A lot of Questions with Limited Answers
Cinder slowly opened her eyes to herself lying on a soft, white bed staring up at an equally white roof. She let out a groan and with the limited movement she could do without causing pain wasna simple scratch onnthe head.on her fingers she felt a rough, cloth-material and when she fianlly cam to her senses she realised that it was a bandage.
She immediately remembered what happened in the forest and the images of what befell her teammates. She gulped and panicked drops of sweat from through the skin of her forehead. What had happened to them? Where were they? And where was she? Were all questions that flashed in and out of her head. Her breathing hastened and her vision went blurry.
"Miss Ash, calm down," spoke a somewhat familiar voice that she could put her finger on, "it's alright. Just stay calm, you are safe." The voice placed a hand upon her should calmly and the touch of a friendly figure was enough to start easing her stress.
Cinder turned her head curiously and looked at who was beside her, and to her shock, she saw the Headmaster, Professor Tinder Box. Her face pulled one of complete shock and glee as she let out a small squeal in excitement. Although, she was still quite dazed and somewhat deliriously she couldn't entIrely take this seriously.
"Hello," he greeted calmly as she looked at him and gave her with a warm smile.
"Headmaster?" she inquired curiously, "why are you here?"
Tinder Box took a deep breath and looked out the window at the glorious Everfree Forest that sat just before their school, "I am here, Miss Ash, because it is my knowledge that you and your team were attacked by a group that does not belong to your trials or this school. Am I right?"
"You mean that Sunset woman and her team?" she asked curiously.
"Precisely," he replied, "now, I have to ask you a few questions so I can be sure of everything that happened. Is that alright?"
Cinder nodded.
"Excellent," ... "Now, first question, do you know who Sunset, Razor and Fang are, I'm assuming it's them, right?"
She looked up, trying to remember if they said anything about themselves that was of any importance. Then, something came to mind, "Wait, I remember that they said that they were the top graduating group last year,"
"Then I was was right, it was them," he sighed, "but do you know why they attacked you?"
Cinder shook her head, "no," she replied uncertainty.
"Well," the headmaster eyed her, "then I suppose we'll have to figure that out now shall we. But do not digress, we won't leave this out in the air, we will get to the bottom of this," he smiled warmly in order to comfort her, "in the meantime though, you will attend your classes normally and continue to participate in out school's assesments." ... "Now,"the old man stood up, "I need to get back to my duties," he began to walk off.
"Headmaster wait!" she called out, and he turned around, "can I ask you something?"
"You may ask me many things if you so desire," he simply replied.
"Did we pass?"
"You found the gem, so yes."
"But we didn't make it back, we weren't able to return with it, so how did you accept it?"
"Because the rules say that you don't have to return to the start with it, but that you must have it when we see you. We found you unconscious in the forest with the gem poking out of your pocket, therefore we found it on you and you were passed," he explained, "anything else?"
"Yes,"
"What is it?"
"One of them, I think it was Razor, said that I'm too weak to be part of this school, is that true?"
The headmaster paused and stared at her seriously, "it may be true or it may not be true. The reason you are at this school is that we believe you are either are strong or that you have the potential to be strong. You are at this school to learn, not to be. Always remember that."
"Okay....?" That statement wasn't very reasuring but at least she knew that she had the chance to prove Razor wrong, but now, there was another thing on her mind, a lingering thought, "can I ask you one last thing?"
"You may."
"Are they alright, are Spike and Scootaloo okay?"
"Spike's dragonic scales protected him from a majority of any serious impact damage so he is alright, however, Scootaloo is on heavy medication in order to treat her infected foot as soon as possible and she has quite a painful headache. But they are both awake and have passed the exam, above all though, they are alive," he explained and turned to leave the room for a final time, his foot steps echoing throughout the empty room as the old man left her sight.
After the headmaster left Cinder shut her eyes and lay her head on a fluffy pillow. Even after all that sleep that she had just woken up from she was still tired, and none of her acute, Palphony senses would keep her from her much needed rest. And so, after a few ticks of the clock, her heavy eyes sealed shut and she slowly drifted off into the dreamworld. It wasn't until a number of hours later that she eventually woke up from her deep sleep to the sounds of blurred chatter or recognisable voices. It was Spike and Scootaloo who she heard and she slowly lifted her head away from the pillow to meet the warm rays of the pleasant sun that shone through the stained-glsss windows.
"Morning Cinder," greeted Scootaloo who had a brace upon her foot and was confined to crutches.
"Morning..." she groaned.
"Did you get a good sleep for today?" the orange pegasus asked.
"Good sleep for what?"
"We have class today, silly!" she giggled a little and gave her a timetable with her name on it, "You're in all of our classes, give or take the specialist classes."
"And let me guess, classes start now?" she yawned.
They shook their heads.
"No, it starts in an hour," she explained, "we thought we should wake you up early."
"Anyway, we brought you your uniform and some breakfast," Spike said, placing a folded up white shirt and a folded red and black checkered skirt om the base of her bed. He then handed her a bowl of chocolate flavoured cereal and a spoon. "Eat up and let us know when you're ready to get dressed so we can leave the room, okay?"
Cinder nodded and looked to Scoots, "how's your foot feeling?" she asked cautiously.
"Not too good, it hurts a lot but the crutches help me a bit," she winced a little, " but I'm better off than that girl over their," she points to a small, blue, girl that lay on a bed in heavy pain who was missing a leg.
Cinder shivered at the sight and turned her focus away from the seriously mained girl towards the less hurt Scootaloo.
"How did that happen," she asked curiously.
"She was attack by a Manticore," Scoots explained briefly, "they say that she won't be able to continue anymore at this school, since movement is key in combat and she doesn't have a leg anymore. So her team is already a person down from averyone else."
"Oh... oh... I feel so bad for her," .... "it must be horrible to be suffering as she is. To have your dreams ripped away because of an oversized beast that took a bite of you."
"Hmm well, I guess that's just something that she'll have to live with. What's done is done and now she's the ome who has to live a gamble that she took. I hate sound likena dick here, but she's the one who tried to fight a Manticore and this is what she gets. Unfortunately life isn't fair and some things are unavoidable," Spike said and he crossed his arms, "but I agree with you Cinder, what happened to her is horrible and unthinkable. I would be horrified if that happened to any of you."
"Aww, thanks Spike. That's actually really sweet of you," Cinder giggled and went back to eating her cereal.
"Well I might as well try to ptotect you guys, I am the one with the shield,"
Scoots nudged his arm in agreement and smiled at him, they then sat down next to bed near Cinder, soaking up the morning sun. Soon the wolf Palphony finished her breakfast and asked for her two teammates to leave the room while she got dressed into her new school uniform. It sort of felt weird, she was only sixteen and had been accepted into a school aimed at people aged seventeen and then told that she may or may not be strong enough to succeed. It confused her on the fact that she wouldn't have been accepted if she wasn't strong enough. It felt like a riddle, and she hated riddles.
Throughout the day she attended her many classes with Scootaloo and Spike as well as many other teams. She attanded Classes such as Everfree Creature Biology, History of Hunters, Acrobatics and Strategy Building, however the class that stood outthe most was the Combat class taught by Professor Bataille. This was her last class of the day and by far, was her favoutite so far.
The reason why? Because it was the most engaging and interesting, every class has the potential to inherent a new trait or uphold a new responsibility. She loved seeing the diverse traits and abilities of all her fellow students. Unfortunately, she didn't actually do anything thrilling in this class since it was only the first day, but by the time she was in this class next she knew that it would be satisfying.
"Simmer down students," Professor Bataille commanded as he srood behind his desk. Behind him was a blackboard with only his name written upon the top as he patiently waited for his class to sit down and pay attention. By the time they did five minutes had already gone by. "Excellent!" he dashed his eyes around the room to see his eager students thst he had only met yesterday, "now, for today I have a little demonstration planned."
Murmered chatter of excitmemt broke our between the students.
"Now, now class be quiet," he sighed and waiting for everyone to stop talking and when they did he spoke again. "Can two volunteers please step forward."
Without hesitation a girl from another table and Spike stood up and walked to the front of the classroom. The girl was small but sturdy, she had a rather feminine body accompanied by a cream colout coat of fur, blonde hair that was tied back into a short pony tail and bright, blue, eyes. She wore a white tank top with black exercise shorts, over her top she wore a red, hooded coat with a thick, black belt aligned with twenty or so throwing knives attached to it.
"Ahh excellent, excellent," he clapped his hands together, "what are your names?"
"My name's Spike," the purple dragon replied with a humblr tone.
"I'm Lyvia. Lyvia Sounds."
"Great, now I want you two to put on a demonstration of your skills for the rest of the class."
"With sharpened weapons?" Spike asked curiously as he looked at the belt around Lyvia.
"No," the professor replied and his horn flashed, soon the blades started to glow and after a moment of concentration, the magic ceased, "never will their be fighting in my class with sharpened weapons."
Spike felt a little safer now and ready to show just how good he was in front of the class. He smirked, knowing that both Scoots and Cinder would be watching closely. He stared at the cream coloured earth ponywho stood lazily at the other end of the class.
"Fight!"
Spike unsheathed his sword and shield and charged towards Lyvia with full force, since she wss so small she would be easy to win through brute strength. By the time he reached her he lept in the air to slash down and finish the fight quickly. However, to his surprise she rolled out of the way and whiped her armr to the side. On each finger was a string that had at least three knives attached to it, meaning that she was weilding thirty knives at once as a single weapon against him, and the worst bit was that they acted like whips.
Spike eyed them as she flicked her hand towards Spike and the knives followed. Spike raised his shield and blocked the knives however their was another flick of the knife whip and the wrapped around Spike's arm.
Lyvia smirked and yanked on the string, pulling him closer at an alarming speed, as soon as he was close enough she flipped around and landed a foot onto his chest and kicked him away. Spike groaned and stood up slowly only two see the small girl grappling onto wooden beams along the ceiling in order to kove around at a gracious speed. The movements of what she did in order to attach the knives to her surroundings as she moved hastily towards him looked like she was dancing.
Spike raised his shield again, ready to deflect any attack that she would throw and when she flung the string of kmives towards him again she allowed himself to be grabbed by them and as he was quickly pulled towards her he slashed his sword and landed a diagonal hit on her hip.
She yelped and winced in pain, but in response she kicked him again, grappled him again and kicked him. She did this over and over again until Spike was in severe pain. He stared at her in the eyes and all he saw was carelessness and despair, yet, Spike got up again and charged at her one last time. And with one final swing, the fight was over.
In her hand, Lyvia held Spike's sword that she had taken in the last moment ans the purple dragon was on the wooden floor. He groaned.
"Well, it looks as though the fight is over," Professor Bataille spoke, "any triumphant words to say, miss Sounds?"
Lyvia eyed Spike then proceeded to go back to her seat without saying a word. Not too soon after did Spike stand up slowly and he groaned again as he shambled back to his seat near Scoots and Cinder.
"You're a silent warrior aren't you?"
"I shouldn't bother distracting myself on the enemy, not should I waste my time explaining my victory or overstsating the obvious. It was clear that I would win from the start, Spike took me as small amd weak and he underestimated my abilities, and so he was defeated. It's as simple as that, I will, and always will win."
"I see..." ... "and what happens when you're outnumbered greatly?"
"Won't make a difference, as you saw, all my techniques attack an area not a single target. And if my knives were sharp then I could kill someone with each slash. I'd like to see someone even touch me."
"But Spike did touch you, he lamded a hit on you,"
"And with that hit I was able to counter it and do a combo that nearly wiped him out... I plan everything that I do,"
"Understandable I suppose, but if I may hive you a word od advice, don't take you abilitues dor granted, you can't do everything on your own,"
Lyvia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "I've heard that too many times before..."
Cinder turned to face Spike and gave him a soft, worried look, "are you okay?" she asked with concern.
"Yeah," Spike nodded, "I'm alright, just a few scratched and bruises but I'll be fine," he reasurred. "But if those knives had been sharpened then I would have been dead by the first attack."
"Why did you stand up to fight?" asked Scoots, "you could have let someone else."
"I stood up because you can't fight and Cinder isn't a very strong warrior, it didn't seem right to let you guys fight but not have our team fight at all. I stood up becjause it felt right," he explained.
"Well in my opinion. That was stupid," Cinder spoke, "you could have really hurt yourself and I don't want another injured person on my team, we might need to work together on somethinh later on and if you have a broken bone then I have to do it on my own!"
"But I'm not injured because just was just a mock fight, I'm sure that the teacher wouldn't allow anyone to actually be seriously injured in his class," Spike said confidently and eyed Lyvia who was staring out the window, ignoring the praises of her fellow class mates.
"But she seemed a little ruthless, I may not know her but she was kinda fighting by the rule of 'no mercy' and so anything could have happened. Remember, you are surrounded by outstanding warriors who have a future in protecting Equestria, most people here aren't going to go easy in combat," Cinder said cautiously, "except for maybe me, because I feel bad for harming anyone that isn't going to kill me."
"That's a god moral to live by," Scootalo complimented, "but it's not a good one to keep you alive,"
"Well if I'm going to die, then I'll fight for my life, but if it's just a mock battle like that then there's no need making enemies," argued the Palphony.
"And what if you need to in order to pass the year?"
"Then I'll reluctantly do it, but I'll appologise afterwards,"
"How do you know that you'll win if you have no experience in fighting a pony opponent?"
Cinder didn't know how to reply.
"You need practice," Spike continued, "you can't just rely on fighting monsters for practice," he said sternly.
"Then what do you suggest that I do?" Cinder asked sounding slightly annoyed, she felt like she was being forced into this and she really didn't feel right fighting beings of not-darkness.
"Well I guess you could practice with me, and when Scootaloo gets better then you can train with her too," he suggested with an open, opportunilistic tone.
"Well that sounds good..." she replied nervously.
Spike and Scootaloo nodded and then the three of them stopped their chatter to pay attention to Professor Bataille who was now starting his lesson about different kinds of weapons and their potental uses in combat and teamwork. The lesson pretty mush just outlined the uses of various ranged weapons such as throwing knives, bows and the occasional pistol, he also went over melee weapons like a sword, staff, dagger, gauntlets and whips. He made a not about Lyvia's tool and made her give a demonstrstion on her abilities with them, it turned out that she could swing through the air, move objects out of her way and kill multiple targets at once. She was deadly, and the whole class knew this now, by the end of the period nesrly everyone was scurrying to befriend her but she just brushed them off and ignored their presence.
Team eight went through the rest of the day and Cinder founf it strange that she hadn't had a single class that was taught by Professor Blaze, and she knew that she was supposed too, he was on her timetable as the Stratergy teacher. Never the less, she assumed that there was going to be a god reason for that and she followed her knew friends back to their dorm, which they all shared together.
Day had been a good day, despite Spike's injuries, Scootaloo's ankle was starting to get better and she was supposed to be off the crutches soon. She had learned who to stay away from and how she was going to get better at fighting, every Tuesday and Thursday nights she would go with Spike to the school's roof and practice her techniques and possible stratergies to help her win. But for now though, she would go to bed and prepare for the next day.
-- Meanwhile in Manehatten --
"OOF!!" A large, grey, stallion with a jet black mane fell to the ground out the front of a theatre complex known as the Manehatten Theatre.
"Com'on, get up! You're just going to stay down to a girl," mocked a hooded, feminine figure known as Lil' Dew how was wearing short exercise short and a hoods, purple coat with brown gloves, "...and weren't you going on about how tough you were? I Ain't impressed," she taunted.
The man growled and slowly got himself off the ground, "you lil' bitch!"
The small girl giggled, "Ah Ah Ahh! That's not my name, my names Lil' Dew, not lil bitch!" she clenched her fist and cracked her knuckles.
He stared at her for a little bit while her tried to catch his breath, "are you one of those Everfree hunters or something...?"
Dew smirked, "man, I wish I was, but I got rejected. Doesn't mean I still can't help society by beating' up scum like you!"
He broke into laughter, "HAHAHAHAHA!!! You expect me to believe that you can beat me up when you got rejected from a fighting school, you were't good enough for 'em..." he grinned, spat on the ground and let the moonlight illuminate him as he broke into a run and charged her, his fist out in front.
She rolled her eyes and took a simple step aside and raised her leg up, which he ran right into. From there she slammed her leg to the ground and the large stallion led the way. When her knee hit the ground it pummeled the man hard forcing him to cough up blood and the small shower of crimson pooled on the concrete path.
The loud scream of pain that he let out meant that thr petty fight was over and Lil' Dew was victorious.
"Hah! I've faced worse than you!" She laughed and took a crossbow out of he bag to point it at him with a loaded, silver bolt, "now, where is the money?"
The stallion groaned and panicked, "he-here... I... I have it it," he took out his wallet and handed her what seemed about two thousand Bits, "t-take it... just leave me alone will ya!" he begged.
"Thank you," she smirked and put the crossbow away.
The girl then went over to a small, panicked group of elderly people and gave them the money, "here you go, sorry if it has a little blood on it."
"Oh thank you young girl!" They praised.
Lil' Dew smiled and nodded before taking her leave and went back to walking down the footpath on her midnight walk. However, by the time she got to a park lake she was rudely interupted by a tall man dressed in golden armour and a dark brown cloak.
"Who are you?" she asked intently.
"You should know who I am, girl," the armoured man replied and he stepped forward revealing a recognisable face.
"S-Silver Blaze!" squeeled the young mare in excitement and she hopped up and down on the spot.
He grinned, "you have blood on your knuckles, Lil' Dew."
"Huh? How do you know my name?" she inquired.
"Because, Miss Dew," he took out a peice of parchment with writing all over. He then proceeded to read, "Miss Dew, you have been accepted into Everfree Forest School for Exemplary Hunters. Your application had been reviewed for a second time after an accident happened at the school and a student was forced to drop out. You have taken the final spot in the school. You are to meet me, Professor Silver Blaze, at Manehatten Train Station tomorrow morning at ten a.m with you battle attire, weekend clothes and your weapon. Everything else shall be supplied, understand?" He finished.
Lil' Dew couldn't contain excitment and she merely yelled, "YES!!"
"Right, I shall see you tomorrow morning, now go home and get a good sleep, you will need it," and with that he began to walk off, "be safe and don't bloody your knuckles anymore," he disappeared.
Lil' Dew let out another burst of excitement before rushing home to tell her parents the good news.