The Guardian Shadow

by KnightBrony

Chapter 11: Training

Chapter 11

Training

Ponyville was a three day trek from Trottingham, so I decided I should go ahead and start with training. After everyone had gotten some rest and some breakfast, I called a group meeting.

“Okay guys, today is when training begins, and not just for Nova and Nebula, for all of us,” I said. This got a raised eyebrow from Scarlet and a confused look from Jade.

“Wait, you're gonna make us train too?” Scarlet asked confused.

“Yes. If we're gonna be traveling together, that means at some point we're all gonna end up having to fight together. So to help with that, we're going to be training to fight as individuals and as a team, understood?” I asked. Everyone looked a little confused, but eventually they agreed.

“Okay then, first up lets assess everyone's fighting abilities. I think it's a pretty safe bet that you've all got a pretty good idea what I can do correct?” I asked. They all nodded. “Okay then, so who wants to volunteer to be first up?” I asked. Everyone suddenly got really interested in their hooves/paws and the ground. Getting a little frustrated I said “Scarlet, thanks for volunteering.”

Scarlet was surprised but eventually got up and walked into the circle I had drawn that would act as the training arena.

“Ok, to start we're going to be doing hand- to....I mean Hoof-to-Hoof Combat,” I looked at Scarlet “whenever you're ready,” I said. The second I said that Scarlet charged at me and swept at me with her back legs. Since this was training, I was trying to suppress my preflex to give them a fair chance, so Scarlet's attack was a surprise. I jumped out of the way of her attack and landed a safe distance away and got into a modified fighting stance to fit my new body. Scarlet charged at me again but this time she launched herself over me with her fore legs and landed behind me, giving me a swift buck to my head. The kick sent me reeling, which gave Scarlet the opening she needed to pin me to the ground. I tapped out and she let me go. Okay, so I would need to work on my unarmed combat skills.

I wiped some sweat from my brow and said “Good work Scarlet, you can rest.” As she went to go sit, I surprised her by sweeping her legs and knocking her off balance and pinning her.

“Lesson one, never let your guard down, even if the match looks won,” I said and let her go. She stared daggers at me and probably would've beat me down right there, but she just huffed and flicked me in the nose with her tail. I composed myself and looked at the others “Okay, so who's next?”

The rest of the matches went pretty easily. Nova and Nebula were beaten pretty easily. Jade was a little more difficult, but I defeated her too.

“So, now that that's done, let's move on to Armed Combat,” I said and proceeded to make some training weapons, some wood some metal. Swords of varying types, bows, arrows, staffs, knives, and various others. I also made a few training dummies of various species with vital spots marked. They all stared wide-eyed at my display of alchemy. It just occurred to me that this was the first time I'd actually used alchemy in front of them all. Scarlet had seen me use alchemy before, but not on this scale.

“Oh right, I forgot, you guys don't know about alchemy, sorry,” I said and scratched my head embarrassed.

Nova blinked, his eyes becoming star struck “That is so COOL, are you gonna teach us that too?” He asked a little too enthusiastically.

I looked at them and said “I'm going to say this now, this power that I have is strong but also very dangerous. The things alchemy is capable of is frightening. Take alchemy too lightly, and you will surely meet a horrible fate. So know this, if I decided to teach you alchemy, it will only be after you've earned my utter and complete trust, got it?”

They all gulped and nodded “Good, and with that said let's continue with arms training,” I said.

Weapons training went a little better than I expected. Scarlet was an obvious expert with her bow and arrow, and while her sword skills were okay they wouldn't really do her much good in a fight. Jade really surprised me when she was able to hit the targets in the center of the vital target spots with throwing knives. Jade also showed promise with a sword, but she would still need training.

Nova and Nebula on the other hand did not do so well. Nova was barely able to make one arrow hit a target and that was way far off from the vitals. Nebula did a little better, but not by very much. The sword training was a complete disaster since it was obvious neither of them had ever held a sword in their lives much less knew how to fight with one. After another couple hours of this I called it.

“Okay guys, I think that's enough for now, let's take a break,” I said.

Everyone plopped down tired and sweaty from training. I had mostly been supervising so I wasn't that tired. Overall it didn't go bad but at the same time it didn't go great either. Scarlet and Jade had shown the most promise, but Nova and Nebula would need the most training. Scarlet's archery skills were unquestionable, but she would still need additional training in other areas. Jade had surprised me with her skills with throwing knives, so I guessed she would just need some additional help in unarmed combat. Nova showed a lot of enthusiasm, but he would still need a lot of training in pretty much everything. Nebula was a complicated case. It was obvious she was trying, but her nature just didn't seem suited for fighting. She did a little better than Nova, but she was still lacking. I racked my brain trying to think of a way I could train them when Silver Thorn spoke in my mind.

“Having trouble Shadow,” he said.

“What was your first clue?” I asked in my mind, not wanting it to look like I was talking to myself.

“Your new members show promise, but your forgetting something,” he said.

“And what would that be?”

“Your not playing to their strengths, you're merely using simple training methods. You need to find how they fight best and help that grow while still helping them with basic fighting,” he said.

I thought for a moment and said “That's brilliant.”

“Of course, now what do you say we put this plan in action,” he said.

“Right,” I said.

I turned to my tired team and said “Okay guys, we've got one more bit of training left.”

They all grumbled their distaste for this, but were silenced by my raised hoof “Quit the groaning, this is a different type of training. Now I know up till now we've been doing pretty basic fighting, but this is going to be a bit different,” I drew my sword off my back and stepped into the training arena “I want you guys to attack me with whatever method of fighting you're most comfortable with,” I said. They looked at me a little confused.

Nova raised a hoof and said “Uh, what exactly do you mean by that?”

“Just that, I want you guys to attack me with whatever method of fighting suits you best. A sword, an axe, whatever. You can use whatever makes you feel like you can beat me,” I said. They all looked at each other and nodded. Scarlet grabbed her bow and quiver of arrows, while Jade grabbed a belt of throwing knives and a staff. Nova went to his bag and grabbed a belt of vials filled with various liquids and some red sticks that looked like dynamite. Nebula stumbled trying to find something to use, when she finally settled on a sword.

I tightened my alchemic bracers and settled into my fighting stance “You guys ready?” I asked.

They all nodded yes “Good,” I griped my sword “then let's do this, and remember I won't be holding back, so neither should you,” I said.

They scattered and charged. Scarlet took a spot near the outside firing arrow after arrow at me, which I managed to dodge or cut in half. Jade came at me with surprising speed and pulled a couple knives from her belt. She held them backhanded, assassin style and lunged at me trying to get inside my guard. I jumped back and knocked the knives out of her paws with the back of my sword. She was surprised but regained her composure quickly and threw a dagger at me, which I was only barely able to dodge, a small cut appearing on my face. I wiped the blood off my face and was about to lunge at Jade when I heard a sound coming from behind. I turned to see Nova lighting one of his red sticks, which I was damn sure now was dynamite and pulling the cap off of one of his vials, which he proceeded to throw at me. I was able to get out of the way before they exploded, which sent me flying into a tree. I pulled myself together and got back into my fighting stance. I was expecting another explosion or an arrow or knife to get thrown at me, but nothing came. I cleared the smoke away with a swing of my sword and saw that everyone was huddled close together. Nebula looked like she was telling them all something while everyone else was listening and nodding. I used my alchemy to break up their huddle with a crack in the ground.

I pointed my sword at them and said “You didn't forget about me now did you?”

They looked at each other and smirked. Nebula spoke up “On the contrary, we're just getting started,” she said. She gave everyone a look and said “Now!”

They all scattered into different directions. Scarlet stayed at the back firing arrows, which were easy for me to deflect since I now had my preflex going full throttle. While I was dodging arrows, Jade starting throwing knives at me. Trying to focus between the two made it rather difficult and I was getting tired.

“Ok, that's it!” I yelled and swung my sword with a lot of force. The force from my swing created a shock wave of air which knocked Jade and Scarlet over. I took a moment to reevaluate the situation, but it was cut short with the ominous sound of a fuse being lit. I turned to see that Nova had tied three of his dynamite sticks to one of his glass vials. He threw the vial at me and jumped for cover, as did everyone else. I was able to deflect the vial without breaking it, but it did no good. The fuses burned down and exploded, creating an explosion that sent me flying through a few trees. When my head stopped spinning, I tried to stand up, but found the point of a sword at my throat. The smoke cleared away to reveal Nebula holding the sword to my throat.

“So how'd we do Shadow?” she asked. Jade, Scarlet, and Nova walked up behind her with grins on their faces.

“I would say you did pretty well, except for one thing,” I said.

They all looked confused, Nebula pressed the sword a little harder against my throat “Oh, and what would that be,” she asked.

I smirked “You forgot I can do this,” I said as I used my alchemy to create tendrils out of the ground, which ensnared them all and left them dangling a fair height above the ground. They struggled to break free of the tendrils, but they had no weapons and I had pinned them so they couldn't fly away or anything. I looked up at them and gave them a smirk.

Scarlet struggled and said “Damn it Shadow, let us down!”

I put a hoof on my chin and made a pondering face, then said “No, I think I'm just gonna leave you guys up there for a little bit.”

This elicited some yelling and anger from my team.

Scarlet yelled “Shadow!!”

I doubled over laughing, then wiped a tear from my eye “All right, all right calm down I'm just kidding,” I said as I deconstructed the tendrils and set them all down.

“Well guys, I have just one thing to say,” I said. They all looked a little nervous. But this was replaced with confusion as I clapped my hooves and said “Excellent, that was amazing work everyone.”

Nova raised a hoof and said “Uh, wasn't the point for us to beat you?”

I waggled my hoof and said “No no no, the point of this little exercise was not for you to beat me, the point of this was for me to see what areas you guys work best in in a fight. For Scarlet it's archery, for Jade it's swift movements and assassin style tactics, for Nova it's.....making things explode, and for Nebula it's strategy.” They all looked at each other and smiled.

“You've all done very well, but don't let this go to your heads. We're going to be training everyday to sharpen our skills and make it so we can fight at a moments notice, understood?” They all nodded with smiles on their faces.

I smiled “Good, now what's say we all get some rest and tend to your wounds if you've got 'em,” I said as I picked up my sword and sheathed it. They all nodded and went back to the camp to rest.

Silver Thorn spoke in my mind “Well done Shadow,” he said.

“Thank you my friend,” I said.

“It seems to me they really trust you,” he said.

I thought about that for a second. Trust. I had earned their trust, but I still haven't told them I'm human. Well, I did try to tell Scarlet, but she didn't believe. If I was gonna keep traveling with them, I would have to tell them eventually. But even if I did, they wouldn't believe me. If I was gonna tell them, I would need proof, but what that proof is I don't know. I sighed in frustration.

“Are you okay Shadow? You seem troubled," Silver Thorn asked.

“I'm fine, just got a lot to think about,” I said.

“Okay, I'm here if you need to talk,” he said.

“Thank you Silver Thorn, I appreciate that,” I said. With that, I walked back to camp, the thought of telling my team about my true identity still weighing on my mind.

Comments

[Liqwidice]

I"m glad I've stayed with this fic. It's turning out rather well.

[KnightBrony]

1914134 Thank you, that means a lot. I've got some epic plans in store for Shadow and Co.

[Not_a_Brit]

Hmmmm...... So jade is the spy, Scarlet the sniper, Nova to Demoman and Nebula... The heavy or scout.

[Chrome Masquerade]

Swords of varying types, bows, arrows, staffs, knives, and various others

the plural of that is staves, not staffs, i think.