"Wes?"
"Oh, hello Captain."
I finished stretching and nodded to Shining Armor. I stood in the sun, enjoying the warmth of a new day. I'd been eager to exercise even a little now my injuries were healed enough they didn't limit my movement.
"Twilight said I would probably find you here. What are you up to?"
"Um, I'm practicing moving."
"Come again?"
"It's something a friend showed me. His martial had a special word for it, but all I do is visualize myself fighting and practice movements to go with that."
"Oh....a kata?"
"Maybe. I just think of it as practicing moving. Since I don't have formal training, I just reflect on the things that worked well in previous fights and imagine myself doing them again. That way, next time they will be more automatic."
"Does it work?"
"It seems to. The first thing Splinter made me do was sit and think through the range of motion for my limbs, and how my muscles and bones connect. From that, he had me work out how to strike and block using principles from his training. Since then I've been trying to refine things and work out what's most effective. I think it’s given me an edge a few times, and it definitely helps me avoid or stop blows."
"Mind if I watch?"
"Not really. But what are you here for?"
"I had a question, but it can wait. Now I'm curious." Shining Armor brushed his blue mane out of his eyes and found a spot in the shade to watch. I went back to my stretches.
I blew out a final breath and let my concentration fade. Exercising with someone watching hadn't bothered me, but my injuries had definitely been affecting me. I wasn't sure how long that would last. Though I had plenty of experience with injury, I had very little with healing.
"You're pretty good." Shining walked over and nodded his approval. "Not having any formal training shows, but all in all, you're doing OK. I guess it's true that a single real fight is worth a month of training. Honestly, now I'm more curious than ever. Will you spar with me?"
"Um, I don't know if that's a good idea."
"Really." He quirked an eyebrow, clearly unsatisfied with my answer.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I have no experience with sparring. I've only done it once, with Rainbow. I didn't hurt her, but only just."
Shining stared at me for a minute.
"You need to trust yourself more." He walked slowly around me, inspecting me from every angle. "This is something I learned, re-learned, and learn again every so often. Last time was on my wedding day. Don't be afraid of your feelings. There is only one you. You are not divided against yourself. Your feelings don't change who you are, they only reveal it. Do you want to kill ponies?"
"No." I surprised myself with a quick answer. "No, I don't. But in the heat of a fight, I don't know-"
"You need to trust your friends more, too. Let me tell you this; I don't know how good Rainbow Dash is, but I promise I'm better. You may have been able to beat her. You might be able to do it again. If you wanted to, you might even be able to hurt her. But I've watched you move, and I'm saying right now I can take you. Maybe not win, but I can stop you. You won't hurt me. Trust me on this."
I met his eyes, matching his level gaze. Maybe I did need to trust others a bit more. And if he was better than me, it would only do me good to fight him.
"Ok." I agreed finally. "But, we need a ref, and a spotter."
"Pfah, what do you take me for, an amateur?" He picked up the guard helmet he was carrying, the only piece of armor he had brought, and tapped the side before placing it on his head. "This is Captain Armor. Bronze Tangent, please join us in the fourth courtyard."
I mentally kicked my estimate of pony tech up a few notches. That was clearly a short-range communicator of some sort. Probably based on a sympathy spell, that would....aaaand I couldn't remember. I sighed as the knowledge fled. It was neat using Twilight's memory, but inconvenient how it came and went.
I wonder if she feels the same way about mine? Hmmm. Maybe she could think of reasons that I would be useful to Sombra. I dropped the train of thought as a royal guard, a unicorn, came through the arch and saluted Shining. The captain acknowledged him, and gave him a brief explanation.
"Bronze, you know the rules; don't let us hurt each other if you can help it."
I relaxed a little at that. A unicorn's telekinesis to hold us back would make things somewhat safer. I paced to the center of the courtyard, raised my hands and flexed my knees. Shining stood across from me, his stance loose but confident.
"Begin!" our ref called.
Swish. His voice barely faded before I had to throw myself to the side to avoid flying hooves. I'd nearly underestimated the range ponies could get out of a good kick. I rolled to the left and sprang to my feet, dashing in towards Shining as he recovered his footing. I lunged for his neck, but had to pull back as a razor horn sliced through the space I'd occupied.
He's not fooling around, I thought. I grit my teeth, and forced myself to concentrate, tuning out my surroundings and focusing on the fight more and more. His movements accelerated to match mine as I danced backwards, trying to dodge his flying hooves. One of them clipped my arm and I winced. I could tell he was pulling his blows, but that still hurt.
I had a mobility advantage, the same as with the changelings; being on two feet let me dodge and weave more easily, but his lower stance and center of gravity meant that he was difficult to imbalance. Against an amateur I could do something, but his experience and ingrained training meant he wouldn't fall for cheap tricks. I threw another few attacks, which were handily deflected or dodged, and grinned. He really was better than Rainbow. So. How far could I trust the spotter?
I faked left and spun right, barely dodging a swipe of his horn. I was surprised when my blow missed, but adjusted quickly. He was still getting faster. Just how far was he holding out on me? Should I go all out? Dare I? I'd agreed to trust him and myself, but just how much did he want from me? If I came at him with true intent to kill I might not be able to do it, but I could surely do some serious damage. My pondering was cut short as I threw myself backwards, trying to avoid a horn-stab. I wasn't quite fast enough.
"Point!" Bronze yelled. I was jerked to a stop as our spotter's ocean-blue aura caught me. I looked down; Shining's horn was stopped an inch or so from my chest. Bronze nodded to him, and set us both free.
So, I could trust the spotter, at least within an inch of my life. Good to know.
"You're going to have to do better than that," Shining said grimly. "If that's all you got, I'm not going to let you anywhere near the hive when we attack."
"Say what?"
"Oh, didn't I make it clear? This is more than a fight, it's a test. If I don't deem you able to hold your own, there's no way I'm taking you with us in the assault. I'll miss your insider knowledge, sure...but there's no way I'm letting a liability join my squad. So. Convince me." He took up a stance again. "I'll even give you one more shot. Make it count."
I shook my head, trying to clear it. Is that was this was about? I'd been confused by his insistence that we fight, but this...I grimaced. I guess I'd taken it for granted that I'd be part of the assault, but there was really no reason for that. Shining was a soldier, a professional. Of course he needed to know that I could fight and follow orders. At least he was giving me a second shot.
"Ok. Ok. Let's try this again." I turned to him, and fell into my stance.
This time I was the first to strike. He said I should trust him? Ok. He said to trust myself? That one was a little harder, but I pushed past it and pressed the attack. I went for vital points again, and managed to catch him by feinting at his eye and nearly landing a blow on his horn. Suddenly, my hand was caught in a magic aura; I thought for a split-second that Bronze was interfering, but the glow of Shining's horn shattered that idea.
Well, we hadn't agreed to not use magic. Still, I felt a little miffed. I clenched my fist tighter and pushed forward as hard as I could; the aura cracked, and his eyes widened slightly as a spark of magic leaped back to his horn. I took vicious advantage of the distraction by whipping my left fist around and attempting to catch him on the nose. He stepped backwards, but the glow around my hand held firm. I torqued my arm, putting my whole weight behind the movement as I shattered his aura. He was better at maintaining concentration than his sister however, since he merely winced and met my rush with a flawless defense.
A second in, I realized this was going nowhere fast. At this rate, he would simply kick my butt again. I dodged backwards and he let me go. I stood for a second, breathing heavily, and assessed my situation. A bare courtyard with no-one here but the combatants and ref. Great. Nothing except the walls to use. How could the walls-I dropped the thought and swayed sideways, dodging another bone-crushing kick. Those were powerful, but he telegraphed like crazy. Too bad the range meant I couldn't take advantage.
I stepped backwards and he followed. I led him like that for a few steps, before I whipped around and dashed for the wall. I heard him behind me and smiled. Maybe this would work. Ponies were versatile, but they didn't really have feet like me. I reached the wall and kept running, placing a foot up on the brickwork, leaping as high as I could. I managed a few steps before I reached the top of my arch and twisted backwards, looking below me as I started to spin in mid-air. Eat your heart out, Neo.
"Point!" Bronze caught me in mid-air, heels inches from Shining's head. It's hard to say how much damage I would have done falling on him like that, but it would have definitely hurt. Not my most elegant plan, but I'd managed to catch him off guard. I breathed a sigh, relieved both that my attack had worked and that I had been stopped in time.
"You," I panted as I was lowered to ground, "are too good. I'm not fighting you again." I knew when I was beat; the captain of the guard was too much for me without a trick or weapon, and he wouldn't fall for that one twice.
"Well," He smiled at me. "Fancy that. I was going to say the same." I snorted in disbelief. "No, really. I might be able to win, but I'm not good enough to keep both of us safe through another match. If we didn't have my best spotter here, I wouldn't have even pushed as far as I did. You're too deadly. But, all said, that's probably a good thing; it means I can give you my permission. If you're willing to go through training, we can allow you onto the team. You in?" He held out a hoof. I stepped forward gratefully, and rapped it with my fist.
"Count me in." My grin may have been a little bloodthirsty, but he returned it just the same.
<"Carrot.">
<"Cake.">
Twilight flipped a page on her journal, and wrote down the phrase. We were sitting in the sun, in the garden near the entrance to the hedge maze. I had my back against a tree, and she was a few yards away on the grass.
<"Is carrot cake the same on Earth as it is here?"> she asked.
<"Yeah, pretty much. Maybe it's a universal constant?">
<"That's an interesting idea, that certain things are guaranteed an existence in different dimensions-">
<"Twilight, it was a joke."> I sighed. I thought I'd been bad at over analyzing.
We were playing a word-association game, as a test of how far our memories had mingled. Twilight had learned, with some practice, how to use my memory to speak English and not get 'stuck'. So far, for almost every word I'd said she'd had the same association.
<"Christmas."> I started the game again.
<"Cookies.">
<"I was thinking carols. What are we at?">
<"Looks like about one in five...call it eighty percent association.">
<"I wonder...do you think this means that those parts of my memory didn't transfer? or are you simply accessing different parts more strongly than I am? Is this test even helpful?">
<"I wish I knew...but it's all we've got, unfortunately. Oh, I've been meaning to ask. Even in English, ‘Wesley’ doesn't seem to be a real word. What's up with that?">
<"Most names in my culture weren't proper words. They usually came from other languages, or were from older dialects. My mother told me that Wesley is a combination of 'Wes', or west, and 'lea', an old word for meadow. Properly, I guess it would mean 'west meadow', or 'from the west meadow'.">
<"Oh. Have you considered using the equivalent Equestrian?">
<"Eh, if you like. Those words aren't anything similar in Equestrian, though, so it would sound pretty weird.">
<"I guess. Hmm. Let's try it from my side, now.">
"Ok." I switched back to Equestrian, and flipped my notebook open. Twilight had been teaching me the alphabet ponies used, and I was getting better at writing it. I had only been slightly surprised when she picked up the Roman alphabet in just a few minutes. Seriously, just how smart could one pony be?
"Hat," she said, startling me out of my thoughts.
"Rack." I wrote down the pair in my notebook.
"Ice."
"Skating."
"Apple."
"Jack."
"I was going to say pie," she said. I wrote down the pair, and added a tick to the column of broken pairs. It seemed that either Twilight's memory was leaking into mine somewhat less, or the fact that I'd learned Equestrian traditionally was changing the way I thought more than her 'total absorption' technique did for English. We were at something just over sixty percent association for me and Equestrian words.
"Crystal."
"Heart." That was one of the strong associations; it could only have come directly from her. I wrote it down and ticked the other column. "That makes me think. Any thoughts on what Sombra is up to? The fact that nothing has turned up is somewhat worrying."
"You're right." She frowned. "I know the Princess has ponies looking into it, but you're right. We need to watch our backs. I'm sure he's not done."
We sat in silence for a bit. I scratched the back of my hand, and then began unwrapping the bandages. I'd promised Shining I'd show up bright and early for training tomorrow and these had been bothering me. I needed my rest. Surely my burns were finished healing by now?
"Hey, check this out," I held up my hand so Twilight could see. On my palm, where the black residue from Sombra's spell had been, the skin under the bandage had changed from patchy black to patchy purple. "Is that supposed to happen? I mean, normally healing skin can be purple, but this doesn't look the same."
"No, you're right." Twilight craned her neck for a better view, and then realized she was being silly and walked over for a closer look. "This does look odd. Hmm, maybe this can give us some clues on what's going on! We need to test this! Come with me!"
I yelped as her magic aura grabbed me and dragged me away from my comfy seat. I sighed, but resigned myself. As much as I disliked being a test subject, 'Lab Animal' was vastly superior to 'Corpse'.
Unfortunately, it looked like I wouldn’t get much rest this afternoon.