Fighters Don't Have Friends

by BackroundVoice

5 : Lessons & Promises

There was a small pit stop just a half-hour away from the Canterlot train station. It was a tourist trap to give you a good view of the mountain waterfalls leading into the serpent river. A place I've never been to, oddly enough. It was here that we helped the guard get his friends off the train, and he went to get ice for them while Flutters and I waited for the conductor to load off some supplies for the gift shop. It was a planned stop, yet the attack on the train still left me peeved. At least nothing bad happened, and that's what mattered.

As we waited, Fluttershy and I had taken the time to feed ourselves here. My brother's credit card number finally cut out on me, leaving Fluttershy to foot the bill for me. We were outside leaning on the train, kicking back and watching a few of the guards help the conductor. Not much had happened since the fight on the train, but leave it to Fluttershy to bring us back to the topic at hoof.

The amazing tale of my trial and error as a pony being.

"Um... Was that something you learned from Vinyl Scratch?" Fluttershy asked, tapping my shoulder hesitantly. I twitched when she did. Luckily I knew she was there, otherwise, she might have a bloody nose right now.

"Taking down a whole gang? Nah, Vinyl always advised against that. I really only focused on one douche bag at a time. I don't really think I can truthfully say I know how to fight multiple ponies at once," I said. I was trying to be humble, but even I was impressed at my skill. And I just couldn't hold back a prideful grin.

"I mean, fighting armored opponents," Fluttershy corrected me.

"Oh, that," I stopped smiling. "Yeah, I never knew how the others did it at first, exchanging fists with the Knightmares that is," I recalled that the Knightmares were one of the only groups that wore armor. Considering it's hard to do so in training and fighting. "They wore spiky full plate to intimidate others mostly. And despite what you might think, armor wasn't against the rules at knuckle brick corner," Fluttershy tilted her head when I said that. "I thought the exact same thing, Flutters."

"Did you ever wear armor? It would've been a good idea for you I think," she said. I blinked, insulted. Pointing both my hooves at the mumbling pile of guards at the train stop bench.

"Did you not see what I just did?" I raised my voice, questioning her.

"Sorry, I meant before," she corrected me again.

"Oh, right," I had actually almost forgotten about that training. "Vinyl owned an old suit of armor for us to practice with, and-"

"Wait!" Fluttershy interrupted. "We forgot to talk about the job you got,"

"Well, there isn't much to be said about that. I got mad at Abby for kicking my flank suddenly and taking back the title, so I got a job at the local library to at least have my own personal space to get away from them. Of course, they all crashed my apartment anyway, sleeping on the floor instead of outside. It was like no matter what I did, I was stuck with them."

"Why did you stick with them then?"

"I didn't have a choice, I guess?" I even questioned myself on that statement.

"But I can't see you as the type of pony to forgive that easily. Why would you continue to fight?" Fluttershy asked openly. I glanced at the group of guards across from us. They were still mad at me, I mean, who wouldn't be? But they weren't trying to offend or ignore me. They were actually listening too. Maybe this was them trying to believe me, and taking the chance to hear some pointers on how to fight.

I exhausted a long sigh and refocused on talking to Fluttershy. Trying to forget that the guards were listening as well. "Once again, Vinyl convinced me to continue fighting," I said.

"How?" Fluttershy asked, perplexed.

"She kept saying I should know how to defend myself so my horn wouldn't get damaged again. And from that standpoint, it did sound pretty logical to me at the time. And I continued all this time, not because Vinyl advised me to or by talking me into it. I made up own mind one day after running into a certain pony. But before we get into that, I'll explain how I learned how to fight armor, without armor. Do you remember that I mentioned Pinkie Pie before? The drunken fist?"

"Was she Asian? Ha!" one of the guards called out like a joke. And then the captain elbowed him, hinting that he should just listen.

"Well, she wasn't Asian," I said to the guard. "But she knew several styles of martial arts from masters all over the world. Making her one of the most diverse members of our little group..."

---

It had been a couple weeks since we exposed Trixie for the hack of a fighter that she was. I was saving up money for a doctor's visit, and in the meantime, Pinkie was in charge of teaching me how to fight armored opponents. Going so far as to roleplay as the Knightmares themselves to make it more 'realistic'.

"Fight me thou worm from the pits of sissies!" Pinkie Pie shouted at me with a deep gruff voice. Posing with her front hooves in the air, standing tall. Her shadow was cast over me as the helmet she wore barely blocked out the sun for me. To be honest, I might've actually been a little scared if she wasn't trying to imitate Nightmare Moon's voice in the silliest way possible. But because it was Pinkie, fear was never a feeling I had around her. Annoyance would be a more proper term.

"The pits of sissies?" I asked, standing up and blocking the sun with my hoof. The sky was cloudless and hot. A terrible day for training. I really wish we could've spared on days with nicer weather, but Vinyl always told me whenever I asked, 'Is Nightmare Moon waiting for a nice day to fight?' And I always replied saying, 'No, she stays up all night and fights, because she's pretending to be the folk tale demon of a queen that Princess Celestia's ancestors slew.' Needless to say, she called me a nerd, and Dash always chimed in whenever that occasion would arise. Those two never missed a chance to make fun of me when it came to pre-school answers. And then Vinyl would simply tell me as it is, the way I preferred her to tell me. That we train no matter what. Instead of hinting the answer at me like some kind of guru.

"That's what she said, silly!" Pinkie Pie's high pitched voice returned to explain to me. "She said it before she ripped your horn a new one!"

"I know, Pinkie, I know," I mumbled, brushing off the dirt on my hoodie.

"I mean, she really knocked a huuuuuuge chunk off your head! I would've glued it back together myself if it didn't get lost in the crowd. Probably stomped on by a couple of dancers."

"Okay, yeah, I hurt my head. Now, can we please get back to sparring?"

"Not to mention there was a lot of blood, a whole lot of blood!"

"Uhh... Okay, I get it!" I repeated myself, venting in a stern gulping voice. I was feeling a little sick just thinking of blood pouring out my horn.

"And if Dr. Slovic didn't patch you up that morning, there might've been no hope of your horn slowly recovering at a snail's pace! How is it by the way? Do you feel magical yet? Feel like you can cast any of those fancy magic academy spells?"

"PINKIE!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. After that, Pinkie went quiet, staring at me through her helmet like nothing had happened.

"What's wrong Twilight? We're supposed to be sparring, quit your slacking!" Pinkie said, getting back into a stance, watching my entire being turn red in anger. I let out a scream and marched over to Vinyl, who was taking a break from training with Abigail. Trying to hide her giggling.

"Can we please switch sparring partners?" I asked as if in pain.

"What's wrong with you and Pinkie?" Vinyl asked. I could tell she was pretending that she didn't know what I meant.

"She's an idiot!" I said, not really caring if Pinkie could hear me.

"But I know how to do a hoof stand!" Pinkie Pie called my attention. And I turned around, watching Pinkie flip onto her front hooves and walk around. Grunting a little with the armor on. "Idiots don't know how to do this!"

"Please!" I said again, but Vinyl only shook her head at me.

"The other's are off gathering info for future opponents, and you need to train. To, you know, protect yourself and all that junk?" Vinyl had been holding that over my head for the past few days. Like a constant reminder that a five-hundred-page essay was due by the end of the week. "Unless you want to spar with AJ?" she suggested. But even that, to me, was out of the question. I was pretending that Abby wasn't there, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see her guilt filled expression. She was honestly sorry for what she did, but I was too stubborn to accept any of her apologies.

Abigail was ready to apologize again, but Vinyl raised a hoof to her, stopping Abby from wrongfully reading the situation. Because I wasn't just a poor wounded animal like most thought I was. No, I was being an irritable child. And not just to Abby, but to Dash, Pinkie, Rare, and even Vinyl. I was still impatient to have my horn fixed, I only had a short view on how far I wanted to take my combat expertise, and I had been downright ungrateful for everything that Vinyl and the others had done for me thus far.

This had already been my third month of my formal citizenship in Ponyville, and I'd only grown more firm in my defense as a victim of a kidnapping. Vinyl was starting to dislike me because of my behavior. And I don't blame her.

Since I took up my job at the library, I started to distance myself from the others as much as possible. I ran into them most days, and almost every night I was around at least one of the four, never Vinyl. I started to piece it together that the reason I was running into them so much was because Vinyl had asked the others to protect me. Ponyville wasn't a well-guarded citadel like Canterlot. And because knuckle brick corner was such an attraction for fighters, thugs lurked about almost constantly in the streets at night. At first, it was just a matter of tricking them that I had hardly any money to give up. And I had it down to a system. Pretend to plead, hide my money somewhere else, and take a beating or two if I couldn't match their expectations.

And it worked, to begin with. For some reason, I didn't count on them to demand more money with every collecting. And when they weren't satisfied with what I paid, they did more than just punch me. They broke my bad hoof, for the second time, and pulled on my hair to make me fess up where the rest of my bits were. But before it got any worse, Dash and the others found me. Scarring off the thugs, practically volunteering to by my bodyguards from then on. At the time, I didn't know what hurt more, my broken bones, or my pride, that I was stuck with these ponies no matter what.

One time, some traveling fighters were passing by, wanting to make some easy cash off us. They attacked and played dirty to win. My horn got hurt in that encounter, which was when Vinyl proposed that it wasn't enough to be protected, I needed to learn how to protect myself. Bringing us to now, armored opponent fight training.

"Keep sparring with Pinkie, she'll take it seriously as long as you do," Vinyl said, leaning her head back on the bench. My teeth scrapped at the thought of spending one more joke filled minute with Pinkie Pie and her ridiculous theories on sensing an enemy's incoming attack with her twitching tail. But I went back to her, head down and sulking.

"Ready to fight, sister!" Pinkie cheered as she readied her stance. The armor that she wore, belonging to Vinyl, was old, very old. I could tell it was of an Asian decent, although Vinyl corrected me that it wasn't Samurai plate-mail. It was rusted all around and when you moved around in it, it sounded like nails on a chalkboard. I was always tilting my head in disgust every time Pinkie moved in it, but I needed to ignore the urge to if I was going to train properly.

"Sure," I told her, getting ready. "So you explained to me that it's not a good idea to fight anyone armored because those who do wear armor are...?"

"Downright cooky dukes!" Pinkie finished my sentence.

"Right, 'cooky dukes'. But isn't there some way to make it easier to fight them?"

"Well," Pinkie was getting excited about the questions I was asking. "Out of all the pieces of a set of armor, what part is exclusively separate from the whole?"

"The helmet," I answered.

"Ding, ding! We have a winner! And even if some pony wasn't wearing armor, the head is where you would want to strike if you wanted to end the fight quickly," Pinkie said, taking a few steps forward in a predictable attack. I dodged to the right of her punch and positioned my own punch to let loose, but I held it because this was where I kept getting knocked on my butt. And instead, I waited and asked a question.

"So how come I keep failing to attack your head?"

"Because silly! If my head was my only weak spot wearing this armor..." her eyes met mine under the shadow of the helmet and glowed rather sinister as the light reflected off her wide blue eyes. "Why would I let you near it?" When I realized that she had been playing me with something so obvious, I swung my hoof quickly to hit her head, but again it was blocked, and I was grappled to the ground with my hoof behind my back. The armor proved to be heavier than I had anticipated, and I could barely move, or breath.

"So you see, young grasshopper," Pinkie patronized me, "unless you can reach my helmet and hit the weak point, I'm unstoppable!" She then laughed loudly and stepped over me, raising her head, proudly. My temper was at its limits as I watched her brag about invincibility. I literally felt like my mane was going to set on fire. So with one last attempt to get back at her, I reached out and pulled at her legs, causing her to fall face first onto the ground. But when it happened, I felt more surprised that it worked than satisfied. Pinkie Pie rolled over and forced the helmet to come off, her curly mane was getting tangled in between loose metal and screws. And when it was finally off, she pretended to be mad by glaring at me with a forced frown. But when I suddenly cracked a smile at her red face, Pinkie burst out laughing. 'Gravity' was the winner in both cases, and even I ended up laughing at how dumb it was to wear armor in a fight.

---

The guards looked embarrassed as I continued to explain to Fluttershy in greater detail how to remove different armor pieces for the sake of knowing. Fluttershy was pondering it thoughtfully, as though she should remember this information for later. And the guards were looking over their own armor and found several weak points that I had exposed them to in our fight earlier. Their armor wasn't the problem, though. Sure, it made it hard to move, but training in it as much as they do only put them ahead of the game considering I started with no formal training at all. The armor was a handicap for me. But I wasn't about to admit that to them.

"For somepony who was trained by so many masters of martial arts, she doesn't sound like the best fighter," Fluttershy said.

"Training with a master means nothing if you don't take what they teach you to heart," I stated. "I was being trained by the Vinyl Scratch and I'm still a cocky fighter. I haven't really taken anything she taught me seriously,"

"That's for sure..." I heard a faint murmur following a sigh. I glanced around and saw a few of the guards look away from me as I glared.

Pricks.

I changed my line of sight to the orange sky. The sun was setting, and with it, the moon would rise soon enough. The conductor had already made his way to the front car, and the train whistle hissed in the air, signaling passengers to board. I stood up to leave but was stopped by the captain from joining Fluttershy on the train. I gestured for her to go ahead inside, and I met the captain's stern look. She was a younger mare, late teens. Her coat was orange, and her mane was pink. That look she had reminded me of somepony, but I just couldn't put my hoof on it.

"Answer me one thing and I'll let you go," the captain said.

"Uhh... Weren't you trying to arrest me?" I asked, trying to understand her line of thinking. I really just wanted to push her aside and go, but this was an odd change of character from a moment ago. Curiosity got the better of me, I guess.

"Don't get me wrong, punk," she had no respect when she spoke, just like Dash, maybe that's who she reminded me of. "I'm coming back for you, but right now..." she trailed off as she stood there with nothing to say. I could tell she wanted to claim something along the lines of a promise to kick my flank. However, she knew all too well how that would end. My eyes looked up to the smoke that rose from the train engine as the whistle blew one last time. "Did you actually defeat all those guards by yourself?" the captain finally asked.

"Can hardly believe I did it myself, but yeah, I did," my tone of voice confirmed her suspicions. She knew I wasn't lying. But knowing and believing are two completely different things, and she did not. A frown dominated her expression as she lowered her hoof, allowing me to pass. "Anything else, officer?" She only shook her head and moved back to her squad.

I got aboard the train just before it jolted from its place and started down the mountain tracks again.

Why did she remind me of Dash so much? The impression she left with me felt like a mimic of Dash's headstrong attitude. Always attempting to be right, always refusing to be wrong even if she knew that she was. Suddenly, I remembered something Dash told me.

"If you run into a mini-me whenever you get back to Canterlot, tell her I said hi. She's got a girly pink mane and a cool orange colored coat, her name is...

"Scootaloo!" I shouted, realizing it all too late. The train was gaining speed and I only had a short time to reach the back. I picked up a sprint to maintain and beat the trains forward motion. I was fighting it like a treadmill, running along the ground that moved backward, passing Fluttershy in a hurry, hitting the railing of the last car at the end. "Scootaloo!" I called out, and just like I thought, the captain reacted to that name and shot me a look of surprise. "Rainbow Dash says 'Hi!'," Scootaloo smiled and laughed at that, shouting to me to tell Dash the same thing. That felt great.

"Did you know her?" Fluttershy asked. Looking rather confused by my sudden urge to talk to the guards.

"Kind of," I said, not bothering to give any further explanation, returning to my seat. I sat there for a few moments, recalling that Dash had that favor asked of me sometime before I left. I'm glad I got to fulfill that promise. I looked back to Fluttershy, pretending to be interested in the ceiling. She didn't want to force me to continue the storytelling. But she was being way too obvious about it. "Wanna know what happened next?" I asked her. She nodded quickly, avoiding to make eye contact.

"We were on the armor training, right?" I asked her.

"I think we just finished that part," she said.

"Right, then I guess next, comes that one pony."

"The pony that made you who you are today?" Fluttershy asked, and I nodded.

"After we spent the afternoon training with the armor, we decided to hit up knuckle brick corner. Pinkie wanted to treat me to a cup of cider, and Rare wanted to join us."

Comments

[brisa_mlp]

"That's for sure..." I heard a faint murmur following a sigh. I glanced around and saw a few of the guards look away from me as I glared.

guards got a death wish or sumthin?