Days passed, and a routine began to emerge.
The six would get up early each day and would follow a set work rota; two in the cheese shop, two at the warehouse and two with time to spare. The work was easy and a little boring, and they either took to it well or they didn’t. But, without much else to do aside from enjoying what facilities the city had to offer, their free time would be spent either with each other, or off with those they had met in their full first day in the city.
At first, it had been out of mere curiosity, obligation or boredom for some, but the visits – in truth, the training – quickly became something they all enjoyed.
---
Barely a minute had passed after Archmage Malin gave Twilight written permission to enter the library in Stormwind keep before she was racing off through the crowded canals to reach it. His only instruction for her was to go and read up as much as she wanted that day, and she planned on doing just that.
She handed the signed paper to the guards at the main archway, who checked it carefully before letting her through and pointing the way. After what felt like mere moments later she was standing inside the library itself, gazing up at bookshelves stacked high, listening to the sound of quills scratching on fresh parchment as others sought to learn.
I’m… home!
She decided to begin at world history, and found the newest edition of a general account that she could. The cover advertised that it was ‘updated to include the history of our allies and the recent expedition into Outland’.
It took her a day to get through all of it, and though by the end she could comfortably say that she now had a general idea about Azeroth, she was still left with more questions than answers.
It didn’t help that the book was written for a scholar in the library, and assumed a certain level of basic – or sometimes even specialist – knowledge about many subjects that she as a newcomer simply didn’t have. So, to solve this, she branched out, one area at a time.
Delving into a thesis on world politics, she learned more about the history of the Alliance, from its early beginnings between the humans of Lordaeron and the high elves of Quel’thalas to its current formation including the dwarves, gnomes, night elves and the newly-inducted draenei of another world. She wondered if perhaps these blue-skinned aliens might be able to help them get home, but their travels had taken place across space, not between alternate universes as she still assumed her group had done. True, we must have also travelled through space - this place isn't anything like Equestria, not like Canterlot High was... but we have transformed into humans like I did before, so we must have also crossed into another universe! Unless it's the magic that matters... maybe the magic of the mirror and the magic of the storm are connected somehow?
Putting aside those theories for now, she turned to various atlases to build up a picture of the world, on scales both large and small – the continents, Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms and the frozen tundra of Northrend. She pored over volumes with many different accounts of the borders claimed and controlled by each nation or by none.
One thing Twilight found no matter what she looked to as a source were mentions of the “Horde”.
The writers and scholars in the texts she consulted had a great deal to say about the Horde – which, like the Alliance, had gone through several iterations throughout Azeroth’s history. Some were filled with fear, others with loathing. None had a kind word to say.
Twilight frowned as she perused a work with a particularly vicious account of the aftermath of a battle in the Second War, wherein a group of orcs – who seemed to make up a permanent fixture of the ‘Horde’ much as the humans seemed to hold together the Alliance – brutalised and desecrated the corpses of their fallen enemies. She had learned a lot of skills as a librarian, and that included being able to spot bias in literature from a mile away. The condemnation was too swift, too all-encompassing to be entirely accurate. There might be some truth to it all, but much had been lost in myth and hate.
She couldn’t believe that the orcs, trolls and other members of the Horde were all evil as the books suggested – especially upon reading that they had been instrumental in saving the world from an extraplanar threat only barely addressed by the writers, as if even the mention of them conjured dread.
Indeed, she could see patterns of absence in the accounts, months, even years in the timeline where surely something must have happened but had not been recounted. If it was censorship, she could possibly understand it. Even Princess Celestia had been forced to withhold information from her citizens, even from Twilight, when it had been necessary to do so.
Ultimately, the most disturbing trend she found running throughout Azeroth’s history was one of conflict. Violence, whether just or unjust, was present almost everywhere, from pitched battles to assasinations to the ultimate desecration of the dead being forced to rise and serve evil masters.
She was no stranger to having to fight when it was the right thing to do, and sure, she had read about the wars that had plagued Equestria once upon a time, but this was different. More... widespread.
She could see it even in the magic that Archmage Malin was kind enough to teach her. Magic in Equestria was generally about making the mundane easier or accomplishing feats that would be impossible without it. There were spells of levitation, transformation… the most skilled or powerful unicorn wizards could teleport or hurl bolts of energy from their horns. Using magic to kill? Almost unthinkable.
And yet here in Azeroth, for every spell with a mundane application, there was another meant for combat. Incantations to burn, to freeze, to pummel with magical force…
She was reluctant to learn them, but did so out of courtesy to her host. She found to her surprise that they came naturally to her. They even felt good.
It didn’t help that she missed using her unicorn magic. Its absence felt like a blow to her head, never quite going away – except when she used Azerothian magic, waving her hands to perform their intricate casting methods, which gave such a rush of power when cast…
At least she could still rely on the magic of friendship, but would the rest of this conflict-ridden world be receptive to it? She knew that friendship conquered all in the end but would the six of them alone be enough to spread it? They would still be best off getting back home, she decided, and fast…. before Azeroth has too much of an impact on us.
---
“Really, we cannae thank ye enough, Miss Fluttershy. Yer amazing wit’ these animals - Ye’ve really turned their behaviour around, ‘specially this big ole lug here.”
The element of kindness blushed at the praise. “Ohh, I can’t take the credit. He’s such a sweetheart, really! He just needed some exercise and positive reinforcement, that’s all!”
“Well, ye’ve still done us a huge favour. Mebbe you’d like to come down to the range wit’ us, have a look at some o’ our kit as a treat?”
“Oh, well…” Fluttershy stammered. She hadn’t the slightest idea what a range was, or what it was that the dwarves wanted to show her, but to refuse – especially when she still had a lot of free time and not much to do with it - would be rude. “I wouldn’t want to get in your way or anything…”
“Nonsense! Ye’d be a welcome guest!”
“Oh… I guess if you insist…”
---
“I assumed that this would be your favourite part.” Grayson said as he watched Rainbow heft one of the wooden two-handed training hammers experimentally.
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
“I’ve had trainees with your personality before, Recruit Dash. Brash, full of energy – energy given an outlet through the use of a weapon.”
She shrugged. “Sounds like you’ve got me all figured out. You been doing this a while, then?”
He nodded. “More than twenty years. I’ve trained over two hundred paladins now in service to the light and to the Alliance.”
“That’s a lot of time, but not a lot of paladins.” she noted, thinking back to what she knew of the Wonderbolts, and the Canterlot Guard.
“True, but paladins aren’t merely soldiers. We are guardians as well as avengers, and healers as well as warriors. The light is generous in its blessings, and the power it gives can be used in a number of ways.”
“Sounds cool.” she replied, then took a big swing at one of the dummies with the weapon.
Unfortunately, she had misjudged the weight of the weapon. The force of the heavy end of the hammer pulled her down with it, and she ended up sprawled over the floor, having completely missed her target.
Grayson tried – and failed – to supress a grin as he helped her up. “I take it you’ve never actually used a weapon like this before, then?”
Rainbow blushed. “Well, once or twice, but not like this.”
He assumed that she was referring to the exact dimensions of the hammer, but little did he know that he was wrong. She, of course, meant that the last time she had wielded a mace had been when she had had hooves instead of hands.
“First, you’ll want to have the correct grip.” He pointed out where her hands ought to rest on the weapon and she adjusted them accordingly. “Then, you’ll need to know how to swing properly. Yes, the more force you put into your attack, the harder you will hit – but you will also become more vulnerable to the enemy if you fight so aggressively, even if you don’t end up on the floor.”
“Right, correct grip, swing more carefully.” She nodded. “Got it.”
“Remember also that fighting defensively in general is often the best approach to begin with.” He went on. “A hammer may not be as quick for parrying as a lighter sword, but it is still possible to control the fight with its reach and power – especially if you are attempting to stall so that an enemy’s weakness presents itself, or until help arrives against a superior foe.
“But, I’m getting ahead of myself now. You must master the basics first!”
“Eh, shouldn’t be too much of a challenge.” Rainbow said, drawing on some of her characteristic bluster.
“Oh, really?” Grayson raised an eyebrow, smirking at her confidence. “Well, try again!”
---
Rarity frowned as she watched Trias sink a set of poison-coated daggers into the centre-mass of a training dummy. “I don’t know… this all seems rather… violent behaviour for a lady of elegance such as I to be indulging in.”
Their host in the city had turned out to be quite dangerous after all, but he’d still been nice to her. He hadn’t threatened her into accepting his offer to work with this ‘SI7’, but equally she was reluctant to refuse – she’d been caught spying on nobility, and they could probably do a lot worse to her than this.
Besides, what Trias had asked her to do didn’t involve much in the way of active work – just to observe and examine everything carefully. Plus, the salary he’s offered will fund such glorious designs!
Pulling them clear, the man shrugged. “Agents of SI7 must be prepared to defend themselves at all times. As an infiltrator, you wouldn’t normally be called upon to do any kind of wetwork, but we don’t live in an ideal world. Besides, we don’t need to teach you how to work your natural charm – you’ve proved that you can do that already.”
Well, she’d always known how to defend herself, especially after being friends with Twilight had meant that they had started to attract trouble like moths to the flame. This doesn’t seem too different…
“Now, you try…”
He casually tossed the daggers at her, raising an eyebrow as she screeched indignantly, fumbling to catch them.
“You realise they’re not actually poisoned, right? And they’re not real daggers, either.”
Rarity made a face but didn’t rise to the bait. She held the blunt instruments in a firm grip, trying to mimic Trias’s style.
“Close enough. Now, pounce!”
---
“The power to heal minor wounds is one of the most basic duties that clerics are called upon to perform, but you will find few tasks as necessary or rewarding…”
Pinkie fidgeted as her teacher droned on, struggling to pay attention. Her new robes were a tight but good fit – it was still difficult to get used to such reserved clothing having spent the majority of her life as a pony who rarely wore threads at all. Still, it made up for not having a coat of fur anymore!
Plus, they let me pick the colour! It’s a shame I couldn’t get pink, but this white and blue brings out my eyes! I think.
It was her first day actually getting to learn some of the “spells” that priests could use, and she was incredibly excited. Magic had always been Twilight’s thing, a unicorn thing, but any human could do it here if they had the potential – and apparently, she had that potential!
They’d had a few days of choir singing and “quiet reflection” interspersed together. She’d loved the former but found the latter almost unbearable. Sitting still for too long just wasn’t something a Pinkie Pie could do!
The nice man, Benedictus, was unfortunately very busy; he seemed to be in charge of everyone else. She would’ve preferred him to be her teacher, but it couldn’t be helped.
“So, to conclude; focus your positive thoughts onto the area you want to heal and pray to the light. Request, plead, but do not demand. Let the power of the light fill you and allow you to mend the wound.”
She didn’t really understand what he meant by the light – sure, she’d sung about it, and tried to think about it, and nodded vigorously whenever it was mentioned, but when they started talking about it in such dreary terms she couldn’t help but switch off.
She got the point in the end though. The light would let her cure the sick, heal the injured, make people’s lives better.
Her parties, her laughter, it was all in the name of helping people feel better, giving them the strength to get through the next day.
“Are you ready to try?” She was asked.
“Okey-dokey-lokey!”
“…indeed. Very well. Normally we would look for an injured volunteer, but Sister Aphelia cut herself on a broken metal bucket while mopping the cathedral floor this morning.”
“Oh no!”
“It is not a serious injury, but should prove something of a challenge for you to begin with.” He beckoned to a young brunette standing in the doorway, and she entered hesitantly to the sight of Pinkie grinning happily at her. “It may take an hour or so for you to invoke the power of the light, but it will become easier the more often you do it. Good luck!”
The trainer departed, hoping to relax in front of the fire with a cup of silverbloom tea for a while. He was interrupted barely five minutes later as the unfortunate Sister Aphelia came running.
“Father! Father! My cut! She healed it almost immediately! She made me laugh, I felt warm and it was gone!”
He examined the wound – or rather, where it had been, and found that she spoke the truth.
"Hmm," he said. "Perhaps I will have to increase the pace of her training.
---
“I can tell that meditation doesn’t come easily to you,” Grayson observed.
Rainbow opened an eye. “I’ll say.”
They were into the fourth hour of meditation that day and she was bored. Very bored. She didn’t regret agreeing to Grayson’s request to train as a Paladin – she had enjoyed the few hours of weapon training she had received so far – but the lack of activity inherent in this task was starting to grate.
Sitting still wasn’t a problem for her like it was for Pinkie, but sitting still and just thinking was a different matter entirely.
It didn’t help that the priests occupying the other half of the cathedral insisted on keeping every available fireplace lit, so the heat dispersed around the very well-insulated building and made it nearly as warm as a sauna. It took a lot of effort just to avoid falling asleep.
“You sure this is necessary?” she asked, and the veteran paladin smiled.
“Absolutely. Contemplation on the three virtues of the light is a necessary part of wielding its power.”
She sighed and forced her eyes shut. “If you say so.”
---
“Nae, little lass, the bolt goes in tha other end of tha crossbow.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, you mean like this?”
“Nae, Fluttershy. The other end, not the other way around. Tha’s it. Now, carefully take aim at the target and pull the—”
THUDUNK
“…”
“OMIGOSH, I’m so sorry! You said aim, then pull the trigger! I got it mixed up!”
“Aye.”
“…”
“Mebbe we’d better skip letting ye test out a gun, aye.”
---
Applejack clutched tightly at the training sword and shield she’d been given as she stared over at her assigned sparring partner for the session. He was shorter than her, short and stocky, and seemed to be having trouble holding himself upright against the weight of his armaments.
She was having no such difficulty. She was sure now that her earth pony strength, honed by years working on the family farm, had transferred over in turn to her human form.
“Listen in!” She tensed at the instructor’s command and got into the defensive, guarding stance that had been one of the first things her class had learned. She’d picked it up right away – it reminded her of how she’d once stood to take a timberwolf charge back home. Only, of course, on two legs instead of four. “Attacking partners at the ready… SPAR!”
On the command, her partner came running at her, raising his sword at a high angle to swipe down. She tensed as he came within two feet, and then charged forward as he closed in, her shield raised in opposition to his falling sword.
It jarred off with a heavy impact, sending him reeling, but Applejack wasn’t finished yet. She carried on pushing in the same motion, ramming him straight in the chest and pitching him off his feet.
The sound of a blown whistle signalled the end of the round, and she relaxed, offering a hand down to her dazed opponent, pulling him up as he accepted it with a weak smile.
The instructor came up to her as she took a swig from a bottle of water, clapping her on the shoulder. “Well done, Miss Applejack! If you want to take a break while I get the rest of the class up to your level, feel free. You’re a natural at this.”
“Heh, thanks, but no thanks. Nothin’ wrong with even more practice!”
It hurt more and more each day to be apart from her family, but she wasn’t alone in this new world, and there was enough to distract her attention most of the time.
Case in point, this training. Sure, she hadn’t been a warrior back home, but maybe it was something to consider? Certainly seems like I’m good at this stuff, anyway.
“Listen in!”
She grinned as she realised that it was her turn to attack now, and she looked over at her partner as he nervously adopted his own defensive stance. ‘f only Big Mac could see this!
---
Trias sat in the middle of the room, his eyes sweeping across the shadows. “I can see you,” he called out casually.
“How?!” Rarity cried, her face becoming visible out of the darkness she had been covered by. The black leather gear she had to wear was making the task of staying stealthy easier, but Trias seemed to have unnaturally keen eyesight. And it was chafing, too, and while black was in this season… it was still a fashion disaster. Better than the rags, though.
“Oh, I couldn’t. But are you really going to do that if someone you’re tailing outright declares that he can see the spy in the room?”
“I suppose not.”
Trias nodded. “Good. Then we try again.”
Rarity sighed and tiptoed back into the shadows.
---
“So this,” The dwarf stretched his legs out of the kneeling position he had adopted and beckoned Fluttershy closer to the metal contraption with a blue crystal in the centre. “This is your standard Freezing trap. Effective for almost a minute against most prey!”
“’Trap’?” she gasped, horrified. “Oh those poor little creatures!”
“Och, dinnae worry,” the dwarf chuckled. “It does nae harm whatever’s unlucky enough to get caught. It jus’ holds ‘em in place for a while so you can tame ‘em safely!”
“Oh.” she replied. “That’s not too bad. What about that one?" She pointed to another trap nearby with a glowing red gem embedded in the centre.
“That ‘un?” He laughed heartily. “Oh, that just explodes if it gets touched! BOOM!”
He laughed for almost a minute before realising that Fluttershy had passed out flat on the floor.