Parry and Riposte

by armid

Music and Blades

Dear Princess Twilight,

Things have been getting more and more complicated with the newbies. Flaming Star specially. Not on the fact that it’s hard to get through him again. But rather the fact it’s getting more difficult to get him to listen.

---

It was Monday. The day I promised Steely Armor I would be telling him everything that had happened in the school. Was I ready? Not quite. But I had to.

Monday is also the day that we have a rehearsal. This time however, we were going to be practicing one of Flaming Star’s songs. Rainbow Dash was not fond of us doing that at first but it seemed she was fine with it too. At least she said that she was.

The song that gave us was “A road to Brightness”

According to him, he had made some changes to the lyrics so that it would be fitting for a group. We had the sheets and the lyrics for a while for ourselves. But this was the first time we were going to attend playing it with one another. I liked the song myself. I asked Flaming Star to let us play it after all! It felt nice and meaningful to me. And I was looking for something a bit different to play in our band.

Twilight wanted to start and after a few minutes we started the first run.

"1.2.3....1.2.3 let's go!" Rainbow Dash shouted
And we started .

[Twilight ]:"we....we are driving on a road."

[Fluttershy /Rarity /Twilight ]: "Wind...is blasting through our souls! "

[Me/Rainbow /Applejack ]:" clouds....filled the sky with shadows! "

[All] :" We are driving on a road...to Brightness. Where the light grows and the sun is shining."

[Twilight]: "How much to go. How much to stay. (Me and Fluttershy joined) Nothing matters anymore , since we are together WE - ARE - TO -GE - THER."

reply from the start once more

[Fluttershy]: “no matter where." (She said softly)

[Rarity]: "No matter when." (softly)

[All]: “we will alway be together Till WE REACH OUR GOOOOOAL!"

[All]: "We are driving on a road, to brightness. Where everything is fine and the sun is shining." (repeated in forte once more)

*************

Our first attempt wasn’t so bad. But it was quite rough around the ages. We needed more time to get synced with one another.

"So," Rainbow Dash said as she was rubbing her head, "We’re gonna work on this for now?"

"Yes, is there a problem, Rainbow?" I said.

"Nothing, just uh, I liked Fluttershy's lyrics more." She crossed her arms and looked down.

"you do?" Fluttershy’s eyes widened in shock.

"After my own!" Rainbow Dash replied with a grin.

"Oh darling, don't be so arrogant!" Rarity stood near Fluttershy and gave Rainbow Dash a galre.

"I-I think the song is good" Fluttershy added after Rarity.

"Come on Rainbow," I said, "It’s not like that we are forgetting about our own songs! We are just having a change!" I put my hand on her shoulder.

"She's right!” Twilight came closer and joined me, “we will still play our own songs!"

"If you say so, I guess it's fine then." Rainbow Dash shrugged.

---

We had to head to our classes afterwards. But before doing so, I had to talk to Twilight.

I held her shoulder, “Hey, before we go, make sure you and Steely Armor are in the library after school today. OK?”

She raised an eyebrow, “Um, sure, are we still going to confront him?”

I sighed, “No, I’ve already had my confrontation with him. We’re going to be explaining what happened in the school before they got transferred.”

“Wait!” her eyes widened, “You are?” She then pointed at herself, “WE are?”

“It’s a long story, I’ll explain later, we have a class to catch.”

---

I wanted to talk to twilight after the first class but I simply couldn’t. I had to attend my fencing club session. I don't want to brag but I've actually beaten every single person in the club and stayed unbeaten. quite an achievement I should say but then again, I don't want to brag. Though this time, I met a familiar face.

I was putting on my fencing dress when I saw Flaming Star walk in. He had a sabre in his hand and a gym bag hanging from his left shoulder.

The school doesn't let us use sabers and do fencing with those. Instead they make us either foil or epée. But we took out the sabers here and there. Let's face it, it is very fast and more fun to use and Flaming Star didn't seem to know about that rule either. Honestly we weren’t in the mood to follow the rules anyway.

I wanted to go and talk to him. We even caught each other's sight. But I didn’t think it was the right moment to do so. I haven’t known him nor Steely Armor for a long time, but I could sense that they were still insecure. But after he got dressed, he walked into the middle of the gym and challenged us all!

We were all looking at one another for a few minutes. Was he trying to show off? Probably! I thought to myself that it would be wise to go last. That way I could see how he competed and put him in his place when It was my turn. So I stood back and watched everyone face him one by one. Or should I say, get defeated one by one.

He was helding himself pretty well. He didn’t even get hit once! His technique was more defensive than aggressive. He usually didn't attack first but rather parried the attacks and riposte. And when he did attack they were light and fast or he would dodge an attack which I must add, is quite hard to pull off in fencing considering that attacks in fencing are almost as fast as a bullet! I was baffled by how he was pulling that constantly. Not to mention they were fencing with sabres.

He sidestepped, he ducked and half the time I couldn’t tell whether he was going to attack or not. The first guy was no match.

The second member went to take him. Right from the get go, she was attacking left and right. Constantly trying to overwhelm Flaming Star but he blocked every below successfully as if it was nothing! The attacks went on for a while, but eventually she grew tired and allowed there to be a clear opening for Flaming Star to thrust his sword to the chest with ease. She was just burned out after that. The fate of the match was sealed after Flaming Star had gotten the first point. He was untouchable!

“Really? That was all you got?” he shouted. Mocking his defeated opponents. “C’mon, give me a challenge!”

The third and the fourth member’s fate was not any different. None have been able to land a single below on Flaming Star yet. His dexterity and speed was unlike anything I’d seen before. But now it was time to face it!

I had watched him beat everybody without taking a single hit! Everybody had tried to beat him and the only one left was me. I have to say, I was a little scared but that was usual. At least I thought. I wasn’t like any other match. And it wasn’t just about teaching him a lesson in his cockyness. I had to defend my title too! The title of the unbeaten fencer! Not only that, I was the members last chance to possibly put Flaming Star in his place.

I didn't have a sabre that day but I borrowed one from one of the members. didn't know who since they had their mask on. Flaming Star seemed determined. Standing tall and letting his guard down. something about him just gave the sensation that he was certain he would win.

“Lets see if there is more to you than tryin’ to invades other’s privacy.” Flaming Star said and the duel began.

Author's Note:

Make sure to check other chapters too.