//------------------------------// // Chapter 36 // Story: Responsibilities // by Hiver //------------------------------// “I got the letter from Twilight inviting me to come along this morning,” Sunset said with a smile as we looked over the training yard. “Pretty amazing, right?” “Very,” I agreed with a nod, “Luna said it’s the first one.” Sunset blinked at me. “First one?” “First child from an alicorn,” I clarified. “Neither her nor her sister has had one before.” “…But Prince Blueblood's family…” “By marriage,” I said and shrugged my wings. “Their titles are from elsewhere and they have refused to let them go.” “Huh.” I nodded and looked out over where my guards were training in groups of three. They were practising against each other with wooden weapons and low powered spells. For having done this for less than a month, they weren’t half bad. Things were difficult for them, the trainers had taken about half of the normal guard handbook and then thrown out the rest. Right now they were throwing shit at the wall and saw what stuck. Seems like they went with my suggestion of teams of three though, and so far, it seemed to be working out, but practice wasn’t real life. I knew how to defend myself, but I wasn’t military. I could fight, but this was a whole different kettle of fish. I mostly kept out of it and let the professionals handle it. Then I cringed as a pegasus below got rapped across the wing with a wooden sword as she flew past too close to an earth pony and went rolling across the dirt. Ouch, that got to smart. Wings are sensitive and contained all kinds of nerves, they had to be to read the air currents. Sunset nodded and then stretched. “We should get our own training in too.” “…True, I have been slacking off since Celestia went away.” “To be fair, we were both extremely busy,” Sunny said with a smile. “Come on.” “Just something short today, maybe target practice,” I said and walked back inside with her. “Don’t have time for a bath later, there is some kind of dinner thing tonight.” Sunset nodded. “Sounds good,” she said and led the way down the stairs. “Well, can’t say I envy you then.” “It’s nothing special, just one of those goodwill things for the nobles,” I explained. “Both Luna and Celestia need to be there and I’m not about to make Luna go there on her own. Least I can do is to be bored with her.” “And Clear Skies?” I shook my head. “Celestia wants to keep that quiet if at all possible and, quite frankly, I don’t blame her.” I didn’t like the attention and dating a princess got you a whole lot of attention. Of course, not quite as much as wings and being engaged to one. …But Celestia also got more public attention than Luna in the first place. Might not be fair, but it’s the truth. To be honest, if I could have avoided it, I would have. We made our way to the training area we and the guard usually used as a spell range. It was one of the smaller training areas and there was a pair of unicorns there already, sending spell bolts towards the stone targets at the other end. “Did you ever figure out that fire spell thing?” Sunny asked and picked out a target of her own. I shook my head. “No, I’ll follow Celestia's advice and stay away from them for now. I’ll stick to ice and force for a while. Not that I get why I can do semi-advanced ice spells but fireballs, nope.” “Wasn’t it a realm thing?” Sunny asked and sent a ball of flame flying down the range to splash against the rock. I frowned. “Maybe? I mean, it’s possible but Celestia didn’t think so. It might just be that I suck at fire spells. Why would ice be easier than fire if it was a realm thing? It’s still just thermal energy!” “Now that I still don’t quite get and I went to school for a while where they taught that stuff,” Sunset said with a frown. “Never made sense to me.” “Fast atoms hot, cold atoms slow.” She rolled her eyes. “Thank you, Lord Obvious. I know that’s the same thing but it’s not quite in magic.” Nodding, I sent a bolt of force down the range, hitting close to the centre of her target. “I guess that might be where I do things wrong.” Casting a Spear of Ice spell, one of the more moderately difficult ones, I sent it flying down the range to shatter into a thousand pieces against the enchanted rock target. It may not have pierced a normal rock, but it should have at the very least chipped it. “This is always too easy,” Sunny commented and bumped her shoulder against mine. “Come on, let’s head to the swinging targets instead.” “Fair enough.” She had a point there, a stationary target was kind of easy and mostly for learning to aim new spells rather than improving your aim in general. “So, when do you leave for the Crystal Empire? Twilight said the Crystalling was in a couple of weeks.” I shrugged my wings and walked along. “In a week or so, takes time to get two princesses moving unless it’s an emergency. Tons of stuff that need planning.” “No kidding,” Sunset agreed. “Sounds like we are all taking the same train.” I frowned slightly. “How do you feel about going back to the Crystal Empire?” Sunset sighed and looked over at the magically swinging stone sphere on a chain. “I’m not sure, to be honest. I feel bad about what happened there, but… I didn’t actually hurt anyone. Will be mostly strange to be back there.” “I guess it would be,” I agreed and frowned. “…For me too. Not that good memories last time I was there either,” I said before I grinned at her. “But hey, maybe we are lucky and we get another big world ending monster. Maybe you can get your own wings!” “Why would I want my own wings when I can always admire yours?” Sunset teased with a grin, “Come on, let’s finish this so you can get going, you have a dinner, remember?” “Ugh, don’t remind me. Be nice or I’ll bring you along.”