Training Montage
The months passed by in a whirlwind for Twilight. Instead of spending every morning in lessons with other students discussing the finer points of conjuration spells she found herself reporting to the barracks of the royal guard by sunrise. The Captain hadn’t been kidding when he’d told her that the training would be draining; The royal guard were expected to be in peak shape and Twilight was no exception.
“Faster, Twilight, you’re falling behind!”
“You call that a push up? Do twenty more, and do them RIGHT this time!”
“I don’t care WHAT time it is, Sparkle, nopony is leaving this room until everypony has completed a chin up, and that includes you!”
It frustrated her to no end and reduced her to tears more than a few times. She came to the brink of quitting a half dozen times in the first two weeks alone, but the Captain was always there with a few words of encouragement and reassurance. If he ever got too mean for her, he reminded her with a wink and a smile, she could always just turn him into some sort of topiary. Twilight also decided against asking her brother to speak to Reinolds about going easy on her. She valued the Captain’s respect too much.
Twilight found the intellectual portion of the training far less taxing. She’d always picked up new material more quickly than most, but she took to this field like a seapony to water. Blocking and channeling the flows of magical energy were her special talent, after all, and more than once reading about a new technique just gave her a name to attach to something she’d already been doing strictly by instinct. Still, there was lots to cover. Twilight learned how to create and maintain up to three different wards at a time, each one tailored against the different magical properties of attacks an opponent might try to strike her with, as well as how to recognize the elemental properties of wards and strikes constructed by others. She refined her grasp of telekinesis to a degree of precision and flexibility she hadn't known was possible. She discovered that most problems could be overcome with enough fire, lightning, or some combination of the two.
Despite the extra work piled on top of her usual lessons from the Princess, Twilight still managed to occasionally get back to Ponyville to see her friends. They were always happy to see her, of course, and Rainbow Dash especially seemed impressed by the training regimen she was undergoing. “almost as tough as my Wonderbolts training!” she’d finally conceded. The pegasus was eager to swap training tips and had plenty of horror stories of her own. Twilight was happy to have somepony to commiserate with, and found she'd developed a newfound respect for the friend who she’d always considered to be a bit on the lazy side before she experienced firsthoof how draining a marathon workout session could be.
Her other friends were happy to help her with her training as well. Even the Captain’s workouts didn’t compare to helping Applejack haul barrels of cider around the farm. And while the captain didn’t understand exactly why “playing tag with Pinkie Pie” was so much more effective than his own obstacle courses (Twilight had long ago given up trying to explain anything having to do with Pinkie Pie), he couldn’t argue with what it was doing for her reaction time and agility.
Even Rarity had seemed eager to help when Twilight had come to visit her boutique.
“You know Twilight, I took some self-defense training myself back in my school days,” said Rarity.
“Really?”
“Oh yes, every young gentlemare needs to know the proper way to fend off plebeian ruffians that might accost her. Here, let me show you.” Rarity walked over to her sewing table and picked up a pair of scissors. “Now, imagine I’m some terrible ruffian of a pony, and I’m going to take these scissors and I’ll... I’ll... ooh! Yes! I’m going to trim your mane!”
“Well, I guess it has gotten a bit shaggy lately...”
“What? No, dear, that’s not what I mean. I’m not actually going to cut your mane, you’re just supposed to pretend that I am,” said Rarity
“Oh, do you like it longer like this? I was worried that my schedule was so full that I’d kind of let it go a bit, but you think it still looks OK?” asked Twilight. Rarity gave her mane an appraising look, the scissors momentarily forgotten, and bit her lip.
“...That’s not important right now! The point is that I’m an attacker! I’m going to trim your mane! In a manner that’s not at all fashionable!”
“Oh! I think I’ve got it now. Well, the first thing I would do is immediately put up a quick ward against conic blasts, then I would try to use the terrain to get into a flanking position...”
“No, no, no Twilight, that’s all wrong,” said Rarity. “You have to SAY something first! The very first thing they taught us was that a sharp tongue cuts far deeper than a sharp horn!”
Twilight was unfamiliar with any studies from the New Equestrian Journal of Medicine that indicated a correlation between tongue sharpness and magical aptitude. She was also beginning to suspect that Rarity’s self-defense training had not been quite as thorough as Rarity believed.
“OK, let’s try this again from the top. I’m the attacker and I’m coming at you with a weapon, and I say something like ‘Grr, you call yourself a unicorn? You fight like a farm pony! Grr!’” Rarity waved the scissors around in what was probably supposed to be a threatening manner.
Twilight weighed her possible retorts. She had skipped the chapter on trash talk in her copy of ‘Dirty Tricks and Unsportsmanlike Conduct: A Combat Pragmatist’s Guide’ but she would obviously have to make sure to read it later in case it showed up on some future exam. Finally she settled on a response.
“How appropriate, you fight like a mule!”
Rarity’s eyes widened with shock and the scissors fell to the ground.
“How could you? You... You think I fight like an ugly old mule? Why I’ve never been so offended in all my life!”
Twilight’s efforts to explain that there were actually several schools of martial arts that were derived from mule culture fell on deaf ears. Rarity threw her out of the boutique to stew for the remainder of the afternoon.
Twilight's first few sparring matches against other unicorns went poorly. They usually did for newbies, Reinolds was quick to point out after an especially painful loss. It wasn't that she didn't have the raw power the other trainees did, but she wasn't quick enough on her hooves. In the library she was free to sit back and spend a few minutes considering, for example, whether the extra power a hexagonal deflection charm offered outweighed the improved efficiency of a Ponderer's All-Purpose Pentagram when it came to avoiding an energy blast composed of 70-80% frost affinity. Stopping to do so when another unicorn was actively trying to hit her with one was borderline suicidal. Reinolds was quick to remind her that while in theory there was no difference between theory and practice, in practice there was.
Twilight was if nothing else a quick learner. She picked up the techniques and fighting styles of the other fighters she watched, and never made the same mistake twice. It wasn't very long until she'd learned enough to start fighting opponents with years more experience than her to a draw. Not long after that, a lucky shot blew her opponent out of the ring and halfway across the gym. Twilight had claimed her first win by knockout.
From that moment forward, there was no stopping her.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbwoIX_1rbQ
739264
Ha ha it does help when I give the GitP folks the sneak preview before it goes up. Glad you enjoyed it.
I really gotta get back to reading Clockwork, I'm like 4 chapters behind
Oh, Rarity
Nice book title. And from earlier, I'm not the only one imagining Nathan Fillion voicing the good captain. Or providing said book to Twilight. (Either him or Guybrush Threepwood.)
Also makes me curious about pony martial arts; they do exist in the show. Rainbow seems to favour pragmatic fighting, while Rarity might be more of a graceful stylist (comparing headbutt versus left cross from the wedding brawl). And what might happen if Twilight were to pick up on either.
And Pinkie tag? Anyone got some duct tape for the space-time continuum? We're gonna need it
Nice! Thumbed and faved. I'm definitely going to keep tabs on this.
Pinkie tag? Isn't that impossible to win?
I live this line.
It's so true.
746371
To quote a movie:
The only way to win is not to play.
739264
YOU TARNISH MY NAME!
Nah j/k
Theme appropriate
Awww, poor Rarity.
Trash talk doth cut so deep.
I've seen this mistake a couple of times (in general, not just in this fic):
They were always happy to see her, of course, and Rainbow Dash especially seemed impressed by the training regiment she was undergoing.
It's actually regimen. Regiment is a military unit.
Other than that, keep it up. I'm interested.
I am liking this so far. Nice to see a new featured story up on the box.
electric atacks and fire? sure!!!
BUT!
try air and fire... the air pumped in to the fire making it more intens and making it so hot it becomes a blue flame...
fire and earth... magma
fire and ice heat the ground and chill the air above and you got your self a hell of a tornado!!!
a earth armor, a heat protection spell and make it a magma armor
air and water... compress the air and let it blow trough water making a water jet able to cut trough steel
THE COMBENATIONS ARE END LESS!!! and that are only the element magics O.<
746422
a sufficient amount of fire or lighting can solve most problems.. or make them irrelivent
Playing tag with Pinkie Pie....
tag with Pinkie Pie...
Impossible doesn't properly convey the miniscule chances of anything other than a second Pinkie Pie actually succeeding in this endeavor.
Okay... how can a sterile hybrid race have much of a culture. Mules don't breed... usually. However, mules could easily have developed martial arts, but, being stronger, tougher, and more intelligent than horses, it would be difficultto translate to ponies.
795715
Most of them can't. Occasionally there is a fertile mule/whinney born.
I would assume they spread from there.
The More Gun Principle.
Yeah, I don't know what Rarity was thinking, trying to teach Twilight self-defense. My personal headcanon is that Rarity's magic specializes not in the flash-bang of Twilight's offensive magic, but rather avoiding conflict in the first place with illusion spells and her silver tongue. With her eye for detail, it'd be no problem for her to disguise as the mugger's accomplice (or the mugger himself for some real mind-screw) or even cloud the mugger's brain so she appears to turn invisible!
Another bit of headcanon is that Trixie is a "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none". Doesn't have the sheer power of Twilight, nor the finesse of Rarity, but she can hold her own in a magical duel.
“How appropriate, you fight like a mule!”
.. Instant fav.
Rarity lesson on self defense was priceless!
You sire won the internet
A mule is a sterile crossbreed - they couldn't create a separate society so how can they have a separate culture? And why did Twilight considered defence against conical blasts when threatened with a weapon? Against a precise, possibly multi-directional telekinetic projectile attack, a passive "forcefield-like" defence would be much more...
787439
Have you ever played Magicka? It seems like you would like it.
745193 Actually, Twilight won that one by a knockout, considering how sensitive Rarity is to appearances.
At least Twilight didn't say anything about how she looked; it would have been on, then...
Well, I'm starting to work my way through your archives after looooving Stitch in Time and Hard Reset. Don't know why I didn't expect to love this one as well (guess I thought it was much older than it is?), but I'm loving it so far. You do the best Twilight stories.
Favorite line so far: "Reinolds was quick to remind her that while in theory there was no difference between theory and practice, in practice there was."
2511117
Thanks! I'm a bit 'meh' on this story in retrospect, especially around chapters 4 and 5. I kinda see Duel Nature as a prototype for Hard Reset, it helped me work out the kinks in my style.
Wish I could claim credit for that phrase, but I read it somewhere. Wish I could remember where exactly. It is clever though, I should reuse it for You Can Fight Fate...
Okay, I'll say it:
You have been intrigued by what you are writing.
Twilight has learned the value of More Dakka.
Rarity's self-defense was hiliarious.
Playing tag with Pinkie Pie....I imagine a frustrated Twilight and a Pinkie Pie that pokes out of random small objects.
All in all, this is a great chapter.
746422
I imagine you meant to say that you love this line but now all i can think of is some crazed dude/dudette manipulating the elements to his/her advantage and killing anybody that causes him/her issue(English really does need a neutral gender word that would work in these situations).
2511155
Its kind of funny you should say that because i remember someone using this in the comment section of one of the hard reset fics. Probably subconsciously picked it up from this fic. Sayings travel quick like that
2870670 I think someone told me it was an Einstein quote, but I don't know for sure
Now I'm wondering if anyone's ponified Guybrush Threepwood.
Playing tag with Pinkie Pie. I love it!
3051069 Sounds dangerous
I'm not in the habit of commenting before I finish a story, but...
A Monkey Island reference! I'm loving this story
I remember seeing this in the timeloop trilogy...
Stitch I think it was...
4672429
More recently I also used it in Cutie Mark Crusadicorn. I'm very fond of it.
Oh my goodness, I had to laugh so much at the coincidence of an ad for a martial arts studio showing up on this page while I was reading xD
Oh no! Not the mane!
That would be the
WORST!
POSSIBLE!
THING!
Are you going to go for the Monkey Isl--- you are.
And that, children, is how you foreshadow.
most problems could be overcome with enough fire, lightning, or some combination of the two.
Sound a bit like the statement " there are few problems that cannot be solved by the proper application of c4"
842336
reminds me, again, of that crazy "MLP time loops" where Trixie was obsessed with explosives.
and yes, she said "anything can be solved with proper application of explosives"!
The first two chapters are fun and silly...and I kind of needed it.
5489172
I'd imagine more probably a keyword trigger than a coincidence.
It's so
for her to consider someone attacking the mane to be a threat she would provide for Twilight to defend against. Let alone take any smack talk so poorly.
That's our Rarity!