//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 - Anon's Reflex Training // Story: Dadonequus Discord (Book 2) // by CrazedLaughter //------------------------------// However, when you came out of said bathroom washed and refreshed, the humiliation you felt was no longer there. You had time to think about what’s really important. Also, you couldn’t remember the last time you took a bath, period. It was like just coming and going from your room mostly kept you clean. Or maybe it was some sort of oversight from some deity above, who knows… Either way, you felt much better now. When you stepped out, you noticed Starlight messing with her personal taser. “Starlight? Whatcha doin?” Starlight notices you, and puts the taser down on a table with her magic. She looks at you with a gentle stoic look “Just messing with my taser. Don’t really get to use it much since things have been pretty peaceful, so I like to take it out sometimes and give it a quick examination. I know it’s unlikely, but if a threat did show up and I had to use it as a last resort, I’d rather it not malfunction in some way. Oh, so...How do you feel? Are you alright?” You nod, giving her a cheerful smile “Heck yeah! As if a simple blast of blazing hot coffee can stop me! Although, I was still interested in getting some reflex training in. I have to be at my best tomorrow, so if I want to be impressive for Spoiled while making sure Scootaloo can keep up, I’m gonna need all the help I can get.” “Sure! I don’t mind helping you with that, especially since tomorrow is so important for you. So, what did you have in mind for this training anyway?” Starlight asked “Easy, I want you to hit me with everything you got.” You tell her, ignorant of what that could actually mean. “Uhhhhh…” Starlight looked surprised, and looked at you as if you were biting off more than you could chew “Anon, you totally definitely do not want that.” “Why not?” You ask “Starlight, I’m much better thanks to my training. Plus, even before that, I have the reflexes of a master gamer! I can handle whatever you throw at me.” “Yeah...I saw those reflexes when that coffee shot out at you, which you had time to dodge out of the way, just mentioning.” Starlight raises her hoof and shakes it to further signify how much of a bad idea this sounded to her “Anon, you really don’t want this. I’m an extremely powerful unicorn, you should know that. You’re going to get hurt” “Starlight, this is the only chance I’m gonna get. This isn’t just for me, It’s for Scoots. Also, I wasn’t in the zone when that coffee shot out. This time? I’m totally in that zone! Trust me, with my superior physique, I’ll be able to dodge anything and everything you got!” “Anon, I cannot stress this enough…” She starts using both her forelegs to emphasize her following words “You-are-going-to-get-hurt” “Starlight, I need you to trust me on this, ok? Besides, why do you even think that? I had a major part in beating the Storm King, remember?” “I remember some mention of you getting clobbered up and down until the very end, or something like that.” Oygh, that one hurt. “Y-yeah, but just like with the coffee, he caught me super off guard, and that was before my training too. Starlight, come on! I’m not a kid...mostly...sort of! Look, I’m super sure I can handle it. So just don’t hold back, and just hit me with what you got, alright? I’ll just focus on dodging.” You do your best to recover from her words and look at her with gathered confidence “Come on, what’s the worst that can happen?” “Oh boy…You don’t want to know” Starlight says with a cringe as she goes over her more dangerous spells in her head It looked like she still wasn’t willing. You could try pouting, being cute, and saying “pwease”....but oh god, she’d lose respect for you, you know it. You needed something to fully convince her. You only had one more thing you could think of. “Starlight, I’m serious. You’ve met Scootaloo before, she has a lot of hope in her heart, and is putting her livelihood on this. I can’t let her down...So please?” You stare into her eyes, with a half serious, half begging look. “Help me? So I can make sure this all goes down ok, please? “Oygh, you’re guilt tripping me...But…” Starlight groans as she finally gives in “I guess you’re right...It would be hard to balance showing off and helping Scootaloo if you weren’t prepared. But again, seriously? Are you sure you want me to go all out? I can hold back some, you know, I shouldn’t have to try to incinerate you just so you can get the training you need.” “I’m su-...Wait…” Did she say… “Incinerate? What?” “Yeah, that’s what I said. Or did you forget I was willing to do whatever I needed to achieve my old goal? Including having to fight Twilight if I had to. My most powerful spells are nearly undodgeable, Anon, you won’t last. I could have just said yes and not actually tried my hardest, but then I know you’d complain. Plus there is the fact that I do respect you as my equal, enough to actually go all out. So again, one final time, do you want me to hold back? Or do you really REALLY want me to go all out? Because unless your skills have improved that much, you’re gonna get blasted pretty hard.” And she sounded pretty damn serious on this too. You gulped, this could end up being your end if she respected you enough to really give it her all upon your request. Should you do it? Should you…? You have taken beatings before… But you were planning on dodging everything… Do it, and don’t look back. You redouble your bravery on the matter, and nod at Starlight. “Let’s do it!” Starlight couldn’t say a thing at first. She looked down, let out a breath, got up, and started heading out the door. “Follow me then, I want to be a good distance out of town before we do this.” And so you both went, travelling out of town a good distance enough that it was just a blur in the horizon, both you and Starlight surrounded by the empty desolation of the rest of the mountainous region. With only a few rocks, boulders, and canyon walls scattered about to set the scene. Starlight looks at you with a serious glare as her horn lights up. She stands just a few yards away, ready to give it her all. “Last chance, Anon, unless you’re absolutely sure you can handle this, then I suggest we tone it down, alright?” You couldn’t tone it down. Besides, at this point, it wasn’t even about you or Scoots anymore. Starlight was so damn sure this was beyond you, and during your walk, you built up an absolute need to prove her wrong. “I can do this, Starlight. Bring it on! On my mark! 3…2…” Starlight looked more than prepared to fire on the word “go!”. But despite her saying she was going all out, as she did plan to, she also did have enough hard to dodge spells that, while high level, were actually pretty safe. She had a pretty quick spell that could encase her target in magic crystal. She was thinking of hitting you with that to get you to realize how foolish you were being. “1...go!” You immediately rush to the right to try to throw off whatever Starlight was about to fire. But Starlight was ready for you, she fires a laser shot right where you were going to be. However, your reflexes were, in fact, sharp enough to catch that she aimed towards your direction. You jump forward and above her beam. But suddenly, your lower body gets stuck in some purple crystal roughly twice your size. “G-Guh?!” You try desperately to get out, but to no avail, you were stuck. “What is this?!” “Gee whiz, Anon, you sure dodged that, huh?” Starlight looked to you with an arrogant smirk as she approached you, and then flicked your nose “I told you you couldn’t handle me at my highest level. This is a powerful concealment spell. Really really hard to learn considering I don’t even need to make a direct hit for it to work. So...” She sighs, and looks to you with a frown “Do you see what I mean now? This is just reflex training, Anon. My strongest spells aren’t going to help you learn anything, ok? So let’s just tone it down like I suggested.” “Ngh! No! That was just...NGH!” You were struggling to get free “A lucky shot! I can do this! I know I can!” It wasn’t just the fact that Starlight didn’t believe you could do it, it was something else too. You had been training so hard, to be something more than just a guy with a deus ex machina at his command. You wanted to be able to win fights with your wit and skills alone. “Anon…” Starlight shook her head “Come on, please, it’s over.” She didn’t even want to continue any more. She wanted to help you, but not while you were being persistent like this. “It’s...Not...OVER!” With all your will, strength, and even luck, you manage to bring yourself down, grip the ground with your hooves, and flip yourself and the large stone over, nearly crushing Starlight. Starlight teleports away as she witnesses you bring the stone down hard with your body, shattering it to pieces. “What in the…” Starlight was astonished, she didn’t expect you to be able to do that with just your front hooves. “I told you I could do it! Yeah! OH YEAH!” You jumped up above the crystal rubble with pride. You then looked to Starlight, more ready than ever. “Come on! I’m still willing to go!” Starlight had to admit to herself, that was somewhat impressive. “Alright, I didn’t expect you to manage to flip yourself like that, but if that isn’t enough to stop you.” Starlight starts to glow as she raises into the air, looking down at you with an almost sinister glare “Then I’ll have to really up my game!” By that, she meant mostly hitting you with a multishot stunning spell. She wasn’t willing to use explosive projectiles or straight up lasers just yet. “Take this, Anon!” You witness Starlight bring her head back and swing it forward, launching a shitton of electric balls down towards your position. Ok…maybe you went in a little over your head this time. “Shit…” You start darting around the arena, doing your best to dodge every shot that came down near you. You jumped to the left to dodge one shot, then cartwheeled to the right to dodge a few more before backflipping to dodge a particularly humongously large electrical orb. You were diving,rolling, spinning, tumbling, and jumping away from every shot that came upon your vicinity. The worst part of it all was that Starlight wasn’t relenting. Sure, you originally didn't want that, but holy fuck! This really was too much! The truth was that this spell actually didn’t use too much power at all for a unicorn like her. They were magical orbs that simply stunned for a short while. They were being shot out in a ridiculous pace to compensate for it’s less than stellar power. Hell, their trajectory was random as her horn spit them out. But you didn’t know that. Starlight was actually impressed even further. Despite you screaming for her to stop at this point as you had become fearful of blowing up like she had suggested you would, you were in fact dodging her randomly fired orbs. She knew, if she wanted to, that she could hit you with something like a laser shot or a focused explosive blast. But this was merely training your reflexes, and it looked like it had done its job in preparing you for tomorrow. Fearing for your life at this point, you jump behind a boulder, duck your head, and hope to god Starlight wastes her magic on whatever the fuck she was doing. Starlight does stop after some time, but you didn’t notice as you continued to hide. Starlight has herself quite a giggle as she slowly lands to the ground and heads over to the boulder to tell you the good news. To her, and hopefully to you, you did well enough to dodge her randomly shot blasts to consider it a job well done.