After a few minutes of searching I finally find an empty room to stretch my wings. Hopefully this one will stay empty.
After stretching them along with the rest of me, as training is today, I put back on my cloak. I walk outside and there's still a half hour to spare.
I decide to just take a walk around the base and think. And I find myself wanting something bad. Something I haven't seen for what seems like forever.
Outside.
I've been stuck down here for so long I've begun to forget trees, and the sound of wind blowing through them. I miss the sound of birds singing. The feel of the morning dew in the grass on my hooves. Heck, I even miss thunderstorms!
The touch of a cloud, the colors of the rainbow, the smell of fresh flowers...
All these little things that I used to barely take any notice of now makes my heart ache.
Also, on a slightly different topic, I miss books. I haven't seen a single book down here. Maybe there are some. Perhaps I'll ask the Commander during my training lesson.
Perhaps I can even ask her if it's safe for me to take a short walk in the Everfree. The dark forest may not be the most delightful place to go to, but it's all there is as far as I can tell.
I look at a clock. I have five minutes to get to the Training Hall. I quicken my pace, I don't want to be late!
I get there right on time. The Commander is there, waiting for me.
"Do you always arrive at the last second?" she asks jokingly, though I still detect a hint of sadness in her voice. I remember how she had reacted to Scootaloo. Who is she?
"Not usually," I answer.
"Well, you're still here," she replies, "Come on in."
We walk inside. I've never been here before besides my quick look at it from the tour, so I take a look around.
There are training dummies lined up against one wall along with archery targets. The middle of the room is empty, so good for fighting. The other wall is lined with racks, that in turn are filled with weapons. Wooden swords, real swords, bows, arrows, and other weapons that I don't have a clue what they are.
"Where do you get all these weapons?" I ask.
"Well, a few of them we found throughout the castle," the Commader explains, "Most of the others we scavenge from the enemy. We make a few of them too, out of wood and all the broken weapons we find. Of course, the wooden ones are only used for practice."
"You make weapons here?" I wonder.
The Commander chuckles softly, "Well, yeah. We have a little blacksmith area. Who knew that Big Mac was such a good metal worker? Of course, he's not the only one. We have a few ponies that can work metal into weapons. Some even have crafted weapons of their own designs! Check it."
I turn to her, who had taken something off the rack. It looks like a bracelet with a long spike coming out of it.
"This one is pretty sweet," she says, "It only can be used by Pegasi though."
She brings one of her arms out from her cloak. To my surprise, it is covered in battle armor.
"Wait, you wear that battle armor all the time?" I ask.
"Yeah, of course," she replies, "You never know when a battle's going to happen, so I wear armor all the time. Well, except when I'm sleeping."
"Doesn't it get uncomfortable?" I add, "I mean, I know that my cloak is uncomfortable as it is, but with armor too? All day?" I shudder at the thought.
"Eh, I've gotten used to it," she says, shrugging, "Well, I guess I do take it off once in a while when I'm alone." The Commander looks my way, "You do the same too right? Take your cloak off when you sleep and sometimes during the day? I don't want you fainting from to much heat and no time to take it off and cool off or something. I mean, I don't know if you'd faint from wearing a cloak all the time, I have never known that type of stuff. But you might."
"Well I do find someplace empty a couple times a day and take off my cloak and stre-I mean-and cool off," I correct myself, "But i kinda sleep in a room full of other ponies, so that's not really an option for me to take my cloak off."
"Well that's good I guess," she replies, "But I'll probably try and find you a personal room or something to sleep in. Sleeping in a cloak is no fun... Okay, we need to get back on track or whatever. Did I show you how awesome this weapon is yet?"
"You were about to," I reply.
"Okay, so a Pegasi slides it onto her hoof like so," explains the Commander, demonstrating as she spoke. The spike, which on closer examination isn't a spike, more like a flat rectangular rod, pointing up, laying flat against the leg, stopping just before the knee. "And then the pegasus flies into the air," she spreads her wings and flew up a few feet, "And then if you flick you're hoof just right, BAM!" I gasp as the rod slides down, until it stops, and it seems like the Commander just grew a sword out of her arm.
"Awesome right?" she asks, "Now a pegasus can hold a sword in their mouth and have two of these! They take a while to master, but they're sweet in battle!"
"Yeah, I guess they are pretty cool," I say, "But they don't really have a use for me. I'm a a-unicorn, not a pegasus."
"Oh, heh, right," she says, and somehow I can tell that she's blushing under her cloak, "Ahem, um, yeah. Let's start with...a sword. The most basic weapon. Yes. Why don't you go to the rack and pick one out you like? Since you're practicing on a dummy right now, you should get a real one. We'll battle later."
I walk up to the racks and inspect the swords. Upon inspection, I find out that they're all damaged and bent up.
"But these swords are all...not in great condition," I say.
The Commander facehoofs, "Well duh. They're used for training. All the good ones are in the armory for when we get in a real battle. Now hurry up! We don't have all day!"
"Oh, right. Of course," now it's my turn to blush, "Silly me."
I turn back to the swords. I don't think I should be too picky. I could levitate any of them with ease. I choose one that has a standard sized blade and can move through the air easily.
I pick it up with my magic and walk back to the Commander.
"Ah, one of the Shadow Pony swords," she says, "Those things are great in battle. Moves through the air with ease. When it's in great condition, it's really sharp and does a crazy amount of damage."
"Why do you call them Shadow Ponies?" I ask out of nowhere.
"Eh, the colors of their coat is the color of shadows," she answers with a shrug, "That's it."
I nod, and she leads me over to one of the training dummies, "Now show me what ya got!" she says, "Don't worry about damaging it. We can fix it! Now come on! Beat it up! I mean, ahem, use some awesome sword moves you know, or something. Oh who cares! Beat it to a pulp!"
I shortly wonder she seems so excited over me whacking a straw dummy with a sword, but I figure it's some sort of motivational speech.
I hadn't had very much hoofs-on experience with using a sword before. But I have read some books that talked about it. Besides, how hard can it be? I just move the sword with my magic.
I start out with a few slow swings. When I get the hang of it, I start speeding up. I attack the dummy from every angle I can think of. I eventually get into the mood. I even pretend to block and parry, and faking the "opponent" out. Soon the dummy was nothing much more than a pile of straw on the floor. I lower my sword, panting slightly.
"Pretty good, pretty good," comments the Commander, "On to the next dummy." We move on to the next one, which is exactly the same as the first one, "Now, move around as you hit it."
"Huh?" I ask, confused.
"You know, move around instead of standing still," she explains.
"But I don't really need to," I retort, "I can just stand still. I'm a unicorn remem-"
"Do you really expect an enemy to stand still while you beat it up?" she interrupts, and I look down and shake my head, "Thought so. Now, like I said, move around. Don't get tangled in your cloak now. That's why you're here, remember?"
I nod, and cast a spell to make sure my cloak doesn't come off.
I approach the second dummy, and strike. This time i move around, and try not to just attack it from the front, but the back and sides as well. The Commander was right the first time we talked about my battling skills in the cloak, it is harder. It restricts my movements, making me slower than I'd like. Over time though, I get faster, learning how to move quickly in it without it being uncomfortable.
Soon the dummy looks just like the first, a pile of straw.
"Better," says the Commander, "Now for round three."
I move on to the third dummy, and look to the Commander for instructions. To my surprise she's over by the weapon rack again, and pulls out two wooden swords. She tosses one towards me.
"Come on, let's have a little battle," she says.
I set down the Shadow Pony sword and pick up the wooden one.
"Wait a minute, shouldn't I get armor as well?" I ask.
"Don't worry, I won't hit you hard," she answers, "Besides, you should be able to block most of them. And besides that, this exercise is for you to try to hit me."
I make sure the spell keeping my cloak on is still in place, then walk up to the Commander. She then picks up her sword with her wing. I had expected her to pick it up with her mouth, but whatever.
"Ready?" she asks, and I nod, levitating my sword up higher, "3...2..1...FIGHT!"
She swings at me, but I see it coming before it hits and block it. I swing at her in turn where I think she can't bring her sword to block fast enough, but surprisingly she did.
It went on for a while, us swinging our swords and the other blocking it, or trying to. The Commander was a tough opponent, even when I can tell she's not giving even a bit of her all. For every hit I got on her, she got four on me. She was right when she said she wouldn't hit hard. The hits don't really hurt, just a small short tap. Well, most of them were like that. Some she hit me harder, and it did hurt. And somehow she manages to keep her cloak on even though I detect no spells to keep it on.
I have no clue how long we've been fighting for until she knocks my sword out of my magical grip. I collapse to the ground, totally exhausted. Sweat stains stain my cloak. I feel a few bruises forming where she hit me just a bit too hard.
The Commander looks at me. "I'll...get us...some...water," she says, panting. She exits the hall, leaving me on the ground, gasping for air.
She comes back in carrying two cups, no, bowls of water. She hands one to me.
I struggle to sit up, and take the bowl with my magic. I stare at it for a second before plunging my whole face into it.
It feels so...good.
I hear the Commander chuckle.
"You know, you didn't do so bad for your first time. I'll think you'll be great on the battlefield."
I remove my face from the water. The front of my cloak is sopping wet. I don't care.
"You...think?" I ask.
"Yup," she says, "Um, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," I answer, "Just, you know...tired."
She chuckles again and takes a sip of water from her bowl, "Yeah, I did kinda work you pretty hard. Sorry."
"No no it's fine," I say, "After a few day of not doing anything much this felt good."
She nods, then I remember what I was thinking about this morning, "Hey, do you possibly have any, books down here?"
"Books?" she asks.
"Yeah, books," I say, "I've always loved books. I haven't read anything in a while and I was wondering if you had any that I could read."
"You like books huh? Reminds me of..." she trails off and shakes her head suddenly, "I may have a couple. I'll let you borrow them if I do."
I'm surprised when her voice takes a much sadder tone.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"Oh nothing," she says, "Just remembering a...friend."
"Who?" I ask.
"It's...none of your business," she says.
I decide it's not worth it. Instead, I just silently put a hoof around her shoulder. I know what it's like to lose a friend, or friends.
"I...have to go. Same time tomorrow?" she asks.
"Sure," I answer.
I watch her leave.
Why can't this war just end?