//------------------------------//
// Chapter 26: The training 
// Story: Gusty the Great book 1- The beginning 
// by Dianabel 
//------------------------------//

As always, Celestia was the one awake and Gusty and Luna the ones sleeping at early morning. The filly opened the door and entered the room with a trumpet.

“You told me to make anything so that you could avoid being late.” she said to her mother, even though she was sleeping. “I think this is going to work.” she looked at the trumpet.

She took a huge breath and blew the trumpet, releasing an off-key, chirping sound that made both her mother and younger sister jump off bed.

“What?! What is it?!” Gusty asked both scared and confused, the pillow standing on her head and blanket around her body.

Before she answered, Celestia panted heavily.

“Oof… I didn´t know playing this thing was so exhausting!” she said as she looked at the trumpet. Carefully, she put it aside. She clapped her hooves. “Alright! Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!” she ran to her mother. “Come on, hup hup hup!”

Gusty took the pillow off her head and unrolled the blanket.

“When I told you to wake me up by any means necessary, I didn´t mean a trumpet.” Gusty said to her daughter, somewhat upset at her. 

“Should have specified.” Celestia replied. “Get your clothes on and get ready. I made breakfast for you!”

Gusty massaged her head. She looked around.

“Where is Luna?”

“Right here….”

Gusty widened her eyes and quickly got up. Apparently, when Celestia woke her up, she fell over Luna. The little filly smiled at her mother.

“I´m fine…” she weakly lifted a hoof but quickly dropped both her head and hoof.

Gusty clenched her teeth worried.

“Look look. It´s tsampa!” Celestia showed with pride the bowl full of roasted barley. “With salty tea and everything!”

“But isn´t mama supposed to have breakfast with the others?” Luna asked Celestia.

“That´s actually a pretty good ques-” Gusty agreed with Luna, but couldn´t finish due to Celestia stuffing her mouth with tsampa.

“No time to talk. Now remember, this is your first day of training, so listen to the teacher and no fighting, although we know you always follow that rule unless somepony messes with anypony else, then in that case go ahead, but also when somepony messes with you. Then you´ll have to kick that somepony´s butt.”

“Well, the training is about kicking somepony´s butt, so…”

“What do you always tell us about talking with your mouth full?” Celestia scolded her mother. “Now let´s see your war face.”

As her mouth was full, Gusty could barely do any intimidating face.

“Hm… No offense but that face doesn´t seem very war-like.” Luna commented.

“Come on! Scare us, mama.” Celestia cheered her.

Once she swallowed, Gusty growled so loudly that both her daughters had to walk backwards.

“Yeah, that´s our tough-looking Wind Warrior. Now get out there and make the queen proud.” Celestia said as she passed the clothes Majesty gave her to train in. Gusty smiled slightly.

While she was putting those clothes on, Luna looked through the window. She bit her lip.

“Uh… Mama? I don´t mean to rush you but everypony´s already out there.”

“What do you mean they are already out there?” Celestia asked confused.

“They what?” Gusty asked horrified. 

In just the blink of an eye, Gusty put on her clothes and rushed out the monastery. Celestia and Luna followed her.

“Wait! You forgot to say goodbye.” Celestia called her but Gusty was already too far away to hear her. Despite that, Celestia smiled and looked at her sister. “Our great mama, off to destroy Grogar.” she said with a proud smile. 

Luna nodded her head in agreement.





Several unicorns were talking as they waited for Lancer and Majesty to come. Watching the other recruits, Fizzy and Buttons felt a little out of place, as all of them seemed to know each other. To make things worse, some of them whispered at each other´s ears while looking at them. Buttons would answer by looking away whereas Fizzy would wave her hoof with a nervous smile.

“I´m not feeling very comfortable right now, are you?” Fizzy said Buttons.

“In the slightest, chérie. I don´t want to imagine what they´d do to us when we train for combat. Talking about that… Are you sure joining as soldiers a good idea? Because I´m starting to repent.”

“Fighting for my life doesn´t sound fun to me either. Especially me, who gets easily distracted giving the opportunity to the enemy kill me at any moment. But being executed by Grogar is way less fun.”

Buttons shivered.

“Touché.”

“Besides, we´ll be around Gusty, who is the only familiar face.”

“Am I not a familiar face?” Glory asked playfully with an eyebrow raised.

Buttons and Fizzy turned to her.

“Oh no! I didn´t mean it like that.” Fizzy quickly rectified her words. “You´re nice and all, but we have more relation with Gusty and-”

Glory giggled.

“Of course. I understand.” she said with a warm smile. “Talking about Gusty, have you seen her?”

“No. Strangely enough, she didn´t have breakfast with us. Which means that she probably is being panicky about training and not wanting to tell us.” Buttons said with some resentment.

“Hey girls!” Gusty ran to them. Once she was by their side, she panted heavily.

“Oh, never mind, there she is.” Button´s resentment was replaced by a genuine smile.

“Glad to see you!” Glory greeted her. “I was worried you wouldn´t get to the training in time.”

“So, I´m not late?” Gusty asked hopeful.

Glory shook her head.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Gusty joined her hooves together.

“Are you ok?” Fizzy asked her. “Because you didn´t have breakfast with us.”

“I was, but my daughter prepared breakfast to me and brought it to my room.”

“Oh… That´s so sweet.” Buttons commented.

“Well, you may begin now, Glory.” Gusty said to Glory.

The unicorn blinked confused.

“Oh!” she exclaimed when she understood Gusty. She scoffed. “No! No, I´m not the one who´s training you. I am in no means capacitated to train you. I´m a bit above your level in terms of magic but at combat skills, I´m still at your level.”

“So, you´re also training?” Buttons asked surprised.

Glory nodded her head.

“But I thought you were a soldier already.” Fizzy said.

“Not exactly. You see, Majesty usually chooses stallions as soldiers and mares as spies. But since Gusty´s little incident, most of us lost our roles so she´s given us the option to join as well.”

“Then if you´re not training us, who will?” Gusty asked.

“Ladies!” a masculine voice said.

Every mare turned their head to the voice, whose owner was no other than Lancer. Majesty was beside him.

“Oh no.” Gusty muttered under her breath, knowing what was coming ahead for her.

All the mares distributed in a line and held their heads high.

“Most of you know me, others not so much.” he looked at Buttons and Fizzy. “And some of you will wish to never have known me.” he looked at Gusty. “But in case, you don´t remember, I´m Lancer.”

“Hi Lancer!” Fizzy waved her hoof energetically.

Lancer glared at her while Majesty raised her eyebrow unamused.

“There are lots of things you need to know, and among them, are the rules. Though, it´s not what I wanted to explain right now, I´ll begin by them. Number one: don´t speak without permission.”

Fizzy shrunk.

“Sorry…” she apologized ashamed.

She quickly covered her mouth.

“I don’t want to hear you apologizing, I want to hear you saying yes sir!”

“Yes sir!” Fizzy repeated.

“That´s better.”

Both he and Majesty nodded their heads.

“Now, listen carefully. Me and Queen Majesty will be training you. Majesty will teach you everything you need to know about magic, and I will be teaching you,” he took out a sword. “real fun.”

“Whoah…” all the mares said in awe.

“Looks awesome, doesn´t it?” he smirked smugly. “But in order to get to the fun part, you must first train.” 

He walked to a bucket full of wooden swords and shields. He passed them to all of the mares, who took it as quickly as they could. Gusty tripped while doing so, making other mares laugh. Majesty, who had noticed that, pressed her lips.

“And I think we have our first volunteer. Gusty, or should I say `Wind Warrior´.” he said sarcastically. “Would you join us please?”

Gusty sighed. She scratched the back of her neck as she got up.

“Now Gusty. On sword fighting, what level are you at?”

“Um… Level zero?” she smiled sheepishly.

“Same for me!” Fizzy raised her hand but when she noticed Majesty´s face, she stopped.

“Ho ho! Such a pity because usually, there´s no such thing as level zero for a destined great warrior.”

“I know you hate me, you don´t have to show it all the time.” Gusty mumbled.

“But there´s always a first time, so let me introduce you with the basics. There are several ways to defend yourself: depending on how the attack goes. If the point goes to any part of your body, you get the shield. But you don´t have to always use the shield. You can use the sword too if the attack is vertical, horizontal or diagonal.” he explained as he showed her how to place the sword in each of the attacks. “You get it?”

“I think so…” Gusty replied.

“Then get ready. We´re going to begin training.”

“Whenever you sa-”

Lancer didn´t let Gusty finish her sentence. She hit her on the head.

“Ouch! Hey, you´re going too-”

This time, Lancer hit her torso, making her yelp again. Gusty frowned and tried to attack but Lancer quickly dodged the attack and attacked her from behind. No matter how much Gusty struggled to fight or defend herself she was no match for Lancer. She moaned everytime the wooden sword touched her body.

Meanwhile, everypony watched horrified how the battle was being carried out.

“We´re doomed aren´t we?” one of the mares commented.

“Come on it´s her first time…” Glory told her.

“Yeah! And I bet the same thing will happen to you.” Fizzy joined in Gusty´s defence. “So suck it!”

“I wouldn´t be so confident if I were you…” Buttons advised Fizzy.

“Why?”

“Because you´re going to go through the same as well. And I believe you´re next.”

Fizzy widened her eyes in realization.

“Oh…”

At one point, Lancer destabilized Gusty, making her fall backwards. Lancer pointed the sword at her but made no advancement towards her. She giggled nervously when her eyes and Lancer´s met.

“I… did terribly, didn´t I?”

“What do you think?” he sarcastically asked.

Gusty sighed frustrated. Lancer shrugged.

“Don´t worry, at least you achieved something. You established a level zero.”

“I´m not so sure that will make me feel better…” Gusty said as she tried to get up.

“Well, sorry but I´m here to train you, not to make you feel better.” Lancer replied.

“Ugh, everything hurts!” Gusty complained.

“You´d better get used to it. Because if you´re the Wind Warrior, you must be perfect at this.”

“To be fair, Lancer, I think you went too far for the first time.” Majesty said in Gusty´s defence.

Gusty smiled slightly.

“But Lancer´s also right.” Majesty said to Gusty. “In the battlefield, you must not make a single mistake. Because if you do, the game is over.”

“Rest all you can while your partners fight with Lancer, because my training´s next.” she ordered Gusty.

“Yes, my queen.”

“Now, who´s next?” Lancer asked to the girls.

Everypony, except Glory, pointed at Buttons and Fizzy. Remembering what Buttons told her previously, Fizzy pushed her upfront. Buttons glared at her.

“Traitor.” she muttered at her.





“Now, I know most of you are tired or injured due to Lancer´s intensive training.”

Majesty rectified her words when she observed everypony with bandages or scratches.

“Well, all of you. However, as I said before, you´re going to train with me. Luckily, my training doesn´t require much physical exercise. Rather, it requires mental exercise. Yes, you´re going to need swords, shields or other weapons in the battlefield. But we also must make the most of what makes us different to other ponies.” she looked at a flower with a grin. She ignited at her horn and in just a flash, the flower turned into a sword. “Magic.”

Buttons, Fizzy and Gusty gasped in awe.

“Wow! How did you do that?” Fizzy asked curiously.

Majesty chuckled.

“That´s what you´re going to find out. Most of you know the spells I taught you, but you need to perfect them. But for others, this is the first time. So, I decided that we all may start with something simple: turning an apple seed into a grown apple. The spell is simple. All you need is to picture the object in your mind, with every detail: colour, size, brightness, whatever comes to your mind! Once you have the idea, you ignite your horn and zap at the apple. Got it?”

“Yes, my queen.” Everypony nodded their heads.

“Then let the practice begin.”

In most cases, everypony managed to turn the apple seed into a grown apple, which made Buttons, Fizzy and Gusty nervous. Glory noticed that, so she decided to comfort them.

“Don´t worry if it doesn´t go out as intended at the first try. What´s the worst that could happen?”

The three unicorns looked at the seeds with insecure faces.

“Here goes nothing.” Buttons thought aloud.

She took a breath and closed her eyes, doing as Majesty said. When she opened her eyes fearfully, she saw that the spell was successful. She had created a red apple.

“I did it! I did it!” she exclaimed gleefully.

Her friends cheered her.

“Oh! I want to try.” Fizzy said confidently.

She closed her eyes with stuck her tongue out. Although she struggled to ignite her horn, she managed to grow a green apple, to which she smiled.

“You´re next Gusty!” she told her friend, looking forward to seeing what apple she could do.

“Alright.”

Unfortunately, things for Gusty wouldn´t go as smoothly as in her friends´ cases. A unicorn screamed in horror.

“Gah!” Gusty yelped as she jumped from her seat.

From the scare, she accidentally destroyed the seed, as well as leaving a hole in the desk. She and her friends covered her mouth.

“It´s a rat!” the unicorn that cried before exclaimed scared.

Everypony got up from their desks and walked away from the rat.

“Nopony panic. I´ll take care of it.” Majesty ignited her horn but quickly turned it off when she noticed the hole Gusty made.

“Gusty!” she called her.

Gusty whimpered.

“My queen?” Gusty asked nervous.

“What happened there?” Majesty raised her eyebrow.

“I accidentally made a hole in the desk, sorry… Am I in trouble?”

“Not if you take care of this. Come here!”

“Yes, my queen.” Gusty obeyed.

“I want you to transform this rat into a seed.” Majesty explained Gusty once she was by her side.

“You want me to transform a living being into a seed?” Gusty asked, somewhat uncomfortable by that suggestion.

Majesty nodded her head. Gusty and the rat looked at each other. The tiny creature seemed so scared, which broke Gusty´s heart. But as much as she felt bad for the rat, she also wanted to please Majesty. She knew there had to be a way in which the rat could go unharmed. Then, she saw an apple in that same desk, which gave her an idea. 

“Well?” Majesty asked her, seeing she didn´t take any action. “You´re not feeling bad for a rat?”

“No, I´m not.” Gusty lied.

“Then why are you taking so long?”

“I´m… trying to make sure I´m focused.”

Majesty and the other unicorns shared skeptical looks.

“Ok.”

Gusty turned to the rat and took a breath.

“I hope this works.” she muttered to herself as she moved her eyes to the left as she looked at the rat.

The animal quickly got the message and jumped as soon as Gusty ignited her horn. She zapped at the apple, making the desk disappear. The unicorns glared at Gusty.

“Oops…” she smiled apologetically.





Gusty was walking back to her chambers. She stopped when she heard Lancer, Majesty´s and Glory´s voices.

“How are you seeing this?” Glory asked the two.

Lancer puffed.

“A long way. A very long way.”

“In respect to magic, things aren´t as bad.” Majesty commented. “Sure, the two new recruits still have to learn more, but they performed the spells correctly. However, the one who worries me is Gusty.”

“Did you see her at my training? She has no reflexes, a few conscience of her body and her surroundings! Why couldn´t Lucena choose somepony who has experience in this?! It would take less time.”

“Not only that, she has trouble learning spells. Instead of creating an apple out of a seed, she created a rat! And when she tried to fix it, she made the table disappear. What´s worse, she felt bad for a rat, a vermin creature. Can you imagine if that happened with an enemy?” Majesty sighed. “This is going to be more difficult than I thought.”

Gusty´s ears dropped. She looked down in embarrassment and sadness.

“Are you giving up on her?” Glory asked Majesty.

“No. As reckless as it was, she exposed Grogar and stood up to him. Only the Wind Warrior could do that.  But when things like this happen… I have doubts. Her learning must be fast, or we could lose everything to Grogar. Nonetheless, she´s still our only chance.”

Gusty sighed. She looked at the sky through the window.

“Of all the ponies in the world, why did you choose me specifically, Lucena? I don´t have many magic or combat skills, so what is it that you saw in me that would make me a great warrior?”

After she asked that, she heard some squeaks. She looked down and noticed the same rat she saved, carrying out a seed in its mouth.

“Oh! Hello there, little guy.” she knelt. “Glad you made it out safely.”

The rat nodded its head. After putting the seed in its paws, it offered it to Gusty. She laughed as she accepted the gift.

“Thank you.”

The rat rubbed its head against Gusty´s foreleg before leaving. The day had been very rough and although she had disappointed everypony, she was happy that at least she helped a creature.