They were only apart for a day.
It was a torturous day, admittedly: Sunset had tried to spend it focusing elsewhere to keep her mind off Cadance. That had only been marginally successful. Sure she had managed to read her way through four books on fencing and duels, but only about half of it had been absorbed and the margins of her notes were filled with suspiciously crystalline heart-shapes.
But she had held strong. In the end, it was Cadance who came back to her,
Sunset was returning from the library when they connected, her bags heavy with more manuals and treatises on fencing. She'd already spent all her free time the day before reading the first set, and now she was preparing for another afternoon and evening of the same in the company of a roaring fire and the remains of a pizza.
Cadance, meanwhile, was walking across the quad with purpose, prepared for the cold weather with a bright yellow scarf and matching earmuffs. And she was also not alone.
Beside her was a unicorn mare Sunset hadn't met before: mottled white and gray coat; maroon mane so lustrous it almost ate the afternoon light; long, lithe legs; a body so lean it straddled the line between wiry and anorexic; capped off with an austere steel gray scarf and slim saddlebags. The exotic mare by Cadance's side was, in a word, beautiful.
Sunset was already devising ways to get rid of the interloper.
"Sunset!" Cadance was eager to greet her marefriend(?), voice chipper and upbeat as ever. Like nothing had happened.
"Cadance." Sunset's response was far more guarded - even and restrained. "Who's your..." She paused meaningfully. "Friend?"
The alicorn blinked, not understanding for a moment. Then she blushed, scandalized. "You need a fencing instructor. So I found one."
Now it was Sunset's turn to be momentarily stunned before flushing with embarrassment. "Oh."
Cadance rolled her eyes and shook her head. "What you're doing is stupid, but I'm not going to abandon you over this." She made a motion to the other mare with her wing. "Sunset Shimmer, this is Gliding Moth. She's assistant captain of the fencing team."
Sunset had been reaching out to hoof-shake with the mare, but froze at that bit of information. "Blueblood's number two?"
Gliding Moth nodded curtly. "Yes." Her Trottingham accent was heavy enough that Sunset could hear it brewing tea. "And while I'm certain you have concerns on that, we can discuss them where there isn't fetlock-deep snow."
"...Fair enough." Sunset started towards her rooms, only to find the other two headed elsewhere. Simple triangulation made the destination clear. "The gym?"
"Your match is in twelve days, and you're a fool if you don't use every moment you have to practice." Gliding didn't hold back.
And Sunset knew she was right.
There were a dozen or so ponies in the gym as they arrived, and while a few tried to look without looking like they were looking? Most took once glance at the trio and decided to avoid them. Getting involved in Sunset and Blueblood's fight would only end in tears for the average pony.
Cadance split off, taking a seat on the bottom row of the bleachers. Initially Sunset tried to go to the bleachers as well but Gliding beelined for a strip outlined on the gym floor, causing Sunset to veer and keep up with her.
An aura of opaline gray pulled a pair of thin blades out from a case in the fencer's bag - Gliding had prepared, it seemed. "Blueblood undoubtedly chose the foil for obvious reasons. He's strongest with the sabre, but the foil is the hardest to learn or master. He wants to make this as difficult for you as he can." She stepped on to one end of the strip and automatically raised the foil to a ready position. "We will begin with your stance."
Sunset didn't follow, stopping defiantly beside the strip. "No, we'll begin with why you're helping me."
Gliding sighed heavily, eyes closing with frustration. "Fine. If you insist we waste time with that--"
"I insist."
She let out another long sigh, this one frustrated as if the explanation was below her. "Blueblood graduates at the end of this year, and so next year there will be a new captain of the team. I want that to be me. To do that I need to prove myself, and assisting you in defeating him is an excellent way to do that."
Sunset rolled that thought around her head for a few seconds, like she was trying to decide if she liked the flavor of an unknown meal. "Makes sense," she finally decided on. "So you think I can beat him?"
"I think you have no chance at all." Gliding was as quick to answer as she was blunt. "But I also suspect you have a plan, and I'm willing to hang my flag on your cunning defeating his superior skill."
A few more seconds of thought, and Sunset nodded. "Alright. I can work with that." She finally stepped on to the other end of the strip. "So - stance?"
Her response was a nod.
As commanded, Sunset lifted the foil and put herself into a perfect fencing stance.
Only for Gliding to grunt with displeasure and mutter something under her breath. "You're completely wrong."
Just the concept of those words made Sunset flinch. "Excuse me?"
"You're wrong," the pale mare repeated. She trotted to Sunset's side, circling behind her. "Your hooves are too far apart and you're squared up instead of narrowing your profile." She tapped Sunset's back-left knee with a hoof, adjusting her slightly. "The stance you have is for a duel with magic rather than blades. You're putting pressure down to anchor yourself and brace for an impact."
Her hoof traced up, going across Sunset's shoulders and then down her side. "Part of why the foil is tricky is because the area for a valid touch is quite small. When you fence, you will have a protector covering here and that is the only point you can be hit. Anything outside of it does not count."
"Well, yeah--" Sunset tried to interrupt.
She didn't get far - Gliding didn't let her. "If you're about to say you know, then you're a liar because you obviously don't. Your stance was presenting the largest part of that target directly to your opponent when you should be narrowing it."
Anger started to boil up into Sunset's seething voice. "I know. I spent all day yesterday reading--"
"You read it and you understand it, but you aren't doing it," Gliding firmly stated with a punctuating stomp. "Knowledge is not enough. Would you expect to read a book on weight lifting and then carry off a mountain? No, you would not. And this is the same."
Once more she was right, of course. Not that Sunset cared - even the teachers at Celestia's School didn't talk to her that way. She was just about to open up on her so-called 'instructor' when a bit of movement caught her attention. It was just Cadance shifting on the bleachers, out on the edge of her vision - but it brought Sunset's attention for a moment to her marefriend. Somepony who had - even after they fought - gone to the trouble of finding help and doing everything she could for Sunset to succeed.
It wasn't needed since Sunset had the situation under control, but she had still tried. Cadance had been mad and still tried.
The thought only took a moment to process, but that was enough for Sunset's anger to chill. She took a deep breath - and pushed her ego into a little box for now. She had a goal. This was a small sacrifice to get there. "If my stance is wrong," she said with measured, even care, "Why don't you show me what the right way is? You said yourself that we don't have a lot of time."
That was the right answer, it seemed. Gliding nudged Sunset around with both magic and hoof to get her into the position she wanted. It was an odd one: her hooves were almost in a straight line, knees bent halfway. Her body was contorted with her left shoulder forwards and the rest of her twisted up behind it.
Stepping back, Gliding gave Sunset a look-over before nodding to herself. "I want you to imagine there is a shield mounted on your shoulder," she instructed. "You want to keep it pointed towards your opponent at all times, and have the rest of your body sheltered by it. Doing so means only the area of that 'shield' is exposed to your opponent directly." She floated a foil up in front of her and slowly made several attacking motions. "If they want to hit another part of you, they will need to move their weapon further to the side and forward, opening up their guard for a riposte." Again, she moved her foil to try and strike the other parts of Sunset's body - and indeed moving it away from herself and leaving her own body exposed. "Do you understand?"
And it made sense. It wasn't particularly comfortable to be in the weirdly unnatural position, but Sunset could accept that it was like that for a solid reason. "Yeah."
Gliding paused a little longer, as if waiting for more back-talk. When none came? She nodded firmly. "Good. Since you're now in an acceptable stance, I can start teaching you how to use your foil." Hers whipped up, floating in her magic. "Hold yours like so. This is the ready position..."
Three hours later, Sunset was exhausted. She had good magical endurance, but wasn't quite so adept physically and the unnatural position didn't help. Being on the wrong side of Gliding's foil didn't help either - despite the instructor going slow and easy, hours of being hit in the same spot had left Sunset's leading shoulder sore. (She was also sporting a blossoming bruise right at the base of her neck - she had managed to lunge in exactly the wrong way, taking Gliding's foil precisely in the seam of her vest where the padding was weakest. She had been instructed that was her subclavian muscle and to never move like that again.)
The workout only ended when Gliding pulled her mask off and stepped off the strip. "You're done for the day." Her foil floated back to her case. "We will begin again at three tomorrow."
Sunset's magic wobbled as she replaced her own weapon. "Any homework for me, teach?" She managed to hold herself to only minimal sarcasm.
Gliding did not return the favor. "No. I have plenty of my own to do - not all of us are on Independent Study curriculums under the Princess."
After she turned her back, Sunset let off a little steam by mockingly (but silently) mouthing her words with as much snark as she was able. Cadance almost gave it away when she laughed, but Gliding didn't seem to notice as she walked off. Once they were alone again (or at least as alone as you could be in a large gym), the pair shared a hug on the bleachers. For a long minute, they were silent and enjoyed simply holding one another.
But it couldn't last forever and Cadance is the one who broke it. "So do I get to know what your plan is yet?"
Sunset hesitated to answer. "Not yet," was what she finally decided on. It was the wrong answer, and she felt Cadance tense up against her.
"But you do have one."
"I do." Sunset's small nod was enough for Cadance to lose at least a little of the tension.
"Is it a good plan?"
Another hesitation before Sunset answered. "I think it is. Or at least it's as good as I've got."
Cadance gave her marefriend a little shove, barrel against barrel. "You're not exactly filling me with confidence, Sunny."
The shortening of her name made Sunset's nose wrinkle. "Shouldn't I be the one worrying here, Caddy?"
They stuck their tongues out at each other - and then they laughed together.
"You know, if anypony else called me that I'd throw them through a window," Sunset wryly pointed out.
Cadance just laughed more.
"But I guess I'll tolerate it if you're saying it." And Sunset punctuated it with a kiss on the cheek.