A powerful beam smashed into the dirt next to me, reflecting of my shield. Even angling the shield to direct the power away from me, the impact of the spell drove me to the side and I turned it into a dive to the side.
Rolling to get away, I dropped the shield and returned fire with a simple telekinetic punch. Luna didn't even move, her magic simply flicked out and dissolved it before it got within two meters of her.
As she was distracted... well... for a degree of distraction at least... I got back onto my hooves and fired of a concussive blast at the area between us, throwing up a cloud of dust to limit her vision before I dodged to the side, anticipating her to return spell-fire as I fired off another two beams. One cutting and one piercing into the cloud of dust.
The dust quickly dissipated to reveal... nothing.
I barely had time to register it before something hit me hard from behind, sending me rolling across the dirt.
Hngg!
I just laid there, gasping and struggling to breath. Fucking hell, I felt like I had just been struck by a eighteen wheeler. My everything hurt.
I let out a small whimper of pain.
Luna pulled her punches. Of course she did, if she didn't the first one would turn me into a bloody puddle on the floor. But she didn't pull them any more than necessary to avoid permanent damage.
Sprains and bruises didn't count.
Fucking. Ow.
I felt more than heard something moving as Luna settled down next to me. She leaned down to nuzzle at my ear as her horn started to glow faintly and I felt my pain slowly drain away as her healing spell crawled across me, doing it's work, taking away the worst pain and started healing the bruises.
“Just because you can not yet teleport does not mean your opponent can not as well.” she chided me gently, “If fighting a magic user, you need to keep it in mind, Page.”
Groaning I struggled to roll to bring my legs beneath me, wincing as as muscles in my side protested , “Not... that easy.”
Luna smiled softly and shifted to lay with her side against mine, gently spreading her wing over my back, “No. I am well aware... and it is a rare skill to be able to gather the focus to teleport in the middle of battle. In my life I have personally known less than a thousand unicorns able to do it with any reliability. But it is still something to keep in mind.”
Nodding, I allowed myself to lean against her warm side, it had started to get cool outside, especially during the nights, “I... will try.”
She gave my ear a small nip with her teeth before nuzzling, “You are improving, Page. You are not a War Mage yet, but you might be at least of the rank of Apprentice.” she said before she sighed, “If they still existed that is.”
I frowned slightly in thought, “Luna... I can't help but notice that what you are teaching me seems to be completely different from what little I learned of guard training.”
Luna smiled at that, “That is because it is, My Page.”
“Huh?”
“What I'm teaching you is in some ways the opposite of what is taught to the Royal Guard.” Luna explained as I shifted to look up at her, “The Royal Guard is training in ways to protect ponies from threats and to contain and capture that threat.”
“And I'm not?” I asked and got tired of craning my neck to look up at her and rolled onto my back.
She grinned briefly and relaxed a bit more, looking down at me almost nose to nose, “What I am teaching you is more the arts of the old Unicorn War Mages.” she explained, “The purpose of this training is that I wish for you to be able to defend yourself, not others. Often the best way to do that is to remove the threat.”
“...Ah.”
That made a lot of sense.
“War Mage, huh?” I finally asked, looking up at her against the light of her moon. The training ground was lit up by torches in the corners, but most of it was only dimly lit.
Luna looked amused, shaking her head, “Not quite yet. As I said, at your current level of abilities you might barely rank as an apprentice. But for somebody without a cutiemark involving combat magic, you are doing quite well. You have only been training a couple months after all. I doubt you will ever be able to reach the level of a Master, very few do without a special talent for it or spending their lives perfecting it, but I do expect you to be able to at the very least be an Adept in a few years.”
“I don't feel like I'm improving.”
“Keep in mind who your opponent is.” She teased and folded her wings again, “You are doing quite well.”
More like feeling like a cats chew toy at times.
“...Speaking of which, do you have to put that much power into things?” I complained, reaching up to tap her nose with my hoof, “That last hit almost broke something.”
“It has worked to motivate you to improve so far, has it not?” Luna answered before she frowned, “But I do not wish to hurt you. I can adapt the training. This was the way I learned.”
Not like she wasn't healing the worst of the bruises when we were done. And really not wanting to get hit did motivate me to get the hell out of the way...and I trusted her to not hit me too hard.
Letting out a breath I shook my head, “No... if you think I am improving, it is clearly working.” I admitted, “I just have to get better at not being hit.”
Luna seemed relived for a moment before she relaxed against me, resting her head against my chest, “You remembered the trick with the shield.”
Putting my forelegs around her, I nodded, “I know better than trying to block one of your spells head on again. It's easier to redirect energy than trying to block it.” I said before I frowned in thought, “What was that thing you did that dissolved my spell?”
“I used my own magic to ground your spell.” She explained, “I would not advise you try it until you are more skilled. It requires quite a bit of precision and you only have one chance to get it right.”
“That was so cool though. You are so teaching me how to do that.”
That elicited a giggle from the princess and she raised her head, “When you are ready. Now though, I believe that we should get cleaned up. It's only a few hours until it is time to lower the moon.”
Nodding, I rolled onto my hooves and groaned as my side protested at the motion.
...Ow.