//------------------------------// // Insanity: Abuse IV // Story: Shine Of The Silver Sun // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// "What is she planning?" Astray asked as he, several hours later, once again stood in the team training area. The lawn demolished by spell impacts and hoofsteps had been reconstructed in the meantime, and there were five figures already waiting for him, Anvil, and Bubbles. Contradiction had, after the victorious team exercise, told the trio to meet her here later with the words that weapon training with sargeant Cross wasn't happening today. "I don't know, and I don't like it," Anvil muttered, "She hasn't been right in the head since the sewers." "Neither do I, but she saw somepony important to her nearly die twice in a row. Sir Cromach asked me to cut her some slack." "Yeah, well, he should have told her the same thing." "You know, I'm afraid he did. This is the result." Bubbles, trotting by their side, didn't join the worried conversation. "Here you are!" Contradiction nodded at them when they approached, "Hope you're ready for some plotkicking." "Of whom?" Anvil narrowed her eyes darting from Connie to the four changelings she'd been talking to. The entire elite squad of changelings helping with Order training was there. Commander Shadowstep, sometimes called the amethyst queen, was a standard queen-type changeling, full with membranous wings, dark purple belly plate, and short mane of the same colour. From what Anvil had heard during her time with the Order, she used to be queen Chrysalis' general some seven hundred years ago when changelings were trying to take over the world. What had surprised her was that apparently not all queen-type changelings were queens, it was just a body evolution for the purpose of leadership. Queens had absolute authority, and used other queen-type changelings for difficult tasks or in case of a wide command structure. Of course, sargeant Cross was there, all in his batpony disguise and smiling warmly at the arriving trio. Grandmaster Antares nodded at Astray who bowed his head. The last 'changeling' wore a disguise of a white unicorn with blue-ish purple mane wearing make-up and trinkets all over her body. Anvil knew her as Starlight, and the trio had never trained with her because she was a magic expert. There was no way Contradiction would want to fight Shadowstep's squad, right? There would be no actual point. "You can hazard a guess," Connie smiled like a shark, "Since you've bested a team of fairly well-trained ponies already, I decided to raise the bar a little." Alright, she was completely insane. "A LITTLE?" Anvil burst out, "You DO realize Cross here can wipe the floor with the four of us alone, right? Or did the zombie pony in Canterlot slam your head into the wall a little too hard?" she couldn't stop herself. Connie only twitched. "You will keep training with normal ponies as well, but once in a while it might be a good practice to fight a fight where the enemy team need to limit themselves in order no to rip you to shreds. You know, so you can really let yourself go for once," she said as if reading from an invisible script, "Limits will be simple - Cross can only use non-magical weapons, nothing else. Antares, no changeling enhancements, armor, strength, or otherwise, only martial arts. Shadowstep and Starlight, non-lethal magic only." "Do I really have to partake in this barbarism?" Starlight yawned, "Even with these limits, Cross can do this on his own." "It wouldn't hurt you to get some fresh air," Cross retorted, "If you're all sickly from sitting inside all the time, no rich noble will ever want you." "I am a catch everypony would desire, you ignoramus!" Starlight huffed, "Alright, let's make this quick. I have important research to attend to." "Strategy huddle!" Connie called out. The trio of victims groaned, grouping up with no enthusiasm, especially after seeing that the changelings weren't doing anything of that sort, just lounging around and stretching lazily. "I repeat, Cross will beat all of us into submission with a tree branch," Anvil had to admit. She may have been proud of herself after the first fight, but she wasn't delusional. "Omigosh, I had no idea!" Connie put her hooves to her cheeks with a surprised expression. Then she rolled her eyes, "The goal here is not to get smashed in few seconds, you idiot." "As much as I'd like to pretend to, me running at Cross who will be the frontline is not going to work like before." "I'll do it," Astray raised his arm, "I know how much trouble you have with telekinesis. I think I'm a bit more used to it, since master Antares sometimes throws rocks at me from various angles and I have to dodge. I doubt I'll last much longer, if at all, but you might get a better matchup." "Let me distract Antares then. I still have a bone to pick with him about the whole armed versus unarmed thing." "It might be a good idea to split them into one versus ones," Connie nodded, "If we tag-teamed any member their duo would take out our solo much faster than we would. Bubbles, you'll flank to deal with the casters as usual, namely Starlight. She is a pure magic user, and even for a changeling she isn't exactly fast or strong. If you can take her advanced magic off the field, we might be able to do something. I'll just act as artillery and start blasting Shadowstep. Changeling queens possess immense amounts of raw powers, but usually aren't too good at delicate use because of it. As far as I know, Shadowstep is more of a warrior than mage so we'll see. Wish I had a real plan, but I don't. Let's see how we match up." "Alright, ready?" the unicorn called out. "Ready," Shadowstep, making a levitating book in front of her disappear in a flash, answered. "GO!" Connie wasted no time. Her horn flared and the ground around Shadowstep exploded. She saw just a blur moving to the left and her telekinetic blows followed it, making crater after crater as if Shadowstep was running through a minefield. Suddenly, the black and amethyst blur stopped and the sound of a gong followed Connie's mental blow hitting a glowing purple dome. So Shadowstep wanted to make this a contest of raw power? Connie grinned. She was happy to oblige, to see what she could become if not a real unicorn. The ground trembled. Bubbles rushed forward faster than ever before. Starlight conjured up a deckchair, a small table, a drink, and a magazine of some sorts which flipped the pages on its own while she sipped from a straw. Bubbles was momentarily confused, so she slowed down. Then she slowed down further... and further... ...and further. She was moving, but it was like moving through hardening concrete. She could think normally, it was only her body which proceeded forward with the speed of continental drift. Starlight winked at her, and flipped another page. So much for trying to prove herself. Bubbles hung her head. Well, tried to. At her current speed that movement was going to take another hour or two. Astray blocked Cross' quickly flying sword. The changeling himself wasn't moving, but Astray couldn't push past a wall of flashing steel in front of him. He quickly realized attacking the weapon itself would yield nothing, so he blocked and dodged, attempting to get into a position from which he could charge at Cross. He was so close, only a step or two more, then block, then tackle the changeling. Cross took a step backwards, his sword not changing its pace. Alright, two or three more steps and. Ah hah! Cross took a step backwards. Astray hit the flying blade with all his might, giving himself a fraction of a second to close the distance. Cross took two steps backwards. Assaulted by the flying blade from behind, Astray was forced to turn his back to the changeling. Just after the blades met, a hoof tapped on his shoulder from behind. "I believe you're looking in the wrong direction," Cross whispered into Astray's ear. The satyr jumped, turning in the air to see the changeling/batpony standing on his hind legs, slowly lowering himself on all fours. Contrary to how crushed Astray felt at the quick loss, Cross looked... proud of him? "Three minutes before you made a fatal mistake. You even tried to outsmart me by the careful inching which would have worked against somepony too focused on the weapon itself. I must admit, impressive progress in such a short time." "But I lost..." "Of course you did. If you won I'd have to crawl through the sewers for the rest of my life in shame. That doesn't mean anything," Cross walked over, patting sitting Astray's head, "Do you need me to spell it out for you? Good job, Astray. Very well done." That was a bunch of words Astray had never heard before in one sentence also containing his name. His brain was still having trouble processing it. "T-thank you, sir. All thanks to you." "I very much doubt that," Cross smiled, "I might be giving you skill, but I'm not the one giving you your drive. Speaking of the others' tests," he chuckled after noticing Bubbles levitating a short distance above ground and slowly paddling her legs in the air, "It seems only two of you are left." Anvil was swinging her mace quickly, keeping Antares away from her. The griffon/changeling was darting back and forth, feinting, and trying to flank her. When she overreached with a too wide swing, he dashed forward, forcing Anvil to either let her weapon go and fight bare-handed or get hit. She refused to give her mace up, attempting to move away from the changeling now directly behind her. Two sets of talons dug deeply into her backside. "You-what?!" she let the weapon go out of shock. It spun several times in the air before burying into the lawn. "Come on, give an old changeling something to work-BLURHG!" The punch following her spinning around sent the griffon flying into the air. She looked around for her mace. Antares spread his wings, swooping at her and grabbing her by her armpits, ascending again. At the height of ten ponies, Antares stopped, flapping his wings and holding her. Anvil sighed, realizing she messed up too hard. "You win. If this was a real fight, I'd soon be a splatter on the ground." "Heheh," Antares started descending. Just above ground, he suddenly let Anvil go, dropping on her like a rock and, completely accidentally 'I am sticking to that story no matter what' landed with his head in her cleavage. The story would have been more believable without the subsequent motorboating. "Heh, good punch before," he looked up at completely red Anvil. Whether from fury or embarrassment was yet to be seen, "Must have disoriented me so hard I forgot how to fly, heh." "You are a very pervy changeling," Anvil took a long breath much to Antares' pure joy, then shoved him away. "You try to live few centuries with monks in the middle of a desert without missing some things." Oh what the heck, if this happened to her in Rift, the minotaur who defeated her would already be bending her over and not thinking about her comfort whatsoever. The old bastard changeling deserved it. "SQUAWK!" Antares' griffon disguise took over as she pressed him tightly against her chest once more time. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The earthshattering impacts were felt more than heard. Connie beat down on Shadowstep's shield which started cracking. She was pushing against centuries of love-fueled changeling energy reserves... ...and winning. Slowly but surely, Shadowstep's purple shield hissed out. Connie's nose was bleeding, her horn hurt, and her legs were cramping after digging into the ground for too long. Through sweat dripping into her eyes, she saw Shadowstep breathing heavily and watching her with genuine surprise. Then the dome reappeared in its full strength. Connie sighed and smiled to herself. She couldn't match the endurance and repeated spellcasting of a fed changeling queen, but she could break through all Shadowstep was able to put up at once. She was- -staring into amethyst eyes looking down at her- -at a rapidly approaching hoof- -and darkness. "That was unnecessary," Cross commented as Shadowstep teleported to Connie and punched her out. "Cross," Shadowstep said in a thoughtful, serious tone of voice, "report to me her progress as she trains with you." "Commander?" "Her power is not just the thaumic suppression syndrome in action. The strongest cases I've met could raze a building, but she... she feels as if she could flatten a mountain. I would ask Starlight for help, but I don't want to have any accidental dissections around." "Yes, commander," Cross saluted. "What's going on?" Astray, sitting next to Cross, asked. "Contradiction's power is unnatural," Shadowstep said simply. "But that's the disease, right?" "I consider diseases natural, satyr. Even rare ones like the TSS. This isn't it, or it isn't only it. It feels somewhat familiar, though. What could it," Shadowstep facehoofed, "Straw Basket!" "I think they have some crates and other containers down in the basement, ma'am," Astray tried to be helpful. The deadpan stares of both Cross and Shadowstep shut him up, "Umm, I think I'll go now. If there's nothing more-" "Dismissed!" Shadowstep saluted him. He returned it and left the two alone. Poking Bubbles still harmlessly hovering in her slow motion, Astray was surprised he could simply pluck her out of mid-air and carry her off to where Anvil was resting. "She'll be fine in some ten minutes or so," Starlight finished her drink and made her recreational accessories disappear. Before she could teleport away herself, she was stopped by Contradiction holding her hoof over her bruised muzzle who whispered something in her ear. Starlight gave her a surprised stare. Connie nodded. Starlight sighed, and both of them disappeared in a flash. For some reason, it made chill run down watching Astray's spine. Light dimmed with summer evening setting in as minutes passed.. "And where do you think you're going?" Astray heard Antares, the only changeling still remaining on the front, completely shredded, lawn. Starlight had been accurate in her guess that Bubbles' time dilation spell would last ten more minutes. During that time, the mare did manage to go halfway through the motion of lying down on the patch of grass under the solitary tree where the team's bags were. She'd been so happy when the spell had worn off, running around and jumping as fast as she could for a minute or two before sitting down next to unusually thoughtful Anvil. Astray had no idea how exhausted he actually was after the extreme training of today until he leaned against the tree and dozed off for a moment. Anvil had woken him up, and all he wanted to do today was to fall over and sleep. Unfortunately, Antares seemed to have different plans. "Umm, bed?" Astray answered the changeling's question. "Aaaaaahahahaha, good one," Antares' beaky expression twisted sadistically, "I remember a certain satyr asking a certain changeling to train with him in addition to everything else he had to do." Astray facepalmed. "I understand," he put his heavy bag back down and turned to Anvil and Bubbles, "See you later, guys, if I can drag myself back home after today." "I think I'll watch for a while," Anvil sat down, "Just to make sure the old perv is really teaching you something instead of showing you how to grope girls?" "Grope what?" "Pfff," Antares interjected, "Your teammate is just mad she lost against me in a contest of pure skill, agility, and self-control." "I'll show you pure skill one day..." Anvil muttered. "One day?" the changeling smiled, "Glad to hear you're not leaving any time soon." "Wooooo! GO ASTRAY!" Bubbles cheered, jumping in the air next to Anvil. "Well, the ladies want a show," Antares stood on his hind legs, waving at Astray to go at him. The satyr raised his finger, signalling Antares to wait, and put on the heavy metal gauntlets of the princess' armor. "Something to even the odds a tiny bit." Anvil expected Astray to get smashed, but either Antares wasn't simply trying too hard or Astray was much better at dodging and blocking than she thought. With his hands and forearms protected, the satyr was less worried about glancing blows by sharp talons, wasting less time by dodging, and being able to deflect and counterattack. One particular instance of his new approach being better came when Antares, expecting Astray to jump backwards, suddenly had his talons knocked away, his beak intimately met the second gauntlet, and got shoved aside by Astray's half-assed roundhouse kick. It wasn't exactly dangerous, it didn't even break the changeling's balance, but damn if it didn't look flashy. "WOOOOOOW!" Bubbles gasped. "Not bad," Anvil said appreciatively. "Nice," Antares nodded, "Had you worn the armored boots that would have really hurt." "With how tired I am, sir, I wouldn't have lifted my leg in those." Antares dashed in, assaulting Astray with a flurry of quick jabs. The satyr blocked the first two before dodging to the side and tripping his attacker up. For a moment it looked like Antares would fall, but he extended his hind leg forward, grabbed Astray's wrist with one foreleg and his shoulder with the other, and in the middle of the controlled fall tossed the satyr away while using him to steady his fall. In short, Astray ended with his face on the ground and with Antares standing triumphantly above him. "Slow and steady, that's what I like," Antares commented, "You know what? I am a reasonable changeling. How about we take it easy for tonight and go for the stretching part of our sessions." "I'd appreciate that," Astray shakily stood up. "Mind if I join in?" asked Anvil, suddenly met with two sets of incredulous stares, "What?" "Nothing!" "Nothing!" Antares and Astray exchanged glances. Anvil huffed. Bubbles jumped up. "Can I do... whatever you're doing too?" "Sure," Antares shrugged, "These exercises was made by griffons for soldiers, and bunch of them move on both two and four legs in fights so they use different muscles. As we've found out, it works for pure bipeds as well as for quadrupeds. Just do what I'm doing, don't overstretch, go as far as is comfortable. You should feel stretching and maybe soreness, but not pain. That goes double for you Anvil, with your 'I need to do everything better than those around me' attitude. This is not a contest, just listen to your body." Together, the trio imitated the changeling grandmaster's soothing movements.