Twilight fell to the ground for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Spitting dirt out of her mouth, she picked herself up and looked back at her brother. Shining Armor smiled and his blade hissed around his body in celebration. “C’mon Twily, you have to do better than that.”
Twilight rolled her eyes as her horn ceased to glow; the magical field dissolved from around her body. Her own blade clattered to the grown at the same moment, and she growled in frustration. She turned to the table nearby and sat heavily, too tired and too irritated to have any grace. Shining suppressed the chuckle threatening to emerge for her sake and sat across from her. Twilight glared at the stallion. “Remind me why I agreed to this?”
“Because you have been reading too many adventure novels and books about fighting, so you asked me to teach you how to fight with a sword?” Shining responded without hesitation. Twilight dropped her head on the table and groaned. The stallion smiled to himself and patted her on the shoulder. “It takes practice little sis. It’s not something you can expect to master in less than an hour's trying. That’s why guards train.”
Twilight looked back up at him. “I know Shining; I watched you while you trained remember? I just didn’t expect it to be this hard” She dropped her head again and groaned slightly.
Shining laughed and got up, nudging her as he walked by. “This coming from the filly who is Princess Celestia’s personal pupil! You’re learning and doing some of the most advanced spell work in Equestria, and you give up on this after less than an hour?” He saw his little sister’s ears twitch at these words. “That’s not the Twily I know.”
After a moment, Twilight rose from her seat and walked back to where her brother waited for her. “That’s my sister.” He took his sword in his own magic and levitated it closer to the mare’s side. Promptly, Twilight snatched it with her own magic and re-created the protective field of energy around her body.
Shining Armor adjusted his helmet and lowered into a defensive posture. Quickly Twilight reviewed all she had researched in the past few days; she breathed deeply for a moment to calm her nerves before also settling into a combat stance. Her eyes roamed over her brother’s stance while shifting ever so slightly to the right. Occasionally her eyes would flick to the blade across from her own, only to immediately go back to evaluating his position.
After a full minute of this tense game of patience and evaluation Twilight made her move. Lunging forward suddenly, her blade flashed out in a blur only to be intercepted by Shining's own sword. Twilight fell back to brace for the counter-attack, but it didn’t come. Once she knew it wouldn’t come, she lunged forward again, this time feinting to the right. Once the blade came up to block hers, she shifted and struck left. Shining followed his blade's movement and jumped slightly to the right, dodging her strike. As he moved his blade came round to tap her on her flank. She jumped from the touch, nostrils flaring. Her eyes narrowed as she turned back to him, anger being rekindled within her.
“You’re moving too much Twilight.” He advised her. “Never move an inch more than you have to- you’ll keep your balance easier and your intent harder to interpret.” He raised his blade. “Defend yourself.” As soon as she raised her own blade, he flew forward in a flurry of swordsmanship. Caught off guard, Twilight was barely able to fend off the attack. Shining’s sword would dash forward at blinding speeds to come within inches of her magical field, yet he barely moved.
Twilight finally saw an opening to strike, and took it. She lashed out before Shining could resume his onslaught. The stallion simply leaned to the side, barely moving at all, but it was enough to leave the mare off-balance. One strike was enough to knock Twilight to the ground once again.
“UGHH!” Twilight picked herself up yet again and rounded on her brother, who backed away slightly at the intense gaze. She was tempted to throw the sword at him, but she knew it wasn’t necessarily his fault. She considered throwing the sword at one of the dummies nearby, but she knew that wouldn’t help her either- it also yielded no logical benefit.
Twilight promptly whirled and sent the sword whizzing towards the stuffed dummy. It impacted with enough force to topple it, showing the weapon buried to nearly its hilt. Twilight snorted and retrieved the blade. She was right- that didn’t help her at all.
Shining watched his sister come and go, and studied her for a long time. Occasionally he would open his mouth as if to say something or appear like he would move, but he remained standing in the same spot, watching her. Finally he said “How many books have you read about swordsmanship Twily?”
Twilight cocked her head at the perplexing question. Shrugging, she thought back to her latest searches in the library, while counting in her head. “Five, I think?” She brought her gaze back to Shining. “Yes, five. Why do you ask?”
The stallion shifted on his hooves a bit. “You’ve spent a lot of your time learning by book on nearly everything- in school you pretty much taught yourself out of your books rather than listening to the teacher, you learn most of your spells out of books with some guidance by the princess- and now you’re trying to learn this by reading it in a book.”
Twilight looked at Shining curiously, but he continued before she could speak. “My point is I think this isn’t something you can learn by a book. I’ve told every guard in training I’ve encountered that the best teacher is experience- which is probably why they aren’t very good guards.” Shining smiled a bit and Twilight giggled slightly. It was true. “I think the reason you’re struggling with this Twilight is because you need to learn it in a different way rather than what you’re used to.”
Twilight mused to herself for a moment while pondering her brother’s words. It was true, for most of her life she had relied on books to give her the knowledge she needed to accomplish things, and they had always worked. It had never occurred to her that the reason she couldn’t do this was because the books couldn’t tell her how. She looked back up at her brother. “Ok, so what do I do?”
“You aren’t going to like it, but we start from the beginning. Pick up your sword; we’re going to do some drills.” Twilight did so without hesitation. Shining raised an eyebrow at her lack of resistance or grumbling- it was quite the welcome change from the ponies he usually trained. “So first off we're going to do stance. All the sword swinging in the world won’t save you if you fall over each time you do it. Now, lower your front a little, that’s it. Raise your sword a little. Good, now move to the left…”
For two hours they drilled, going over every aspect of stance, poise, positioning, and movement. By the end of the day, Twilight was sore, dirty, and tired, but she felt better about her abilities. Shining promised that they would resume soon.
Over the following week they continued training- posture, technique, posture again, observing opponents, and all over again. By the end of the week Twilight had gone over the same training every royal guard did at least twice over. She had long since returned any books she had taken out of the library on the subject, and replaced the time she had spent reading them with going over what Shining had shown her. For the first time since she had first really discovered magic she lived and breathed this activity, and she loved it.
After the end of the twelfth day since they had started, Twilight challenged her brother again. Her magic hummed and encased her body and sword as she stared down her armor-sheathed foe. Where once she would focus on doing the movements and mental checklists her research had given her, she now simply breathed and let her hard-trained instincts direct her movements.
Quickly she darted forward and struck at his left, but retreated quickly at his response. A few more shallow strikes and feints were enough to get a feel for his defense. Once she had this familiarity, she launched her real attack.
Twilight jumped to the left and swung her sword with the movement. When Shining turned to follow her movement, she promptly hopped to the right. Once more Shining followed her movement while keeping his guard up. This time she followed through with her jump by rolling with the momentum, effectively confusing the stallion for a fraction of a second. Twilight took advantage of this by striking at his exposed flank, finally landing her first solid hit. Shining rounded at the blow, but she was already gone. Twilight gleefully circled her brother, sometimes striking a few hits while fending off his counterattacks.
As her stamina began to wane, Twilight decided to finally use the maneuver she had spent countless hours practicing on her own. She took a step away from Shining to lure him in and buy some time, all while focusing intently on the spot directly behind him. Once he took the bait and followed her in, she unleashed her pent up magic in one burst; she disappeared in a violet flash only to reappear instantaneously behind the stallion. The spell drained her magical shield which left her vulnerable to an attack, but it also blinded and disoriented her opponent. Taking full advantage of the opportunity, she swept his rear legs out from under him and rammed into him. Shining was knocked to the ground and disarmed in one fell swoop; when he attempted to rise he was greeted with a sword poking in his face and a bright smile from his sister. “Looks like I win this time B.B.B.F.F.”
Shining chuckled. “Yeah Twily. Looks like you win this time.” After another moment he added “Can you please move this sword? I’m starting to go cross-eyed.”
Twilight laughed, dropping the sword to the side, and helped her brother up. He sheepishly chuckled again and dusted himself off. Once he was back in sorts, he squared himself to her seriously. “Well Ms. Sparkle, it would appear you’ve passed and exceeded this academy’s standards. You are now an official Royal Honor Guard of the Crystal Empire.” He winked at her, referring to her favorite bedtime story.
Twilight giggled and struck a pose with her sword. “I accept this great honor with grace and humility.” They both burst out laughing at the act and started walking together to the barracks to turn in their gear.
On the way Shining leaned over to his sister and whispered. “Let’s keep this you beating me business between you and me, ok?”
“Why, scared about Cadance finding out you were beat by a little filly?” Twilight teased, nudging him. They both laughed again. Twilight leaned against her big brother. “Thanks for training me B.B.B.F.F.” Shining simply leaned his head over and said nothing as they walked out together.