Making my Mark

by Firestar463

Chapter 10

Most of the next morning passed without incident. The Princesses and I were alone for breakfast again, leaving us to stew in our concern and worry over what was going on with this crisis. Neither of them seemed to know any better than me what was going on, and if they did, they did a very good job of keeping it hidden from me.

Unlike the day before, however, the two of them had things to keep them occupied today. It was getting towards the end of the month, and Luna informed me that this meant that she was needed to take care of paying the Ponies who worked in the castle. Celestia, on the other hand, said nothing to me about her duties, stopping only to frown and say that it was going to be a “fun day” before running off away from the dining hall.

That left me all alone for the first half of the day. And so, I relocated myself to the place I seemed to find myself in every time I had nothing to do - the library. The warm glow that filled the room raised my spirits somewhat, and I found myself leaning back into one of the couches. I was tempted to rummage through one of the spellbooks from the second floor in anticipation for my lesson with Luna, but I managed to restrain myself. I was almost certainly not going to be working with any of those spells tonight.

But I found that the library, usually a place of relaxation, today brought no such feeling of ease. My fingers kept twitching. I couldn’t get comfortable. My attention drifted constantly from the pages in front of me. I couldn’t sit still. My legs were restless. It wasn’t long before I found myself pacing back and forth across the library.

I knew what the problem was. There was no question in my mind. Yes, there was the crisis that Serenity and Solaris were dealing with, and that made me uneasy as well. Of course I wanted to know what was going on. But more than that, I wanted to be down in the tunnels. Looking. Hunting for this other Human that had found themselves in this strange world with me. Just sitting here, comfortable and safe in the castle, while they were trapped by the Nightmare in an unending slumber...

Once again, I just felt so… helpless...

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. The reasonable voice in my head told me it was foolish, to even consider wandering through those tunnels alone. Serenity had already promised to send guards to scour those tunnels for any signs of the other Human. Assuming, of course, that they weren’t needed for whatever crisis Serenity and Solaris were dealing with. And if they were… if the guards needed couldn’t be spared… what then? The reasonable voice had no answer.

I sighed and shook my head to clear it. All of a sudden, the library that had once seemed so warm and inviting now felt more like a prison. I had to get out. Outside, into the fresh air, at least for a little while. Try to clear my head. I left the book I had grabbed to read on the table. I couldn’t even remember what it had been about. I threw the doors open and left the glow of the library behind, stepping out into the sunlit hallways.

I got a few looks from the guards throughout the castle as I made my way towards the rear exit. I guess they still weren’t quite used to me being around, and those that were certainly weren’t used to seeing me out and about at this time. But aside from the occasionally mumbled “Bullslayer,” none of them spoke as I passed them.

It was only a few moments before I found myself on the back lawn of the castle. Though the sun was high in the cloudless sky, the air was crisp and cool. Without thinking, I began walking away from the castle, out into the grounds. Here in the shade of the castle, I could still see faint traces of my breath rising away from me as steam, though it quickly faded from visibility as I stepped into the sunlight.. Just as I would have expected it to be. It would have been late November back home, and from what I could tell, Gaian seasons worked nearly identically to Terran seasons… Discounting the fact that Ponies controlled it all.

Of course, that meant that winter was fast approaching. I made a mental note to inquire about warmer clothes when the opportunity presented itself. A couple of pairs of jeans and some T-shirts, even with a light hoodie, weren’t likely to cut it for the entire winter.

It was refreshing, being out in the open air. Being cooped up in the castle for the past few weeks, with only a couple of brief excursions outside the walls, had left me restless. A restlessness that I hadn’t noticed or acknowledged before, but now burned away inside me. I had half a mind to do few laps around the castle. Burn off some of the excess energy, and some of the excess fat that had developed. I knew I’d been neglecting my physical shape - my tests the other day had proven as much. Or maybe I could try to get through that hedge maze off in the corner. If it was anything like the corn mazes back home, it’d be a fun way to kill a couple of hours… assuming, of course, that I didn’t wind up hopelessly lost. It might at least take my mind off of the Human lost to the Nightmare, or the crisis brewing around me…

The sound of metal clanging against metal shook me back to reality. I’d been so lost in my own thoughts that I’d just been walking aimlessly in a straight line, directly away from the back exit of the castle. Which put me directly outside of the training enclosure that I’d done my tests in. I blinked and glanced over my shoulder towards the castle. Had I really zoned out for that long? That had been easily a five-minute walk... I shook my head and faced the enclosure again. Well, I was already here. They had a running track and some other equipment for exercise inside. Might as well go in. At least it was open air...

Stepping into the barracks, the first thing I noticed was how crowded it was. Whereas the other day there had been stone weights along the tracks and training dummies and bullseyes scattered here and there, now all of that was gone. In its place were at least a dozen groups of Ponies, scattered here and there throughout the training grounds, all dressed in military fatigues. Each group was overseen by a Pony in what appeared to be officer uniforms, running the groups through various drills.

I found myself frowning as I looked over the arena. It was so crowded. Too crowded for my taste. There had to be close to a thousand Ponies in the enclosure, all doing their own thing. I found myself backing away, towards the door again. A nice jog around the castle was sounding better and better by the second…

“Ah! Chris, was it?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin as a British-sounding voice chirped into my ear. I spun wildly towards the sound to see a Stallion about my height only a few feet away from me. Unlike the other Ponies in the room, he wore relatively normal attire - a tan suit-jacket and matching pants over a white shirt with a red bowtie. His fur was very nearly the same color as the jacket, while his mane was a much richer chocolate brown.

It took me a moment before I was able to put a name to his face. “Doctor Caligari?”

“So he does remember me!” Caligari chuckled, patting me on the back. “Good lad, good lad.”

I gave a small smile in response. “What are you doing here?” I asked

“Overseeing the training of new members of the Royal Army,” Caligari replied. His smile faltered slightly. “We have far too many to replace after all that’s happened… But what brings you here? Oh wait!” he cut me off before I could reply. “I know. I take it the King and Queen have finally come to an agreement?”

“An… agreement?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Oh yes, quite.” Caligari took a few steps forward, hands folded behind his back. “And i must say, it took them long enough. I respect the King’s… reservations… but the Queen is absolutely right. You must be able to defend yourself. So, if you’ll just -”

“Woah woah, wait just a minute.” I interrupted, holding a hand out in front of me as Caligari spun to face me. “Agreement? Reservations? Defend myself? What are you talking about.”

“I… Oh.” Instantly, Caligari’s smile had vanished. “So… The Queen didn’t tell you?”

“... No,” I muttered. “She seems to have a habit of keeping secrets from me…”

“Oh… Well, I suppose I owe you an explanation. The Queen believes you should continue the martial training you began in the camp under Princess Luna’s watch. And personally, I must say that I agree, but the King is less certain about the need…”

“Martial training?” I repeated. “Like… with the bow and arrow, and the sword and shield?”

“Among other things, yes.”

“And… why do you believe I need this, exactly?”

“Besides the fact that you very publicly betrayed and executed the leader of one of the most powerful empires on Gaia?” Caligari countered.”

I blinked. “I… suppose that’s -”

“- A sure way to make a few enemies, eh?” Caligari interrupted. “There’s almost certainly a bounty on your head in Minos. Quite frankly, I’m surprised an attempt on your life hasn’t already been made.”

“Thanks for making me feel so much better,” I muttered under my breath. I mean, I knew that I’d made quite a name for myself when I killed Adamant Will. No doubt the Minotaurs would curse my name for several centuries. But hearing it put that bluntly…

“So,” Caligari continued, “When - not if, but when - that attempt is made, you should at least know how to defend yourself.”

“Makes sense, I suppose…” I began slowly. “But if King Solaris has said no, then -”

“He hasn’t said no, though,” Caligari interrupted me again. “Or, at least not to my knowledge. And the Queen is all for it. So, let’s see…” His head turned towards the center of the enclosure, his gaze passing over the groups gathered there. “Mmm… no… no… No, definitely not him…”

“What are you -”

“Trying to figure out who should continue your training,” Caligari answered my unfinished question. “Mmm… but quite frankly, you would not fit in with any of these squads. They’ve all been through the basics. No, you need somepony to work with you one-on-one. Pick off where the princess left off… Aha!” he suddenly exclaimed. “Wait right here. I’ve got just the stallion!”

I took a couple of steps backwards as Caligari ran off into the sea of Ponies. My back touched the wall, and I slid down it until I was sitting. Suddenly, I wasn’t feeling quite so restless, after what Caligari had told me. I had half a mind to just go hole up in my room until dinner. But no. I knew that Caligari had a good point. In a world where an entire nation wanted me dead, not knowing how to fight was nothing short of foolish.

At least, that’s what the rational part of me knew. The rest of me still wanted to go hide away from the world...

So I sat there. Patiently. Waiting. My eyes glanced over the groups being put through their drills, but found nothing to really latch onto. So instead, I closed them. Surely Caligari wouldn’t be that long…

The sound of hooves on stone nearby cut through the chorus of drill sergeants barking out orders. I opened one eye and looked towards the sound as Caligari and another stallion came to a stop a few paces away from me. I opened the other eyes and pushed myself back to my feet, glancing over the newcomer. A dark-grey unicorn, with a blue-and-black buzz-cut. Another Pony from the resistance camp, one that I recognized almost instantly. One whose presence did little to alleviate my worries. “Captain Thunderbolt,” I nodded.

“The Doctor tells me that you’re reporting in for combat training.” No hello. No greetings of any kind. Straight to business. I nodded. “Lucky you, then, that my last training group just left to join the fight in the Badlands, so it looks like I’m gonna be taking care of you for now. How much training have you gotten so far?”

“A couple of weeks of archery practice with Princess Luna,” I replied, rising to my feet. “And a couple of days using a sword and shield, but not much there.”

“A complete rookie then.” I didn’t like the look of the grin that began to form on Thunderbolt’s face. “Excellent. You will meet me here at this time every morning. Doctor.” Thunderbolt’s head turned towards Caligari. “Ensure that there is a private training area for us every morning.”

Caligari nodded and motioned for the two of us to follow him. I intended to be at the back of the pack, but Thunderbolt seemed to have other plans in mind - he slowed his pace to walk side-by-side with me. “You’d best be ready,” he warned as we walked around the edge of the training field towards one of the hallways branching off of the main enclosure. “The Princess went easy training you. I will not. You will be tired. You will be sore. But you will walk away capable of cutting down anypony in your way.”

“I don’t need to know that,” I retorted. “I just need to know how not to die in a fight.”

“Easiest way to do that?” Thunderbolt’s grin returned full force. “Make them die first..”

“Brilliant…” I muttered as we turned into one of the hallways, softly enough for him not to hear it. Today was not turning out at all how I had imagined. I had just wanted to go for a damn jog…

We had only been walking down the stone hallway for a moment before Caligari stopped, right next to a wooden door on the right-hand wall. “501,” he announced as he pulled the door open. “Available now, and everyday.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Thunderbolt said as he moved past Caligari, not even glancing in his direction. I let out a breath and nodded my thanks as well as I followed Thunderbolt into the room. Caligari, it seemed, had no intention of joining us, as he closed the door behind us, sealing us in.

The room within was clearly a sparring room of sorts. Four orbs of glowing light hovered up against the stone ceiling, providing ample light to see by. The floor was covered in a thick rug, colored to form a pattern. Most of the rug was black, except for a few white lines that formed a decent-sized square in the center of the room. The walls were lined with wooden racks and shelves, bearing all manner of weapons - axes, maces, bows, crossbows, daggers, spears, shields, swords of every shape and size and length…

“Here,” Thunderbolt’s voice from behind me drew my attention. I turned just in time for him to thrust the hilt of a medium-sized sword into my hands. I barely managed to stop the blade from falling to the ground as I scrambled to catch it. “We’ll start with a backsword,” he began. “Simple and reliable. One-handed, so don’t you dare let me catch you trying to use it like a Greatsword.”

I gripped the weapon in my right hand, inspecting the blade. It had only been sharpened on one side, though even that side was quite blunt. I doubted that it could have cut through butter without smashing it. Almost certainly an intentional feature on these training weapons. It had a simple crossguard separating the hilt from the blade, with the blade extending about two and a half feet out from the hilt. It was surprisingly light in my hands - the entire thing couldn’t have weighed more than 4 pounds.

“Notice that only one side is sharp,” Thunderbolt continued, plucking another blade from the rack and taking it for himself.. “So only that one side is good for cutting. Against an armored opponent, you need to rely on a thrust rather than a slash, but against an unarmored opponent, either will work. Now, let’s see what I have to work with. On guard position.”

Quite frankly, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing. I’d spent a couple of nights using a sword and shield while training with Luna, true, but with just a sword and no shield? I did my best to improvise, with my right foot in front of my left and my sword vertical in front of me, edge facing away.

Thunderbolt let out a loud snort. “Sloppy,” he commented. “Relax. You’re as tense as a spring. No good for shifting your weight around in a fight. Your hooves… or whatever you have... should be nearly square with me - leading hoof slightly ahead. And don’t point that blade toward the sky,” he added as I shifted myself to match his instructions. “Angle it down a little bit… A bit more…. There. Better. Relax your grip a bit. You’ll never get the blade control you need if you’re clutching it as tight as you can.”

I finished adjusting myself and looked towards Thunderbolt to see him nodding. “Better. Better,” he repeated. He moved forward to stand right in front of me, matching my own stance. “Since you’re just getting started, we’ll go slow for now. Move your sword to block mine.”

His blade moved out and downwards towards my right leg. I took a small step backwards so that my left foot was now in front, and I shifted my blade to block his. “Decent form here, at least,” he nodded. “But you blocked it with the cutting edge. Never do that. Block with the face of the blade. Blocking with the cutting edge will dull your blade very quickly, and can easily lead to stress fractures that will break the blade. Back to guard.”

---

I was rubbing my upper arm as I walked away from the training enclosure back towards the castle. Thunderbolt had kept me at it for several hours, practicing my stances and blocks. The sword itself wasn’t heavy, but holding it upright for several hours at a time put quite a strain on my upper arm. Not to mention the fact that his strikes had gradually gotten faster and harder…

The last sequence had been particularly brutal. He had been striking fairly quickly by now, and alternated repeatedly between striking at my left and right side. Stepping forward and backwards, swapping the blade from side to side (never moving it to my left hand though - I’d learned early on how vulnerable wielding the blade in your weak hand made you), up and down to move from shoulder to leg to gut blocks… and the final move, an unexpected thrust towards my chest that he’d not worked on with me yet. I’d tried to deflect it, and was very nearly successful in parrying the blow had I not lost my footing. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground.

I’d expected Thunderbolt to react to this with his usual remarks. Cold indifference, or some kind of snark at the very least. Instead, I was surprised when he nodded. “Not bad, for a beginner,” he’d said as I pushed myself to my feet. “A decent improvisation, though obviously it needs some work…” He’d called it a day there, reminding me to return the next morning at the same time.

Was it the workout I’d been expecting? No, not in the slightest. But it had at least somewhat helped with my restlessness. I still could have gone for a jog, but I wasn’t going stir-crazy anymore. Besides which, any more exercise for the day was going to have to wait until after lunch, as my stomach informed me.

But it was more than just a needed to move about. It was a need to take my mind off of everything that was going on. The crisis, the Nightmare, the other Human… My training with Thunderbolt had kept me occupied, at least. But now, I felt all that accumulated stress and worry building back up, gnawing away at my gut. Pushing the doors to the dining hall open and seeing only two occupied chairs, rather than the usual four, did little to alleviate that concern.

Still, it wasn’t all bad. I still had my first magic lesson this evening to look forward to. I felt the knot in the pit of my stomach loosen at the thought as I sat down next to Luna at the table. Yes. Magic lessons. That was something to look forward to, at least.

Like breakfast, lunch was a silent affair. Mercifully, it was also a short one. All three of us had finished our meals within ten minutes, and neither of the Princesses seemed in the mood to stick around. Not that I blamed them, of course. I’d seen their tails twitching, heard the occassional tap of a hoof against the floor. I'd found it difficult to sit still at the table as well. Even walking out of the dining hall, I felt my legs twitching. I knew sitting down wasn’t going to be an option.

Maybe now I could go for that jog...

Comments

[ArcherStern]

So now comes the real training, I heard pain is the natural way one is to learn. Good luck to him, he will need it.

[Viper Pit]

i dont think thats a human but instead discord to using a red haring so to speak

[FierySoul]

I definitely liked Finding My Place. However this sequel has been exceptionally good in my eyes and every chapter has been a treat to read. Keep writing more please <3

[Gizmo Gear]

8529730
Thats herring, and yea, thats a possibility.

[Lysander Shadowheart]

Another lovely update. Every chapter has been an excellent addition to this story, I look forward to the next one.