Lost In Equestria

by Lord Midnight

Chapter 6

Chapter 6
“Sometimes I lose control of my...Demon.”

Celestia freezes in the middle of reaching a wing towards me and stares at me in alarm. She seems to decide something and relaxes a small amount. “Kat, what exactly is a demon to your people?”

I look away in shame. “The embodiment of corruption, beings of immense power and evil. Sometimes they find humans they like and merge with them somehow. The human ends up with the demon living inside them, constantly fighting to keep control of the demon. There's no way to be rid of it or to tame it. There is only learning to master yourself and your emotions. Never give in to the temptation and keep yourself as pure as possible.”

I have turned around, unable to bring myself to face her. Her voice is soft and unreadable. “Temptation? How is it tempting?”

I whirl and face her feeling a slightly insane look spreading on my face. “Because they can offer more power than a mortal is supposed to ever have. When he broke free when I was younger I broke a grand master’s jaw. All that power, the whispers that you’re different, special, that you can control this power, unlike all the others. The greatest torment of those who are possessed by this. The constant knowledge that you don’t ever have to lose. That losing is a choice, that if you just let it in you will not lose to anyone ever. Except… except you will have lost to it.”

She stares at me in shock and I continue sadly. “I would have fallen long ago, a lost soul to be destroyed by my clan, were it not for three things. I learned these from my hero, Emeris. Gardening, gaming…” I cut off as a different emotion grips me and shake my head clearing all the emotion and forcing focus. My voice is almost a monotone now. “Shady and my friends. They helped me get through the darkness because they reminded me how much light I still had.”

She looks concerned. “What exactly does it take to trigger this demon of yours?”

“I need to be fighting an opponent who has or will do something unforgivable who I cannot defeat under my own power. Grogar for example. There are other less common ways, attempts at mind control, drugs that sap my will and obscure my mind so I don’t realize I’m drawing on my demon’s powers. Theoretically, it can also be triggered when I’m sleeping and having a nightmare, however, I have learned lucid dreaming to combat this.”

She looks at me strangely. “You remember your dreams? Enough to control them?”

I nod. “When I actually have them that is, usually it’s just memories or impressions. Now, weren't we off to collect my things and meet the foals I’m supposed to be turning into guards?”

She seems to let the subject change pass because she leads me through the castle. It feels good to be reunited with my blades and Celestia gets a blush when I hug them happily and say without thinking. “Celestia and Luna I’ve missed you. Now you're back in my arms where you belong.”

With the heavy awkward silence that brings I belt and clip all my gear on, feeling a lot better with the accustomed weight of my things on me once again. She leads me through the castle again as we discuss much safer topics. I learn more about this world’s other races. The buffalo tribes of the plains, the zebrican tribes and their ruling council, the griffin empire of the iron mountains, the other pony lands such as Prance and Neighpon. So many nations who all meet here in Equestria for their ambassadorial summits. She expresses a desire for me to meet the griffin ambassador, we have a lot in common, despite “For once someone can understand the griffons from the perspective of being an, even more, extreme example.”

Turns out that the biggest reason no one messes with Equestria is the dual problem of no one remembers the spell to move the sun and moon, and no one wants to cross Celestia. She doesn’t come right out and say it, but I know exactly what that tone of voice saying “aggressive negotiations” and “came to the decision it would be in the best interest of surviving members of the griffin royal family to end the war” really means.

Finally, she takes me to where the guards are practicing under the direction of a unicorn with a shield cutie mark. Celestia introduces us. “Captain Shining Armor, I would like you to meet my guest, Lord Katdestro Ironheart.” He gets an annoyed expression as he extends a hoof to me.

I take his hoof and shake it, shaking a hoof feels weird. I grin at Celestia “For the love of Death, call me Cat. That sounds presumptuous and weird.” Shining Armors annoyed expression goes away as I smile at him. “So I take it you're the one in charge of this group?”

He grins. “Yup, I’m captain of the royal guard, the best of the best-”

I cut him off. “From what I hear, your best isn’t good enough. I want to see exactly what I’m working with here. What makes a guard in this world, what are you doing wrong in your training, what are you not doing right enough? Show me.”

He gets an arrogant grin. “Alright step in with the soldiers. Let's start with 20 pushups!” He finishes calling out to the guards. A groan goes up unchecked without any reprimands. I watch as the guards get down and slowly crank out the pushups.

“Are you going to do them or are you really gonna stand there after all that talk?”

I drop and rip through the 20 and pop to my feet to stare down at him. “20? Is that all you can do? When you can’t figure out where to start, simply grab the closest loose thread. You have no idea anything about me, so you think that a noble from my world is the same as one of these pathetic excuses for a caste that exist here. So, let’s start with a sparring match, your best soldier, or you as the case may be, versus me.”

He gets a soft smile. “Anything goes?”

“No killing or permanently or maiming your opponents and no using tactics that would fail outside of a sparring match.”

“Like what?”

“Like charging me purposely leaving yourself open knowing I have to hold back so I don’t kill you. Now let's start.”

I draw my blades and back off dipping into a traditional swordsman’s bow before slipping them back into their sheaths. His horn glows and a blast of magic flies at me. I Step sideways and then directly to him intending to slug him in the jaw and end this. However, my fist slams into a strange bubble. He grins at me from inside it as his horn glows with a strange crackling energy. I draw my blades and slash furiously at the shell, but to no avail.

The shield drops for a moment and 20 balls with silvery trails shoot out. Shotgun attack? I roll to the side and my sai alerts me of a threat behind me, twisting around I see them coming back. “Son of a bitch,” I swear as I roll and take a rising dawn stance to parry the bolts. Luckily my swords can knock them away, unluckily it seems that Shining is controlling them so they're not just mindless.

“Mages are always such cheat characters,” I grunt out managing to deflect one into his shield. I notice he hasn’t taken a single step since firing off these missiles.

“Especially when they roll natural D-20s across the board.”

I point at him with an excited smile. “You’re a gamer! That’s so- Crap!”

With the distractions, one of the balls slams into my chest and knocks me backward into two more of them. I force my body to slam the ground and roll sideways before springing to my feet to break the combo he almost got off. Counting the three that landed just now I’ve destroyed a total of 12 leaving 8 remaining. His horn is still glowing softly. I don’t think he can charge them while he’s controlling them. My mind flows over the details I have while I try and deflect the remaining 8 at him.

His shield is impenetrable, including to his own attacks. He had to drop it to fire this spell for the offense.

He can drop and raise it before I can Step inside.

His projectiles were a lot clumsier at first, but now that there are less they are a lot harder to beat.

This projectile spell cannot be charged while he’s controlling it.

He isn’t showing any signs of exhaustion and is still smiling with the happy look of a fellow gamer planning strategy. On the positive side, this is pretty much the exact same as one of my daily exercises so I’m not tiring either. My armor seems to have protected me from the worst of the damage.

He doesn’t track my Steps with his eyes, but rather his instincts told him to block. Looking deeper, I sense a strong sai ki buried beneath that weird energy I believe to be magic.

My weapons have some form of magical resistance and he winces every time the metal touches his shield.

I grin as my plan comes together while I deflect another ball into his shield. Only two left and I don’t bother wasting the time to deflect them instead letting them slam into my chest relying on my armor. He’s sitting inside his shield charging the shotgun spell again now and I spring into action. I release a length of my chain and slip hook it to itself spinning it like a lasso and throwing it around his shield. He looks surprised by the tactic as the chain wraps around his shield. I bear down and pull it tight. Next I plant my staff deep into the ground and wrap my chain around it. Satisfied with the first steps complete I leap on top of his shield and hold the chain tight as he looks at me with a strange expression.

I sit happily on top of his shield and grin at him. “Check.”

He drops the spell he was readying with a sigh and flexes his muscles. He cuts the shield spell and leaps straight at me trying to land a hoof in my face. Wonderful I was worried all he had was his magic. A grin flows across my face and I twist out of the way and flick the chain up around the staff to reel it in as he lands. His horn flashes and another bolt of magic goes flying at me. This one is way faster than the shotgun spell and I can barely Step out of the way in time.

“Your magic is pretty impressive, how can you call mages cheat characters when you're a rogue and a tank?” He has a grin on his face and seems to be enjoying himself.

I laugh at this. “I can’t use magic, just ki, unlike you who actually does have both.”

He looks at me confused. Oh yeah, he probably has no idea what ki is. Stepping backward, I retrieve my staff and Step next to him. He responds by catching the blow with his shield. Unlike last time he drops it and responds by trying to hit me with a double legged back kick. A fatal error. I catch the two hooves and lift him off the ground. He curls up and shoots me with a spell point blank with a spell that knocks me backward and drops him on his head.

Dizzy we both struggle to our feet eyeing each other with a new appreciation. I draw my blades and take the eternal twilight stance.

“Let me show you how these blades were meant to be used, I will teach you the power of twilight.”

He grins and starts laughing much to my confusion. “I already know about the power of Twilight. I’m her BBBFF after all.”

“Er? Um… I’ll ask after I beat you.” I release my sai completely and Step behind him with a small winch as a jarring pain shoots through my leg. Swinging my blades, I slap him with the flat of Luna drawing a line of blood where I swung too hard. He stands there staring at me with a dazed expression as I meet his eyes calmly. “Touch.” My voice has the almost monotone quality of when I have killed my emotions and gone completely into the zen of sai.

Letting my mind return to normal I turn to Celestia with a grin. “Well, I don’t know how much I can help. I was giving it my best and I can tell he was holding back a lot. If this is the power of your guards than your army is already beyond me outside of helping some of the weaker cadets out.”

She looks at me with a grave expression. “Shining armor is special, his sister is Twilight, the Element of Magic and he is one of the most powerful unicorns in all of Equestria. He is perhaps the strongest guard in history, outclassing his next best by several tiers. He is of course not as diverse as others and lacks the talent for many types of magic, however, his shield spells are on the level of an alicorn.”

I look around me with this new information. “Your top soldier that isn’t you. Bring them to me.”

He looks worried. “You're not going to hurt them are you? You could have done permanent damage with that finishing blow you used on me if it were most other ponies.”

“Alright, that’s all I wanted to know really. So if you consider Celestia and Luna to be in the Elder Grand Master tier, my races description for when a person has a power that can never be calculated, demi gods such as Emeris, then you are what passes for a grand master class. Celestia, I take that back I have my work cut out for me. Now, let’s go address my troops.”

I stand in front of the guards who stopped their training to watch the sparring match. As I stare at them wanting to say something I get a strange feeling in me. A strange sense of that energy that I believe to be magic pouring into me from all around me and back out into the world. Music starts playing out of nowhere and against my will despite feeling a strange sense of joy, I begin signing.

“Let's get down to business

To become so much more

Did they send me foals when I asked for mares?”

But I didn’t ask for anything. What’s going on? And wouldn’t I have asked for stallions? Wait, if I’m learning how to read genders right, why are their only a couple of stallions here?

“You're the saddest bunch I ever met

But you can bet before we're through

Filly, I'll make a mare out of you”

Okay, so at least that made more sense other than sounding a little creepy and slightly rapey. But why can’t I control my body? Why am I dancing and singing? Better yet why does no one look surprised? Oh for the love of Death I’ll just go with it.

“Tranquil as a forest

But on fire within

Once you find your center

You are sure to win

You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot

And you haven't got a clue

Somehow I'll make a mare out of you”

Alright, that was actually good. Inspiring and demeaning at the same time like a proper drill sergeant. Now the guards begin training again and start singing as well. How do they know the words? How are they all so well timed?

“I'm never gonna catch my breath”

“Say goodbye to those who knew me”

“Boy, was I a foal in school for cutting gym”

“This guy's got 'em scared to death”

“Should have listened to what Echo told me”

“Now I really wish that I knew how to swim”

Now they are all singing in perfect unison with me, what the actual…

“Be a mare

We must be swift as a coursing river

Be a mare

With all the force of a great typhoon

Be a mare

With all the strength of a raging fire

Mysterious as the dark side of the moon”

Okay, I like that last bit. It has a nice ring and is really what I’m going for here.

“Time is racing toward us till conflict arise

Heed my every order and you might survive”

I round on a guard struggling to keep up with everyone, they actually look like they have some type of terminal illness and I can only sense a tiny amount of any kind of energy from them.

“You're unsuited for the rage of war

So pack up, go home you're through

How could I make a mare out of you?”

They start singing together with me as the weak unicorn sullenly trots off.

“Be a mare

We must be swift as a coursing river

Be a mare

With all the force of a great typhoon

Be a mare

With all the strength of a raging fire

Mysterious as the dark side of the moon”

“Be a mare

We must be swift as a coursing river

Be a mare

With all the force of a great typhoon

Be a mare

With all the strength of a raging fire

Mysterious as the dark side of the moon”

The music dies down and I regain control of myself. I round on Celestia. “What in da name of Death’s skeletal ballsack was that allabout? What the actual fuck just happened? I think I was mind controlled or somethin’, and who was playing dat music? What? How? No, no... no… why? Why was dat a thing?”

She is watching me with an amused expression and I see her fighting back the laughter. “It was just a Heartsong, Cat. It’s perfectly normal. It is part of the magic of Equestria.”

I blink at her with a stupid expression. “So, lemme get dis straight. Songs just happen for no reason and because magic music just pops up from nowhere and everyone knows da words, which is convenient because even the main singer in the entire thing doesn’t have a clue what they will sing or do next?”

A small giggle escapes her before she give me a dead serious expression and flatly says “exactly right.” As I facepalm in agitation she finally breaks down laughing and I hear a chorus of laughter behind me. Good something familiar to focus on. I round on the guards with a happy smile.

“Good to see you all still have so much energy! It’s great cause you're gonna need it. Let’s start with a warmup to burn off that energy so you can listen in rapt attention. Give me 50 pushups.”

Several of them start grumbling and they are slow to get in position.

“Oh, you even have so much energy you think I care about your complaining? Let’s add another 20 to make sure you get back to thinking rationally!”

They look at each other with fearful expressions as they take their positions, they're slow to start, but since they do it without a peep I'll let it slide. For now, anyways. After all, this is our first day of training and I haven't even given them a proper introduction. I watch them all with satisfaction. If I gauged this lot perfectly then most will be unable to give me all 70 of them. The first one to collapse is a leaf green unicorn. Studying them more closely it seems that the earth ponies are handling this with a slow steady effort that is leaving them a lot less tired than I had expected, the pegasi are ripping through it quickly but are getting burnt out. The unicorns, however, they are slow and burning out quickly.

There are exceptions, of course, their are pegasi who are pacing themselves with the earth ponies and unicorns who are performing them quickly. Most impressive, however, is a pegasus mare who is burning through them quickly and slowly starting to release a doa ki. I walk over to this one. They have a white coat with a vibrant yellow mane and are wearing an expression of barely contained rage. A beserker perhaps? Or are they simply unused to the emotional fallout of their emerging ki?

“Name and rank soldier,” I speak quietly.

“Tornado Volley, private.” Her voice sounds edgy but also slightly fearful.

“Why are you angry private,” I ask softly if she is a berserker I don’t want to tip her scales for the first time outside of a contained environment.

She freezes and her doa fades. “I don’t know sir, I was trying to push myself and I found something deep, it made me feel good but… angry.”

“Well squad leader Tornado, I can and will explain it to you, but it’s gonna cost yah.”

“Cost? Wait, what’s a squad leader?” She gives me a disbelieving look and I yell to the recruits.

“Everyone I want you to look at young Tornado here and say thank you. She just bought you a break. Fall in, it's time for a proper introduction.”

They fall in sluggishly according to ranks and Tornado stares at me questioningly. She has no idea what a squad leader is or where to fall in. “Park it in the front, I need you for a demonstration anyways. After all, you did buy this break for everyone.”

“You didn’t answer the question about cost, though.”

I grin at her. “You paid by teaching me that both sai and doa exist in ponies and can occur naturally. This is the knowledge that is worth all the pushups everyone already owed me. Now, I am The Prince of Cats, Lord Katdestro Demonosa Ironheart, the Shadow Reaper and Wrathbearer. But you fine guards have earned the right to call me sensei. It is a word that means master, teacher, protector and the one who will always seek to make you better and show you the right path, as long as you are willing put forth an effort and continue stepping along the path they show you.

“Now, I will make all of you who can survive my training stronger and show you the path to becoming so much more than you are now. I will make sure that I can always make you into the best you can be, even if I have to bleed for it. Now this comes with a price and if you want something extra from me you have to pay more. For example, I want all of you to show me what you are truly capable of right now before I make you better and so you paid me some pushups. Now, squad leader Tornado over here has unlocked her doa and wants me to teach them how to use it. But their gonna hafta pay.”

I point a finger at the alarmed pegasus. “Front and center. Look over these and pick five of them. They should be the ones you would want to have your back in a battle against insurmountable odds. If you can’t pick all right now that is fine, after all, this is a permanent choice and being hasty is never good. As for what you're paying me, well I want an oath that you will be their rock. No matter what, you will do your best to lead them properly, the first to charge and the last to run.”

She looks at the group and immediately shouts two names. “Boulder and Sparks front and center.”

A large earth stallion with a treebark brown coat and dark mane that is almost black comes forward alongside a small unicorn with a cyan coat and mane. Quite the diverse group and I can tell that they are all friends from the smiles. Tornado turns to me with a questioning expression. “I don’t know anypony else well enough to decide, but I know I can always count on them. Will this do for now?”

“Quite nicely, now the rest of you say hi to squad one. I will be subdividing all of you into squads when I find someone leadership worthy. For now, let’s see what else I can awaken, I’m giving you a choice. Stand on one leg for as long as posible or hold up a large rock for as long as possible. When you fall or drop the boulder you may take a five minute break, but then you will resume you can switch tasks if you think you're better suited for one. This will last until sunset and I expect to see the smiles of ponies who are enjoying themselves by sunset.”

With this I smile at the horrified expressions I’m met with. They have no idea what I am doing and I finally understand what it feels like to be a true sensei and helping others find their hidden potential. Tornado predictably chooses the rock after her wings are bound. Horn suppressors and wing bindings are crucial to my plan after all. Now I see another interesting racial feature. Earth ponies almost all chose the rock, pegasi the standing and unicorns seem split and indecisive. After a few hours of wandering the ranks and getting to know the guards a little better, it finally begins. An earth pony suddenly smiles a true genuine smile and I sense a doa beginning to trickle from them. Nearby a unicorn gets a similar smile as their sai are likewise unleashed. After another hour, several of the pegasi and earth ponies are smiling much to the confusion of the unicorns, most of whom are still struggling in the task they chose.

After having been contemplating it for a while, it suddenly occurs to me. I Step in front of the first unicorn to achieve ki and catch them as they fall over in shock with their concentration broken. “How powerful are you at magic?” I ask her.

“Not very. I can use basic telekenisis and some spells, but I’m not very powerful.” She looks sad to admit this and I step to the next unicorn to achieve the release of their ki, this time, a doa type. I receive a similar response. Worried I Step off the where Shining is.

“This is really important. You have an energy deep inside of you that gets stronger the more you focus your mind and master your emotions, are you aware of it?”

He looks surprised. “I am actually, I was born with a rare condition known as alienis. It is where you have a foreign energy in your body that is at odds with your magic. It can cause you to become completely unable to use magic at all and instead the two are constantly at war with each other. I, however, found that meditation and concentrating on the two energies kinda untwisted them from each other. I don’t know how to properly describe it. I worked hard to learn magic while also learning to control this energy as well. In the end, they actually began working with each other in certain areas. My shield spells, for example, draw on both the pools of energy and have a tendency to activate themselves when I’m in danger.”

I stare at him in surprise and place my hands on his side earning a weird look from several ponies including Shining himself. I focus my sai and reach my sense inside him trying to see his energy. He shudders when my sense brushes the two pools of energy within him. Interesting it seems that the pool of ki exists on a different path through his body than the pool of magic, however, there are places where the paths of the magic or sai feel artificial. He is an Altered I discover, a fledgling Altered, but still he has changed his body with his training. I release him and step back.

“Thanks, that taught me a lot and may have saved a lot of ponies trouble.”

I turn back to the group. “Unicorns fall in and I need a couple of volunteers from each race of ponies for a ki examination. It will feel a little weird, however I need to be certain that training your ki won’t block off your ability to use magic ever again.”

Lots of scared and angry looks, but thankfully lots of hooves in the air as volunteers. I Step next to another unicorn, one who had no success in achieving ki. My sense reveals they do possess ki, however, their large flow of magic has completely blocked the flow. The unicorn who found their sai first the magic is already flowing wrong so the two flows do not interrupt each other. Her mana pool is fine however the paths the mana fallows is wrong compared to the other unicorn. The two earth ponies have matching flows that actually seem to compliment the flow of ki to the point that they are essentially interchangeable.

The three pegasi show one who has patterns similar to a unicorn who when questioned reveals his father to be a unicorn. Another one who is a weak flyer shows the same complimenting patterns as an earth pony and I discover that the only pegasi in their heritage are their grandmother. The final one shows a pattern where the ki is channeled deep within the body but the mana flows close to the skin and infuses the wings. The two never come close to each other as a result of this.

I Step over to Shining again. “So case by case basis, unicorns generally are unable to use their ki without training to change their flow. Earth ponies generally have complimenting flows of mana and ki that result in harmony between the two and pegasi have completely separated flows of energy, most likely all these result from the various ways the races use their magic. So, in short either you need to teach unicorns how to alter the flows, or I need to separate them into different types of training. The earth ponies need to master their ki and their magic together. The pegasi won't be able to use their ki to help with flying, so an extensive focus on ki would actually detract from their training. Unicorns, on the other hand, ki is damaging to them without extensive, possibly impossible, training. What do you think?”

He looks at me with a grin. “So basically, we need to have them all pick classes and train their skills based on their class? Learning to use your ki as a unicorn is dangerous and only has benefits if it falls into your fighting style. I think that while this ki training should be mostly mandatory for earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns should be informed of exactly all the risks and possible benefits and decide for themselves. I say keep all of them together for the most part and separate them into groups based on what they want to learn and what they have an aptitude for.”

“You really need to show me this world’s version of D&D, I love gaming and it would be nice to have something familiar.”

He laughs. “Actually, me and some of my friends are having a meetup to play tonight because Echo overworked herself and has tonight off. Want to come and hang out with us? You even get to meet my special somepony! You’ll like Cadence, she is the sweetest most beautiful mare in Equestria.”

I shoot him a rogue grin. “Now is that you're completely honest unbiased opinion?” He laughs with me at the little joke. “I would love to, it sounds like fun just tell me when and show me where.”

He agrees and we finish the day with nothing more than an improved version of the usual routine, I cannot risk actual training until I do more research. Shining tells me we can head to where they meet up a little early to get set up. I’m happy and excited about the gaming, and then Shining has me help carry a large barrel of hard cider… Did I ever mention I was 17?

Author's Note:

Yaya another chapter, obligatory Mulan reference applied as needed and the beginning of a beautiful friendship/rivalry between Shining and Kat. Let me tell you a secret, Shining just lost for the first time in his life, he's a chill bro so he's not mad, but Kat had better watch out because Shining is going back to training every day and will not be underestimating him again. Next time a meet up with a certain adorable night guard and a powerful pretty pink pony princess providing particularly problematic personification. (don't ask, I don't know why I did that either.)