• Published 15th Apr 2019
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Hoof and Claw Versus the World - Chythar



What if Nightmare Moon wasn't defeated, but came to our world and tried to conquer us? Join her and her brony minion as they first try to conquer Southern California, then the world!

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Act 1, Chapter 4 - Shield Practice

Nightmare Moon had changed me into some sort of cat-man, and gave this new body of mine magic. She had started training me how to use that magic, and we had just walked outside to continue that training.


The Mare in the Moon and I stood there, staring in wonder at the night sky. A slight breeze blew across the two of us, slightly tousling my fur. The breeze felt really nice, almost a slight tingle as my fur moved under the wind. Though I had to admit, I was getting a bit impatient. The sky was really cool and all, but I had awesome new magic to learn. So I decided to remind my Mistress of her plans for me tonight.

"Shouldn't we start my training?"

"Ah, of course. Forgive me, my thoughts were elsewhere."

The dark mare walked out on to the desert floor, with me following close behind. The ground felt familiar under my new feet, but strange at the same time. Where my old shoes made walking in the dirt awkward, these new feet felt solid and sure even though I was basically walking barefoot. I felt in touch with the ground like never before.

Within a few minutes of walking, we arrived at a flat and open area. The space looked to be swept clear of large rocks or brush. I couldn't see any pinpricks of light, so that meant that life was scarce around there.

Excellent, we shouldn't hurt anything during my training.

My teacher motioned for me to stand in one spot, while she took another one about twenty paces further away. Turning to face me, Nightmare Moon raised her voice slightly to make sure I could hear her clearly.

"I have prepared this area for thy training. The rest of tonight’s lessons shall be used to strengthen thy shield further. I shall attack thee to test thy mettle, and all thou needs to do is stay on thy feet. If you fall, or thy shield falls, you shall suffer the consequences. Make thy preparations, and signal when ready."

Sounds simple enough. All it takes is the right amount of willpower.

Like I was taught, I brought up my shield and pushed enough 'will' into it to make it nice and strong. Mentally, I prepared for Nightmare Moon's attack. A glance at the ebony mare and how far away she was, and I guessed that she would rush me and slam into my shield.

I should brace for impact.

At that thought, I 'remembered' that anything that hit the shield would be stopped but some of the kinetic energy would bleed through. You somehow knew how hard the original hit was, but only felt a small part of it. In other words, a big hit would feel like a small hit but you’d know it was a big hit. The fact that I had memories in my head that weren’t mine didn’t bother me until many weeks later.

But at the time, I was confident I knew how to handle my test.

Turning to face the Moon Mare, I planted one foot down in front of my body and the other behind, then turned the back foot to the side. Experience told me that this position would brace my body from a hit to the front. One last look at my feet to make sure they were properly placed, and I was prepared. Without looking up, I gave my assent.

"Ready, Mistress."

That turned out to be a stupid mistake.

Looking up and over at the dark mare, I expected to see her charging at me at full speed. Instead, I saw a HUGE boulder an instant before it hit me.

HOLY FUCK!

Instinct made me close my eyes and turn my face away from the impact. Thus, I did not see the rock hit. But I knew it hit with the force of a sledgehammer. What I felt instead, was a solid punch to the chest. I blinked owlishly, stunned, more out of surprise than the blow itself. Before I could recover, the next hit slugged me in the gut. Two more successive hits knocked the wind out of me. The final hit that did me in was the biggest one yet. That time, I both heard and felt a loud CRACK that I felt all the way down to my toes. The sound was paired with a haymaker to the chest, and I was off my feet. My balance was gone and I fell flat on my back.

As I lay there, my arms and legs all splayed out and the world spinning around me, I heard my teacher's rebuke.

"You have failed, student! Again!"

A quick shake of my head to clear my double vision, and I could see again. Or so I thought, my vision still wasn't right. What I could see was fractured, like I was trying to look through a window with broken glass. I blinked my eyes a few times, then realized that the real problem was with my shield. A shield that was now cracked and broken in several places. And a shield which stayed up, despite me being knocked senseless. I was kinda proud of that last part.

"I said AGAIN, student! Do not make me trot over there and drag thee to thy feet!"

Grumbling under my breath, and ignoring the dirt now ground into my fur, I clambered to my feet. With a mere thought, I repaired the cracks and made the magical surface of my shield good as new. Looking through the now-shimmering shield, I glared at the Night Mare who returned my glare with one of her own. Understandably, I was seething mad.

THAT was a dirty trick.

This time, I watched Nightmare Moon summon the boulder and toss it my way.

Won't catch me off-guard again, you witch.

Boulder after boulder rained down upon my shield, even faster than before. Each boulder broke into a million pieces upon impact, flinging rock and rubble all around while I was safe behind my shield. Each hit was deafening, yet my ears never hurt from the sound. Was I losing my hearing? I stubbornly endured each hit as long as I could, but I could feel my willpower fading. The result was the same as the last, my shield cracked and my ass hit the ground.

I stared up into the night sky and took a few moments to recover.

Flat on my back, again. That's FUCKING annoying.

Now frustrated at my second failure, I sat up and glared again at the dark mare. I couldn't see her expression, but I could see her mane and tail lashing all around her. It didn't take much of a guess to know she was pissed.

"Root yourself to the ground, student! What good is a strong shield if thy opponent can merely toss you away?!"

It was surprisingly easy to set my anger aside. While I slowly got to my feet, I put some thought into her words.

Root myself to the ground, huh? Like a tree's roots? Hmm.

With a thought, I let my shield drop and braced myself as before. Then I summoned my magic. I imagined magic roots growing from the bottom of my feet that sunk deep into the ground, then used magic to make them grow. As the magical roots grew from the bottoms of my feet, they felt weird and a little ticklish. But, they had the desired effect. I could no longer move my feet no matter how hard I tried. Literally 'rooted' in place, yes.

There, that should do nicely.

I brought up my shield and braced myself for the inevitable blow.

"READY!"

I was not disappointed. My teacher tossed the next boulder at me so hard, it hit with the speed of a Mack truck. I was sure that, if I hadn't literally rooted myself to the ground I would have been thrown several feet away. But thanks to those roots, I was able to keep my grip on the ground. Instead, I absorbed the incredible blow with my body. I was also thankful the magic in the shield was blocking most of the 'hit'. What I could feel wasn't nice, but I was sure it would be much worse without that protection.

Another boulder hit with the same force as the last. Then another, and yet another. The hits kept coming, and I was still standing.

Was it that easy?

CRACK!

A jagged line spread down the length of my shield, where the magical surface had broken. The single line turned into a spider web of cracks when the next boulder hit a moment later. Fearing the complete destruction of my shield, I tightened my mental focus and repaired the surface as fast as I could. It worked, because the shield held up to the next boulder slam. More cracks spread in the magical surface of course, but another push of energy erased those and a couple more besides. Each visible crack came with an audible noise, a sound not unlike one would expect from breaking glass.

Despite the physical punishment, I had to admit this was good practice. I was now able to keep up my concentration through each boulder hit, and several hits later my shield was solid once again. All I had to do now was put a bit of energy into the shield after each new hit, and my shield stayed strong. Good thing too, because I was getting mighty tired. Even though I had gotten better at it, using magic was hard work. And all those hits were taking a toll on my body. It felt like I had bruises on bruises on bruises. I had learned how to survive, true. But I knew I had to have limits somewhere.

There has to be a way to make a better shield. One that keeps anything from getting through. But how?

Without warning, my back foot shifted ever-so-slightly in the dirt. The back foot was the one I was using to brace myself, the one that was keeping me upright. There was no time to react before my shield got hit again. Without sure footing, the incredible impact tore my other foot free from the ground. The remaining force violently threw me backwards and I slammed into the dirt. I landed hard on my back, hard enough to knock the wind out of me.

While I laid limp on the ground, I could see nothing but stars. A cloud of dust surrounded me, lifted by the force of my body hitting the ground. And even though I was sure I was lying down, my world was spinning around me.

Ooooooowwwwwww........

From her position some distance away, my teacher called out to me.

"Another failure! I expect better from you, student!"

A gust of wind blew across my body. It covered me in dust, but it cleared the air at the same time. Good thing too; that dust was about to make me cough, and I was pretty sure coughing would hurt. A lot. Just like everything else did. Ow. It hurt to blink, too. All I wanted to do was lie there, unmoving, and tried not to do anything except breathe.

Time ticked by while I recovered. After catching my breath, I noticed something else - the absence of sound. It was deathly quiet, except for the wind. At first, I thought I had gone deaf. But a moment later, I realized I had heard my accursed teacher speak with annoying clarity. I could only guess that our training must have scared the local wildlife into silence. I hoped we were far enough away from civilization, or someone might wonder what all the ruckus was about. While it felt like forever, it was probably less than a minute since I hit the ground.

“I grow tired of waiting, student! Will thou rise on thy own, or must I drag thee to thy hooves?!”

A few more seconds passed before I could reply to my dark mistress.

"Yeah, I'm..I’m trying. I just..."

"I see. I must remember that thou art a mewling babe in the arts of magic. As such, I shall make allowances. We shall pause for a moment to let you regain your strength."

Sounds good to me.

I lay there for several long seconds, while the pains in my body slowly faded into dull aches. Eventually, I felt good enough to try and sit up. Didn't want the Mistress to yell at me again, of course. However, I was having a hard time sitting up. For some reason, my feet felt heavier then they should. After struggling for a bit, and some more pain, I finally managed to sit up. While I caught my breath, I took a look down at my feet. They looked and felt...weird.

Oh yeah, forgot about that. I got changed into some sort of a cat-thing.

My feet looked like some sort of cross between a cat's paw and a human foot. The usual human toes were gone, replaced with cat toes, or a cat paw stuck on the end. The rest of the foot looked mostly normal, though it was covered in black fur like the rest of my body. My legs looked normal as well.

Plantigrade feet instead of digitigrade.

I didn't remember having problems walking, so I guessed that my foot worked much the same way my human foot had. It just looked different. What was really strange however, was the large chunks of dirt stuck to my feet. Roughly a foot square of dirt was attached to the bottom of each appendage, with neon-red squiggly bits sticking out of the dirt at all angles. It took me a moment to realize that these were magical roots, the ones I had sent into the dirt to literally 'root' me in place.

The silence was broken by the sound of hooves hitting dirt. I glanced up to see my mentor was walking over to check up on me. When she was close enough, she looked me over with a critical eye. I must have looked good enough, for she said nothing. Well, until she reached my feet.

One glance at the dirt stuck to them, along with the magical roots poking out, and she broke out into peals of laughter. Her guffaws rocked her mighty frame and she wobbled dangerously on her hooves. Finally losing the battle with her balance, she plopped down on her rump next to me.

I was pissed. And embarrassed at being laughed at. With a thought, I banished the magical roots and the dirt immediately fell off of my feet. Then I crossed my arms and did my best to will my Mistress TO. SHUT. UP! Her continued laughter quickly boiled my anger over, and I let her have it.

“Shut up! SHUT UP!

“JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!”

She showed no sign that she heard me. Her laughter rained on and on, and I swear it took her forever to stop. But she finally calmed down enough to speak.

"Oh hohoho, I did not expect thee to take my words so literally."

"Well, I thought it was a good idea! I just didn't sink the roots in deep enough."

"Hehe, perhaps. But you must then banish the roots when you choose to move, and that takes precious time. Time you may not have in a feverish battle. Not to mention that your body must absorb the blows directly. I can see by how you move that you are bruised and sore."

She had me there.

"Fine. Then what would you do? I don't know what to do except brace myself."

"Use a magical shunt."

"A what?"

"A magical shunt. It links to your shield, and uses the magical feedback from any impact to strengthen your shield. As long as the shunt holds, the physical force will not reach you and you will not need to repair your shield as often.

“Clearly you need the help, so I shall give you the memory."

Another touch of her horn to my head, and I knew how to create these magical shunts. The memory was clear enough to tell me how to adjust the shunt for different types of energy: physical, elemental (fire, water, etc) or pure magic. I could see that this shunt meant I would not have to make such a strong shield, just make a couple of shunts and the energy would flow right back into the shield.

A light turquoise glow surrounded me, and my aches & pains just disappeared.

"A boon for the mewling babe. A bit of healing for thy aching body.

“Oh, yes. I shall forgive you for cursing at me this one time only. But do not allow it to happen again.”

Oh. She DID hear me.

It was much easier getting to my feet, now that I didn't hurt all over. I felt rested and recharged, and ready for the next round of lessons. But before we began, I had questions to ask.

"Mistress? I've got a question."

The Mare in the Moon had been walking back to her starting spot. Upon hearing my words, she paused and turned her head to look at me.

"Yes?"

"Why didn't you teach me these magical shunts earlier? They would have saved me a lot of pain and effort."

"Sometimes my student, you must not only learn what to do, but what NOT to do. Had I gifted you with the knowledge of shunts earlier, you would not have learned what would happen if you did not use them. Now, you have that experience."

Nightmare Moon gave me a sly grin, which widened to show her sharp and pointy teeth.

"And pain is an excellent teacher."

Oh, she did NOT. Fucking sadist!

But to be honest, I should have figured that out by now.

Without waiting for a response, Nightmare Moon walked at a measured pace towards her earlier spot across the patch of dirt. At the end, she turned and waited patiently for me to prepare. I remembered that the magical roots had pulled up dirt with them, so I looked over at my starting spot to see if I could still use it. It now had two large holes in the ground, right where I was supposed to stand. Those holes would be dangerous to work around, so I decided to stay where I was instead. Besides, I figured that a little more distance away from my Mistress wouldn't hurt. Glancing up at her, I nodded to her to indicate I was ready.

"Now, after you bring up thy shield cast three magical shunts; one physical, one elemental, and one for magic. Do NOT root yourself in place. Indicate when ready."

All right - show time.

Up went my shield, then a cast for each of the three shunts. Each shunt felt like something spread all over the shield, then reached out to connect to me somehow. Once the magic settled down, I couldn't feel a thing. Shrugging internally, I braced myself as before and hoped the shunts would work.

"READY!"

The first impact shuddered against my shield. I felt energy flow into the physical and magical shunts, then felt them put the energy back into the shield.

Huh. So she's not throwing actual rocks at me, but making magical rocks to physically hit my shield. Thus both magical and physical shunts are used. That explains why I'm not buried in pieces of rock, the magical boulders probably fade away as soon as they break apart. And why I'm not deaf.

Beyond the feeling from the shunts, and the sound of the magical rocks hitting and shattering, I felt nothing. No impact, no push, nothing. Surprised, I relaxed and stood up. I sent a questioning glance towards the Night Mare, and I saw her grin. Her white teeth were a beacon of light against her dark coat.

"I accept your challenge! Have at thee!"

Uh oh.

Before I could blink, three rapid-fire projectiles were sailing through the air at me! Instinctively, I ducked and braced for impact. Each hit felt like a freight train pulsing madly through the shunts. Each pulse felt like the throb of an overworked muscle. Just after the third projectile hit, I felt rather than heard a pop as the physical shunt failed. My shield shattered into nothingness and I staggered back as if I had been punched. Reeling on my feet, I stared at my mentor as she laughed out loud.

"Ha! Felt that, did you? Always monitor your shunts, student! If they fail, all that energy goes into your shield, then you! Now, again!"

A quick thought and my shield and shunts re-formed. But this time, I tried to make the shunts bigger. And realized that bigger shunts took a lot of magic to create. Along with that realization came the thought that I could not keep making the shunts bigger and bigger. To protect myself against bigger threats, I would have to layer my shield with multiple shunts of each type. The implications of this realization shot through me like a lightning bolt. The strategy involved in defending oneself from magic was incredible! I had to decide what kind of shunts to use and how many, and balance my pool of magic at the same time. Too many shunts and I could wear myself out early, too little and I could get badly hurt. One quick thought later, and I decided to make an extra physical shunt since the last one failed. Signaling I was ready, I waited for my next test.

This was not my night.

Instead of rocks, the Night Incarnate summoned a large fireball at the end of her horn. With a mighty whip of her head, she hurled it at me.

Oh shit! She's going to roast me alive!

Curling up into a small ball on the ground, I summoned up a second elemental shunt as fast as I could, then a third. I had started summoning a fourth when the fireball hit. Fire curled around my shield and power flowed down the elemental shunts as the energy of the fireball was drained away. The shunts barely pulsed in response, and my shield held strong. A couple of moments after the flames were extinguished, I realized I wasn't on fire.

Standing tall, I glared over at my mentor. My fur was smoking slightly and some of it had curled in the heat, but I was otherwise unharmed. Again, the Night Mare grinned toothily at me. She knew what she had done.

Talk about a trial by fire. Literally.

"It appears that you did not make your shield big enough, student. I suggest you remedy that."

The rest of the lesson for that evening and into the early morning continued along much the same path. My shield grew until it surrounded me on all sides, including under me. I learned how to quickly analyze an attack, and choose the right shunts to defend against it. I had been burned, soaked, showered in dirt and tossed across the desert floor more than once. But I learned. By the time the sun began to peek over the horizon, I had successfully protected myself against most anything that damned mare could throw at me. I was tired, sore, drained physically AND magically when she finally called an end to our session.

"Adequate work, my student. You have proven that the mewling babe has some skill, and as such I deem your shield training to be complete. Now, it is time to rest."

FINALLY.

I relaxed my mental concentration, and my shield vanished as if it was never there. You ever overwork a muscle so hard, that it feels like it's going to knot up at any moment? That's how my head felt. One of those implanted memories told me I was nearing magical exhaustion.

I waited for further instructions from my teacher, but she turned away and said nothing.

That's it? Where's my shirt that says, 'I got my ass kicked by Nightmare Moon and all I got was this lousy t-shirt'?

Figures, she's a sadist AND a cheapskate.

Nightmare Moon and I trudged back to our cave in silence. While I knew the walk wasn't very far, it felt like we walked for MILES before we reached the cave entrance. Once inside, I had a horrified thought: I was about to spend the night sleeping in the dirt. In my exhausted state, I couldn't see any way around it. So I resigned myself to an uncomfortable night on the ground. But I would be damned if I was going to sleep in this celestial-forsaken armor.

The problem was, I had no idea how to take it off. I tugged at the plates, looking for a buckle or some other fastening mechanism, but in my exhaustion I couldn't find any. Growling out loud, I tugged even harder at the straps.

Noticing my predicament, Nightmare Moon lit her horn and my armor simply disappeared. A flash of magic came from my left, and the plate mail was resting on an armor stand that I knew wasn't there before. Had she just summoned it? I was too tired to care.

"There, that should be better. Now, we shall rest."

A flash from her horn, and a large four-post bed just appeared in the middle of the room. The ornate wooden frame was stained black and the sheets and draperies were all colored dark blue. I was so thankful for something soft to sleep on, I didn’t have the energy to complain about her choice of bedding. The soft satin sheets beckoned me to slide between them and sleep my cares away. Answering their siren call, I shuffled over to the edge of the bed and lifted the corner of the sheets. I was about to climb in before the Night Mare's voice stopped me.

"Hold! Thou art covered in dirt. I must cleanse you first."

Covered in dirt? REALLY?! I HADN'T NOTICED!!

My mind expected a torrent of cold water and a Rainblow Dry, but instead I felt the tingle of magic all over my body. When it faded, it felt like I had just soaked in a hot bath for hours. I also noticed the scent of lavender bath oils all over me, but again - too tired to care. With many of my aches and pains relieved, I climbed slowly into bed and was asleep before my head hit the down pillow.

The Mare in the Moon used her magic to tug the sheets up to my neck, effectively tucking me in for the night. Just before I drifted off, I head the Moon Mare’s voice.

"Good night, my little warrior."

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