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// Chapter 4 - Awakening (Unedited) 
// Story: Meddling with Fate: Birthright 
// by Spell Writer 
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	Twilight, silently watching Hinoka, takes some time to get a feel for her body. Taking stock in any broken or injured areas. To her surprise, there are none left after the skilled treatment the young priestess had given her. She had already tried the door, to go and try to explore, but alas the door seemed to have some sort of connection with her new link with Hinoka. She wasn’t leaving without permission and therefore decided to just relax and wait for the princess to awaken. ‘What is this world… it’s so bright. Even brighter than Equestria, which is saying something. A couple of friendly humans came in earlier in the day, with fresh fruit, hay, oats. Mostly healthy food that twilight typically would try to snack on when not visiting Celestia or Pinkie. ‘I suppose I'll be eating healthy for a while. Ugh, this stuff is snack food, I’m really gonna have to chow down to get any form of subsistence.’

The out of place alicorn stands up softly and takes a few bites of food from the bags… almost quickly spitting it out. ‘AGHGHGHGH.’ Of course Hinoka shifts in her sleep, only able to hear a weird mixture of coughing and neighing. Twilight quickly restrains her surprised disgust to not wake the princess up.

‘Ewww! Raw hay! Gross! I know humans don’t eat hay, but geeze! This is just disgustinggggg. Healthy, but disgusting. But… unless I want to completely engorge myself on oats. I’ll have to take one for the team here…’ Sighing lightly to herself, she dives into the hay. Mostly washing down the raw stalks with water and oats, which at least taste moderately good. After a short while of eating she feels a soft hand on the back of her neck. Just lightly rubbing her mane. For some reason, Twilight didn’t feel startled at all, in fact the feeling calmed her. Being knowledgeable enough in magical bonding spells she could only figure that the figure doing this was the person she had just been watching over.

“Morning sunshine. I’m guessing you just woke up too huh?... or not. I guess falcon’s are straight from the divines, you’ve even tested the door huh? Well we can’t have you escaping whenever you want yet. But maybe after a bit of work and after we trust each other a bit more you’ll be able to come and go as you please. Because I really don’t have a problem with it. It’s more my teacher that’d be upset if I lost you so early on… Although we should get out there soon, my brother is going to be the one introducing us to the squads before Yukimura takes over in teaching you and I the basics!”

Of course, Twilight was more than confused by all of this. She had only gotten a small glimpse of what Hinoka was planning for them to do in the future. She knew it was going to be training, but military workings were something she never expected that they’d allow a princess to do. Her primary assumption from the beginning was that Hinoka was being taught privately for self defense. She could have never guessed that the red haired girl was planning on fighting with other soldiers… Much less expect Twilight to fight with her. It took twilight almost all night in the first place to come to terms with the fact that she’d be carrying someone around on her back. But fighting like this must take an absurd amount of coordination between the rider and the mount. ‘This is going to be impossible! The sheer amount of coordination and trust we are going to need is almost impossible to reach in any reasonable amount of time! I can’t do this!’ Of course clouded with doubt she completely missed the fact that Hinoka had already skillfully put the harness and lead on her.

‘Oh. I forgot, I really don’t have a choice in this matter.’ Twilight thought to herself quietly as she was led out of the stable, fairly full with fruit, oats, some hay (It was really gross), and plenty of water. After a few moments she found herself simply following, with the little nudges of the lead being very superficial and probably unnecessary. She was engrossed in the scenery, as the town was absolutely beautiful. The castle had a perfect view of the town proper, right down to the fountain. The trees in bloom and all the humans passing by here and there to get onto business. Eventually, the duo arrive at a clearing which is full of soldiers practicing their form with various weapons. Katana, Yumis, Nagintanas and even a few ninja can be spotted, albeit the latter only very occasionally. The army is not small by any means, but it is certainly smaller than Twilight expected. She is especially surprised to only see a few Sky Knights. Most are flying around and only one is teaching… Granted though, Twilight does not have time to look around very long. As they approach a man leading the repetitions that the swordsmen and swordswoman are doing. ‘Huh… I’d thought that the girl’s brother would be taller. Also is his helmet in the shape of a crab? Or is it a lobster?’

Ryoma, leading the repetitions can be heard yelling in his booming voice, practicing with the soldiers. “One! Two! Three!” At the say of one, the soldiers simultaneously take ready position and swing down. At the say of two, they swing their katana’s in a upwards strike meant to cripple. Finally, at the say of three they return to ready position with a downward strike that could be carried through for a skull splitting hit on an opponent who’s guard was thrown off. The form is very basic, but fantastic for training and not lackluster in practice.

“Repeat! One, two, three, one! One, two, three, one!” The soldiers get into a good rhythm, the prince fixing the soldier’s forms. After some time the soldiers are done with 100 repetitions, Ryoma having taken notice of the duo watching the soldiers train.

“Everyone at standby position, I have an announcement to make. My sister, High Princess of Hoshido, Hinoka, will be joining the sky knights.” At this, Hinoka moves forward, having removed the lead off of Twilight. Twilight follows compliantly though, not wanting to make a mess of things. Ryoma then continues “As such remember when she is on the training grounds she is still just a soldier like I am. Do not give her special treatment and do not be afraid to spar with her. Although, do not blame me when she knocks you on your ass. That is all for now, you all should practice your sparring. I want to see two on ones and two on twos. Go!”

Having watched the whole affair Twilight can't help by think about Shining. Thinking to herself, ‘Hinoka’s brother is pretty serious about his job. He almost reminds me of Shiny, just not as dorky.’ Twilight thinks to herself, internally giggling at the thought. Moving forward with Hinoka to meet Ryoma half way.

“Sister, I am glad to see you woke up on time. The servants said you hadn't been seen since last night. Although, looking at your mount, I see what you've been up to.” Ryoma puts a hand on Twilight’s neck and just gives it a pat. The pat raises up quite a bit of dust though.

“She still needs a bath, badly. I was going to take her to the river so she could clean off in peace, but we overslept by too many minutes. So uh, who's gonna be my trainer anyways?” Hinoka asks.

“Subaki, of course. He's the only sky knight that is actually fully trained and he is Sakura’s retainer, so he can be trusted with training missions.” Ryoma responds, always watching his soldiers whenever he is speaking.

“Subaki huh… alright, sounds fair enough I guess. I just want to get flying so I can save Corrin! I… owe it to him at the least.” Hinoka says as she quickly heads off to go with the other sky knights. Twilight following after noticing that Hinoka was already halfway to the secluded area past the tree line. But not before she has a personal thought.

‘There is that name again… Corrin.’ Twilight feels a hand on her neck again, just before she was about to trot off.

“I know my sister is a little fiery and impulsive. Take care of her okay? And don't be afraid to throw her off a few times.” The crab helmeted human pats Twilight’s back lightly, before going to train with his soldiers. Twilight then rushes off after Hinoka, catching up quickly.

After a few seconds they are underneath all the practicing sky knights. Only around twelve seem to be practicing in the air above, while two are on the ground talking with one another. When Hinoka and Twilight approach the two, both bow at Hinoka before the female leaves on her mount. The remaining male smiles in what Twilight can only explain as “a photo perfect” smile. “Princess! Good to see you finally passed your nagintana test! Only took you six tries right? Well don’t worry about that at all. We will work through this perfectly. So first things first, we gotta get you on your mount’s back. Sounds easy enough right?”

“I guess that can’t be too hard. Let's get on with it then.” Hinoka states. Although she doesn’t hide the eagerness and rushing in her voice at all. Hopping on Twilight’s back quickly…

She doesn’t last a second as Twilight feels the bond between them get red hot with Hinoka’s scrambled and destructive emotions. The ex pony almost immediately and skillfully throws her rider off. ‘Hot Hot HOTTTT. Geeze, her emotions are more scrambled than Spike’s scrambled eggs!’ In the meanwhile, Subaki is picking Hinoka up from the ground. Who quickly storms over to Twilight.

“What the hell! Comon! You know you can trust me, so what was that for?” Twilight just responds with a soft snort. Hinoka getting quite annoyed at her mount. Luckly Subaki steps in momentarily.

“Princess Hinoka, I believe I know what your problem is. Your emotions are so explosive that you annoyed your mount by just sitting on her… Guess we’ll have to start with the basics of the basics. Let's go to the river. Your falcon can relax and clean up while we work on your… problems.” The perfectionist smiles, before leading the group away to a beautiful river and waterfall. The area around it is fairly clear with a few scattered trees. But the brush and the shrubbery gives a second degree of privacy. All around by the lake side there are various soldiers of all types, sitting in a meditation position. The silence is palpable and thick, not a single person daring nor wanting to break the silence. Only the occasional lieutenant comes and whispers to his soldiers, informing them that their free time is up.

Hinoka begins to whisper immediately. “Meditation? Really? How is this going to help anything? The faster I can get off the ground, the better. I don't want to get even CLOSER to it!” A nearby soldier clears his throat in irritation, which gets the princess to quiet down. As her voice escalated from a whisper to a silent yell.

Of course her friend and instructor had no issues with it, just keeping his ten out of ten smile on. Subaki saying in a perfect whisper “This is honestly what you need right now Hinoka. You won't get into the air with such a troubled head and heart. You need to come to terms and temper that want and ambition into something healthy. Then when you ride your falcon you'll be unstoppable… well, except to weapons like the yumi. But that's beyond the point, you need to learn this if you intend to become the sky knight you want to be. You need to learn how to control yourself if you want to save Corrin. So please, Hinoka, I've known you and the royal family for a long time. So just trust me? Please?”

Twilight was far too interested in the conversation going on to even remember why she followed them in the first place. Seemingly the two humans either had a history or knew of one another. Twilight listening to see if she can figure out what everyone around is doing. ‘It seems they're using meditation as a sort of therapy for themselves. This place really is much different than Equestria.’ The pony observes Hinoka sitting by the lake after a moment, the human closing her eyes and relaxing. Hinoka spending some time in assisted meditation, as her friend and teacher helps her relax by giving her things to focus on. After a couple of minutes though, he proceeds to meditate himself after giving Twilight a gesture to the waterfall.

‘Oh right, gotta get cleaned off.’ Twilight thinks to herself slightly embarrassed. As silently as she can she flies to the waterfall and just dunks herself into it. Letting the water handle everything as she just stands there and avoids thinking too much.

‘The numbness won’t last forever. I’m due for a major freakout soon unless I calm my nerves. Maybe I’ll try some meditation myself after I get this dust off… I miss everypony. I hope I haven’t been gone too long. It feels like I’ve been here much longer than a couple of days. But I suppose even a couple of days in a completely new universe could be just a couple of hours in mine. I shouldn’t be so worried I guess.’ The alicorn walks back over to Hinoka and Subaki, laying next to Hinoka and relaxing on the ground.

‘Just relax. And breathe.’ The three begin meditation. Relaxing their minds and bodies. The three trying to sort out their own demons that entrap their own minds. They do this until around noon time where Subaki nudges both Hinoka out of her meditation and Twilight out of her sleep.

“Lunch time you two. Meditation on an empty stomach is okay, but some food will do you two some good. Hinoka, as you are a sky knight officially now, I think you’re free to use the pegasus stables.” Subaki says with a smile. “So go ahead and show your mount to her new home and enjoy some lunch.” Putting up his hand, Subaki’s mount swoops low. Picking up his rider quickly as the two fly off. The duo perfectly coordinating a very action rich pickup.

Hinoka looks at Twilight quietly with a moderately flat face. “When are we going to be able to do that?”

‘When you don't burn my back the moment you sit on me.’ Twilight thinks to herself as she follows Hinoka. After a short walk to the much grander and larger stables, the alicorn finds herself inside a much larger stable than when she first ended up in the new land. It had lining of some sort of animal fur, hay, a sandy area in a corner, plenty of water and a bale of oats, which were sadly closed. ‘Buck, guess it’s raw hay for a while. Ugh. I really regret not using my title at all for some more lavish food back in Equestria…’

Hinoka speaks after a moment “Niceee. This place is almost as big as my room… Let me make you some more tasty feed.” Hinoka goes about mixing the hay with oats continuing to say with a light sigh. “Guess I won’t be flying for a while. So I’ll let you enjoy yourself and fly around freely during practice hours. Just don’t get too used to it! I’ll be flying very soon!” Hinoka says with a fire in her voice. Excited and with a rush behind it.

Twilight simply begins eating. Thinking to herself. ‘Yea. This is going to take a while…’

Eight weeks pass. Twilight only seeing her rider Hinoka, Subaki and the army every day. The other pegasi in the stables occasional talk to her as they seem to talk ancient pegasi. Luckily the alicorn was versed in multiple ancient languages allowing her to have very fun conversations with the pegasi that would occasionally talk to her while they were flying around. Jeorge, Subaki’s personal pegasi was oftenly one that she would speak to and today seemed no different. “So why is your name Jeorge anyways?” Twilight asked as the two were flying around “Seems like a very… different name compared to the names you usually hear here in Hoshido.”

The pegasi responds simply. “Subaki says its a old folk legend.Jeorge was the name of a man who could only be defined as the perfect shot. His archery skill is legendary and since the title fits well with his mantra of perfection, that is what I was named.”

Twilight looks at him, interested and confused. “Weird, seeing how bows are enchanted to hurt fliers more.”

Jeorge shrugs leading Twilight back to the river clearing. “I never said it was a good name. Just a legendary one.”

The two land. Hinoka having a light smile on her face stretching from a long meditation. Subaki saying simply. “Well Hinoka, I think you’re ready to ride. Now I know you have to choose your first retainer tonight, but we have all day to get you two oriented.” He claps his hands, smiling as he finishes off saying. “Let’s get started!”