• Published 24th Feb 2016
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Let Them Wonder - Onomonopia

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Sunset

Orange and red leaves covered the ground, rustling with a crackling sound. The chilled air blew through the park, trying to knock the remaining leaves that hung onto the trees for their fleeting lives to join their brethren. But if the wind failed to knock the leaves to the ground, then the force of the two fighters colliding would.

The girl with hair that matched the landscape lunged forward with an incredible speed, hurling her right leg towards the head of her teacher. Yet in the face of being kicked in the head, all the teacher did was smile before leaning to the side to dodge the blow.

"Too slow, Sunset," Diana taunted as she grabbed hold of Sunset's leg. Before she could toss the girl to the side however, Sunset flipped over in Diana's grasp and drove her other foot towards Diana's face. Diana leapt backwards to avoid the blow, but the sudden movement made her lose her grip on her foe.

Sunset had barely hit the ground before she threw herself back into the fight, going with rapid rights and lefts at Diana's stomach. Diana brought her arms in and deflected each punch with relative ease. Sunset grunted as she ceased her rapid-fire attack and took aim right for Diana's nose. But the moment Diana saw the attacks cease, she kicked straight up and caught Sunset right in the chest.

The girl was launched across the park and slammed into the ground, flat on her back. The leaves she landed on took to the sky once more, dancing around the girl while she struggled to get her breath back.

"Are you alright over there?" Diana called out to Sunset. Shimmer responded by rolling onto her stomach and slamming her fist into the ground before pushing herself back up. "I was afraid for a moment that I had taken your head off, but now I can see that you just blended in with the leaves. Actually, in this environment, you might actually be able to sneak up on me."

'Keep laughing, Diana. And keep your guard down,' Sunset mused. Sunset steadied herself on her feet before grabbing hold of her black jacket. She then tore the jacket from her body and tossed it to the side, leaving her with her red and orange T-shirt and an expression of pure concentration.

Diana motioned for Sunset to bring it. Doing as her instructor asked, Sunset lunged forward once more and jabbed her elbow right at Diana's face. Diana caught the attack with one hand while going for a chop with the other. Sunset caught the movement and used her other arm to push both of their arms in front of the attack. Diana raised an eyebrow as her own arm stopped her attack. But she was still ready for the leaping kick that Sunset tried to catch her with.

"Not good enough." Diana slammed her own elbow into Sunset's gut and sent her straight to the ground. Sunset let out a gasp of pain as she impacted the dirt. Diana then swung down with a punch of her own, but to her surprise Sunset was still aware enough to block the attack with her forearms.

"Seems you've toughened up quite a bit since the last time we fought like this," Diana praised as she used her strength to slowly push down Sunset's arm. "But this fight is not yours. You've taken too much and you've shown your hand too early. Are you ready to call it quits?"

"N-never!" Sunset planted both of her feet into Diana's chest and kicked off. While Diana was far too powerful to be budged by the attack, that was not the intent of Sunset's attack. Instead, Sunset employed Diana like a springboard and used the force in her legs to propel herself backwards. She then rolled up to her feet and immediately took up her fighting stance once more.

Diana raised an eyebrow at her student, who was panting heavily and clearly was exhausted. 'But she still wants to keep going,' Diana mused as she too took up her fighting stance once more. Diana took the initiative this time and closed the gap between the two of them in the blink of an eye. Sunset had just enough time to register that Diana had moved before Diana swept her student's legs out from under her. But once again Sunset surprised her, because she landed like she was going to roll, before kipping back up to her feet.

'She's been this way for months now,' Diana pondered while she ducked under a kick aimed at her head. 'Almost like she has something that she wants to prove and she's willing to do anything to prove it.' Diana blocked a second kick with her shin before whipping her leg back around to catch Sunset in the shoulder. The blow sent Sunset sprawling to the ground, but once again she pushed herself back up with sheer willpower.

"Covering yourself in leaves now? Are you actually trying to blend in?" Diana teased. Sunset brushed most of the leaves that had gotten tangled in her hair off with a growl, but she regained her composure as she slowly advanced towards the Amazon.

Sunset tried for a quick right, but Diana responded with a palm strike to the chest that knocked Sunset back. Sunset then went low as she tried to tackle Diana's legs, yet with a simple leap Diana dodged the attack and went right over Sunset.

"Sunset, this is getting ridiculous," Diana said with a sigh as she landed. Sunset spun around and brought her fists up once more, but Diana could hear how heavily she was breathing. "You're obviously tired. Let's take a break and I can show you more ways to break a person's joints. How's that sound?"

"No. I'm not done."

"Sunset, I applaud your bravery, but this fight is over," Diana informed her student in a stern voice. "You're obviously exhausted. The only reason this fight continues on is because I have decided not to end it."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Sunset asked as she glanced to the right for a brief moment. Diana followed her gaze but didn't see anything interesting. "Go ahead. Finish it."

Diana shook her head before closing the gap between her and her student with a single step, preparing a simple pressure point strike that would end the battle. Yet the moment she got close to Sunset a massive gust of wind blew across the field. The moment Sunset felt the gust of wind she kicked up the leaves that were around her into the air. The leaves were immediately caught by the gust and swirled around both Diana and Sunset.

'What's she...wait, where did she go?' Diana asked as she found for a brief moment she couldn't see Sunset in the leaves.

CRACK!

Diana blinked with surprise as Sunset's knee connected right in her jaw. However, the cracking sound wasn't caused by Sunset's knee snapping Diana's head back. Instead, it was caused by a human knee striking an Amazonian skull.

"Son of a GRAH!" Sunset cried out as she crashed to the ground, clutching at the knee that had struck Diana. Diana grabbed hold of her lasso and summoned Hermes healing elixir while Sunset swore at the sky in pain. A few drops down Sunset's throat was enough to sooth the pain, but as Diana glanced at the bottle she found that she had frighteningly little left.

"That looked like it hurt," Diana said as she helped Sunset sit up. "This is why I told you not to strike me as hard as you could."

"Okay, first: that hurt like hell. Second: what the hell? I've hit you before and it was nothing like that," Sunset pointed out.

"Well, that's because every time you struck me in the past I was fast enough to register the strike and move myself back with the blow," Diana informed her student.

"So wait a second. In all of our past sparring matches whenever I hit you, I wasn't actually hitting you?" Sunset asked. "If you had wanted to, you could have actually gotten out of the way."

"Of course, Sunset. I am far faster than any regular human."

"Well, there goes all the confidence I gained from fighting you in the past," Sunset grumbled as she pulled her knees up and started to sulk. A cold gust of wind ceased the sulking and got Sunset to begin shivering. Diana retrieved the jacket for her student before sitting down next to her. The pair watched the leaves dance across the field in silence, allowing the crackling of the leaves to entertain them.

"That was brilliant of you though," Diana eventually said to break the silence. "To use the fact that your hair and shirt were the same color as the leaves to blend in. It caught me completely off guard."

"It was a bad idea for you to suggest the idea in the first place," Sunset responded with a smirk before glancing up at Diana's jaw. "But today...I actually got you, right? That was the first time I've landed an actual strike on you?"

"To be completely honest, yes. You got me." Diana sneaked a glance at her student to see that her eyes were shining like the sun, a smile on her face that Diana had not seen in a long time. "So why was it so important to you to actually strike me? Your reward for doing so was nearly a busted knee."

"But that shows that I'm learning, Diana! That I'm getting better!" Sunset replied with raw excitement. "It shows that no matter what Cinch or Hades throw at me, I'll be ready for them!"

"Ah," Diana said, finally starting to understand. "This is about proving yourself, isn't it?" Sunset nodded once before wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her head upon them.

"Well, kinda, but not to anyone at the school. More like...argh," Sunset grumbled before laying down on her back and staring at the autumn sky for a long time. "Did you have a mentor, Diana?" she eventually asked. "A person that you looked up to, admired...wanted to be like when your grew up?"

"Yes, I did indeed," Diana said. "He was Ares, the God of War. And he was the one who taught me how to fight. How to be strong. I saw him as more than a mentor, I saw him as family. Well, he technically was family, but that's beside the point. Yes, I did admire him. And I strove to be like him."

"Did you ever...fail him?" Diana took in a deep breath at that moment, recalling all that had happened to her. From being an outcast, to being selected by Ares to be trained, to the night in the Labyrinth. Then she gazed down at Sunset, who was averting her eyes to make sure Diana did not see her face.

"Yes. I did." The moment Diana spoke those words, Sunset turned to face her teacher, who wore an expression that Sunset knew all too well. "He took me in. Trained me in the ways of war. Taught how to fight...to kill. And for my final test, to prove that I was a warrior, I was sent into the Labyrinth to kill the minotaur."

"And you didn't."

"I could not. After defeating the beast, I raised my blade and prepared to strike it down. But as I gazed into its eyes, I did not see a monster, I saw a living being...a being that was helpless. Afraid. And I could not strike it down," Diana said in a near whisper. "I spared its life. And for my actions, Ares cast me aside and said that I would forever be his greatest failure. And those words still carve into my very soul today. I do not regret sparing the minotaur's life, but that god took me in and trained me...trusted me. And I failed him."

The pair then sat in silence again for a long time, Sunset not knowing what to say while Diana was simply lost in memories of her time training with Ares. Sunset then began to think of the times she had trained with Celestia...and how much like Diana, she had failed.

"At least you betrayed your teacher for noble reasons," Sunset finally said. Diana broke free of her memories and gazed down at Sunset with sympathy. "I did it because I wanted power. I cast aside the love and caring of the pony that took me under their wing, all for power. I deserve to be outcast here. I deserve to be cast aside like the failure I am."

Diana's face softened for a moment before she wrapped her arm around Sunset's shoulder and pulled her student close to her. "We have all made mistakes in our lives. What is important is that we learn from them. And you are my student now, and I promise that I will not cast you aside."

"You don't want me to be your student, Diana. I'll probably fail you too."

"Of course you will. The student's job is to fail from time to time," Diana informed Sunset. "But a teacher's job is to help you learn from those failures and become better in the process. And if your teacher gives up on you, or believes that you are beyond help, then that teacher is a far greater failure than that student shall ever be."

"That's...pretty powerful. Who told you that?"

"Ares."

Sunset found that she couldn't help but smile at that and she leaned into Diana slightly. "Hey Diana, do you mind if we keep training? I don't feel like going home yet and I want to do something productive with my time. Think you can start preparing me for the Friendship games coming up? Rumor has it that you selected me specifically to go up against Crystal Prep."

"Of course I did. You are my star student, after all. I might not know what kind of obstacles that you face, but I can do my best to prepare you for what you might face," Diana said. The two both rose to their feet, Diana gazing up at the sky. "Do you need to call your parents first and make sure that they know where you are?"

"I don't have parents here. I mean, I'm sure that my counterpart here does, but my parents are back on Equestria," Sunset said with a sad smile.

"I am sorry, Sunset. I did not know."

"It's fine. I've made peace with it," Sunset admitted with a shrug of her shoulders. "This is my life now, and for all the bad things that I've done it's a better life than I deserve."

"You are too hard on yourself. You are a better person than you believe."

"And you're a far better mentor than I deserve," Sunset whispered as she gazed towards the horizon, where the sun was just beginning to set. For a moment, she wondered how Celestia and Twilight were doing. Then she thought of her parents and her family and wondered how they had been in her absence. Then, she cast those thoughts aside and gazed back towards Diana, who was talking with an owl on her shoulder.

'I promise here, Diana, that I won't fail you the way I did Celestia,' Sunset promised to the darkening sky as she tightened her fist over her heart. 'I'm going to win the Friendship Games and show you that your teaching wasn't wasted on me. That I am not the failure I believe myself to be. I promise I'll make you proud.'