Chapter 27
Day 365
A year. A full year in Equestria.
...yay...
Well, I suppose it's not all bad, even if there have been plenty of scary moments. But I don't exactly feel like celebrating either.
But I'm not going to just curl up in bed. This is a day like any other. But I wish to do violence so I'll likely stop by the training yard and blast some dummies.
Page
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The staff whiffed past above my head, just brushing past my mane as I ducked out of the way, my own staff spinning by magic to my right before I lashed out even faster in return while the pegasus was unbalanced.
My own staff hit nothing but empty air as the pegasus launched himself into the air above my head, staff held in one hoof as he dove at me in a vertical blow.
Dropping my staff, I focused and formed a shield. The staff glanced off it, deflecting to the side. Not that it helped.
I cried out and took a step back. FUCKING HELL! It felt like I took that blow to my horn!
The shield collapsed as I rubbed my forehead.
The pegasus chuckled. “Screwed the shield up again?” he asked as he stood down. He dropped his own staff and let it lean against his side, held in place by his wing.
“...Yes.” I groaned and rubbed the base of my horn. “You have no idea how much that smarts, Cloud.”
Thunder Cloud grinned. “And some pegasi wonder what it would be like to have a horn. I know the answer to that... painful.”
“It wouldn't be if I wasn't crap.” I groaned and lowered my head, reaching to touch my horn again and let out a litany of curses.
I was up to the level needed to form a shield fast enough to be usable and strong enough to deflect stuff like that. But just because I could do it, didn't mean it did any bloody good.
If you screwed the spell up slightly, it might still block the blow, but it wouldn't isolate the energy directed into the shield. Instead it went straight into your magic and if I had a choice, I would prefer to be kicked in the balls. It wasn't dangerous, not unless you did something significantly more powerful that the simple practice shield I knew, but it hurt like all fucking hell.
Cloud winced at my cursing. “Better not let the Sarge hear that. Might get you kicked from the course.”
“It's cursing or throwing myself off the city to make it stop hurting.” I groaned and picked my staff off the ground with my right hoof, limping over to the stand and putting it back in its place. “But I figured that it would make an unnecessary mess.”
“You are really grim sometimes, you know that?” He chuckled and tossed his staff back into the stand as well, using his wing.
We were on one of the practice areas for the guard, the only one we had access to as participants in that pre-training course.
It didn't contain much, just some staves of different lengths and a couple of straw training dummies.
I had come here to practice my magic against the dummies, but Cloud was here and wanted to get some sparring time in so I volunteered.
Which I was now regretting.
“You would be grim too if you felt this.” I sighed and walked over to my waterbottle, uncorked it and taking a long swing.
“You managed the shield before that one at least.” the white-furred pegasus with the pale blue, almost white mane said as he flew over with a couple of flaps of his wings to land next to his own watersource.
I nodded and lowered the bottle in my hoof, slamming the cork back in place using my other one before I dropped back down on all fours. “It's about fifty/fifty if I'm in a hurry like that. I suppose that it would be better than a spear through me, but that's my magic scrambled for most of the day.”
At least being kicked in the balls was over faster. This headache would stay all day. At least it faded from 'glowing hot poker' to 'bad hangover' after a minute or so.
Lifting the cool bottle, I pressed it against my head right next to my horn. It didn't really help.
“Hey... sorry about that.”
I shook my head. “It was my stupid choice. I could have blocked with the staff but I thought I had it this time.” I sighed and continued; “But constantly getting my behind kicked by somebody who barely has his mark yet is even worse.”
At least the shield had stopped exploding on me. A couple of times while I was learning it, it outright blew up on me. Threw everything around me back a couple of meters and gave me a right kicking. Not enough to bruise, but it still hurt.
Cloud raised his eyebrows. “It is only a year until I can apply for the guard. And not like you are that much older than me.”
Even so. Getting my arse kicked my a sixteen year old was not exactly good for the ego. But just like Swift, this guy came from a military family. I think they had actually served in the royal guard for something like the last nine generations.
And he was really good already.
I myself, to the best of the ability of the doctors and magic experts, had decided that I was just about twenty years old when I arrived here. A bit younger than I was back home.
“Yeah, yeah.” I sighed and laid down in the shade of the building, watching a pair of actual guards, pegasi both of them, going through flight drills far above.
He might not wonder what it's like to have magic, but I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to have ended up a pegasus instead.
It would have made stuff a lot harder, I would have to make do mostly with my hooves, but being able to fly would have made up a lot for that.
Alicorns really had the best of both worlds there.
While I had seen spells that could give you wings temporarily, they were really rather advanced. Would be years until I could manage something like that.
That was something I was looking forward to. But it was no wonder most unicorns don't bother with those, they were really advanced sounding... and by the time you could manage those, you already had the skill needed to teleport.
“I'm heading home, it's almost time for dinner. See you later, Page.”
“See you.” I answered as he took to the air.
I shook my head and struggled back onto my hooves. It was much better before Swift became so busy with guard training, then they could kick each other's arses instead of mine. Or at least Cloud could, I had not actually practiced with Swift for months.
Without thinking about it, I used my magic to reach for my bag and instantly regretted the decision as a spear of pain surged through my horn.
“Hnggg!!”
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I've got to say that a whole chapter dedicated to 'Page is not good at shields' makes for less satisfying reading than the adorable interactions between Page and Luna.
6296133
I dunno. i kinda like hearing about it. in so many stories the unicorns are really O.P., it's actually refreshing to read about them having it as tough as the other races.
6296852 #Pegasi master race!
6416857
You sir just used best pony and just said the correct master race... How dare you read my mind!
Loved this chapter
6416857
Pc is the master race!!!
6416857
6818642
8411283
Earth Ponies are the true master race.
9089149
Then Wendigos 2.0 appear.
9089149
Just like the way people mistreat truck drivers. If they stopped for a day, it would be pure bedlam. A week and there would be bloodshed in the streets. A month........well.........
No pain no gain i guess ?
Even so. Getting my arse kicked my a sixteen year old was not exactly good for the ego.
Grammer partol I do believe that second "my" should be "by"
Alicorns are of all three tribes, not just the 2.
9826854
Earth ponies were never in the running :P *ducks*
and so poor page discovers the unfortunate unicorn condition known as 'burnout'
I know how painfull a kick in between the legs is... Is the horn pain is that bad? Respect for keeping at it...
9360218
And then Amazon steps up and begins their evil takeover of the world with delivery drones.
I don't think so... even hitting another part of yourself hurts like hell for a minute or two:
) being hit anywhere remotely in the balls is soo much worse,
for example, hitting your knee or elbow against a strong surface, I tell you what, that shit hurts.(and no scraping your body doesn't count, sure it hurts and stings, but it's nothing compared to a what feels like bone shattering
unless you're a masochist
11204828
Depends on the situation I suppose.
Some years ago, I used to play paintball. And since this was just "woodsball" with a group of friends and not a regulated arena or anything, we didn't have chronographs to adjust our guns, so our method was "open it all the way up, then back off until the paintballs stop bursting in the barrel".
For context, this ended up with us firing balls at more than double the speed (feet per second) allowed in ANY regulated match.
And of course, the occasional unlucky shot would tag rather sensitive bits. Hurts like hell. But with all the adrenaline already there, combined with the extra burst you get in that situation mixed in with the angry "I'm gonna get you for that" (one "ruleset" we often used was "mercy", in that a hit wasn't an out. You we're only out when you cried "mercy". No protective attire allowed beyond masks. No heavy coats to soften the blow, so we actually COULD get back at them if we could take the hit) and the pain lasts minutes, and is only completely unbearable for seconds.
Basically, kicked in the balls hurts more (probably) than a migraine, but barring something actually being burst, is over quicker.
Damn... Page is tough to keeping at it.
It's worth the effort for sure!