Chapter 14: A Plain Day
After they said their goodbyes to Fang, watching him fly off to meet his mate, Ace and Sanctis made their way back down the mountain.
“We’re headed to Neighagra Falls next, right?” Sanctis asked as they came off the mountain. “That’s what you said the other day, outside of Summervale at least.”
Ace nodded, working over the map in his head. “We go southeast across the Crystal Plains, making our way to the river that feeds Neighagra Falls. We’ll stop in the little tourist town there and restock our supplies.
“It should be about a day’s journey,” Ace said, looking up at the sun to gauge the time, “which means we’ll have to set up camp before we get there, since we’ve not got much day left.”
Sanctis’ face lit up at the thought of setting up camp. “Which means my first ever magic lesson! I’m gonna learn magic!” she chanted, bouncing around Ace as they made their way across the plains, a light breeze whipping the grasses and flowers to one side.
“Alright, alright,” Ace said, chuckling. “Don’t forget it’ll also be your first lesson with your knife, too. Magic can be a powerful weapon, but it’ll take longer to utilize. You’ll learn to use the knife first, magic second.
“I know, magic sounds like fun and the knife sounds like work,” he said with a smile at her groan, “but I want to make sure you can protect yourself. Any number of unfortunate things could happen between here and Ponyville.”
“Can’t I learn magic and walk at the same time? Other unicorns do it all the time!” Dang, I’m acting like a petulant child again…
Ace seemed to consider her idea for a moment, then, “Try to levitate something, then. If you can levitate something as we walk, that’ll be a good warm up.”
Not sure what else she should use, Sanctis pulled out the small bottle of blade oil from her saddlebags and held it in her hoof as she walked.
Sanctis stared at the bottle in her hoof, willing it to lift into the air as she focused on her horn, not sure what else to do.
Her face scrunched up in the concentration, she tried closing her eyes and focusing on it as well.
After a moment, she saw a little bit of light from behind her eyelids, opening her eyes with a gasp, then a frown as it was just sparks coming off of her horn. That she could do before… and they did nothing.
Ace, watching her the whole time, nodded at this. “Since you never got to use your magic as a toddler, your body has trouble connecting to your magic.
“The first misunderstanding that unicorns-in-training have is that the magic comes from their horn; it does not. The well of magic is close to the heart, in your chest. Our horns are just outlets for the power, as it bears a direct connection to the magic.
“Sit still for a moment,” Ace said, walking toward her as she did so. “Close your eyes, and focus on just feeling; center yourself on your horn and your chest.”
Not entirely certain what ‘centering’ meant, she focused on herself as he asked. “Now, take deep breaths. In,” she inhaled slowly, filling her lungs as much as she could, “and out.” Exhale.
“In,” another deep breath, then he flicked her horn with a hoof.
“Hey, what was that for?!” she complained, her eyes darting open as she rubbed her horn. It didn’t hurt, but there was a tingly feeling.
“Did you feel it? The tingle in your chest?” Sanctis shook her head. She felt a tingle in her horn, but it didn’t reach her chest or anything. Ace just ‘hmmed’ again.
“Oh, I know what’ll help,” he said, shrugging off his saddlebag to pull something out. It was the necklace he stopped wearing after their visit with Fang. “Put this on,” he said, already draping it over her head.
Sanctis felt a wave of energy pass over her body, and another spark flew off of her horn. Now she felt the tingle in her chest and horn. Ace flicked her horn again, magnifying the feeling. “Feel it?”
Sanctis nodded excitedly. “That’s my magic?! That tingling?!”
Ace nodded with a smile as he adjusted the knot on the necklace; it was hanging between her hooves instead of around her chest.
Barely waiting for the necklace to be adjusted for her height, Sanctis focused on the feeling in her chest, her horn and the blade oil once more.
With a gasp, she watched as her horn lit up in a light pink glow, followed by the bottle. With a squeal, she started bouncing around – the blade oil maintaining a static distance in front of her horn – “I’m learning magic! I’m really learning magic!”
Ace smiled his large, goofy smile as he watched her prancing around the open field. “And doing a good job of it, too. Now, try moving the bottle without moving your horn.”
Standing still, her face worked in concentration, she imagined the bottle moving around. At first, she thought nothing was happening, then realized she was rotating the bottle in place.
“Don’t just imagine the bottle moving in your mind. Imagine it moving relative to something stationary, like yourself.” Ace stifled a laugh as Sanctis smacked herself in the face with the bottle at first.
Then, once she got the hang of picturing a stationary object and the bottle moving relative to it, she made the bottle orbit around herself. Sanctis was all goofy smiles too, but decided not to say anything for fear of dropping the oil.
She started doing tricks with the bottle; leaping over it, raising a hoof to let it dart underneath before stomping down, throwing it as high into the air as she could manage, tossing it up and catching it before it hit the ground…
“Alright, alright Sanctis, that’s enough. You’re gonna make me jealous if you keep carrying on like that!” Ace said with a laugh, telling her he wasn’t really jealous.
“Ah come on, just a little longer?” she asked, puppy-dog-eyes-mode in full effect, but Ace just shook his head.
“No more playing around Sanctis, we have a lot of ground to cover before nightfall.” Sanctis’ features drooped as she made to put the bottle back in her saddlebags.
“Besides, you need to practice walking and levitating at the same time,” he said, bringing her smile back.
The pair walked in silence for a while. The plains were clear as far as the eye could see. Nothing but grass and the occasional flower, with some trees far and few between.
The minutes passed, and Sanctis played with her bottle of oil the entire way, the glow never adding from her horn.
Honestly, I thought that using magic would make me tired, but I feel like I could do this all day! Sanctis thought excitedly. Is it just because it’s a simple spell, or is it the necklace?
Trying to maintain the levitation spell on two things at once, she continued spinning the bottle around her while also lifting the necklace so she could examine it.
It took more concentration than she thought though, and she alternated between dropping them and picking them back up a few times before she got the hang of it.
Once she had, she saw the necklace with a silver-looking talon grasping a sphere-cut sapphire. She looked at the thing more closely, and noticed on one side there was Al Bhed writing engraved on one side.
“Eh sasuno uv Little Raven?” In memory of Little Raven?
Ace nearly missed a step as she read it, so she figured it must be important. “You said your special somepony was named Twilight Sparkle… was Little Raven one of your fillies?”
Ace looked sad since the mention of the inscription, but his glance shot up for a moment, across the field, before he regained his composure, then smiled his goofy prank-loving smile.
“A story for another time, Sanctis. Do you see what I see? There, across the field, in the shade of that tree?”
Following his gaze, Sanctis saw a filly-sized bird laying down in the shade and watching them closely. “Is it dangerous?” she ventured, not wanting to be bird food after just starting to learn magic.
“Dangerous? No! But a lot of fun. It’s a Plainstrider! Stow the oil and follow my lead,” he said, calmly making his way toward the bird.
When they were about ten meters away, the bird leapt to its feet, its body hunkered down like it was ready to attack. Ace jumped and turned to the side – the direction they were headed before – and looked at Sanctis to do the same.
The bird seemed to perk up, tilting its head as it watched them. Its long, pointed beak opened and shut, making a sharp clacking noise.
And then Ace ran – not as fast as he ran in the forest when Sanctis was riding him, but when Sanctis caught up he picked up the pace.
Looking back to the bird, Sanctis saw it was chasing them! No, not chasing… it was racing them!
Ace looked at Sanctis, all smiles still. “Run as fast as you can! I’ll follow your lead.” Sanctis poured it on as hard as she could, Ace and the Plainstrider matching her speed.
The ponies kicked up light puffs of dust as they ran, but the Plainstrider’s long legs barely left anything behind as they passed, save for some bent or cut grass from its sharp talons.
“How long will it race us? What happens if we lose?!” Sanctis called, perhaps louder than she meant to.
Ace just laughed as he kept up the pace, the bird just a hoof’s length to his left. “A lot longer than we can run for, that’s for sure! And I don’t think anypony’s ever beat a Plainstrider in a race out here before.
“They’re real friendly creatures that love to race. They’re perhaps the fastest thing out here. They’re birds, but they can’t fly in the air. Their talons are sharp, and their beak is great for stabbing predators in the eyes if they get cornered.
“But really… they just love to race!” Ace said, his laugh loud and wonderful.
Sanctis watched the bird to see if it was struggling to keep up at all. It had long legs, a small, brown feathery body with only vestigial wings for balance. It had a long, narrow neck with no feathers, but the short feathers of its head were blowing in the air behind it as it ran.
Noticing her watching it, it sped ahead of Ace and Sanctis, then ran along to her side to race beside her. It tilted its head as if to say ‘Is that the best you can do?’ its beak clacking once.
Sanctis poured every bit of energy into running, her eyes closing as she concentrated on the effort, her head lowering as she wasn’t watching where she was going.
She ran and ran and ran, and when she opened her eyes, the Plainstrider was still right beside her, watching her.
“Argh! He’s so cocky!” she said, Ace only laughing.
“A little competition is nice though; we’re making good time in our travels thanks to this little guy.” The Plainstrider’s beak clacked again. “Besides, he’s earned the right to be cocky… He’s way faster than us. Watch this,” he said, reaching into his saddlebag.
He broke off a piece of hardtack in the bag, the bird eyeing him warily, then pulled it out and held it up for it to see, immediately returning to Ace’s side as they raced.
“Go get it!” he said, throwing the hard, salty bread as hard as he could as he ran. The Plainstrider darted ahead, almost doubling their speed, and caught the hardtack out of the air without even breaking stride.
“Wow… he really does have us beat!” Sanctis said, starting to run short of breath.
Ace nodded to a tree just off their path as the bird ran back to their side. “We’ll stop there to rest,” he said.
Once they turned for the tree, the Plainstrider clacked its beak once, then ran ahead and beat them to the goal.
Once Ace and Sanctis made it, they found the Plainstrider strutting, its head bobbing up and down as it walked with a swagger between them and the tree.
Sanctis puffed out her cheeks in annoyance, but Ace just laughed.
“If you give him a piece of your hardtack, maybe he’ll let you pet him,” Ace said as he shrugged off his sword and saddlebags next to the tree.
Remembering what it felt like to pet Fang, Sanctis jumped at the idea. She reached for her saddlebags, then fumbled with the clasp as she watched the bird. Then, remembering her magic, opened the clasp with her horn alight as she reached for the snack, breaking it in half by pushing it against her side first.
The Plainstrider’s beak clacked as it watched her, lightly hopping closer as he tilted his head to the side.
She held the piece of hardtack in one hoof, reaching towards him with the other. He eyed her warily, hopping to the side with the hardtack.
With one last hop, he snatched the hardtack from her hoof and took off across the plains, back to where they started the race.
“HEY! Come back here and let me pet you!” Ace just laughed as Sanctis pouted. “Stupid bird…”
Sanctis looked to the sun as Ace started setting up camp, not realizing that the day was nearing its end. Setting her saddlebags down like Ace had, she started to make her bed as well.
“We’ll forego the fire tonight. Wouldn’t want to turn the Crystal Plains into the Crystal Flames, eh?” Ace said, smiling at his own witticism. “The blankets should be enough to keep us warm out here.”
“What about critters? Won’t they bother us if we just sleep out here in the grass?” Ace just shrugged.
“Blankets should keep the worst of the bugs off. Most larger critters steer clear of ponies. Any overly-predatorial animals around here have been hunted to extinction millennia ago, or relocated elsewhere.
“Such is the way of ponies: we force our will upon even mother nature herself. Woe be to any who resist ponykind,” Ace said, though it lacked any energy or conviction, like it was just something he was used to, not something he endorsed.
Not wanting to waste daylight on a philosophy lesson, Sanctis quickly changed the topic. “I get to do another magic lesson now, right?” she asked excitedly.
Ace nodded with a smile. “You were trying to levitate two things at once earlier, weren’t you? How did that go?”
“Slow, at first…” Sanctis said, using her magic to open her saddlebag from some meters away, pulling out her blade oil at the same time. “But I think I’ve got the hang of it, now!”
Performing all manner of tricks with the bottle, Sanctis displayed her mastery of the levitation magic as she pulled some hardtack from her bags with her magic, eating and doing tricks with her magic at the same time.
“Ta-da!” she said, her mouth full of the salty brick of bread as Ace just smiled.
“Try lifting your whole saddlebag with only your magic,” Ace instructed. “If you can manage it, you can carry your saddlebags in your magic for as long as possible tomorrow.”
“That just sounds like work!” Sanctis griped as she tried to focus on lifting the heavier object.
“That’s the point, Sanctis,” he said as she barely managed to lift the bag from the ground at first, though the movement became increasingly fluid. “By doing something that you struggle to do, you’ll grow stronger – in this case, your well of magic will increase as you strain the muscle.
“Just be sure to stop when it feels uncomfortable. You don’t want to run out of magic like I did!”
Sanctis’ eyes shot wide open and she dropped the bag immediately. “How uncomfortable? Lifting the bag is already a little uncomfortable.”
Ace walked over to her bags and pulled the two blankets out, setting them beside his own. “Try now.”
Sanctis lifted the bag easily now. “It’s not uncomfortable, I guess… but how will I know when I need to stop?”
“If it feels uncomfortable in your horn, you’re just not able to use enough magic for that task yet. If it feels uncomfortable in your chest – where the magic is coming from – then it’s time to stop.”
Sanctis gave a sigh of relief, glad that she hadn’t pushed herself too far. “What happens if I keep going when it’s uncomfortable?”
“Well if it’s just your horn that’s uncomfortable, the magic may not behave the way you want it to… hence my fear of you practicing with us on top of a mountain.
“If it’s your chest that is uncomfortable, and you continue heedlessly, it will turn to pain, and then… absence. Once your magic is out, you won’t be able to use it until it’s fully recovered.”
Sanctis set the bag down for a moment, when a thought came to her. “What did your magic feel like after your horn was broken? Before Fang ate it all?”
Ace put a hoof to his chest, wincing as he recalled the feeling. “Like dragon teeth tearing through my entire body… like the eternal flame relocated to my heart. Like my organs were all on fire, being cooked alive from the inside out. Like my blood ran cold, every movement sending daggers through my muscles.
“Sanctis, I’m one of the few unicorns I know of that are alive today that has magic flowing through their entire body and not just centered in their chest. That magic was destroying me.”
Sanctis recoiled at the thought of all those sensations. She never knew Ace to exaggerate… but how could he have kept going if he felt like that?
I probably would have just laid down and not moved a hoof until it was over…
“How come it was doing that, though? I’ve heard of a few unicorns breaking their horns before, and I’m sure it’s really unpleasant, but to my knowledge they lived.
Thinking back, there had been a unicorn in the waiting room of the hospital with a broken horn the day she was mugged. Something about a cave-in in the mines breaking his horn. That didn’t sound too different from Ace’s story.
Ace looked like he wasn’t sure how to respond to the question. His eyes appraised her like he wasn’t sure he could trust her, or maybe that she wouldn’t be ready to hear the truth.
Old enough to carry a knife, too young to hear adult stories…
Finally, Ace said, “I have a lot of secrets, Sanctis. Secrets that others might do anything to learn. Not least of all are the secrets about how the stallions in my family all look alike, or how we always look the same age, or how we share the same memories.
“Do you understand what those three things together could mean for somepony?”
Sanctis didn’t need to give it much thought. “It’s the next best thing to immortality.”
“Exactly. I can’t trust you with these secrets, Sanctis. Not because you’re a filly, but because you might get hurt if you knew them, and because you’re vulnerable. You don’t know how to defend yourself the same way I do.
“However, I can at least make an effort to teach you,” he said, making his way to his sword by the tree. “Draw your knife. It’s time for practice.”
Sanctis gulped, afraid of having a sparring match with the bladed weapons. Especially having seen what Ace could do with his, and how easily he moved even while he was in so much pain.
“No, you’re holding the knife wrong,” he said almost immediately.
Sanctis was holding the knife the same way she had seen him holding a sword before. Her hoof in front of her, elbow bent, knife pointed forward.
“Knives and swords are different. Where a sword deals the most damage with slashing strokes, a knife’s strength is its short blade, granting it a strong point.”
Ace demonstrated with his sword, first slashing the air diagonally over his shoulder with both hooves, then horizontally with a single hoof.
“The power in a sword’s stroke comes from the forehoof, past the elbow. That means you hold the sword and strike like this,” another horizontal stroke with one hoof.
Ace flicked his wrist, and the sword rolled across his hoof to a backhanded grip. “Daggers and knives are best held like this. The shorter reach means that this style grants the most mobility, and allows the greatest transition of force from hoof to weapon.”
Ace made a punching gesture – both his hoof and his sword acting as a weapon – followed by a cross-cut as though he were still punching. On the recovery, he stabbed blade-first at the air.
“You may have noticed the movements seem awkward with my sword… With the knife, it will flow more easily.
“Daggers and knives will use energy from above the elbow, the elbow itself and even the power of your wrist and forehoof – past the elbow. Give it a try.”
Sanctis tried to mimic the three strikes that Ace had used, punching her hoof forward, then pulling it back to punch diagonally in front of herself, then stabbing directly in front of her in a single fluid motion.
It didn’t look all that fluid.
“The trick to mastering any weapon,”
“Is practice. Right?” Ace smiled with a nod.
“Just like how you had to find the magical well in your chest before you could use your magic, you’ll need to practice those strokes a thousand times before they feel natural to your body.”
“A thousand times?!” Sanctis said.
“With many other attacks and techniques woven in for good measure, yes. But any manner of practice will make you better than those… cultists were.” Ace motioned for her to continue the training.
“You mean the cultists you cut down when you saved me? What was wrong about them?”
“Aside from the obvious moral deficiencies? They weren’t trained to fight, Sanctis. I wouldn’t have been able to push them back so easily if they were. Their whole strategy was ‘There’s more of us, just charge him’ which was an easy ‘plan’ to counter.”
“So, you’re saying you could have… died?” Sanctis stopped mid-stroke to watch the emotion play over Ace’s face at though. Sadness, fear, worry…
“Yes, Sanctis. That’s what it means to fight. I’m strong, but I’m not invincible. I’m even more vulnerable without my magic…
“Few ponies rely on their magic like I did. Without it, I feel like I’m a blind pony stumbling around, bumping into things occasionally and getting hurt. If I’d had my magic…
“Well, if I had my magic, even more of those misguided cultists would have died. That’s for certain. Without my magic… I can’t protect you as well as I might like, either.”
“That’s why you’re training me, isn’t it? Because if I can’t fight, then you’ll end up dying trying to protect me. You know that if it came down to it, you’d endanger your own life if it meant saving mine.”
Ace looked her in the eyes for a moment, solemn, then nodded.
“You barely even know me!”
“And yet you chose to follow me. Trust is a two-way street, Sanctis. So is friendship. The Matron was pretty clear, besides: I would protect you from anything that could happen to us.”
“You really mean that, don’t you?” Sanctis bit her cheek to keep from getting emotional. Ace just nodded, his face completely serious.
“Alright, that’s enough for the knife practice. Let’s talk about cleaning and maintaining the blade.”
“I- I can keep going!” Sanctis blurted out, still having 978 repetitions to do.
“Sanctis, you’re shaking,” he said, pointing to her other hoof. “We’ve been through a lot today. There’re only a few minutes of sunlight left, and we don’t have a lantern.
“Any time you use your knife, you need to clean it. Whether you’re striking dummies, targets or ponies. Especially ponies. You can clean with a cloth most of the time, but every few cleanings you need to apply the blade oil.
“If there’s any contaminants on the blade, it won’t cut as cleanly. Keeping it clean is just like keeping it sharp.” Ace cleaned his sword with the edge of one of their blankets.
Afterwards, he took his bottle of blade oil, put the cloth over top of it, and tipped the bottle at it briefly before leveling it back out. The cloth dampened with oil, he ran it over the blade, polishing it.
“Once the oil has been applied, carefully dry it off with another section of cloth. Be sure to get all the oil off, and don’t let any soak into the handle. If you get water or oil in your handle, it can lead to rusting underneath, and the blade may break off in combat.”
Sanctis followed his instructions, cleaning and then wiping off the knife as he did the same with his sword.
As she cleaned the knife, Sanctis found a bit of blood left over from the previous… encounter. Ace watched her, ostensibly evaluating her reaction. She cleaned the blood off, but thought she was going to be sick.
“A weapon that is never bloodied is a either a legendary weapon indeed, or a waste. Part of protecting yourself is going to include hurting somepony else, Sanctis.
“You won’t know until it happens if you’re able to do it. Either you can hurt somepony else, or you can’t. It’s just pony nature; one or the other.”
“Then you’re… one of the ponies that can hurt others?”
Ace took a deep breath before he answered, as if calming himself. “Some days Sanctis, I’m barely even a pony.
“Now, we won’t often need to sharpen our weapons, at least comparative to cleaning, but it will be necessary. We won’t sharpen today, but I will explain how.”
Pulling the whetstone and its case from his saddlebags, Ace laid it on the ground and removed the lid, leaving the stone in the case.
“To start, you pour water into the case, submerging the stone. Once the bubbles of air stop rising from the stone, pour out enough water so that the surface isn’t submerged.
“Once that’s done, you run the blade at an angle over the stone,” he said, demonstrating from above the stone, “first towards your body, then away. Apply a light yet constant pressure towards the stone. Move from the tip of the blade to the base, then back again.
“Every few strokes, be sure to jostle the case, running water over the surface of the stone. This will clean it, and keep it properly abrasive.
“Once the edges have been honed, run the blade along the whetstone twice at an angle, to finalize the process. Afterwards, poor fresh water over the blade to rinse it off. Remember to dry it softly and carefully.”
“I think I got it all,” Sanctis said, trying to memorize the entire thing, “but how come we’re not sharpening right now, or every time we clean the blades?”
“The act of sharpening means taking away some of the metal to make it come to a finer point. Take away too much metal with too-frequent sharpening, and you’ll have either a brittle blade or a broken one.”
The lesson concluded, Ace and Sanctis put away their weapons, Ace stowing his whetstone as well. After the day’s trials and their exertions, Ace and Sanctis ate a small meal of hardtack and water, then settled into their blankets to fall sleep.
Once Sanctis was asleep, Ace got out from under his blankets, his body full of too much energy to fall asleep.
Starting his routine, he stood on only his front hooves, the back raised into the air, and silently counted to 100 slowly as he held the position, keeping his balance carefully.
After the hundred count, he started doing pushups. He continued until the shaking of his hooves threatened to topple him, falling onto his back softly in the grass. He laid for a moment to catch his breath.
Then came the sit-ups.
I really owe Fang for this, he thought to himself. I’ve been falling behind in my physical exercises… and that magic situation made it impossible to get anything done!
Once he was through with the sit-ups, he grabbed his saddlebags and draped them over his shoulders for weight and started doing squats, his upper body raised, all the weight on his back hooves.
I have to get stronger again, he thought, sparing a glance back to Sanctis. For both of our sakes.
Once he grew tired of the squats, he looked around the plains for any sign of nocturnal dangers. Finding none, he made off at a sprint.
Maybe a short jog… perhaps I’ll even find something good to eat, he thought to himself, changing as he went.