Chapter 10
“Did you really have to assign us to a front-line team?” Cliff asked. “We could be a healing and support group. The Stare would work perfectly for that.”
Fire Claws looked up at him sympathetically from her desk. “Yes, but it would also be perfect for stalling an enemy advance.” They were in her office, a simple room with stone walls and a window. The desk, two chairs, and a filing cabinet were the only furniture to be seen, unless one counted the glowstone lamp on the ceiling. “You’ve read Luna’s info too.” She gestured at a small stack of papers on her desk. “Over six thousand trained dragon fighters. If things turn ugly, Equestria is going to be in big trouble.” She got out of her chair and moved to look out the window.
It was early morning. Most of the Village was just waking up for morning training. There were some actual specks of frost on the ground, a herald of the oncoming winter.
“The Crystal Garrison is twelve thousand strong,” Claws said, still looking out the window. “Equestria's standing army is eighteen thousand, but most of them won’t have any experience in actual battle.” She turned back to Cliff. “If things go wrong, we’ll only have five ponies per dragon in the Alliance. Do you really think that enchanted armor and fire-immunity amulets are going to balance that out?”
Cliff reigned in his frustration. Getting angry wasn’t going to help anything. “Can’t we just hope that things don’t go bad?”
“No,” Fire Claws said flatly. “I’m not going to risk the lives of our fighters and of every pony in the Crystal Empire by just hoping that things work out, not when there’s something more I can be doing.”
He couldn’t exactly blame her for that. “Okay, but why do you need Fluttershy on the front line? You just admitted that she’d work on a support team too.”
Claws sighed. “Think about it, Cliff. I don’t need her, I need you. You’re the best wyrm we have when it comes to body-enhancement magic. With you to power up Rainbow Dash, the Sonic Rainboom will be our single most powerful weapon.” She ruffled Cliff’s head spikes. “For what it’s worth, I chose the other two members in your team specifically to help keep Fluttershy safe while maximizing your effectiveness as a group.”
“Right,” Cliff groaned, “you’re giving us Blueblood, the Magnificent Idiot.”
“And the second most powerful shield specialist in Equestria.” Claws folded her arms over her chest. “Give me some credit, Cliff. I don’t make decisions at random.”
That stung, but it was also true. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to question your judgment. I just worry about Fluttershy.”
“Try having some faith in her instead.” Claws sat back down at her desk. “Your team leader is Fire Eyes, by the way. You’re welcome.”
Cliff smiled a little. “Thank you.” In addition to being Cliff’s oldest friend and Fire Claws’ personal protege, Fire Eyes was also one of the best fighters in the Village. He couldn’t think of anydragon he’d rather have watching his back in a fight.
“Team matches start next week,” Claws said, going back to Luna’s notes. “I expect to see good things out of most of you and at least competence out of Blueblood.”
Cliff reluctantly turned to leave. “Four of us won’t disappoint you. I make no promises about the fifth.”
-_-_-_-_-_-
Thanks to his morning detour, Cliff was one of the last villagers to reach the training grounds. Team assignments had already been posted, and he could see most of the chosen fighters grouping up to discuss strategies and techniques. The other villagers were going about their morning training like usual.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were waiting for him near one of the message boards.
Rainbow waved when she saw him. “Heya, Cliff, ready to get started?”
“Yeah.” Cliff turned to Fluttershy and his voice softened, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
She met his gaze and nodded. “Ability equals responsibility,” she quoted the old wyrm phrase. “I know the Stare can help keep you all safe.”
Cliff sighed gently before moving forward to embrace his wife. “Okay,” he whispered into her ear, “I’m proud of you.” It was the truth. He still didn’t think that somepony as loving as Fluttershy should be anywhere near a battlefield, but he had to respect her determination to help.
“Looks like Eyes and Prince Flank-head are here,” Rainbow announced.
Cliff followed her gaze and saw his oldest friend walking toward them. She was wearing a pair of saddlebags and dragging Blueblood by his right ear. Her white scales matched the prince’s coat almost perfectly, which only made their other differences stand out more.
Aside from the obvious fact that she was a wyrm and he was a unicorn, her silvery head spikes were combed straight back with little regard to looks or fashion, where Blueblood looked like he had spent at least an hour styling his blonde mane that morning. She also carried herself with the subtle grace of a skilled fighter and had an expression of mild amusement. Blueblood, on the other claw, was struggling just to stay upright as he was pulled along, shouting equal parts threats and pleas the whole way. “Ouch! Please cease that at once. Can’t you see that I’m a prince, you commoner?”
“You’re in Everfree now,” Fire Eyes said. “We don’t have princes here, just a committee that ordered me to turn you into a worthwhile fighter.”
Cliff chuckled a bit at the sight. If there was one thing Fire Eyes loved, it was knocking the arrogant down a peg or three.
Eyes waved when she saw them. “Hey, Cliff. Morning, Rainbow. Morning, Fluttershy. Ready for your first day of team training?”
They all nodded except for Blueblood, who was busy whining and complaining. At least he didn’t run away as soon as Fire Eyes released him.
“Good. We have to improve as much as possible before they send us off to the Empire. With that in mind, I asked Claws and Twilight to help me build a training regimen for each of you.” She opened her saddlebags and pulled out five magic batteries. Unlike the prototype, the finished versions had no window into the inside of the device. Instead, a small meter had been built into the side, which showed how much magic was left in it. “First, put these on. Twilight asked Ponyville to help her keep a pile of these charged. They’re sitting in her lab, so you can go exchange yours when it runs out. They also have medics there to cast recovery spells as needed, which is going to be often.”
Cliff winced. Healing magic was wonderful, but it undid the benefits of recent exercise. Recovery magic, on the other claw, accelerated the body’s natural recovery process after a workout so it happened in a matter of seconds, rather than days. Their training was very likely to be harsh if frequent applications of recovery magic were going to be needed.
“And what exactly are we meant to do with these?” Blueblood asked, eyeing his battery suspiciously.
“They store magic and use it to replenish your magic field,” Cliff replied automatically. Twilight, Spirit, and all four of the Crusaders had explained their newest invention to him so many times that he could probably recite all of this in his sleep. “No, it won’t increase the power of your spells, but it will allow you to cast more spells without getting worn out.”
Blueblood rolled his eyes. “I meant why do we need them?”
“They’ll restore the magic you use up during training,” Fire Eyes said. “You won’t need yours much until we get through with testing your physical limits. Start with one hundred push-ups.”
“Push-ups?” Blueblood said, aghast. “You can’t be serious. All that sweating would ruin my coat and mane!”
Fire Eyes immediately pulled his mane back with Telekinesis and sliced through it with Ghost Claws. “There, now you don’t have to worry about your mane.”
Blueblood stared in horror as the golden locks tumbled to the ground. One hoof came up to feel the back of his neck, where only a few jagged inches of his mane were left. “W-wha- what did you do?” He jumped at Fire Eyes, or rather, tried to. A small burst of wyrm Telekinesis hit his back legs as soon as he tensed them, causing him to sprawl out unceremoniously at her feet.
Cliff wasn’t surprised. He could use Precognition, but Fire Eyes was a master of it. She had probably known what Blueblood was going to do before even Blueblood did.
“Looks like you got some dirt on your coat.” Fire Eyes knelt next to the unicorn. “I can make it so you don’t have to worry about that either.” Both her hands began to crackle with electricity. “Either that, or you can quit worrying about these pointless things and focus on your training.” She held out one electrified claw so it was only inches from his face. “Whichever you prefer.”
Blueblood gulped loudly. “I-I can focus on training.”
“Excellent.” Fire Eyes released her spells and helped him up. “I’ll come with you to the exercise yard to make sure you actually do everything. As for the rest of you,” she reached into her saddlebags again and pulled out three pieces of paper, “these are your individual training routines. We only have a week until team matches begin, so don’t slack off.”
Cliff, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash took them without comment.
“Anyway, training on your own goes until dinner, with breaks for meals, and then we’ll do an hour of team training before bed.” Fire Eyes took a step closer to them. “Fair warning, those routines are going to be brutal, but just stick with them. They’ll help you a lot.”
“I’m sure you made mine extra difficult just to be annoying,” Cliff said jokingly.
“No, I made yours extra difficult to make up for you being a wuss.” Fire Eyes punched him in the shoulder. “Seriously though, good luck.” She turned to Blueblood. “Will you walk to the exercise yard, or do I have to drag you there?”
“I can walk,” he said in a voice that could best be described as pouty.
“Good, then get walking.”
Cliff watched them leave for a moment before turning his attention to the paper in his hands.
Rainbow groaned. “This is going to suck. Without any wyrm enhancement magic, I’m supposed to do as many double Rainbooms as I can before my wings give out, then get patched up by a medical wyrm and go back to do it again.”
Fluttershy gasped. “Oh my, are you going to be okay? The last time you tried that, it took a lot of healing magic before you could fly again.”
“I should be okay. I’ve toughened up a lot since then.” Rainbow studied her paper for a moment. “According to this, they already have a medic waiting for me at my practice field outside of Ponyville.”
“Good idea,” Cliff said. Sonic Rainbooms weren’t exactly something that should be done near population centers.
She took a deep breath. “Okay, so what about you two?”
Fluttershy looked at her paper. “I have to spar for morning practice without using the Stare then spend the rest of the day creating tornadoes.”
“What?” Dash grabbed her friend’s paper and skimmed through it. “That’s crazy! The Stare is awesome. Why wouldn’t they want you to use it?” She paused. “Oh.”
“What is it?” Cliff asked.
Fluttershy turned to him. “It says that I’ve already mastered the Stare and need to improve my physical strength and pegasus flight and weather control magic.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Rainbow said, “and making tornadoes takes all three, so it’s a good strategy, but are you sure you can handle it, Fluttershy? I mean, even I have trouble with tornadoes sometimes.”
Fluttershy nodded. “I have to at least try.” She turned to Cliff. “What’s your training?”
“Work on reaching tier six magic while running a bunch of high-power spells to strengthen my natural magic field,” Cliff said grimly. His biggest weakness had always been magical endurance. Sure, he could generate large bursts of power, but that didn’t matter if he also burned himself out after just a few minutes. “I may as well go to the lab now.” Cliff sighed. The magic battery on his arm would restore most of his spent energy, and recovery magic would help his body get over the strain of using up so much magic so quickly, but that didn’t mean he was looking forward to the pounding migraine that all this would bring, to say nothing of practicing new and difficult spells under those conditions. “Good luck, both of you.” Cliff leaned over and hugged Fluttershy. “I love you, beautiful. I’ll see you at breakfast.”
“I love you too.” She squeezed him back. “Good luck.”
Rainbow faked gagging. “Ugh, the mushiness. I’ll see you both later.” She took off, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.
Cliff and Fluttershy shared a quick kiss before breaking off to go to their own training.
-_-_-_-_-_-
The first day of training was one of the longest and hardest days of Fluttershy’s life. Sparring without the Stare had been easy enough; she just challenged one earth pony after another. Fluttershy was fairly strong for a pegasus, but even she couldn’t hurt a trained earth pony very much with just her bare hooves.
After a quick breakfast, though, things got harder. Her wings and her magic field were a lot stronger than they used to be, but she was still nowhere near Rainbow Dash’s level, and she was, well, not very good at controlling the weather. The unusual effort wore her out quickly, even with the magic battery, and she had to go visit the medics a lot.
Cliff was always there at the lab, eyes shut in concentration as he practiced his magic. Back at the training grounds, Fluttershy could also see bursts of rainbow-patterned light coming from the direction of Ponyville.
Both Cliff and Rainbow Dash were pushing themselves really hard, and Fluttershy was determined to keep up with them, no matter how much her wings hurt. It didn’t matter that she never managed to create even a small tornado that whole day. She was doing her best, and that’s all she cared about.
Even so, both her and Cliff were so tired by the end of the day that they collapsed into their nest as soon as they got home after team training. She barely even noticed the uncomfortable tingling of her heat coming on before sleep claimed her.
The next morning, they climbed out of bed and shared a hug and a kiss before stumbling back to their training. Fluttershy’s whole body ached. She didn’t want to imagine how sore she would have been without recovery magic.
Frost covered the dimly lit ground, chilling Fluttershy’s hooves as she walked. She wrapped her wings around herself and adjusted her mane to protect her ears from the cold breeze. Fluttershy was focusing so hard on staying warm that she didn’t even realize she had reached the training grounds until she bumped into one of her friends.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Rarity.” Fluttershy shook her head to clear it. “I didn’t hurt you or anything, did I?”
“There’s no need to apologize, dear. No harm done.” Rarity brushed her coat off anyway and adjusted her scarf before pausing to take in her friend’s appearance. “Would you like me to braid your mane for you? It wouldn’t do to have your wonderful mane get tangled during training.”
Fluttershy brought a hoof up to her mane and blushed. She had forgotten to have Cliff braid it that morning. “Oh, uh, yes, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course not.” Rarity’s horn began to glow as she deftly braided her friend’s mane with her magic. “I am somewhat surprised to see you here. Most of the Everfree Platoon are doing specialized training now.”
“Everfree Platoon?” Fluttershy repeated.
“It was either call it a large platoon or a small company.” Rarity produced a green ribbon from beneath her scarf to hold the braid in place. “There we are, much better.”
Fluttershy admired her friend’s work. As usual, it was flawless. “Thank you, Rarity, and part of my training is to spar without using the Stare. Fire Eyes says I shouldn’t be so reliant on it.”
“Yes, that makes sense.” She smiled mischievously. “Though I must say, I’m rather looking forward to today’s training.”
“Really? Why?”
In answer, Rarity simply pointed.
Following her gaze, Fluttershy saw Fire Eyes and Prince Blueblood walking toward them.
“Why do we have to start training every day before the sun even comes up?” Blueblood huffed, “and why is she here?” He waved at Rarity.
“The entire village has been doing this since it was founded,” Fire Eyes answered, “and Rarity here has graciously agreed to be your sparring partner this morning.”
-_-_-_-_-_-
Wyrms had a saying, ‘The more you bleed during practice, the less you bleed during battle.’ If that was true, Blueblood would probably make it through the war without so much as a scratch.
Fluttershy wasn’t alone in staring. At least ten other ponies could only watch in morbid fascination as the Equestrian prince was beaten, sometimes literally, into the ground.
“We have enough healers and batteries that we can keep this up all day,” Fire Eyes called. “She won’t stop until you’ve kept her from landing a blow for five solid minutes.”
“I’m trying!” Blueblood wailed.
Meanwhile, Rarity used her telekinesis to hurl a rock just in front of his face.
Blueblood skidded to a stop to avoid it, only to have another thrust of telekinesis knock both back legs out from under him. If Fluttershy hadn’t been watching so closely, she would have missed how a patch of ground turned into spikes just as Blueblood sat down hard on it.
He jumped up, shouting in pain, before two pebbles shot up his nose, one in each nostril. The sputtering only lasted a second though. A much larger rock hit him in the stomach, and both pebbles were forcefully ejected in a spray of air and snot.
Fluttershy finally managed to look away from the bizarre spectacle and shifted her attention to Fire Eyes, who was standing on her left. “Are you sure this will help him?”
The dragoness nodded. “Blueblood’s shields are nearly indestructible once he gets them up, but he’s absolutely horrible at casting anything quickly or while under stress, and he’s way too used to others doing everything for him. After this, I’m going to shove a magic inhibitor ring on him and toss him into that hole that Big Mac helped me dig. We’ve actually got a bet going on how long it will take him to climb out. I’m saying three days.”
Fluttershy shifted uncomfortably. “Isn’t that a little mean?”
Fire Eyes shrugged. “It’ll teach him self reliance. Well, except for the food and water that will be down there for him. Besides, we don’t have time to waste fixing his hangups the nice way.”
Meanwhile, Rarity was cackling like an evil queen from the movies.
“Your friend seems to be enjoying herself.”
Fluttershy shivered slightly. “Yes, that’s true. Um, what about your training, Fire Eyes? Doesn’t this get in the way of it?”
“Not really. My training is just to maintain six spells at high power for as long as possible.” She growled softly. “I just lost another one.” The dragoness closed her eyes for a moment. “And that’s six again. I don’t know how Cliff makes this look so easy.”
“The other diamond is always larger,” Fluttershy said. It was a wyrm phrase, one of the first she had learned from Cliff. “You can do lots of things that he can’t.”
Fire Eyes chuckled softly. “Thanks, Fluttershy. Anyway, you’d better get to your training.”
“Oh, right. I’ll see you later.” She spared one last glance at Rarity, who seemed to be enjoying herself a little too much, and set out to find a sparring partner. It had been nice to talk with Rarity and Fire Eyes, but she felt a little guilty about just standing around when the others were already hard at work.
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7647192 no problem
At first I was worried that the crown prince of the douche bags (long may he reign) was going to have a bigger part in this story but now I'm looking foward to this
I always pictured Fluttershy as the type of fighter who dealt with an enemy by redirecting and dodging so the enemy ended up hitting other enemies.
Funny thing. Where I'm from, cutting someone's hair against their will is considered criminal assault.
I'm starting to hate Blueblood's team. I'm starting to hope they get the opposite of what they intend with this training and have to face some consequences.
Seriously, that's one of my main interests right now. The characters who are supposed to be "good" look like *ssholes to me more and more, and I'm finding it harder and harder to care about them.
That can still create interesting scenes, if it's actually explored. Such as him talking to Fluttershy about how nobody bats an eye at insulting and threatening and hurting him and generally treating him like complete dirt, but they still expect him to be a loyal and eager fighter. Unlike with the others, nobody even appears to talk to him outside of abuse. At some point, "Why should I stay?" becomes a valid question.
yay more popcorn for me, my robot, and my two wolf dragons watching this.
Yes great chapter. Hey Blue Blood no pain no game
7647620 I'm actually surprised it took someone so long to catch that.
7647727 True that.
7647821 Lol, I love that title for him! (I'm also baffled that someone would dislike your comment, but everyone's entitled to their own opinion.)
7647901 I can see that.
7648361 You'll see more interactions with Blueblood next chapter. The way Fire Eyes is treating him is actually based on accounts from some friends about what Boot Camp is like. I'm not saying it's right to treat people that way, just that they do.
7648399 Wolf dragons, where can I get one of those?
7648893 He must've gained a lot in this chapter.
While I feel a little bad for laughing, the description of everything Rarity was throwing at Blueblood in the ring at once was just comically perfect! Throw in some cartoony noises and I'd probably be tearing up with laughter.
If Rarity hit Blueblood's package with a gem, would that make it "junk jewelry"?
9716750
Or a jewel to the family jewels.