"I take it you don't get guests much, do you?" I said with the best ' knowing smile' I could.
"No, I don't," Raven sighed, "I mean, I occasionally get guests at my house for work reasons, but hardly anypony realizes that most administration staff have a room at the castle."
"Really? I could've sworn this was your house for a while." Mark interrupted, looking around.
Raven smiled with a chuckle, "Sometimes it is. While administration staff all have a room, it's not just administration. In most cases, rooms are offered to castle staff that lives in the other districts of Canterlot so that they don't have to walk so much."
"I see... That actually makes a lot more sense than having staff walk all the way here."
"Yep!" Raven happily replied to Mark, "It also allows some of the castle staff to live here or even bring their children. Occasional once in a while, one or both princesses will visit the children within the castle. It really is a nice break from the daily work in the castle."
"Really?" I questioned, "I haven't noticed any other children."
"No?" Raven's head tilted, "I'm assuming your parents are new to working in the castle?"
"Something like that."
Well, technically true if you consider someone new to the castle after a business trip.
"I think you'll like it here. You'll find the castle itself is like a small community separate from the rest of Canterlot."
I smiled, wondering where the other children of the castle would be.
"So," Mark said, "do you happen to have anything to do?"
Raven sat in though a bit, "Hmm, no, sorry. I find work to be relaxing and never found a need for anything else."
"Oh," he said bluntly, " sorry if we were nothing you."
"Oh no, no, it's fine. I really should get out more. My, uh," Raven paused, blushing a bit, "my friends say I 'become the work.'"
"Your friends, huh?" I questioned with an evil grin, "Anyone... Special?"
Raven sent an odd look momentarily before blushing, "Well, yes."
"Ohh, do tell!" I squealed.
"Well, he also works in and around the castle. I wouldn't see him often if he wasn't around. He works closely with the princesses and is usually busy."
Now Raven was fidgeting, and being a pony only made it just adorable, "Raaaavvvvveeeennn."
Raven slightly backed, blushing at my tone as I leaned forward, "Yes?"
"I just can't help but notice something important left out. Cmon, " I teased, "who is this special person of yours? What's his name."
"Well, I don't know whether I should tell. I haven't known him too long,"
I considered for a moment whether it'd be too much if I began to pout and plead. Another look at Raven convinced me that if I continued, she'd blow up from sheer embracement. Would that be considered bad behavior by Luna?
"I see," I sighed, "in any case, how's your day been going?"
<><><>
Mark, Raven, and I just talked. Oh, and talk we did. It turns out Raven's "special" somepony isn't a pony but a zebra! And that's how it was for a while. And the best part? It was less stallion and actually more mare! I guess ponies are just more open sexually, even if Raven was still hesitant to admit it was actually a mare instead of a stallion.
Appentally, Raven meant her a few months ago.
...
Yep, that's all she'd say. As much as I tried, I couldn't coax out any more juice information on her love life... Thinking about it now, I've noticed I have a habit of intruding on others' lives. Maybe I shouldn't be so intrusive, curiosity killed the cat after all.
Now, to someone reading this, you probably wouldn't understand such a morbid expression. I only have one thing to say. Why are you reading our diary? You have committed the sin of reading a mare's journal! Well, actually, it's a shared journal between Mark and me, but my point still stands!
Now Mark is laughing at how ludicrous my "hypothetical scenario," as he says it is... It could still happen, you know!
Meanie pants- Anyways, for a while, the two of us were enjoying Raven's company. When she said she found work relaxing, she wasn't lying. There wasn't much of anything fun to do, aside from a rather old game of chess she had around. However, I feel like she was cheating on us. I mean, how could she beat both of us as we plotted our move?!
Unfortunately, it was all over too soon when Luna came back. She didn't elaborate on the incident earlier other than saying it was likely an internal mistake. She didn't look happy about it.
Luna took us back to our rooms, and after a quick word to the guards left. Then soon came Cadence... One moment she was gone; the next, we got pulled into a shopping trip. I want to learn her secrets, it couldn't be natural for how easily she convinced Mark to come along, he would've at least complained about it.
Anyways, back to the shopping, this is where Mark and I got something to liven up our fairly spartan room, such as this very journal! Oh, not to mention some things for school.
I'm almost out of room on this page, so that's it for now.
Starla,
Future Imperial Empress of Ponies and Ultimate Overlord of All That Exist.
PS: Mark is a doo-doo head.
Star, you do realize that I can read this, right?
Harrumph, this is my section of the journal, now out you orc!
Orc?
Out!
<><><>
Seeing as Star decided to make the very first page of our shared journal just the random babbling of what's been going, I suppose I'll take it upon myself to make an actual introduction. I doubt this journal would see much of any actual use, nor would anyone read it, so this is more of a reminder to our future selves.
Cadence, for whatever reason, convinced us to get a journal. Whatever for is beyond usme. Star was right on board with the idea, at least until several hours later we couldn't find any blank book. It was by sunset until we found something that'd work. Only, it wasn't just a blank book. It was actually a pair of communication books.
And thus, the idea of separate journals became an idea of shared journals. According to Cadence, messages written in one book appear in the other book as well and had an effective range that'll work so long as each book remains in the same town or small city, else you'd have to wait several hours or days for messages to go through, and it wasn't as efficient for long-range means of communication.
According to Cadence, they are also quite rare, and the more powerful communication books are getting ridiculously expensive. But she offered to add a protection spell that'd only allow us to access the books.
Niffy spell, might see if I can begconvince Twilight to teach me. That is if she doesn't leave soon since she mentioned something about having to go back home a while ago, so perhaps I'll probably find a book or something.
Back on topic, Star and I have an, shall we say, unspoken agreement. I'm not sure if it'll get out through our time, but we have decided to leave... Many things of ourselves, to ourselves and only ourselves only... It won't change anything, and our secrets are ours.
To be honest, I'm wary already of magical tampering this journal may or may not have, from Cadence or otherwise.
Anyways I don't really have much to add, so Star and I are probably just going to go to sleep for the night now.
Signing off,
Mark.
Aww, it's no fun when you spoil everything like that!
Go to sleep, Star.
<><><>
"Star," a soft voice spoke.
"Star, you have to wake up."
Usually, I'd try to be grumpy, ignore the voice, or... I dunno something.
"Time~," I yawned out.
"Time enough for breakfast before school."
I opened my eyes to a maid, who smiled towards me, retracting her hoof. I saw Mark already awake.
Rubbing my eyes, I turned to the maid who had awoken me, it was the same maid from yesterday and the day before that. Since a couple of days ago, it seemed the princesses got busy, and it seemed they had to delegate work to the castle staff. Even Twilight had to cut short our little catch-up lessons/exams, and she can really get into her work.
"Thanks," I said, slowly stretching and getting up.
"Of course, I'll be back in a few minutes to let yourselves get ready."
With that, the polite, professional maid left. It was the same maid from the previous days that had awoken us. She was probably assigned to us or something. I guess that makes schedules easier for them to manage.
"Get ready? With that, we've got some saddlebags for notebooks, quills&ink wells, and other various items all already ready to go. We don't even have clothes."
A pillow flew to his face. It didn't hit. It didn't come back to me either. Actually, it stood perfectly still between us as our magics pushed it towards each other, coming into equilibrium. I learned from my mistake of letting the pillow go as soon as I gave it a simple kinetic shove.
"Stop being grumpy." I tiredly replied.
"I can be grumpy when... I want, " he answered as we began to push even harder at the pillow.
Several seconds later, our magics power on the pillow increased several magnitudes, and I gave up. Opening my hooves for a hug, I let the fluffy high-speed pillow hit me as I fell into the comfy bed.
"Yeah yeah, but it's still mean, meanie."
Mark rolled his eyes with a smile, "No you."
I rolled my own eyes, getting up. It was time for breakfast. Then... school.
<><><>
I'll have to admit, school here did bring me some anxiety. But at least I wasn't alone, with Mark having the same classes as me. I mean, we're new, but still, new school, friends, and many things.
But in hindsight? It wasn't all that bad. At least not yet, the orientation was the basic welcome and all the stuff usually at an orientation. Celestia had brought us thereafter, applying extra layers to the spells hiding our alicorn nature. Our wings were invisible and untouchable even to ourselves now. It felt just a bit odd not having those cozy things suddenly gone, even if I knew there were, in fact there, somewhere.
Since Celestia was giving the orientation, she had let us into the crowd shortly before the orientation. Somepony informed most of the staff, and we were told we'd be given extra attention, but it wouldn't be more than recognition.
The world would soon learn of our presents, but we would have time to adjust and grow first,
- Star
<><><>
"Welcome, welcome one, welcome all to magical sciences!"
It hadn't even been five seconds since Mark and I sat down before smoke exploded from the front of the classroom, quickly drawing the entire class's attention. From the smoke exploded a rainbow of spectacular color. It had to be one of the most colorful rainbows I've ever seen as it flew towards the students.
The rainbow fell apart into its seven colors which began flying around the student to a few 'Woahs' and 'wows' around the room. The points of the rainbows changed into the shapes of birds blazing with their trails color. Even more incredible was that they even began intersecting with the audience. The red one flew close to me.
Reaching to it with a hoof, I actually felt it. Literal light. It was warm and a bit tingly. I giggled before it flew away. In a moment, all of the lights flew into the smoke. And with a whoosh, the smoke dissipated, revealing an azure blue unicorn with an even lighter blue mane.
"I am Trixie Lulamoon! And I am your magical sciences teacher."
And with a smile, she took a bow, to which the audience began to applaud with cheers. Best. Teacher. Ever.
"Very well, Mellow, you may sit down."
There was a brief moment of confusion as Trixie and skipped right pasted Mark and me during each student's introduction. There were a few looks here and there, and the off-white earth pony filly with a green mane to my right gave a brief, odd look before returning to the other students introducing themselves.
Soon, after a few minutes, everyone had introduced themselves except Mark and me.
"Now, with that, all done and finished, I'm sure more than a few of you are a tad bit confused that I skipped two of your fellow student in their introduction."
At this, more than a couple of whispers began from around the class as students took curious glances around and at us.
"Now, now, before you go start spreading rumors like wildfire, I would like to go over a few things before introducing these two exceptional students."
"Psst."
"As most of you know, to gain entrance into this prestigious academy of magic, all one must do is apply at any level, and should you pass and accept entrance, accommodations are provided to all students."
"Psst," came a small voice with a tap to my hoof.
After a glance to see it was the same filly with an off-white coat and green mane to my right that tapped me, also known as Mellow. I turned back to the teacher, however, a sizable amount of my attention given to her was shown by my ear tilted fully to her with a slight tilt of my head.
"Was this planned?" she whispered, " I haven't heard of such an introduction like this before nor of any 'special students' since Twilight Sparkle."
"Nope," I quietly answered, "We're as lost as you are."
"We're?" She questioned with a glance to Mark, who did a slight wave.
With Mark's silent answer, we returned our attention to Ms. Trixie who finished explaining the basics of application and how the school provides and caters to all of its student's potential from the entrance, whether it before from foals first time going to school or a student halfway through their education, all the way to graduation.
"And that's the usual process. However, sometimes, there can be... Unusually exceptions."
Whispering among the other students began but died down soon enough.
"Now, this school created and run by Princess Celestia is for those ponies who believe they have exterminatory talents and fosters them to the greatest they can be. However, sometimes, something extraordinary happens. Sometimes, ponies are personally sought by Celestia herself."
The teacher had all the student's attention as she began creating a magic illusion window. It started with a map of Canterlot zooming out to the world.
"As you can know, the world is vast, but even so, the talented individuals are few and far between. Magic is hard, yes. But even more so, magic can be dangerous. Sometimes ponies need a guiding hoof to learn, use, and contain their magic. Many of you would look to Twilight Sparkle as an example."
The class was silently murmuring in the silence between her words.
"And such, the same is the same for these two students, please welcome Star and Mark, who have traveled long and far to be with us."
Ponies began to applaud, to our embarrassment, but to our saving grace, the bell rang.
"Oh, that's class. Today was just the introduction, but don't forget to socialize with your fellow students!" Trixie said out as the class began getting up.
Mark and I got up as well, packing and ready to leave, as was the rest of the students before Mellow interrupted us.
"Hello! I'm Mellow Song," she introduced herself, "You're both new students, right?"
"Yep, I'm Star," I cheerfully replied, grabbing mark with a hoof, "and this is my twin brother Mark."
Taking another look at the filly in front of me, she was actually a bit larger than us, but considering that we were apparently smaller than our age, she was probably the same age.
Mark grumbled, sliding out of my grip, introducing himself as well with a hoof shake, "Mark."
"I see, well I wanted to welcome you to the school. I, myself, have been here for three years. I'm curious, from where do you come from?"
"We came from abroad," I answered.
She nodded simply, "Well, nice to meet you, would you like a tour of the school later? It can get confusing when you've got classes ranging from magic kindergarten to college-level classes."
"I'd love to, but I'm not sure if we could find the time. As soon as our school day is over, we have to go."
She tilted her head, "Dorm rooms aren't that far from the school area, and even so, we might be able to match up to our class schedules."
"It's not that we have nowhere to stay, but we actually have a tutor after classes. But maybe we might find something to match between our schedules?"
"Makes sense," she nonchalantly said, "hold on a second, I have my schedule right here."
And with that, Mark pulled out our schedule and gave it to the Mellow as she compared the two.
"Hmm, unusually clustered with standard classes without an elective but-," and then Mellow jumped with an 'eeeek!', "You have the solstice class?!"
Then suddenly, we were bombarded with the surprised looks of students who'd been in hearing range.
"Uhh," I flusteredly spoke, "the... what?"
Mellow seemed to realize her blunder, looking around before conspiratorially leaning in with a loud whisper, "The class that Princess Celestia teaches herself twice a month!"
"Oh..." I stated simply.
"Do you know how rare that is? This may be the largest and most prestigious school in the world. Still, even so, for a class of thirty and roughly forty-five hundred students, that's like," and here she paused for a moment with a concentrated expression, "a point-zero-zero seven percent chance!"
And now I was suddenly very nervous. The other students were mostly already filled out of the room with only a few other groups remaining, but Mellow made me feel like I'd just hit the jackpot, even if mayhaps I did.
Mark, himself seemed to be having the same reaction being put on the spot.
"Well," I drooled, "maybe Celestia wanted to keep an eye on us? Or... something?"
I smiled hesitantly, we didn't want to be special, even if it was inevitable.
"Wait, you mean like your both Princess Celestia's personal students? Like Twilight!?"
"No-no, at least I don't think so, I mean, I've talked with her and Luna here and there and-"
"Oh. My. Harmony." Mellow deadpanned, "you two are so fortunate. I'm jealous."
"Uhh-" I tried to speak.
It was now she finally noticed how she was still putting us on the spot, and she gave us a bit of space, "Oh, I'm soo sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot."
"It's fine," Mark replied, to which I hummed an affirmative.
"I have to get going," Mellow said, giving back our schedule, "meet me at lunch, near the fountain at the center of the school. It'll be very crowded, so I'll be somewhere outside the crowd."
And with that, she left, as did we and most of the class.
Lunch
The loud chatter of students and crowded areas were common but rather easy to traverse, at least, it would be if we knew where we were going. It took some time before mark, and I saw a large crowd ahead, surrounding a fountain and a large statue of some stallion with wizard-like clothing and a beard.
'Must be a popular spot for groups,' I thought.
The crowd had mostly unicorns but still had pegasi and earth ponies and the occasional zebra or other such creatures. The school was very diverse, as we found out during our other classes.
But at most, it was just an oddity throughout the day. 'School for gifted unicorns my butt,' I thought sourly.
"Hey! Star, Mark!" shouted a voice from somewhere.
Turning, I saw Mellow and a couple of other ponies. Two unicorns and a pegasus. I wave over and head to them.
One of the unicorns was a dark blue like the sea, a mane hanging of the side with a pale blue color almost white, and a cutie mark of some kind of fog or mist. Her eyes were baby blue.
The second unicorn was a whiteish-yellow unicorn with a white and yellow mane tied into a ponytail. She had no cutie mark. Her eyes were of a crimson red.
The pegasus was colored like a sunset, with a mane the colors like fire, and to no surprise, matching eyes like fire.
"Star, Mark, these are my friends, Misty touch, Sunny Flare, and Light Sunshine, " she said, pointing to the sea-colored unicorn, sunset-like pegasus, and whiteish yellow unicorn, "Misty, Sunny, Light, this is Star and Mark."
"Sweat," said Sunny Flare leaping forwards with a few flaps, "nice to meet you!"
"Pleasure," Misty Touch agreed.
"Nice to meet you," Light answered.
"Likewise," I said while Mark did the same.
Sunny immediately spoke, "New, right? Don't worry much, the school may be massive with tons of students, but it's mostly sectioned off by grade level."
"Thank you for offering a tour," I replied.
"No problem, especially after Mellow told us a bit about you," enthusiastically the filly replied.
Light motioned to us, "Come. we'll sure you the areas for our grade levels, for now, you won't be needing to know where the college or kindergartens classes are yet."
<><><>
The school was, for the most part, easy. The introduction, announcements, and goals of that we were here because Celestia had sought to teach us of our magic, how to safely use it, including other standard stuff you'd expect from such an introduction.
We made some new friends, like Mellow Song, Sunny Flare, Light Sunshine, Misty Touch, and many others.
After magical sciences, it was history, language, math, physical exercise, and solstice. Solstice-class is taught by Celestia twice a month. The class is actually more like an all-in-one bundle. Celestia actually has the class taught by different experts or scholars every month from around the world to teach some different subjects that range from the whole scale of all sciences to something as bland as math.
I suppose it's treated as an advanced class that teaches everything. This month we have a magic expert. Next month it is alchemy, and so on.
So far, so good. Now, we only have our "tutoring" sessions. From Luna. On self-defense. It was unfortunate, but Twilight had gone back to her hometown the same day but said she would drop by now and again since she was only a few hours away.
- Star
<><><>
Snooping on Star's previous page, I'm going to agree with everything there. You don't need a repeat of the same thing.
Now, as for Luna's tutoring, I can say I feel a bit... Apprehensive. As cool as it would be to be flying around tossing fire at monsters(ignoring the nonsensical chance of that ever happening), I've never fought before. Heck, I once had a huge military history nerd friend who could tell you the exact statistics of warships memory, but still never have I fought before.
Nor have I fought as... In the position, we find ourselves in.
Well, I can only hope strategy alone can prevail. But to be honest? It'll probably just be learning some self-defense spells or hoof-to-hoof self-defense.
- Mark
<><><>
"Luna, where are we going?" Mark asked curiously as Luna led us through the castle.
"Somewhere to practice safely. Come, it is right here," she said, motioning to a door.
Before we could enter, Luna pressed a hoof down in front of us.
"Before you enter," Luna spoke, "I wanted to speak with you first."
I paused, as did Mark, as we looked to Luna expectantly.
She sighed, "Before you enter, I want you to know that I in no way take pleasure in this. You are both young and full of life, but the world has many dangers, and you're to be expected to defend yourself should the need come. At a young age, I would wish for your both not to even have need of knowing how to defend yourself, but that's not how it works."
Luna looked down solemnly, "Thank you, Luna." I said place of hoof on her's, "We know, and we accept that. Hope for peace, but prepare for war, right?"
Luna looked into my eyes and stared deeply within.
'I may be young, but even if I am 14, I know that there may be other less fortunate, and others who can do cruel things...'
Then she moved out of the way, allowing us into the door ahead.
It led into a dark hallway of dust. Lining the hallway were portable wood weapon racks that hold wooden weapons of anything imaginable. Axes, hammers, swords, lances, halberds, spears, scythes, staff, small gauntlets, whips, maces, shields, swords with no handles but two blades on each side, daggers, greatswords, and much much more.
Luna led us down this dark, dusty stone hall to another door, to which torches on either side immediately lit.
Opening the dusty door ahead revealed a large circular room, with even more weapon racks adorning the walls, all filled with wooden swords.
Luna pulled a simple wooden staff from the previous room with her magic before heading in.
"Grab a sword," she said, walking to the other end of the room while grabbing bands from a wall, "and put a band on."
We complied and grabbed one sword and band.
'A sword? Why it's not like we'd carry one around us at all times. It would be odd to see a 14-year-old- wait... We've been in this world for several months, has our birthday passed? I'll need to figure out if we have the same calendar as Equestria.'
Lost in thought, I hadn't notice Luna reach the focus of the massive circular room as she turned to us, "Strike me."
"What? But what if you get hurt or-"
"Apologies, I meant to say 'attempt to strike me,'" she cut in, "and these swords and bands are enchanted not to hurt... as much, at least. And the bands will protect you."
Mark and I shared a look.
"Lesson one, hesitation will get you hurt!" Luna shot a spell towards us, which stuck and stung as if we just got a flu shot to our displeasure.
After a pained sigh of relief as the pain passed within moments, we turned towards Luna with a look of vengeance and began a slow walk towards her for time.
"Go right, I'll go left to pincer her," Mark whispered, "I'll tap three times, on the third, we rush."
I gave a brief nod as the both of us immediately rush to both sides. Luna eyed both of us as we surrounded her.
One tap.
She turned to Mark, assuming a low stance.
Two taps.
Mark and I readied to rush.
Three taps.
We rushed silently without notice except for our pounding hoofs. Mark neared, to which Luna, with impossible speed, rushed toward Mark, sidestepping his sword and pounding the point into his chest, which sent him flying. My eyes widened at the mercilessness Luna displayed, to which Luna capitalized on and swung the staff around quickly into my side, sending me flying as well.
I lost my magical grip of the sword.
Landing, I realized one the thing. It didn't hurt. It felt like a mere shove and a sudden feeling of weightlessness before slowly falling to the ground.
"Huh, didn't expect that," I muttered, getting up.
"A basic tactic, but not enough. Mark, you were unable to anticipate a swift counter from me, and Star was struck with indecision."
"How is this even fair-"
"Battle is hardly fair, now, again," Luna said.
The both of us got up, brought our swords to us. Mark began tapping again, and on the third, we rushed again. But assuming Luna would follow with the same thing she did last time, I instead jumped to this side of Luna as Mark was sent flying by her. I grounded my hooves, pushing much of my momentum into the ground to come to an immediate stop before turning to swipe at Luna.
But I only turned my head to a downward swing of the staff to my back which shoved me to the ground.
Luna tsked, "Mark, you attempted to attack thinking I would do the same thing, only ready for that thing. Your enemy, too, can develop knowledge and experience to counter you. Star, despite your change in tactic, you failed to implement it swiftly enough and allowed me to strike."
"Isn't this a little unconventional? I mean, I was expecting learning some kind of spell or-"
"No, those are for basic attacks or a mugging. As part of the royal family, you are to be expected to hold your own from an assassin."
"What? There are assassins?!" Mark yelped.
"No, thankfully not in the last few decades, but there most certainly have been some, and you are expected to hold your own regardless."
"Now, one more time."
And once again, we started. Instead of standing, I decided to keep my distance and circle Luna. Mark seeing me, did the same.
One tap, two taps-
And Luna rushed me. Mark himself rushed to catch up to us but was unable to reach Luna before she did me. I readied not to counter but simply to take a jump backward, allowing for more time for Mark to reach me. Luna's jumped towards me with a downward strike in mind, which under extended striking air, but not losing an ounce of the speed of momentum, she simply stepped forward once and sent the staff under me, and sent my flying up and over her towards Mark.
She missed instead of having me fall beside Mark, but it did not matter as Mark slowed enough for Luna to turn around and be within distance of Mark.
Once I got situated after flying through the air and falling to the ground softly, I saw mark go flying.
"You show the basic ability to change tactics and adapt to your partner, good. " Luna spoke speaking to us, "but you still made mistakes."
She made her way towards helping both of us up. If it wasn't for the fact that the most pain we felt was a shove from falling and getting sent flying, I'd be terrified. Well, I am terrified, to a degree.
"First, your audible signaled allowed me to know at them of attack, and again you both failed to account for me adapting."
Luna pointed to the door.
"Now, I've seen enough. Go to the other room and pick out something of your preference."
"Anything? But we don't even know how to use weapons. At most, we're wildly swinging." Mark answered.
"Tis not a concern at the moment. Now go."
It was a few minutes of browsing while Luna watched. She rose a brow as Mark, and I picked something out. Mark pulled out a small thing, it was two dagger-like blads, but they could both be sheathed inside the corresponding blade's handle.
I got a small bow that Luna explained when pulling strings would create a magically constructed area that, for this session, would stun.
Luna simply nodded and headed to the arena again.
"Star," Mark whispered, "with magic, we actually aren't limited to getting in close with blades or close-quarters weapons. If we keep our distance, we can keep a consistent attack up. If she rushes one of us, there other can provide cover to escape once distracted or to strike."
I nodded, "We should also change at the time of the attack. How does... 2, 6, 1, 1, and 4 four taps sound?"
He nodded, and we prepared ourselves back in the arena. He nodded, to which I responded as Luna watched us impassively.
One tap, I pulled the string.
Two taps, I released the arrow, but wildly overshot as Mark sent two blades towards Luna.
She ignored my overshot arrows knocking both of Mark's blades out of the air. Mark caught one on the ground and the other in the air but couldn't mentally align both in time as Luna struck them out of the way, rushing Mark. I already had my bow ready and adjusted for a lower but longer arch.
To my surprise, Luna jumped left, right, and kept avoiding my arrows even as I quickly and rapidly sent them out. It was no use aiming for where she was currently, so I rapidly shot towards in middle path, knowing she would move in and out of there.
She noticed within the milliseconds and made her movements even harder by slowing down, speeding up, and more in the same time frame she had to reach Mark. Mark's blades would never reach Luna in time, and once again, Mark was out.
I have to admit, I was a horrible shot, but that was actually to my benefit since it could veer off in a direction to Luna. Or, at least I hoped.
I gulped just a bit as Luna turned to me. But even as she sped towards me, I took a breath and began shooting at her once again. She blocked my projectiles with her staff. Was I that predictable? No matter, she would have no time to block or evade up close.
I took slow steps back, knowing that she could cut me off from her position running to either left or right. It wasn't long until I ran out of space backing into the racks.
Luna got closer, and within seconds she was in front of me. But most importantly, right in front of my bow. With a breath, I released the string.
I missed.
Luna had jumped with a large flap and impossible speed, she flew above me, spinning in the air, landing on the side of the wall with her hooves. Since there was no space to land, she would simply lunge at me. I gaped at the impossible sight of her standing on the wall, wings splayed out to boost her speed, and she lunged.
Closing my eyes, I simply swung the bow itself, waiting to inevitably go flying. Even if I logically knew it wouldn't hurt, simply look at her made me feel like I was about to be in a world of pain. In the darkness, I felt it get knocked away. With no space to land, she would fall onto me.
And instead, I was picked up into hooves as Luna picked me up in her magic. My eyes opened as she landed where I was bleeding of the momentum while setting me down.
I looked to Luna and shivered a little bit at how valuable I was at that moment. Luna smiled and placed a hoof upon my shoulder.
"Do not worry, Star, I would not purposely hurt you."
I simply nodded as Mark rushed behind me, "Star, you alright?!"
I nodded to his very concerned tone.
Luna watched us for a moment before sighing, "You both did very well. But I must ask, why do you limit yourselves such?"
Mark and I looked at her questioningly.
"You limited yourselves to two blades. With practice and concentration, any unicorn can hold many blades with proficiency. Without practice, it's much better to hold more blades that are easily disregardable instead of trying to reorient each blade, and you left yourselves so exposed without any weapons. You also faced hesitation when I came upon you. Any proficient warrior can easily best another with a weapon."
Luna turned to me, "Star, you limit yourself to a bow in such a confined place. You left yourself open to a swift enemy. Your aim is poor but remediable in time. You were calm and collected, at least until the unexpected. You failed to remain calm when another dimension of movement was added. You also closed your eyes. Never, never take your eyes of an enemy."
"You are ponies, you are unicorns, you have magic at your disposal, you are pegasi, your wings are not mere lumps of weight, and you are earth ponies, your hooves are weapons, " Luna lectured before she turned to the hall of other weapons, "Wait here."
Then she left us for a minute but came back. This time with a few things. First was a small folded rug that was completely rolled up. Opening it, it showed ten small blades attached inside, each with a blade to either side of the handle.
She came up and sat in front of us before speaking, "I recommend these to you, Mark. Proficient at overwhelming a target, and easily defend yourself while on offense."
Luna didn't give them to Mark, instead, bringing the next items out while laying the previous on the ground in front of us. What came next was a much larger bow and a small dagger, "And these I recommend to you, Star. Especially powerful at the range, the longbow can be a slow but useful weapon and added only with your swift thinking to evade and escape an attack, your enemy won't reach you, and should they do, I expect you to be proficient with the blade should it come to that."
With our recommended weapons set out, she teleported a book to us, it was old and dusty too. As well as even had a lock on it.
"And lastly, I recommend you learn the spells in here. They are not required, no, I just recommend you look through and learn some of the spells. The use of a spell room for safe practice is available for any to use, and can be found both around your school or the castle's training grounds, you may ask Eclipse or any guard for directions there."
She set the book down and teleported a key in, it was as old and rusty as the book.
"You are not to share the context, nor show the existence of said both to another, nor are you to use these spells unless in self-defense or our lessons. Am I understood?" To our nods, Luna held the key to us, "Place your hoof on the key."
We did so, and as we did, the key pulsed twice. Finished, the key began to glow before duplicating itself into two keys. Luna placed the keys at both of our chests, to which a string appeared around our necks. As swiftly as Luna placed it, the keys disappeared.
"The keys are only to appear when you require its use," Luna spoke, looking towards the weapons and us expectantly, "now, are you both ready for your next lesson?"
We noded, to which the both of us telekinetically picked up our respective training weapons.
At least, we tried before another shot from Luna's magic gave the painful sensation of a shot before it faded away in moments.
"You both failed," Luna spoke disappointingly, "your next lesson is safety. Never in a million years will I see you pick up a weapon without knowing how to safely handle the weapon."
"W-what?" I spoke indignantly.
"What about those previous matches where you just let us pick something to attack with?" Mark asked, irritated.
"Ah, yes, that. First, you are never to touch another weapon, not the one presented towards you. Second, the previous sparing matches were merely a gauged of your strength, skill, knowledge, and battle readiness. Third, I’ll personally make sure the light of day will never see you touch another weapon, and lastly, you are never to touch another weapon, not the one presented towards you."
I took a mental note that Luna would be very, very unhappy were we to touch another weapon or practice unsafely.
Mark sighed, "Just one question."
"Yes?"
"Once all this training is done, do you simply just expect us to carry weapons around with everywhere we go? It's like your training us as soldiers to war."
"First, once you're done, it's expected that you learn to bind your weapon to yourself to bring in and out of reality whenever needed, such as I. It took me an entire month, but I've finished rebinding mine to me. Second, you might as well train for war and the worst with an immortal life span expectancy."
Luna held her hooves, and within moments, a familiar scythe appeared in the blink of an eye and a flash of lightning. It brought back thoughts, and they hurt...
...
Luna must've noticed a change in my expression, and swiftly her scythe disappeared, "Apologies, it was not of my intention to intimidate you."
I blinked a few times, feeling the sudden pounding in my heart fade. Confused, I simply nodded and opted to ignore it.
"Are you well?" Luna asked, concerned.
"Huh, oh yeah, I'm fine. My mind just blanked for a moment." I answered.
"Do you wish to end the lesson now? We have our lessons every other day if you so wish to wait until then."
"No, I'm fine."
<><><>
Well, training is over. And I learned a few things. First, is that training with Luna has been... Interesting. Unlike what Mark expected, Luna first tested us by open combat. While we 'attempted to strike her, she thrashed us, literally sending us flying. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt, thanks to some weird magic.
Something weird did happen during training. Luna had shown us her scythe. And I just blanked and with a sudden feeling of slight fear. Not that the scythe was actually scary(it was quite majestic in its own way), it was just... Weird. But either way... Maybe it's our new... way of thinking because of certain events that I won't disclose here. Though, how weird it is, knowing something is wrong but not knowing something is wrong.
I don't have much else to say than training was... difficult as whenever we failed, Luna shot a spell at us that caused a short moment of pain. It felt as if we had just gotten a flu shot, but mercifully it only lasted a few seconds at the most before completely disappearing.
Anyways, I'm quite tired after all that, so I'm going to take a nap for a bit.
- Star.
<><><>
Luna is scary. More specifically, "warrior" Luna is scary. Princess Luna is friendly and nice to be with. Warrior Luna is scary. Not terrifying scary, but scary in the no mercy, tough love way.
I thought it would be cool to know to fight and sling spells and all. But in reality, it's a pain. On a subconscious level, I knew this, but I can dream, can't I?
- Mark
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