Piece by Piece

by Eltirions

Chapter 8: Interactions 2

10 December 1008

‘’So how do we start?’’ Flurry asked her.

Fortunately for her, Rainbow had already thought of that. ‘’’We start,’’ she explained, ‘’by flying.’’

Flurry frowned. ‘’Just flying?’’

‘’Just flying. See that cloud?’’ Rainbow picked a cloud at random and pointed her forehoof at it. ‘’We’re going to fly to there.’’

Flurry looked at the cloud for a few seconds, then shook her head. ‘’I’m not allowed to go that high.’’

‘’By your guards?’’

Flurry looked away. ‘’By Mummy,’’ she whispered a few seconds later.

Fuck.

She was going to have to approach this very, very carefully. She didn’t want to upset Flurry - at least, not anymore than she already had - but this was clearly something that needed to be addressed.

She took a deep breath. I’ve done this before. I can do it again.

But Flurry wasn’t a fellow soldier, wasn’t an adult. And none of the soldiers she’d talked with had lost their parents. Fucking Tartarus.

Carefully, Rainbow stretched her wing and placed it around the filly. Flurry didn’t seem to notice at first, but then she slid closer to Rainbow, until she was pressing against her side. Rainbow closed her wing around Flurry protectively.

‘’I’m sorry.’’ She didn’t have anything to be sorry for. There was nothing Rainbow could have done to save Cadence and Shining. If she’d understood correctly, they’d been executed a few hours after Sombra’s reappearance; Rainbow had been flying a scouting mission in Ponderosa at the time. By the time she got back to base, the news had just been reporting on through the radio.

Flurry made a noise that didn’t have any meaning, and pressed harder against Rainbow’s side. She wasn’t crying, but that could probably change at any second.

‘’I…’’ Come on Rainbow, use your words. ‘’What did you and Mummy do when she didn’t have to work?’’

Flurry sniffed, and for a second Rainbow thought she wouldn’t answer.

‘’We went flying,’’ Flurry quietly said. ‘’Or we walked through the Palace and the gardens. Sometimes we walked through the city, but there were always guards with us. We played together, and sometimes I fell asleep with her.’’

Rainbow began to stroke Flurry’s feathers with her own. ‘’And what did you do with Daddy?’’

‘’We went into the gardens as well,’’ Flurry replied, ‘’and we played in my room. Sometimes, Daddy went training with the other guards while I watched. But he was busy a lot, and I wasn’t always allowed to watch while they trained.’’

Rainbow hummed. She had a couple of ideas. ‘’You know they loved you, right?’’ she asked.

‘’Yeah.’’ It was almost a whisper.

‘’Good.’’ Rainbow put her foreleg around Flurry and gave her a weak hug. ‘’Last night I talked with Rarity about the past couple of months.’’

Flurry seemed to understand the meaning behind that immediately. ‘’And?’’

‘’And she was acting stupid,’’ Rainbow quipped dryly. Flurry giggled a little. Success.

‘’I mean it,’’ she continued. ‘’She should have taken proper care of you. She knows that now, and she says she told you.’’

‘’She did.’’

‘’Do you believe her?’’

That, Flurry didn’t understand. ‘’I guess? She seems like she’s sorry.’’

Rainbow wasn’t fully convinced that was what Flurry actually believed. But she was also not cut out for emotional talks like this, and Flurry probably didn’t trust her a whole lot, which was perfectly fair.

I’ll tell Nightmare Moon when she gets here, and she’ll handle it.

Ratting on Rarity wasn’t nice, but it was necessary. Nightmare Moon was pragmatic and understanding enough that she probably wouldn’t do anything too excessive to Rarity, so Rainbow figured her odds were pretty safe that everything would turn out fine.

And if it didn’t…

‘’Okay.’’ Rainbow hesitated, then booped Flurry’s nose with one of her feathers. ‘’Want to go up to the cloud?’’

‘’But Mummy said I shouldn’t go so high…’’

‘’We don’t have to go there,’’ Rainbow pointed out. ‘’We could go fly through the streets, or we could do a few laps around and up and down this tower, or…’’

An idea came to her. ‘’Or we could go down to the training area. Wherever that is.’’

Flurry frowned. ‘’Whatcha gonna do in the training area?’’

‘’Train, of course. I’m a Shadowbolt, remember?’’ Rainbow reminded her.

‘’Oh yeah.’’ Understanding dawned on Flurry’s face. ‘’That sounds nice. Can we go there?’’

‘’Do you know where it is?’’ Rainbow asked back. ‘’I don’t know the way around here yet.’’

‘’I know where it is,’’ Flurry confirmed. ‘’Follow me.’’

‘’Sure thing, Flurry.’’

Rainbow followed the filly down to the ground and through the hallways of the Palace until they arrived at a large training room. There was exercise equipment behind a half-opened door in the right wall, and the field itself was large enough for around fifty ponies to stand at attention and have some space left over.

The floor was smooth crystal, but Rainbow could see a set of intricate-looking buttons marked with glowing symbols on the far side of the room. It’s a magical floor, then. Sweet. That means I have options.

‘’Right,’’ she said, turning to Flurry, ‘’I’m going to ask one of the guards outside if they can gather some other guards and send them here, and then I’m going to show you how I practice.’’

‘’Okay!’’ Flurry’s bright, wide smile was too adorable for both her own good, Rainbow’s reputation, and Rainbow’s heart.

Rainbow darted out of the door and caught the eye of the guard patrolling the hallway. ‘’Hey, you!’’ she shouted.

The thestral snapped off a salute. ‘’Ma’am.’’

‘’Get some of your off-duty comrades and tell them to come here,’’ Rainbow ordered her. ‘’I’m going to be running some drills with them, make sure they’re up to scratch.’’

The thestral obviously didn’t approve; but she saluted anyway. ‘’Yes ma’am!’’

Rainbow watched her for a few seconds, before slipping back into the training room. ‘’Flurry?’’ she asked as she approached the buttons. ‘’Do you know how these work?’’

‘’Kinda,’’ Flurry replied. She hopped off the bench and walked over to Rainbow. ‘’That one is for a grassy field,’’ she pointed at the symbol of three vertical stripes, ‘’and that one is snow.’’ She pointed at the snowflake. ‘’I don’t know the rest.’’

‘’That’s alright.’’ She could deal with this.

|-x-X-x-|

10 December 1008

‘’Hey, Shrouded?’’

Shrouded looked up from his cup of coffee right into Misty’s face. ‘’No,’’ he said immediately and resolutely.

‘’You don’t have a choice, I’m afraid.’’ Misty actually sounded sad about it. ‘’That Shadowbolt ordered me to get everyone off-duty to the training hall. She wants to drill you.’’

Of course she does. ‘’I dislike everything about this day,’’ Shrouded informed her.

‘’Fair.’’

Shrouded sighed, eyed his coffee, and downed it all in one swig. ‘’Very well.’’ He stood up and walked over to the rack where the armour was stored when they weren’t wearing it.

Misty hummed. ‘’You didn’t seem to dislike me waking up in your bed this morning.’’

Shrouded turned and flicked a biscuit at her. Misty, predictably, caught it with her wing and put it in her mouth. ‘’Thanks for the biscuit,’’ she said sweetly.

Two can play at that game. ‘’You don’t want to know where I got that from.’’

Misty choked.

Shrouded chuckled and began to put on his armour. Peytral, sabatons, flanchards, croupiere and helmet all went on in a minute. He checked himself in the mirror that was there for that purpose, then grabbed his rifle from the weapons rack.

While he did this, Misty watched him with something between amusement and irritation. ‘’You done?’’

‘’Who else?’’ Shrouded asked in return.

Misty shrugged. ‘’I've already got Evening and Glade waiting outside, and Darkheart is rounding up anyone unfortunate enough to be off-duty.’’

Roughly as expected. Shrouded tipped his head in acknowledgement. ‘’Shall we, then?’’

They moved through the Palace to the training hall, a group of eight far-too-tired and one moderately-energetic thestrals. The usual ribbing and teasing was replaced by yawns and muttered curses; having the night shift was not bad, per se, but no one had energy left afterwards.

Shrouded’s coffee kept him awake, for now. How long that would last remained to be seen.

The door to the training hall was open, which they took as an invitation to enter. Shrouded was the first inside, and his attention was immediately drawn to Commander Rainbow.

And the filly by her side.

‘’Well well well,’’ Commander Rainbow said as she jumped off the bench. ‘’It seems they’ve finally arrived.’’

‘’Are you gonna drill them now?’’ Princess Flurry Heart asked.

‘’Yes I am.’’

Terrific.

‘’Commander, the off-duty guards,’’ Misty introduced them.

‘’Good.’’ The Commander swept an eye over all of them. ‘’Dismissed, soldier.’’

‘’Ma’am.’’ Misty saluted, then darted out of the room, abandoning them to their fate like the vindictive shit she was. Cunt.

‘’Alright!’’ The Commander barked. ‘’Drop your weapons. You have five seconds.’’

Shrouded placed his rifle on the floor, then looked back-

The Commander leapt forward.

Shrouded took a step back and blinked as Evening was launched a few meters back by the Commander’s unexpected kick. The pegasus was smirking smugly. ‘’Come on then,’’ she said. ‘’Give me a fight.’’

Shrouded shared a look with Darkheart, then the remaining seven of them all attacked at once. That, logically, should have been the end of it.

Commander Rainbow evaded all of their kicks, and then gave as good as she ought to have gotten. Shrouded got a kick to the jaw that sent him flying away into Glade’s side, knocking both of them on the floor.

Fuck, that hurts like a fucking Moon-damned-

‘’Get up!’’ Glade hissed. ‘’We’ve got to-’’ She was interrupted by one of the guards Shrouded didn’t know the name of landing face-first into her own.

Despite the situation, Shrouded couldn’t help but chuckle weakly. Then he turned his head towards the direction the unnamed guard had come from.

It was just Darkheart against Commander Rainbow now. The rest of them were on the floor just like Shrouded.

Darkheart tried a kick from the left, aided by a burst of speed from his wings. Commander Rainbow caught the kick, twisted Darkheart’s hoof then pushed his leg back before following up with a left kick of her own.

Darkheart stumbled back, but his armour should have caught the blow. Then again, Shrouded was wearing the same armour, and he could feel pain all the same, so what the Tartarus did he know.

Darkheart tried to attack-

The Commander jumped up in the air, flipped herself around, and bucked him in the face with both her hind legs. Darkheart flew back approximately five meters, and didn’t get up.

Commander Rainbow was fucking smirking.

‘’How did you like it, Flurry?’’

‘’You kicked their flanks!’’ the Princess cheered from her spot on the benches that Shrouded would gladly sit on as soon as he had convinced his body to get up.

The Commander’s smirk turned even fucking wider. ‘’I did,’’ she boasted, before glancing at them with something between distaste and humor. ‘’Now get up and listen to me tell you every single thing you did wrong.’’

With a groan, Shrouded managed to pull himself up. ‘’Yes ma’am,’’ he intoned dully.

Fuck him with a scalpel.

|-x-X-x-|

10 December 1008

‘’You need a shower,’’ was the first thing Rarity said as soon as she saw Rainbow appear in the hallway, together with Flurry. ‘’I can smell you.’’

What did you do, Rainbow?

‘’I’m going to have one,’’ Rainbow said cheerfully, suspiciously cheerfully. ‘’But I thought I’d get Flurry back to you first.’’

Rarity couldn’t fault that. ‘’Thanks,’’ she said, before looking down at the filly. ‘’Did you have a nice morning, darling?’’

‘’Yeah, I did!’’

‘’That’s very good.’’ Thankfully, Flurry didn’t smell in the slightest. ‘’Shall we have lunch?’’

‘’Sure!’’

‘’I’ll pop in after I’m done,’’ Rainbow informed both of them, then flew down the hallway, because of course she did.

Once they were sitting in the dining room, Rarity turned to Flurry. ‘’So, what did you do with Rainbow?’’

‘’We went flying around the Palace,’’ Flurry replied, ‘’and then we went to the training hall and I got to watch Rainbow train with some of the guards.’’

That explains the smell then.

Rarity smiled. ‘’That sounds nice,’’ she offered. ‘’Much better than my work, at any rate.’’

‘’Yeah.’’ Flurry turned back to her food, and for a short time they were eating in silence.

That suited Rarity just fine. She could use the silence to think about what she wanted from her steward? Secretary? Whatever the title would be.

Attention to detail, for one. The ability to maintain that attention after seven hours of deadly boring work. They need to be smart, and they need to know how to handle people.

‘’Auntie?’’

‘’Hmm? Yes, darling?’’

Flurry shifted a little in her seat. ‘’You said you were going to teach me how to levitate more than one thing at once.’’

‘’I did,’’ Rarity confirmed, already reviewing her schedule in her head. ‘’But I have to do a lot of work today. Maybe…’’ Maybe when? She was far too busy. ‘’Maybe tomorrow.’’

There wasn’t time tomorrow, she knew that, but that wasn’t important. She could get the work done in the evening. Doing what she promised Flurry was more important.

‘’Definitely tomorrow,’’ she corrected herself. ‘’We’ll start after breakfast, alright?’’

‘’Okay!’’ Flurry agreed. ‘’Thanks so much, auntie!’’

‘’It’s no problem, darling,’’ Rarity said. You deserve it, all of it.

Author's Note:

As I said, I am bad at titles.

That said, having Rainbow absolutely wipe the floor with the Night Guard was a joy to write, even if pony hoof-to-hoof combat is pretty hard to make interesting. I hope I managed to do so anyway.

Comments

[shining paladin]

awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter

[Iron Comet]

Well the training bit went like I thought it was. But the good thing is that now Flurry has to ponys to mind her.

[The Great Scribbly One]

Rainbow going full Obelix on the Guards was rather funny, and a rare evocation of the Mook Horror Show trope in training form.