Chapter 21 First Day part 2: meeting an old… “Enemy”???
“Alright so what’s on the docket for today’s events Lieutenant?” I said to Jona as I made my way out of the barracks with the rest of the squad. The meal had finished in relative normalcy after Swift Gale had given everyone the bottom line about Jarvis.
Well Dan your in luck today’s a week before our usual weekly all guard training. So for today we have in squad basic training in the morning. Mostly weight training, slight sparring, and any general exercise you can think of to get the squad back in good shape for what’s about to happen in a two weeks.”
“What happening in two weeks? I haven’t heard anything.”
“That’s because only squad leaders and military leaders are supposed to know, now hush. And then after the morning training we have town patrol duty; where we just patrol Canterlot. It usually isn’t too bad though, it’s less boring than palace duty. Just a simple patrol and sometimes breaking up temper tantrums the nobles start.”
“What do they get angry about?” I asked.
“Oh it’s usually something along the lines of how the “lower” class of ponies are messing up their “lifestyle”” Jona stopped for a second to do air quote with his hooves, And even after seeing it I couldn’t comprehend how he did it.
I didn’t ask anything else as we walked for a couple more minutes till we reached a building that I guessed was a gym. On the inside I could see that it was like plenty of gyms that I had seen with equipment the mirrored the same things on my world but more for ponies than humans. Besides the weights and equipment I saw what looked to be a boxing ring and farther into the building I could see what looked like to me as a small ring for weapon sparring.
“Alright troops we got a week to get into a better shape than we are in right now. Everypony needs to improve upon at least something before the weekend is up you hear me? So go ahead and see Swift; she has done her work and knows in which areas you should work on. I’ll let everyone know when it’s time to stop.” He said to everyone before starting walking off to start his own exercise. But before he did he stopped and turned to look at Swift Gale. “And make sure nobody gets hurt this time Gale.”
“Yes sir I’ll go easier on them.” I could see her put on a smirk. Looking around I could see on Everypony’s faces that they were a bit scared at Swift’s face. It was as if they were staring at some kind of monster.
“Alright then everyone line up and listen up!” Swift Gale snapped at us after Jonagold had gotten a bit farther away. “I’ve been watching each and every one of you to see where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Even you Dan!” she said snapping her head to give me a look which made me stand completely straight. “
“Shadow Fire!” she said as she started at the beginning of the line. “I know your magic is good and in a fight you do better than expected. But you can’t always rely on that. Get to work on training that body of yours, toughen it up so you can take a hit better. Got it?” She said giving him a drill sergeant stare.
“Yes ma’am!” He said and fell out of line to begin his regimen.
“Scribble Page” Swift barked coming to the next pony on her list. Instead of a neutral stare like I saw Shadow Fire give I saw a look of dread and fear in Scribbles’ eyes. “Your good when it come to noticing details, Fighting or otherwise. But you rely to much on thinking and not enough on your instinct when it counts. So you, sparring ring, I’ll be there with others soon enough.”
I had him give an audible gulp before he responded “Ma’am.” And then slowly turned and headed towards the far end of the gym with his head hung low.
And it went like this for couple of minutes. Lore Keeper had good enough strength so he was sent to sparring, Flash Bang needed to work on his agility more than anything so he could avoid not getting hit while he cast his trademark skill, Shadow Dancer was also sent to sparring because even though he was stealthy he needed to learn how to take down ponies from that stealth, Red Star being the smallest of the group was told he had to do everything; weight training, sparring, agility training, as well as magic meditation. Flintlock was the last pony before she got to me. He was told to do nothing but meditation because he needed to learn to have more of a level head during a battle scenario. He happily saluted and then trotted of to the meditation area.
“Ugh sometimes that stallion…Now then Mr. big bad human.” She started to say something about Flint before giving me the drill sergeant look she had given all the others. And even though she still had some of those “adorable” pony qualities she still could put a little fear into me. “I saw your little demonstration yesterday and for some parts I was a little impressed. But you still have a ways to go. Now due to your form I can assume that if trained right you can be much stronger than you are now. Am I correct Private?”
“Yes Sergeant.”
“Good…so for today you’re going to do the same thing as Red Star. While your strength and fighting capabilities may be good enough to land a couple of blows on the princess it’s still not good enough for me. So for the week you’re going to train your whole body to the best you can through exercise and sparring. And by the end of this week your going to be a lean, mean, fighting machine is that understood?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Alright then get to it; I’m not exactly sure what exercises to give you to do since you’re not a pony. But you probably have an idea of what you should do right?”
“Yes.”
“Then get to it…oh and Jarvis?” she said stopping to talk to my armor.
“Yes Ms.?” Came the voice from my earpiece.
“Keep a count of what he does. And don’t let him slack off.” She said with a smirk as she turned around to head towards the sparring ring.
“Of course ma’am good decision.”
“Hey I thought you were supposed to be my armor. Why are you siding with her?”
“I am just making sure that you are able to perform to the best of your abilities. And isn’t it the correct situation to listen to you ranking officers orders?”
“Oh fine I get it smartass…well lets gets to it then.” I said resigning my self to the fact that my armor was getting better at being a smartass.
For the next two hours I weight trained with the others. I couldn’t use the equipment since it wasn’t exactly my size, so instead I opted just to use the weights and do other exercises like sit ups. Red Star occasionally asked me what my exercises did for my body; and I explained it to the best of my ability.
After awhile it all turned into a routine like Blur until someone spoke up.
“Hey Dan, Red Star. Sarge says it’s time for you guys to head to he sparring ring.” I looked up from the weights I had been holding to see Lore Keeper standing in front of us. He had taken his armor off and I could see a couple of hoof sized bruises dotting his side.
“What happened to you?” I asked partially out of concern but mostly out of fear.
“Well I think you got her all excited; seeing as your one of the first new recruits in awhile to actually take a swing at the Princess during your initiation.”
“Hmm how long has it been?” I was curios about how many ponies there were willing to try and fight against the princess.
“Weirdly enough it was Red Star here.” He said pointing to the smaller pony next to me.
“Oh really? What made you so brave Red?”
“I don’t know I kinda chalked it up to momentary loss of sanity. Let’s hurry up and get over to Swift I’m guessing she’s run out of opponents and you shouldn’t keep her waiting.
“What do you mean?”
You’ll see when you get over there…good luck.” Lore said ominously as we walked past him.
I didn’t get what he said until we got within a better view of the sparring ring. Swift Gale was standing in the center with her armor up. Since I knew that she was pretty much a master with dual swords I could tell that her armor might have more of a duelist look to it. And as it turns out that I was right, it was sleek and more contoured to her body, but looked sturdy enough to take its fair share of blows. And instead of a full helmet, she had this veil that covered her mouth.
“Geez Sarge do you even know the meaning of the words easy? One of these days you might actually hurt one of us.” Red Star said from my side and it wasn’t until I glanced around the ring and saw everyone else lying down like they had been slain. Shadow Dancer was lying in a crumpled head with his rear in the air and what looked like a red outline of the flat of a blade showing on his dark fir Scribble in a somewhat odd twist wasn’t even lying on the ground. Instead it seemed that his sparring had somehow ended up with him hanging from the lighting fixtures in the ceiling.
“Save the chatter for later Red, you’re up first.” She said after what looked like catching her breath.
I looked at Red Star and he looked back at me with somewhat pleading eyes. Hoping that something would happen that would stop him from having to spar with his senior officer.
“You’re not going to give me your last will and testament are you?” I asked.
“Oh no I don’t think she would kill me…”
“I’m waiting Private.” Swift said interrupting him as she strode towards her end of the circle.
“…not today at least.”
“Godspeed buddy.” I said giving pitiful look.
To be honest with myself the fight wasn’t actually that bad from my stand point. I had no clue how long a fight between two ponies should last so I thought that the five minutes that Red Star managed to keep conscious were impressive.
Being a Pegasus Swift Gale was very agile and flighty. Red Star used his magic to great affect in trying to keep her low to the ground. From what I saw ponies couldn’t throw punches or kicks like I could. Everything they threw was more of a straight jab than anything considering how their bone structure looked. But Swift Gale had found a way to use her wings to use two single handed swords like a human would. She was able to swing them in nice arcs, which with her wingspan could sometimes keep them out of opponents view. Especially when up close.
IF I had barely seen, then I can only guess if Red Star had seen when she brought her wings in close and threw them upwards, propelling Red Star onto his back legs. From Swifts position she then quickly flipped back and then with what seemed like enough time; turned around and bucked Red Star out of the ring.
“You are getting better Red Star no doubt about that. But your close quarters combat strategy is a bit rusty, brush up on that before our next spar.” She said to the still on his back unicorn. A groan was all she got in return for an answer.
“Alright next up is the big bad human.” She said turning to face me. I could tell that she was grinning underneath her veil.
“Well this should be something. Hopefully I don’t let down you expectations of me Swift.” I said as we both took our place in the circle. My body had mostly moved on autopilot while I was getting into position. My mind at that second was split into two parts, one was thinking of moves to use, and the second was praying for my life and safety.
“Jarvis will you count us down from ten to start?” I asked my armor as it enclosed around me when I gave it the thought to.
“Ten…Nine…” Jarvis began.
“On go?” Swift asked from across the ring getting into a stance as the countdown went on.
“Six…Five…” I simply nodded in response.
“Three…Two…One…GO.”
Minutes Later…
“Dan…Dan are you okay…are you conscious?” were the next words I remembered hearing.
“I think he is coming around please stand back.” I heard Jarvis say
“Jarvis…is that you?” I said harshly; it felt like I couldn’t breathe right. There was pressure on my face like I was laying on it but the rest of my body wasn’t lying flat on the floor. I could feel my forearms touching the inside of my legs. After a couple of seconds of waiting I started to move and found that there wasn’t much pain anymore. My helmet went down and I was greeted to the sight of the whole squad staring at me in worry.
“Do I got something on my face?” I tried to joke.
“We’re just trying to see if you’re still breathing after what happened.” Jonagold pushed the other out of the way to give me more space.
“Can someone remind me what exactly happened?”
“YOU DON’T REMEMBER!?!?! IT WAS ONLY ONE OF THE COOLEST THINGS I HAD EVER SEEN.” Flintlock was suddenly in my face for a minute as he shouted. And as quick as he had done that he retreated and started to act out what had happened.
“You and Swift Gale just stood there in cool poses after the timer had gone down.” He said standing on his back hooves and striking a ninja like pose. “And then WOSH!!! You both charged; Swift swinging her right sword forward and you throwing you arm wide in a what was it you called it?”
“Right hook?”
“Yeah one of those. And then you each stopped each other’s blow with you free limbs. Swift took upwards while you tried to figure out what to do next. You two tried to hit each other for the next coupe of minutes. Swift being a bit faster nailed you a couple of times but it didn’t look like it fazed you one bit. And then after she thought that you were tired out she flew up kinda high and came down with both swords pointing at you and that’s when you sprung your trap!” he stopped talking long enough to catch his breath and jump a couple feet in the air.
“Right when she got this close to you.” He moved his hooves really close together to make a point. “And the WHAM!!! You shot your arms out really quick and grabbed her fore legs and wings in one move!!! And then you head butted her and after that you tried something with your knee but it didn’t really work against her armor.” I had wondered why my knee felt sore; I guess I tried to knee Swift in the stomach.
“Yeah and then after that she backed off still reeling from that head butt; but she shook it off pretty fast and then charged again straight at you. Surprisingly you dodged it and were in her blind spot and when you started to attack you…” weirdly he stopped talking there. He looked away from like he was embarrassed.
“And then I…?” I looked around to anyone hoping for an answer. Everyone was doing the same thing except for Jonagold who looked like he was trying to hold back laughter.
“You grabbed my flank…” I looked to see Swift sitting a couple of feet away from me. She was blushing slightly.
“Oh…” I said as the words hit me and I thought about it for a second. I grabbed her flank…oh shit I GRABBED HER FLANK!!! “OH! Swift I…”
“Stow it private it was a good tactic I wasn’t really prepared for. And what happened afterwards was more of a reflex than anything.
“Do I even want to know what happened afterwards?” I asked Jona seeing as how he was the only one who wanted to talk about the subject.
“Well I’ve seen the same things happen to her at those nightclub thingies. And just like she’s done to other stallions…well…she bucked you.” He said chuckling.
“…ok…that still doesn’t explain the unconsciousness.”
“Well from what we could see and what you fancy armor told us; she kinda bucked you in your um…stallion parts.” He said before laughing out loud.
It took me a second to drink in all the facts. I grabbed Swift Gale’s flank. She responds in true mare fashion and bucks me. Because of my physiology she just happens to buck me in the balls. And from there the pain would cause me to pass out.
“Ok then…we are never speaking of this again.” I said giving everyone a glare. “So how long have I been out?”
“Long enough that gym time is over. Up an at em everyone we got time to catch a quick lunch before heading into town for patrol so move it on the double ponies!” Jonagold stated.
I got up as quickly as my body would let me. Feeling a bit sorry for me Swift helped to make sure I could get up and walk straight. Everyone in the squad went back to our barracks and grabbed a quick bite to eat. I settled for some apples as we headed out of the grounds.
“Hey Dan wait a minute.” Swift stopped me at the gate to the compound.
“What’s up?” I said finishing one of the apples I had grabbed.
“Well it’s about your armor. Since our armor has the magical charm it changes to the regular armor that you know when we exit, but yours doesn’t. And we can’t have all the civilians seeing you in your battle gear or at least in a color that looks official; so we have to find something to do about that.
“I believe I may have an answer to that Ms. Gale.”
“What did I say about calling me Sergeant, Jarvis?”
“My apologies I am still adapting to certain language protocols but sir if I could direct you attention to the little knob on you chest piece.”
“Yeah I remember it. How does it help?”
“If you turn it you can change the color of your armor.
“Oh really how does it know what color to change?”
“I have set some presets in it for you already including this default setting as well as both guard color armors.”
“Ok lets try this out then.” I reached for the knob and twisted it and within seconds the color of all my armor had turned into the normal gold color I had seen the day guards wearing. “How do I look Sarge?”
“Uh I don’t think the gold work on you it makes you look like a statue with pants. Try the night guard colors.”
I flicked the switch again and my armor turned into a dark blue color.
“Eh it looks better than nothing. Now come on your partnered with me for your first patrol.”
“This wouldn’t happen to be a type of apology for kicking me in the balls would it.” I said smirking in my helmet.
“No and if you bring it up again you won’t get an actual apology. Now hush its better to remain silent on patrol so we can hear what’s going on.
And with that I began my first patrol of Canterlot. I got a kick out of how many times a pony saw me and freaked out. I wanted to laugh but literally every time it looked like I was going to start Swift was staring at me. Of course as we passed by nobles I could see ones that were ready to gallop to the palace and ask Celestia what I was doing in the guard with armor.
Canterlot was a nice city very clean. It wasn’t one hundred percent clean but every time I saw a wayward piece of trash I also saw somepony pick it up; even the nobles did so. It was nice to be in a relatively calm city.
It wasn’t till almost an hour into our patrol that we finally came across something. We had walked into the market square and there were a group of ponies crowded around something and I could here a guitar from somewhere in the noise. But that was the second thing that caught my attention. The first was the sight of a little colt sitting across the square from the group looking at it and crying.
“Alright I guess we should do something about this cro…Hey Dan where are you going?” Swift Gale started as I walked away from the crowd and towards the colt. He had a very vibrant red mane; almost neon, the rest of him wash a nice tan color. He never took his eyes of the ground as I approached.
“Hey there little guy what’s going on?” I said trying to help.
“Oh just the world being unfair and stupid!” he said throwing his hoofs up in annoyance. He had a slight Trottingham accent on him it reminded me of Pipsqueak.
“Would you like to tell me what happened? I’m in the guard maybe I can help.
“Ok...” he said with a sniffle; wiping his nose on his forelegs. “Well it started when I had begged my parents to get me a guitar. I had seen the human called Dan play his music at the Grand Galloping Gala and I thought the way he played a guitar was awesome! And I thought that maybe I could try. So I begged my parents for a guitar and an amp for my birthday and they got it for me. I was so happy I practiced till I fell asleep. And then today comes and I was going to go play in the park. But then I got here and I was stopped by some bigger ponies. They asked me where I was going and I told them. Then one of them took my guitar saying that he was friends with Dan and that he learned guitar from him and that a little loser like me wouldn’t ever be able to play guitar right. Then he started messing with my guitar and playing it. I tried to say something but then ponies started to swarm hi to watch him play and I was quickly pushed back. And now here I am without my guitar and told that I’ll never be able to play guitar.”
“Well that’s not right?”
“You mean that I should be able to play guitar?” the colt said finally looking up at me. I brought down my helmet just to let him see who he was talking to.
“Well that and the fact that I never taught anypony how to play the guitar…at least not yet anyway.” The look on his face was priceless he just stared at me in shock before looking like he was going to scream.
“Oh whoa wait kid don’t scream just yet we still have to get your guitar back and its going to be much better if whoever did it doesn’t know I’m here yet. Hey Swift come here for a second.” I motioned for Swift to come closer.
“Dan what is going on…and who is this?” she asked pointing to the colt.
“Oh he’s a new friend and as it turns out the reason for the crowd is because some mean bigger ponies took his guitar. Isn’t that right?” the colt looked at Swift and shook his head. So I’m going to get it back and you are going to…” I said picking the colt up and putting him on Swift’s back. “Are going to keep an eye on the kid while watching my back ok?” I said turning around and heading for the crowd without waiting for Swift’s reply.
It was only a little hard to get through the crowd seeing as how I could step over most ponies. Many ponies realized who I was and moved out of my path making it easy for me to reach the front. I began to hear the sound of guitar the closer I got to the front as well as a voice that I began to recognize.
“Oh yeah me and Dan go way back! I met him only after a couple of days after he first got here. I was even there at the Grand Galloping Gala when he first played. It was after that when he taught me everything I know about the guitar.
“Is that really true it sounds kinda farfetched to me?” I said getting the attention of anypony who hadn’t seen me yet except for the pony with the guitar.
“Yeah of course it’s true what do you take me for a liar?” he said finally facing me. And sure enough it was a face I realized.
“Well the thing is I haven’t taught anyone about the guitar. And if I did I especially wouldn’t teach it to you. How have you been Douchebag?” I said to the pony I had once played a game of hoofball against.
“Wha What are you doing here?” he asked nervously his voice squeaking a bit.
“Don’t you see the fancy armor? I’m in the guard. I’m here with my patrol partner Sergeant Swift Gale. We just happened to walk into the square and see the crowd of people. We would normally just make you disperse but then I saw this little colt here.” I pointed to the colt poking his head of Swift’s she didn’t seem to mind the weight. “And he told us a story about how someone just went and took his guitar from him and told him he would never be able to play guitar.”
The crowd slowly looked form the colt back to Douchebag and his friends and gave them some angry looks.
“Now wait a minute that’s not how it went down.”
“Oh I’m sure you have your side of the story Douchebag but I also remember that you’re a liar and once tried to hurt one of my friends in a game of hoofball just because you were losing. But I’m gonna give you a chance. Let me hear how you play; if you do good enough you can keep the guitar and I’ll leave you alone.”
“Dan is that a good idea?” Swift said at my side.
“Just trust me ok Swift.” I said looking form her to the colt. “Do you trust me?” I asked him. He simply nodded his head slightly before I turned back to Douchebag.
“Alright then you get one shot and then I’ll see if I can do better. SO go ahead…dazzle me.” I said with a straight face.
Douchebag started playing and it was amateur at best but some of the ponies around that weren’t friends seemed to like it a bit. I could tell that he had messed with the strings though and that it was a bit out of tune. Once he finished he got some applause and took the guitar off and handed to me.
“So how was that.” He said with a smug grin.
“Oh golly gosh I don’t know how I’m gonna beat that.” I said with obvious sarcasm making a bunch of the ponies laugh.
“You’re horrible Dan’s gonna blow your non-existent pants off!” said the colt making ponies laugh harder.
“Hey kid how’s about you…” Douchebag started to say until he met gazes with Swift and promptly shut up to stop himself form getting his flank kicked.
“Ok then I think I’m just going to play a little warm up.” I said fixing the tuning so it would sound correct
“A warm up? That’s it?” Douchebag said tome thinking he had this in the bag.
“Yeah that’s it. And it goes a little something like this.” I said shutting up there and letting my fingers do the talking. It was a good minute and a half before finished but I could tell by the silence that everypony was astounded.
I looked up to see that Douchebag and his friends had snuck away knowing that I had beaten them again. The crowd cheered for my playing and then dispersed quietly afterwards leaving Swift, the colt, and I standing there.
“Huh they got away. Weren’t you going to punish them Dan I could fly and catch them?”
“Naw the embarrassment is punishment enough. They won’t come into this city or Ponyville again. Here’s your guitar kid.” I said taking of the guitar and putting it into his hooves.
“T...Thank mister.”
“Hey no needs for that just call me Dan.”
“Thanks Dan…Do you think that maybe one day I’ll be a good guitar player like you even though I don’t have hands?”
“Kid it’s not about having hands it’s about having heart. If you don’t have emotion your music isn’t going to sound good. Also don’t be like Douchebag just doing it for the fame and stuff. If you do good that will come but you have to do it for the music.”
“Wow.” The kid was lost in amazement.
“Hey before I go, I never got your name?”
“Oh I have to go too. And my name is Ziggy. Ziggy Stardust.”
“No shit.” I said under my breath so the kid couldn’t hear.
“Oh and Dan by the way do you…do you think that maybe I could get lessons form you some time?”
“Sure I don’t mind, just go into the castle and ask the princess. If you use your little kid cuteness they will give in and say yes I know it. Try tomorrow if you want.”
“That’s awesome. Thanks Dan!!!” he said as he took his stuff and ran down the street back home, no doubt to tell his parents what had just happened.
I stood there for a bit before Swift nudged me. “Come on let’s finish our patrol and regroup with the rest of the squad.
“Alright; oh and thanks for carrying the kid for me.”
“Eh no problem I guess that’s a favor for me hitting you in the balls then?” she asked.
“Yeah and that makes us almost even.”
“What almost even? What is that supposed to mean?”
“Well I do have two balls so I think one favor for each ball is appropriate isn’t it? Good? Then we are agreed. Let’s hurry up then.” I said as I started to move ahead of her as she stood there in silence.
“Wait what…argh Dan you little. GET BACK HERE!!!” I broke into a run as she began to chase me down.