fight starts," Richard mutters as Flawless dodges three and the shield eat two.

Onyx is grabbed by the power and yanked in towards Liloth. He lands within the dark area around her, which is about ten feet all around her, and he seems to stop for a moment before rushing in on her. She can easily move around Onyx's attacks and just smiles with pride as Onyx can't touch her. Up to the point where she feels something in case her legs and she plops to the ground on her back unceremoniously. Onyx proceeds to dig his hooves like butter into the ground and throw a large layer of dirt over her.

Seafoam sighs and shakes his head, "How the might fall."

"I wouldn't call her mighty. I have a few more colorful adjectives to call her, but definitely not mighty."

"I feel like you don't like her."

Richard looks to Seafoam and raises an eyebrow, "What give you that idea?"

As Onyx and Flawless are about to call their victory a shield comes flying in blindsiding Onyx causing him to stumble slightly. Armon's shield return to him just in time to block a heavy swing from Solar who is easily throwing the greatsword around like it's nothing. Ace comes in from behind to catch him unaware, but Armon's battle sense is on point as he lets the sword slip down his shield to only turns around and bash it into Ace's fast at a breakneck pace. Sadly he's not able to move fast enough to stop the ball from slamming into his head toppling him on the ground hard.

Richard starts focusing over the heads of their comrades and just nods.

"Yea they've lost. They barely have any stamina, mana, or health left. Chalk up one to the captains."

Ace puts the blade of his spear in Armon's face smirking, "Good fight."

Armon Grumbles something about pride while Onyx digs up a shivering Liloth. Armon is helped up and all of them seem to be taking this in great spirit, except Liloth but that's to be expected at this point, and they seem to be trading notes and such. The guards seem pretty happy that their captains won, but some of them have worried looks on their faces and are whispering to one another. Richard extinguishes the fire he made and motions for Seamfoam to follow him. He does so with a shrug.

Hours later find Richard walking into the Palace garden with Seafoam close behind.

"Why'd we come out here?"

"To have a wind down after watching such a fight. Our lives can't always be action."

"Well maybe not my life, but your life is going to be great!" Seafoam says taking off into the air to hover in front of Richard, "I mean just from watching them and seeing what all you can do to help that! It's going to be chaos out there on the battlefield!"

"Yea..."

"Something wrong?"

"Perhaps," Richard says sitting down to prop himself underneath a tree, "But that's neither here nor there for now."

"I just think you think too much. I'm just glad I finally got you out of those journals and books. I swear you're going to turn into one of them at the pace you're going for sure." Seafoam says landing.

Richard reaches out a hand to the unaware Seafoam and starts scratching him behind his ears. Seamfoam purrs lightly as he flaps his wings at his side slowly as he eyes go half-lidded. He moves his head more into Richard's hand while his body slowly lays down.

Richard chuckles and pulls Seafoam over to him, "You know without you, I might have descended into insanity right?"

"Uh huh~" Seafoam replies as Richard's hand rubs, scratches, and massages his ear and down his neck.

"I'm serious. I don't know how those guys can take all of this so easily. I mean I know, but still. None of this really makes much sense. I'm trying to just go with the flow but. My old life is dead you know?"

Richard's hand stops on Seafoam's back causing Seafoam to open up his eyes and move to sit on Richard's legs and lap. He raises up both of his hooves and grabs ahold of his face.

"Listen to me. That life may be over, but you have this life to live. We've been over this man, you can't just keep dwelling on the negative like this. It's bad for you. It'll destroy you from the inside out and I don't want to see you hurt more than I already have. You're too great of a person."

Richard sighs with a half smile, "Thanks."

"No problem!" Seafoam proceeds to lay across Richard's lap, "Now I require more of your hands or I will keep you trapped underneath this tree forever."

"Oh no." Richard says rolling his eyes, "I must give into your evil demands!"

Seafoam purrs as Richard begin his ministrations again upon the Pegasus' back. He can't really tell if this life is better or worse from his old one. Sure it has its ups and downs, but so did his old life. The more he compares it the more they seem alike and yet different at the same time.

Richard looks up into the sky as the sun proceeds to dip down towards the horizon. Surrounded by all this nature and at the same time walls of stone and mortar just seems so surreal to him. Almost like an endless dream he can't wake up from. Yet he's not sure if he wants to wake up from it. What would be waiting for him when he woke up anyway?