//------------------------------// // Chapter 43 // Story: New Beginnings // by Hiver //------------------------------// Clack! The wooden staff hit mine and I deflected it to the right, firing off a blast, forcing the pegasus to dive out of the way and disengage to try to use his mobility to get around me. I didn't let him. Grabbing his staff with my magic, I gave it a hard tug to the end furthest away from me, putting Thunder into a spin as he flapped away from me. He quickly tucked, letting go of the staff to recover his balance and landed back on all fours only to just barely dodge out of the way of my next magic blast. The next one was already on its way before he landed. Even so, his wings almost got him out of the way... but only almost. He took it on the wing and landed hard on the packed dirt of the training yard. The air was crisp and clear, our breaths forming white clouds as we stopped. But even without any kind of warming spell, I wasn't cold. When moving this much my coat was plenty, even against the frigid winter air. Thunder Cloud laid still for a while as we both caught our breath and I dropped the staffs onto the ground, sitting down and letting my magic rest. Damn, keeping three things active at once was a pain in the fucking horn. Even when two of them were simple telekinesis and the last was basically the simplest 'offensive' spell there was, about as effective as a smack to the face at full power. Cloud climbed back onto his hooves and shook the dust off, flapping his wings a couple of times to clear the worst of them before he folded them again. Even then, his normally very light coat was more of a greyish brown now. “You know, I liked this a lot better before you got good at that whole magic thing.” he complained with a grin. I chuckled and tossed his wooden staff over to him and he caught it with his hoof. “You still won two out of three.” Only reason I got him now was that I was able to get him at range and only reason I managed that was because he had gotten tired. Normally, he didn't give me time to focus on casting anything but telekinesis on my own staff. He nodded. “The longer it goes on, the higher the chance that you will get the advantage. I tire... your magic doesn't.” “That's not quite true.” a voice interrupted and I looked over as Swift walked onto the field. “Unicorns do get tired from casting, especially when doing many things at once. It takes a lot of focus.” “No work today?” I asked, floating my staff up, planting it end down at the ground. He grinned. “Not today. Have the day off so I thought I would check what you two were up to. Have a thing with Minuette later, but I have a a bit.” Thunder grinned. “A thing, huh?” “What can I say, mares like the armor.” Swift answered, looking quite pleased with himself. Rather too pleased with himself, if I'm to be honest, so I tossed my staff at him. He easily caught it with his magic. “You have been getting better, though. Last I practiced with you, there was no way you would have kept three spells going at once.” “It took a lot, even with all three being simple, especially mixing spells like that.” I admitted. “I can't keep it up for long before I get a headache.” Swift nodded. “Most can't. That's one reason unicorns are always deployed in pairs in the guard. One focuses on defense so one can focus on offense. Or, if that's not possible, with an earth pony or pegasus.” he explained. “To keep a possible enemy from getting close and give them time to cast.” I considered that for a moment. “Make sense. I still can't keep a shield up and use anything else at the same time.” I admitted. “Takes too much focus and power.” “Don't worry about it. Most guard unicorns can't. Me neither.” Swift shrugged, floated the staff over to the rack and dropped it. “Hence... deployed in pairs.” “So where were you deployed?” Cloud asked, heading over to put his own staff back. “If you can tell us, that is?” Swift hesitated before he shrugged. “I don't see it mattering. Mostly I just patrol the city. I'm just glad I wasn't transferred to some other city... or worse, to one of the borders.” He smiled and continued; “I had hoped to be assigned to the castle, that is the most prestigious posting.” Cloud nodded. “I hope I will get to stay in the city too.” Swift shook his head. “Sorry to say this, Cloud, but odds are that they need you somewhere else.” “Yeah, I know.” The pegasus sighed, before he looked over at me and explained; “There are a limited amount of Pegasi assigned to cities. A lot of us end up at the borders or running messages back and forth. Especially those of us that don't have a special talent that make us especially useful.” he said and glanced back at his flank which had a pair of crossed swords on it. “Sad to say, being good at dueling with a sword wouldn't exactly get much use. My dad was really lucky to end up in Canterlot.” I slowly nodded. “Ah. Well, that does make sense. Well, could be worse, you could end up pulling a royal carriage.” Cloud blinked at me before he grinned. “You are kidding, right? That's a great honor! It puts you directly on the Princesses' royal guard!” ...That's actually a very good point. Hmm, that's a thought. “Say...” I started to say. “Signing up to the guard could have you assigned basically anywhere, right?” They both nodded so I continued; “Now, this might be me being ignorant about the structure of the guard, but could you not sign up to Princess Luna's nightguard instead? They are technically a separate branch, right? And so far, only assigned to the castle?” They stared at me for a moment before Swift sat down and facehoofed. “...Why didn't I think of that!?” “The same reason I get paid a lot for sitting inside in a warm, comfortable room with a cup of hot tea, writing, while you are paid very little to stand out in the cold all day?” I answered with a grin. “Intelligence and creativity.” That got me a snowball to the face, but so, so worth it.