The next morning, Swift Blaze woke up at his usual time. The stallion didn’t want to disturb the others, so he stayed in bed and went into his mind for some quick training. He started with muscle training as he expected that Shining was going to over push him again. He had one clone spend some time going through medical healing scrolls
After hearing what happened to Lightning Trail’s dad, Blaze thought there might be something in these about advanced nerve repair. He knew it wouldn’t be easy to learn, but he felt he should look into it, if there was a chance. This went on for an hour until a horn went off. It shook the mind space and caused the red pony to exit to see what’s going on.
Captain Shining Armor was standing at the entrance to the barracks. He had a big smile on his face. “Get up you foals! Time for some more training,” he shouted.
The ponies shot out of their beds and stood at the front of them. Blaze was wondering what this Unicorn had planned for them today. Shining Armor walked down the middle of the room as the trainees stood at attention. He looked at each of them as he went by. When he looked at the red Earth pony directly, his smile grew bigger. Blaze instantly thought he was going to be in pain again.
“After breakfast, report to the track for another session of running. You have thirty minutes to get ready and have breakfast.”
He left and the group quickly went and made their way to the mess hall. They grabbed some food and ate in silence and quickly. Once done, the ponies ran to the track and made it with a few minutes to spare. They stood in line and at attention, waiting for their orders. Shining Armor teleported in front of us when the time was up.
“Now then, yesterday when you ran the track, it was to see how you do. You’re going to need to improve your time quite a bit. Everypony’s average time to do one lap was around five minutes. Now, you will run this track until you are under one minute.”
They knew this was going to suck as the Earth pony saw it in their facial expression. Shining Armor then turned toward the red stallion.
“Blaze, you’re to increase your weight enhancement spell to three hundred seventy-five pounds. Have fun. NOW START RUNNING YOU MAGGOTS!”
He thought, I really hate you, Shining Armor. I don’t care if you’re the big bro to Twilight. You give me a chance to fight you, I’ll make sure you’ll feel the pain for the next week!
The red pony said the command and increased the weight. Blaze struggled just to stand. This is much of a strain on the body he didn’t expect to have to deal with. Each hoof felt like they were in concrete shoes covered in lead.
The other ponies had started to run. They saw how Blaze struggled to get going, but he had determination in his eyes again to beat this challenge. It took the stallion half an hour to do one lap. At this rate, he realized this is going to be a long day.
Three hours later, Colorful Spark, Cancer, Dragon, Star Dust, Fang, and Lightning Trails had got under the one minute mark. The only one that was left was the red pony. His time was down to ten minutes. Shining Armor showed up and informed those who finished to go and get lunch and then do three hours on the obstacle course. After the other trainees had left, the white Unicorn ran alongside the last pony.
“You having fun here, Swift Blaze? Or should I call you, Slow Blaze?” Shining Armor said.
The Earth pony didn’t answer him as he was focused on the task.
“What? No back talk like the morning you evaded my guards. I guess you wished you had never done that now, do ya.”
“Sir, permission to speak freely, sir,” Blaze said with an angry tone.
“Sure, why not. There’s nothing you can do anyway to hurt me if you want to stay here.”
“I really did respect what you do here and that you are Twilight’s brother. But that all changed when you turned into a complete motherfucking asshole! I know you were embarrassed that I evaded your guards that morning. Just realize no pony on this goddamn planet ever saw a human in over a thousand years, let alone one that can do these crazy things I can do. You only have me do these ridiculous things harder than the others because you are hoping I would break down and give up. I got some news for you, we humans NEVER GIVE UP! WE PUSH THROUGH THE HARD TIMES. LET ME TELL YOU THE SECRET THAT HAS LED ME TO MY GOAL. MY STRENGTH LIES SOLELY IN MY DETERMINATION!”
Blaze gained a burst of speed and ran faster. Shining Armor couldn’t believe this guy wouldn’t give up. The Unicorn teleported away and left the Earth pony alone with the guard that was keeping track of his time. It took several more hours before the stallion finally got under the one minute mark.
When he crossed the finished line, the red pony activated his ki flying so he wouldn’t fall face first into the ground. As he floated to the guard, he informed Blaze that he can go have dinner and turn in. The stallion nodded and made his way there.
He entered the mess hall and saw the others were eating their dinners. They were talking among themselves, but stopped when Blaze entered. He went and got his massive pile of food and joined them. As he was starting to eat, the other ponies were just staring at him.
Blaze swallowed the food he had eaten and wiped his muzzle before he asked, “Is there something you all want to ask me?”
“Remember when I asked you why you were on Captain Shining Armor’s hate list? You said you would tell us exactly what happened,” Fang replied.
“I do remember saying that. I take it you all are dying to know?”
The trainees all nodded their heads.
“Then let me tell you the tale as I eat as I didn’t have lunch today.”
So, Blaze told them about the morning when he woke up and was led to these training grounds. He told them about the nice soldiers who escorted him and about the sparring matches the pony had with himself. The stallion went on how he used a teleport jutsu and scared the guards outside of the dining room where the Princesses were having breakfast. He went into the details of what happened in the chase all the way to where he performed a ki move called ‘Solar Flare’ to blind them and teleported to the Princesses.
“No wonder Shining Armor has a grudge against you. I would too If I was embarrassed like that in front of the Princesses,” Star Dust said.
“His guards were never trained to deal with something like me and the abilities that I have. He shouldn’t make me suffer for it.” Blaze replied.
“I agree. You should go and tell the Princesses of what he is doing.” Dragon said.
“Then they will think I’m weak and couldn’t cut it. I just need to find a way for him to treat me as an equal and not the enemy.”
“What about challenging him to a match?” Lightning Trails asked.
“What?”
“My dad told me about it when I was young. A recruit can challenge the training officer if he or she believes they are being singled out from the rest of the group. It doesn’t happen often, but that’s there so the pony does have something they can do instead of quitting.”
“Lightning Trails, YOU ARE A GENIUS!” Blaze shouted and started to leave.
“Where are you going?” Fang asked.
“Going back to the barracks to get ready,” he said as he left.
Blaze entered the barracks and headed to his bed. He made two clones to help him out. The first clone will go into the mind space and train. The second clone will go into their mind space and focus on healing the body. Blaze will watch over them to make sure no one will disturb them. When the others finally came to the barracks, they all did a double take at what they were seeing.
“Um, is the fatigue from today finally getting to me, or do I see three Swift Blaze?” Cancer asked the others.
Lightning Trails replied, “I see the same thing you are seeing.”
Blaze spoke up and said, “I can explain why you see three of me. Come on in and I shall tell you about this jutsu.”
They entered and came to the foot of his bed. Blaze told them about his shadow clone and what this had allowed him to do since I came to this world. He could tell they were amazed at something new they had never seen before.
“So, you’re getting some healing done, while another of you is training on something, and you’re here to keep an eye on them,” Star Dust said.
“That is pretty much what it sums up to. I’m going to tell you right now. Don’t try to enter my mind. There are some sort of barriers in place, not of my own doing, to protect the knowledge I have. I don’t want any of you getting trapped in them.”
The Unicorns nodded to him. The other trainees headed to their own beds for some sleep. The only pony that was left awake was the one of Blaze that was watching over the others of himself.
The next morning, just before Shining Armor would enter, Blaze woke up the other two of his clones and released the jutsu. He quickly went over what they did and prepared himself for the fight.
Shining will regret what he has done by the end of the match. I won’t hurt him, much.Blaze thought.
The Earth pony saw the Captain come in. He was surprised to see that the red pony was already awake. He blew the horn in his magical grasp to wake the others. “Alright you sleepy heads, you know the drill. See you on the track in thirty minutes,” the Unicorn said and then teleported away.
Blaze left for the mess hall as the others took care of their morning business. He grabbed his normal amount of food he eats and sat at the usual table. The others shortly joined him at the table with their breakfast.
“Are you ready to challenge Shining Armor today, Blaze?” Colorful Spark asked.
He replied, “As ready as I’ll ever be. This is going to be a match for the books.”
“Maybe all the other guards and the Princesses will come and see the match,” Cancer said.
The red pony looked in the direction where the magic pinhole would be, if they were still watching him. “I think they might if they want to see some new jutsu I’ve come up with.”
“What are you looking at, Blaze?” asked Lightning Trails.
“Oh, thought I heard a fly buzzing around somewhere in that direction.”
“Let's get going before we are late.” Star Dust said.
The group finished their breakfast and arrived at the track with a few minutes to spare. When time was up, Captain Shining Armor teleported in. Before he was going to tell us what to do today, Blaze interrupted him by shouting, “CAPTAIN SHINING ARMOR! I HEREBY CHALLENGE YOU TO A MATCH FOR SINGLING ME OUT DURING TRAINING!”
The Unicorn strolled up and faced him, face to face. “So, you are going to invoke the challenge. What are your conditions for the challenge?” he asked.
“It will be a no holds barred match. Anything can go. I will be allowed to use my chakra and ki and you can use your magic. We can use weapons, but cannot kill the opponent. First to lose consciousness, loses the match. If I win, you will treat all of us fairly like you would normal recruits. If I lose, I shall drop out of the training and leave Ponyville, forever.”
“I accept your terms. Follow me to the battle arena.”
They followed him to another part of the training grounds the trainees haven’t seen before. The ponies entered and stopped at a stairway.
“The rest of you can go up these stairs and watch from the seats around the arena. Blaze, follow me to the arena itself.”
They all complied and followed the instructions. The captain led him to a double door and opened them. A bright light shone through the opening first and then revealed the field. The pair soon heard lots of ponies cheering. They looked around and saw the place was filled with lots of guards. Both spotted Princess Celestia and Princess Luna in the Royal box to watch events from.
Blaze took a guess they were still watching him. They wanted to see how he was handling the training. He looked over to Shining Armor whose eyes were widened in shock at the massive crowd of guards that filled the seats of the arena.
The Unicorn turned to the Earth pony and said, “Did you have something to do with this?”
“How could I? I have been on the training grounds,” Blaze replied. “There hasn’t been any contact with anyone from the outside. I’ve only chatted with you and the others I am training with.”
“I think this will be good now. When I humiliate you in front of those I command, they’ll know who’s the best.”
“Don’t think having your guards here will help you win.”
“I was going to kick your flank no matter what.”
“Then let’s stop chatting and head to the center of the field.”
The pair made their way and stood in the center. Blaze whispered the command to take the weight enhancement off so he’d be at top speed. Princess Celestia stood up and walked to the balcony just outside of the royal box.
“Good morning everypony! We’re all here to watch the challenge match between Captain Shining Armor and Swift Blaze. They have set the terms among each other and are ready to fight. Let's cheer for both as these are two great stallions,” the white Alicorn said using her Royal Canterlot Voice.
The crowd cheered louder after the speech. Shining Armor and Blaze turned and faced each other and got into a battle stance. Both had a serious look on their faces as they stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.
The red stallion said, “You can still back out and just accept to treat me better like the others.”
The white stallion replied, “You can also back out before being humiliated in front of all these ponies. I have yet to lose a challenge.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
“Enough chat! Time for battle!” Shining Armor shouted.
The Unicorn charged his horn up quickly and fired a spell at the Earth pony. He had let it hit to see what it would do. It was a barrier spell that surrounded him. Blaze touched it and saw he couldn’t pass through it like the others.
“Too easy. What are you going to do now? That’s my strongest barrier spell. Nothing can break it.” Shining Armor said as he was gloating.
“Guess you did not hear me,” Blaze replied. “I said there’s a first time for everything. Let me show you how easily I can break this barrier of yours.”
Blaze started to charge up his ki. The Captain watched to see what he’d do. The red pony was soon emitting a red glow around his body. The barrier started to buckle as he charged up higher. When the stallion was ready, he released the energy and shattered the force field to nothing.
Shining Armor was first surprised, then got furious. He fired another spell at Blaze, but he easily dodged it with his new speed. From the Unicorn’s point of view, it looked like the spell shot right through him.
The crowd gasped at what happened and couldn’t understand how it happened. He took a guess there might have been one pony that could have possibly seen what he did. Blazed scanned the crowd quickly looking for his team. He soon spotted them. They all had surprised looks on their faces, except for one, Cancer. His horn was glowing so he suspected he activated his ability to speed himself up. Blaze knew he'd like this next attack.
As Shining Armor was charging up another spell, Blaze moved at full speed to him. Time slowed down as he ran. When the Earth pony was close to the Unicorn, he quickly placed a hoof band on his horn. He then stood next to him a distance away. When time went back to normal for Blaze, Shining Armor thought he disappeared. The red stallion whistled so he would look in his direction.
The Captain turned his head with a confused look. “How did you get over there?”
Blaze replied, “The weight training, remember? Want to know what it feels like? Increase left fore hoof band back to previous weight.”
The Unicorn’s head suddenly took a nosedive and his horn penetrated the ground. The crowd was cheering and Blaze heard some laughter too. Shining Armor pulled his horn out of the ground and shook the hoof band off. He now looked pissed.
“ENOUGH OF THESE GAMES! COME AND FIGHT ME LIKE A STALLION! IF YOU HAVE THE BALLS!” Shining Armor shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Fine then, let’s get serious.”
Both charged at each other and started to throw hooves at each other. Each was blocking the other. Blaze had no trouble with his speed to read the Captain’s movements. The red stallion was amazed how the Unicorn was keeping up with blocking him. Kicks were also exchanged. This lasted for several minutes and neither of them was making headway. Blaze jumped back as this was getting boring. He wanted to change the fighting style.
The Earth pony gathered some chakra energy, thought the hand signs in his head, and shouted, “Fire Style! Rapid Fireball Jutsu!” He shot out several fireballs at Shining Armor. The white stallion activated his horn and had water shooting out and hit the fireballs. They made contact and burst into steam. Blaze decided to play with this and covered the field in a fog. He then summoned his samurai sword to him and started to sneak around the fog.
Shining Armor was getting frustrated with the environment change. “You call this fighting! You are hiding in a fog, afraid to attack!” He cried out.
A soldier would think it’s useless. But a ninja has an advantage with it. Blaze ran by the Captain several times in different directions. Each time, he had his sword touch him in a spot that would be fatal. But it didn’t do any damage as this was the reverse blade sword. He was hitting him with the blunt edge. The Unicorn fired spells in the directions Blaze ran away, but missed. He finally sent an energy wave of heat and that cleared the fog.
“You want to play with swords now? Let me show you what I can do.” Shining Armor pulled four swords off the arena walls with his magic and held them next to them. “Can you dodge all these?”
The white pony swung them at the red pony. He used his blade to deflect and block each swing. Blaze had to pick up his speed as the magic was allowing the Captain to swing them faster, at the same time he was doing this with four blades. The Earth pony was getting pushed back as he was defending himself. The crowd was now cheering for Shining Armor.
Ugh, they cheer who is winning. I need to change this up before I get diced up. Blaze thought.
He sidestepped and rolled out of the way. The stallion energized his sword with electricity and launched a wave at the Captain. He pulled up a barrier shield to deflect the wave. As he did this, Blaze performed another jutsu and gave himself some stone armor.
When the white Unicorn swung the blades at the Earth pony again, he let them hit him. The impact caused the blades to get stuck in the armor. Blaze’s sword was still energized, so he sent another wave at his opponent. The Captain was too close to bring up some protection. It made contact and got the jolt pretty good. Shining Armor lost control of the blades as the magical glow around the handles disappeared. The red stallion took his armor off so he could move again at the faster speed.
As the white Unicorn was recovering, Blaze performed an ice jutsu that encased all of his opponent’s hooves to the ground. Shining Armor tried to pull them out, but no such luck.
“Last chance to concede before we go to the next level,” Blaze said.
The Captain replied, “SCREW YOU YOU MOTHERFUCKING FREAK!”
“I really didn’t want to cause you severe pain, as I still respect you, but you leave me no choice.”
The Earth pony quickly backed away as the Unicorn used his magic to free himself. He then fired rapid shots of magic at the red stallion. Blaze dodged them the best he could, but the rapid fire caused several to hit him. Where they made contact, the pony felt a burning sensation that wouldn’t go away. Blaze countered by sending water jet streams at bullet speeds. This rapid fire also made several hits on the white stallion.
Blaze could feel his energy levels were getting low. He knew this would have to end soon if he wanted to stand a chance, so he played a desperate play and launched a ki ball at Shining Armor. The Unicorn brought up a barrier to block, but it just went right through and exploded. The Captain got knocked back several feet. The red pony stumbled toward his opponent as he too was now barely standing. They both looked at each other. Bruises were all over them and were really hurting.
“I will never give up. You can’t make me lose consciousness. You’ll have to kill me,” Shining Armor said.
“Guess I have to pull out the final technique to make you lose,” Blaze replied.
The red stallion stepped back a bit and performed the massive shadow clone jutsu. Hundreds of him now filled the arena. Shining Armor looked around and chuckled.
“So, you plan on beating one pony up with many of you? Only proves what a monster you are.”
“No, I’m not going to beat you up physically. I’m going to do something you would never expect on the battlefield.”
Blaze could tell that the crowd was wondering what he was going to do. Time to show my favorite funny jutsu that Naruto does, with a slight modification. He thought.
“NINJA ART! SEXY LINGERIE TRANSFORMATION JUTSU!” All of the red stallion’s shouted. A big puff of smoke filled the space. When it dissipated, everywhere you look you could see different pony mares wearing lingerie of different styles. All the stallions shot blood out of their noses and fell over due to the overload. Shining Armor too fell from this. Blaze had several clones look like Princess Cadance next to him. He released the transformations and clones so he was the last pony standing, literally.
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna flew down from their box to him.
“Well, that was an unexpected way to end the match. Not only did you knock out Shining Armor, but the rest of the guards that weren’t on duty,” Princess Celestia said.
“Why would you come up with a jutsu like that?” asked Princess Luna. There was a little bit of blood still on her nose.
“I actually didn’t come up with it, originally. The main character did something similar to his superiors as he was a kid. Being human, we wear clothing all the time so his version was of naked women,” replied Blaze, as he was catching his breath while sitting on the ground. “Seeing ponies are mostly the other way, I took a chance that some clothing is used for those special times between lovers.”
“Well, you do have an interesting imagination. You are clearly the winner today so you can go and rest yourself. Shining Armor will honor the agreement between you two,” Princess Celestia said.
“Thank you, your highness. The guards should be waking up soon so I’ll take my leave.”
Blaze went and picked up his loose hoofband and sword. The stallion placed the clothing object back on and sent his weapon back to his basement. He then teleported out of there and reappeared at the barracks.
He entered the washroom to take a look at his injuries. He had several bruises and cuts over his body. The sliced openings had stopped bleeding and had closed up. The impact marks were starting to blacken up.
Blaze thought, Man, Shining Armor knows how to dish it out the pain. A normal pony would be knocked out five times over. He knew this would take a while to fully heal, even with the basic medical jutsu knowledge he had.
The stallion then heard the doors to the barracks open and several ponies walked in. He poked his head out of the washroom and saw his teammates. Several of them had tissues plugging their noses.
“Wow Blaze, you sure took a beating. I’m surprised you’re still standing,” Colorful Spark said.
“What in Equestria was that last move you did?” asked Lightning Trails as he breathed through his mouth. “I’ve never seen something like that in a fight.”
Blaze sat on his bed and replied, “I had to come up with an ace in the hole that would make any stallion fall over and be out for a while. That was the best option as it would not cause major damage.”
“Well, it was super effective. All the stallions, including these ponies, fell over with blood coming out of their noses,” Fang said as she laughed.
“Can you warn us next time before you do that thing again?” asked Cancer. “I fell and rolled over several ponies till I stopped at the bottom of the section we were in.”
“I don’t plan on using that unless I need to evade some ponies.” The red pony replied.
“It was impressive how fast you dodged that second spell,” the red striped zebra said.
“He didn’t dodge it,” said Star Dust. “it went right through him. Never saw anything like that.”
“Right, none of you can see super fast movement.”
“Huh?” The other asked in confusion.
“I’ll explain what happened as I did it,” said Blaze. “You know I have these on to actually continue training and so I don’t run too fast. I had deactivated all 375 lbs so I felt super light. My body could move so fast, that I did that dodge within a blink of an eye.”
“That’s fast!” Dragon said.
“Yea, I would show you my speed. But the pain is now getting to me so I really don’t want to move for a while. It’s going to take a while to heal these wounds.”
“If you want, I can use some healing magic on you to help you out,” Colorful Spark said.
“That would be great. Any help in relieving the pain will be good.”
“Ok Blaze, hold still as I’m a little out of practice.”
The blue Unicorn activated his horn and the same glow formed around the red Earth pony’s body. He started to feel a nice, warm, wave go over him as the pain was lessened. He looked over his body and the injuries had started to disappear. Soon, the pain was gone and his body looked healed.
“Thank you, Colorful Spark. You saved me many hours of trying to do that myself.”
“Anytime, Blaze.”
A loud rumble was heard in the barracks. They all looked around to where it came from. Then, the ponies turned their eyes to the red one as his stomach went off again. He chuckled a bit and said, “I think my stomach is telling me to get some food.”
They all laughed and the group made their way to the mess hall. Each one grabbed some food and started to eat. As they were, the doors to the mess hall burst open. Standing there was Captain Shining Armor, all healed. He walked over to our table.
“Congratulations, Swift Blaze. Very few have beaten me in a challenge. *Cough* Let alone in that method,” said the white Unicorn captain. “I’ll let you have the rest of the day off to recuperate your strength back. The rest of you, after lunch, I want you to go to the sparring area and pair up. A guard will be there to give you the rules. Also, I would like to have a chat with you, Blaze, after lunch. I’ll be by the track.” He left before we could get a word in.
“Wonder what he wants with you, Blaze?” Star Dust asked.
“Do you think he’s going to use a surprise attack on you?” asked Lightning Trails.
“I don’t think he will do anything like that,” replied Blaze. “I think he would like to know more about these jutsu and ki abilities I have.”
The group finished eating their lunch and parted ways. They went to spar and the red stallion went to the track to see what Shining Armor wanted to talk about. He was hoping the Unicorn wasn’t going to ambush him. Blaze got to the track and didn’t see the Captain anywhere.
The Earth pony felt this wasn’t good. He focused on hearing what’s going on around him to stay on alert. He heard a twig snap behind him. The stallion quickly spun around and was about to launch a ki ball at what was there. Blaze held it as he saw it was Shining Armor. He was surprised at Blaze’s reaction.
“It’s ok Blaze, I’m not here to fight you. You proved that you are on another level with your skills,” the Unicorn said.
The red stallion pulled the ki back in and lowered his arms. “Sorry about that. Being called to an area and no pony was there, my instincts kicked in to prepare for anything. Good thing I looked before I launched that blast, “ he said.
“Yea, I want to talk about those abilities some more, but I have something else on my mind I need answers to. When you did that last move that knocked me out, mentally, you had several of you turn into Princess Cadance. I checked with Princess Celestia and you have never met her. How were you able to look like her, let alone getting them exact?”
Blaze did a mental facehoof. He knew that was going to bite at him later, which is now. He took a deep breath, then said, “Shining Armor, I think we will finish this conversation with Princess Celestia. She’ll understand why.”
“Alright, but I do want an explanation when we get there.”
The two left the track and made their way to the castle. When they entered the throne room, Princess Celestia was sitting there on the throne and only guard ponies were in the room. The pair walked up to the white Alicorn and bowed. Shining Armor stood up first and Blaze followed.
“Your highness, Swift Blaze said he’ll tell me about Princess Cadance, but only in your presence. Will you honor us with a court session so we can understand how he knows her?”the captain asked.
She looked at the Earth pony and he felt her mind reaching for his. Does this have to do with your knowledge of future events of Equestria, Blaze? She asked with her mind.
He replied the same way, Yes, your highness. I would like to include Captain Shining Armor in knowing the real truth about me.
“Very well Captain. You guards may leave us and close the doors. I wish not to be disturbed.”
“Yes, Princess Celestia,” the guards said. They left and closed the doors. The Alicorn used her magic and sealed the room. She gave the red stallion a nod when it was done.
“Captain Shining Armor, what you are about to hear does not leave this room,” he said. “Only Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and yourself are the only ponies I have told this to. You cannot repeat this to anyone that I have not mentioned. That includes Twilight Sparkle.” He finished with a serious face.
“What could be so secretive that you have only the Princesses knew about before me?” Shining Armor asked.
“I told a partial truth to your sister when I informed her and her friends of how I came to this world. I said I wanted to go to a world that has not seen war and greed of the human kind. The real truth is I chose this world specifically by name.”
“How can a human know about this world when they have not been here for over a thousand years.?”
“Like this.” Blaze summoned his iPad. “Back on my world, we had created things called TV shows. They are made about anything. Don’t freak out about what I am about to show you.”
He started to play the first episode. The Unicorn’s eyes grew wide to what he was seeing and couldn’t believe it. Once it was over, he sat down and looked like he saw a ghost or something in that nature.
“How’s that possible? I chatted with Twilight about that day and that is exactly what happened. Is this just a show for you and we don’t really exist?”
“Shining, listen to me. This place is real as I have realized when I arrived. I keep this a secret for the exact reason to how you reacted. I don’t know how to explain it either but I have knowledge of future events. I have now found out the episodes are not in chronological order so I really don’t know when they are going to happen until I recognize something from the episode. Before you asked as the Princesses have, I will not show you what is coming as I don’t know when it would be. So, when I say to trust me, believe me in what I say that I know what is going to happen.”
“Swift Blaze does speak the truth as you have seen in that device he has shown you,” Princess Celestia said.
“If what you say is true, then tell me something only Twilight Sparkle and I would know,” said Shining Armor.
“Very well. You have a nickname for your sister. You call her Twily. She has one for you too. She calls you Shiny. Twilight’s foalsitter was Princess Cadance. They did the ladybug song whenever they saw each other.” Blaze performs it in front of them.
“Ok, you have convinced me that you know more than you let on and how you know Princess Cadance. Why did several of your clones change into my marefriend?”
Blaze had a slight panicked look as he was thinking of the best answer. “Umm, she made an appearance on an episode and you two are friendly with each other. That is all I can say,” he said in one breath.
“Ok, can you go over some of those moves you did in the arena? I feel I should know how to block some of those in case you do lose yourself again.”
“I agree. Blaze, each day during training, you shall go over some style of jutsu with Captain Shining Armor so he will have a better understanding of how they work,” Princess Celestia said.
“Of course, your highness. I wish I would never have to experience all that rage ever again,” said the Earth pony. “I had no control over what I was doing. It was the worst feeling.”
Shining Armor and Blaze left the throne room and returned to the training grounds. When they were getting close to the sparring rings, both could see the pairings and them fighting.
Star Dust was going against Dragon in the first ring to the left. They were throwing hoofs and buck kicks at a good pace and blocking them too. In the next ring was Colorful Spark and Cancer. Colorful Spark was dodging Cancer’s attack with no issue. Blaze then saw Cancer get hit with a roundhouse kick to the chest, sending him out of the ring. In the third ring was Lightning Trails, trying to avoid getting hit by Fang. As the pair got closer, they could hear some shouting from Fang.
“Come on Lightning Trails and FIGHT ME!” Fang shouted.
“I can’t hit mares. It’s wrong,” the Pegasus shouted back.
“STOP USING THAT EXCUSE! NO PONY TAKES ME SERIOUSLY BECAUSE I’M A MARE!”
Blaze was thinking that Fang could use a better sparring opponent. He felt healthy enough to stick to normal hoof fights. Shining Armor walked up to the guard standing there taking notes on the fights. The red stallion headed over to the third ring to have a quick chat.
“How’s it going, Lightning?” he asked.
“SHE IS TRYING TO KILL ME!” Lightning Trails screamed.
Fang replied, “I’m not trying to kill you. If I was, you would be dead in 5 seconds.”
The Earth pony heard a big gulp go down the Pegasus throat after hearing that.
“Why don’t you hit her?” he asked.
“Because she is a mare and I don’t hit mares,” Lightning Trails said.
“Do you think she’s acting like this because you are treating her like a mare? She’s here to join the Royal Guard. If she doesn’t get this combat training. She would get hurt in a fight. So get your balls out of your flank and hit her!”
Lightning Trails agreed to what Blaze said and faced Fang. He charged at the Zebra to throw a hoof into her face. It didn’t make contact. If you blinked, you would have missed it. Fang easily blocked the hoof, grabbed it, and tossed Lightning Trails over her. She followed through and pulled him straight to the ground, landing on his back as she pinned him.
Blaze walked up to where the stallion’s head was and said, “Of course, she could have prior knowledge before coming here.” All he could hear was a moan coming from him.
“Great, now I got no pony to spar against,” Fang said.
“Hold it for a second. How about I be your spar partner?” Blaze asked.
“You? Are you sure you are up for it? You did go against Captain Shining Armor and barely won.”
“Colorful Spark healed me and I have relaxed this afternoon so far. Yea, I think I’m able to do it. Just need to know the rules.”
“Ok, don’t blame me if you get hurt again. The rules are simple. No use of abilities, must stay within this ring, and no killing your opponent.”
“Those are simple rules. I’ll keep my weighted clothing active to make it a fair fight.”
“Agreed. Now then, will you give me a challenge, or whimper out like Lightning Trails?”
Blaze charged at Fang and tried to do a roundhouse kick to the chest. She dodged it and stepped back. “Does that answer your question?” he asked.
“Oh, this is going to be fun,” Fang said with a big smile.
The ponies got into a fighting stance, waiting for the signal to start. Shining Armor came over to observe and judge the match himself. Lightning Trails was levitated out of the ring and placed on a bench nearby.
Shining Armor looked at both of them and said, “Ready?” Each one nodded without taking the stare off the other. After a few seconds, which seemed minutes, he then said, “FIGHT!”
They two charged at each other and began to throw and dodge hooves from both ends. She was able to block the stallion’s hits and he blocked the mare’s attempts. They danced around the ring in the style of fighting, not ever making hits.
Blaze focused on the Zebra’s movement, trying to find an opening. He decided to change up tactics. The red pony ducked down and did a leg sweep. He made contact with one of the Zebra’s hind hooves. As the mare was starting to lose balance, the stallion went for a grapple hold. Blaze was successful and got her as they fell down. Fang then managed to lift her opponent, while he was holding her, and reversed the grapple.
Argh! Didn’t see that coming. Fang really knows her moves. The stallion struggled to get out, but the mare had a good grip.Ok, this looks bad. I’m going to feel this if I don’t break the hold. Blaze thought.
With all the strength he could muster, the Earth pony pulled on the grapple to break free. His shoulder was crying out in pain until you could hear it popped. Blaze twisted his hoof out and broke free. The stallion was down one hoof as he backed away on his other three hooves.
“Why did you not give up, Blaze?” Fang asked as she was surprised at what the pony did to his body.
He replied, while in pain, “My determination to win drives me to do anything within the rules of engagement.”
Blaze stood on his hind hooves, knowing what he was about to do would cause even more pain. The stallion swung his arm from having it on his side to out as far as he could take it. Another pop was heard as his shoulder went back into its socket. There was a sharp pain in the beginning, but soon subsided a little bit. The red pony saw that Fang didn’t like that sound.
He rotated it around a bit to make sure it was back in place. Once ready, Blaze went back into a battle stance and waved a fore hoof in front of him. This notified her to come for some more. She acknowledged by charging the Earth pony. The stallion changed tactics and how he was going to fight.
Blaze managed to land some hits while Fang also got some in. The pair did this for several minutes. Fatigue was starting to get them as both had started to slow down. Each one landed more blows as they blocked less. In one last move, they both gave each other a hard upper hoof. It sent both of them flying out of the ring. Neither got up as they just laid there. Blaze wanted to recover his strength a little bit before he tried to get up again.
Star Dust and Colorful Spark came over and stood over the stallion as he looked up to the sky.
“Blaze, I don’t know what got in your head to get into another fight,” said Colorful Spark.
Star Dust added, “Yeah man, that was crazy. I’ve never seen a pony take two beatings like that in a day.”
“One, Fang needed a sparring partner that could match her. Two, not actually a pony, remember? This is a human thing,” Blaze replied as he breathed heavily.
“Guess I should go and heal you again,” Colorful Spark said.
“No, go and help Fang. I think I can manage this one,” the red stallion replied as he got himself back up.
Over by Fang, the mare was being looked after by her little brothers.
“Damn sis, I’ve never seen you get into a fight and end in a draw,” said Cancer.
“Usually the other pony is on their flank before a crowd could gather. Is he that strong?” Dragon added.
“I imagine he’s stronger,” Fang replied. “Neither of us was using abilities and he sure wasn’t at the top of his game. I was expecting this guard training was going to be boring. He has brought excitement back to me. Now then, how about you help your big sister up?
The Zebra twins did so and got her back onto her hooves. Blaze walked over to them.
“That was the most difficult match I had in a long time. I can’t wait for another round when we can use our abilities. Thank you for sparring against me,” Fang said.
“You're welcome,” Blaze said. “I have to admit, that was difficult for me too. I’ve been so used to using my ki and jutsu, that I now see I need to strengthen the fundamentals some more. I’m looking forward to our rematch.”
“I’m glad to see you’re going to get something out of this training, Blaze. I’m sorry again for being a little harder on you these past few days,” Shining Armor said.
“It’s water under the bridge.”
His stomach let out a big growl for all the ponies around to hear.
“Dude, when are you never hungry?” asked Dragon.” I’ve never seen a pony eat so much and never get any fat on them.”
“I have a fast metabolism.”
The group headed to the mess hall for dinner. Shining Armor actually joined them that night. Each one discussed what they were thinking in the matches today. The group laughed at all the fun parts that happened. The ponies also critique about them so they knew where they needed to improve on. After dinner and the discussion, the trainees made their way back to the barracks. The others went to sleep and Blaze went into his headspace to learn some more healing jutsu and work more on my basic fighting fundamentals in his pony form.