Kyōka Suigetsu, crumble!

by The Archiver

Chapter thirteen: The Apple of my (night) eye

Author's Note:

Hope you all won't mind the blatant reference to one of the most confusing animes to ever exist in the next chapter. I don't even understand it myself.

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Pov: Braeburn

AJ and I were sharing stories for a decently long time. So long in fact that I had gotten up from my hospital bed and started moving around because I was getting so antsy. Stories about how she and her friends were solving these friendship problems and writing reports on them which warmed my heart. I even ended up sharing some stories about how the harvests were going better then usually recently and how some of the buffalos had set up shop around Appleloosa for cultural exchanges for other items. But as I was in the middle of explaining all of this we both had heard some knocks at the hospital door.

"That's probably the rest of mah family, I'll get it Braeburn, you just stay right there." Applejack told me as she trotted over to open the door, there was somepony really unexpected there.

"Hey there you two, the element of honesty and the newest trainee. What a sight to behold, am I right?" There stood a thestral right in front of the door way. Her fur is grey, those bright yellow eyes of hers feels like they pierce through the fading sunlight, and that armor she's wearing was something I had never seen before but it does kinda look like the symbol on the chest piece has one giant eye on it.

"Um, I'm sorry but who the hay are ya? Because I don't believe we've met before." Applejack inspects the mare in front of her.

The mare in question holds a hoof up to her chest in a very proud manner. "I'm Dark Luck, one of Luna's Staff Sergeants in the Lunar guard division and from now on, I'll be helping to mentor your cousin over there." She points directly act me.

I give the mare a very peculiar look. "Y'all the pony meant to help train me? Well can't say ah was expecting ya but hay, when do ah start?"

"Right now if you can help it, we've gotta get a move on so we can get an early start." Dark Luck replies to me.

My cousin stares at the both of us like we're crazy "Brae I'd know that kinda look from anypony. You're gonna say yea, but are ya sure you're ready to go so soon?"

"Don't get so emotional over this, he'll be back by tomorrow. And he's only doing this three times a week so you'll have plenty of time for each other." Dark Luck answers for me.

"Ya heard the mare AJ." Getting up from the edge of the bed I take off the hospital gown I was given. Moving past my cousin and through the door while also giving a small, passing salute.

"Good choice Braeburn, see you some other day miss Applejack." She closed the door behind both of us, leaving my cousin to ponder in her own thoughts.

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Traveling by carriage wasn't the worst thing in the world but what awaited me probably could've been as much. I wasn't expecting a whole group of ponies out past nine in the evening, in a training hall, to be training this hard, especially against each other. The fighting was brutal but at the same time, not as serious as somepony might think.

"This is it. The place where you'll be training for half of your week. First thing's first though, drop and give me fifty." I tilted my head at that since I wasn't expecting it.

"Excuse but uh, could ya repeat that?"

"You heard me." She reiterated with some anger this time. "Drop and give me fifty!"

"Y-Yes ma'am!" This time I didn't waste any time asking questions and dropped down to give her my best fifty pushups. And thank goodness for bucking apples for a living. But this felt different, I didn't even feel the tiniest bit of strain during this. By the time I got up, Dark Luck was already nodding, with a smile on her face.

“Real good work there Braeburn, I was testing to see where you were strength wise and you can color me impressed. Can’t focus on your one strength over there. I’m here to teach you lunar guard tactics, that means stealth, agility, tenacity, and endurance. So come along over.” Dark Luck moves past all of the other training soldiers, I’m close behind her to make sure I don’t get lost.

She ends up leading me to this extremely convoluted training course outside. The several hurdles and walls I’m gonna have to jump and climb over are ridiculous. Not even accounting for the ropes and rock climbing wall I’ll have to get over.

“Um, ah’m not too sure ah can actually do this Dark Luck. Shouldn’t ah try and start off slow and easy? Plus, it’s darker than a puddle of tar out here, ah doubt ah’ll even be able to see.”

A series of ‘tsks’ come from her mouth before stomping a hoof on the soft ground below us. “How'll you know your limit if you haven’t tested them, right here and now? You can’t, so quit your whining and do the Luna damned obstacle course.” She gives me an intimidating look, one that I can’t really look away from.

“Jeez, this mare can be scary when she really wants to be.” I took note of her behavior before going to do the obstacle course.

If you saw this mare in person then you’d understand why I basically had no choice but to do it. And I can say with full confidence that agility wasn’t my thing which is why she proceeded to make me do it for an entire hour straight until I got a little better at it, still not enough to complete it but I was alright with that.

“This… This is good enough for now but I expect you to be able to have this entire thing done by next week. Moving on from this, I was gonna teach you how to use stealth to your advantage but after seeing how agile you are. You’ve got the grace of a drunk Ursa major, you aren’t meant for hiding.” She says with a joking attitude. “But uh how are you holding up?” She says me out of the blue.

“What do ya mean exactly? Because so far?” I do a long and sharp whistle. “It’s been something, ah’ll tell ya that much. Wasn’t expecting to be put to the test like this in such a short amount of time.” I Nod my head as we both set back on our flanks.

“No… That’s not what I meant, sorry lemme be more clear, how are you holding up with your entire species being changed? Luna had told me the circumstances, and I wanted to hear it from you. How exactly are you dealing with this?”

Huh. So that’s what she was getting out. Tilting my hat down I try not to meet her gaze. “Can’t say it’s the best thing that’s happened to me. Mah cousin still accepts me though so that’s definitely something worth smiling over, ain’t it?” Sighing, she can’t help but make me think a bit more. “This is something ah’ve just gotta live with. And even with the fact that ah’m just a farmer, ah’ve been given the chance to protect mah kin and ah can’t lose that. And ah can’t lose a new friend that ah made, right?”

Dark Luck looks at me with surprise. “Friend? We’ve only been around each other for two hours.”

I shoot back the confused look with one of my own, lifting up my hat again in the process. “Yeah but it’s like ya said, we’ll be meeting up a lot more after this so ah already consider us friends, don’t y’all do too?”

Dark Luck begins chuckling, repeatedly swaying her head from side to side. “I like that about you, already day one and you consider us friends? Yeah, guess we are in a way. Don’t think that’ll let you skimp out on your training though.”

Sharply nodding and getting back up, I offer a hoof to Dark Luck. “A little hard work never hurt nopony. And ah sure as heck won’t let it hurt me either. Y’all can throw anything at me and ah’ll still keep on kickin.”

She takes my hoof and leaps up. She has a ton more energy than I originally thought. “Is that so? Well then I’ll instead ask you this, do you know how to use that gigantic sword you’ve had strapped to your back?” Dark Luck asks.

“Nope ah don’t, why do ya ask exactly? Will ah be needing to use it?” I question back.

“Well duh, why else would I ask? Come on and let's get you a wooden training great sword to see what you’ve got. Don’t worry though, I’ll go easy on you.” Dark Luck trots on over to a weapons rack and tosses me a great sword that’s slightly shorter than the one I’ve currently got.

I stumble forward to catch it with my hooves. “Throwin me off the deep end already? Kinda harsh of ya Dark.”

“Oh please, what’d be harsh is sending you unprepared into the world with some niche training that’ll get you killed in seconds.”. Now show me what you can do.” She grabs a regular wooden sword from the same weapons rack.

Dark Luck really didn’t seem like she was holding back at the time. As soon as she had finished her sentence, those wings of hers immediately started moving and got her in the sky to the point where she dive-bombed directly at my face and barely left me any time to hold my sword up to block her attack.

I grunt in surprise. “Ah wasn’t ready.” I tell her as our weapons continue to collide against each other.

She actually started giggling at that, didn’t make her lose that strength of hers though. “No one is gonna let you give a count down for a fight. Which is another thing I’ll be preparing you for.” Maneuvering her sword around mine she manages to get the vantage point of forcing my blade to touch the ground and kicks me in my stomach sending me back a few hooves. Funnily enough I thought I heard the sound of metal being hit for a second there.

“D-damn you’ve got a mean kick there Dark. But how am ah supposed to even hit ya if got moves like those and ah don’t even have any trainin?” I questioned her.

Dark Luck stares at me as if I got something on my face stuck on my face. “How are you supposed to beat me? That’s easily, you’re not but don’t feel too bad about this. Still try your hardest and who knows, you might land a strike on me. It almost feels like your body’s made out of steel or something, so you should be able to take a few more hits.” Putting her sword in front of her, Dark Luck inches towards me, little by little. Until she holds up her wooden blade pointing outwards in an offensive position, swiftly striking the guard of my own great sword, almost knocking me off balance in the process.

“Get a strike on ya? I ain’t got nothing to lose by trying.” I quietly reassure myself and strengthing my core at the same time to keep my balance. I remove a hoof from the handle of my great sword and get down on all threes while keeping hold of the wooden great weapon in only one hoof, it’s surprisingly lightweight for me.

Propelling myself forward, the destructively nice boost in speed gave me enough energy to slash my blade in a downwards arc on Dark Luck. At least I thought I did. When I had looked up from the ground she was nowhere to be seen, I did however feel that drop kick she gave to my withers which landed me on the ground. And again, I heard the sound of metal being struck.

“Impressive, if I was a few seconds slower that might’ve actually have gotten me.” I hear her voice ring out from behind me over the constant wooden thunks that sound throughout the entire training hall.

Dark Luck trots over in front of me and offers me a hoof which I graciously accept and get up as best as I can, trying to ignore the aching pain in my back and stomach.

“Well thank ya kindly for the compliment but it looks like ah’ve got a lot more to get through before ah can even think about winnin against ya.” I admitted to her.

Dark Luck let‘s an annoyed snort exhorted from her snout. “That’s nothing to be ashamed of Braeburn. A lot of the thestrals here can’t even think about beating me either but all that matters is that you try. But no more mushy stuff right now, c’mon lemme teach ya the right way to hold that big thing, cause you’re doing it all wrong.”

I hold onto my wooden sword and smile. “Y’all got it, show me exactly how it’s done then.”

Dark Luck practically skips back over to the weapons rack and grabs a great sword of her own. “With pleasure.”

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Pov: Sōsuke Aizen

I decided to wear a casual garb that I had requested Rarity for. Some black jeans, a t-shirt, basic shoes, and a nice blue jacket that she had made. Which almost surprised me were it not for the fact that it’s quiet obvious that an element bearer’s actions can be enhanced if they do something that genuinely correlates with said element. Ergo that is exactly why she’s able to pump out clothing so quickly whenever Rarity is doing it for free or near charity work. Quite fascinating indeed but I’m not walking in the middle of the Everfree forest to think about my clothing.

But allow me to let it be known once more that Twilight’s nativity never fails to surprise me. And that’s why I’m friends with her, and ‘acquaintances’ of her friends… Except for Spike and a few other exceptions. The icing on the cake was that I even told her I was coming here. Sure, I promised to bring her along to cross-reference data. Not that I mind in any way.

None of the contemplative thoughts actually matter right now though. Since I’ve gained the green light on experimentation now, I can finally go to my old lab until I move it into the ruins of Los Noches. It’s a small base in the Everfree disguised as an abandoned watchtower. This was one of the first laboratories and only laboratory that I had made and wasn’t destroyed by Celestia. And I finally get to re-enter said laboratory with no repercussions.

Opening the door, I look around, seeing that this place hasn’t been maintained since I was gone. Not like the dust everywhere up here matters. The true lab is underneath this place… I wasn’t very creative back in the day. But at least I placed several runes and preserverations spells on the main part under the trapped door to both hide it from any eyes besides my own and preserve everything down there in top condition.

“This place sure does bring back a lot of memories, I spent too much time down here creating random prototypes of artifacts and moves from other sources of media that had no true meaning.” I mumble to myself before opening up the steel trap door and descending down the stairs.

The trapdoor slams shut behind me as the torches I installed in the immediately light up, one after the other that are scattered across the stone stairwell. Sensory torches, not revolutionary but it was a fun idea to implement.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs I’m met with a sizable lab. An array of empty beakers, a work table, and several prototypes of potions and objects in an organized shelf. Good thing that there isn’t a speck of dust on anything.

“Yup, exactly how I left it. There’s even that steel ball prototype I had made with the duplication property. Sometimes I’d throw it in the air and watch them duplicate, only to rain back down on me for reflex training. This is going to be an excellent time to start preparing for the upcoming season for my… Tools, hm ah yes the first one should definitely go to the reality bender.”

Grabbing a runesmithy’s hammer and some random materials I begin to get to work. Engraving runes into a thick sheet of metal. “I’m still a festive person, hybrid or not.”

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