Chapter 84 - "Their Old Selves"
"Again."
The word echoed in the large, marble-slabbed room. A small splotch of blood smacked onto the ground as the pony who uttered the word spat on the floor. Two stallions, both Royal Guards, looked to the pony, then gave each other a wary look. They had spent the last few hours sparring with the blue mare who stood shakily in front of them. Under normal circumstances, they would nor spar with anyone who was not a part of the Royal Guard, but they had been told by the Princesses that she was a visitor, not a prisoner, so they should heed what she says and do their best to make her feel comfortable and happy. She, however, seemed to be more interested in staying in one of the many training rooms relearning how to fight.
"Lady Carolina, I don't think--" the first began.
"I'm not asking you to think," she growled in frustration as she wiped a small drop of blood from her lips. "I'm asking you to fight me again."
"It's just... we feel bad, though," the second one piped, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. The fiery mare had nearly a dozen nicely sized bruises on various parts of her body from the previous goes.
"She can take it," Washington said firmly from the side. That was the second thing either of the stallions had ever heard out of Washington's mouth during his time in the castle. He mostly spent his time either in his room, or with Carolina. In either places, he seemed out of it, more content to stare off into the distance, lost in thought, preferring that over speaking to them or anyone.
The two stallions realized this and gave each other a nod. They took a few paces away from each other and began to circle Carolina. She watched them steadily, remaining completely still. She had gotten used to walking pretty fast, unlike Washington who still had troubles making his way around. However, much to her dismay she can no longer fight the way she remembers. Her years of training with fighting seemed to vanish in an instant. She didn't like feeling defenseless. She wanted to go back to knowing how to kick seven kinds of asses.
"Don't go easy on me. I won't learn if you do," she snapped after a few seconds of waiting for them to strike.
"As you wish," the first stallion piped with a knowing smirk.
The two guards darted towards her at the same time, but Carolina quickly avoided their assault. The stallion who had spoke first, Curved Swords, jumped at her while the second one, Bound Shield, waited back, readying himself. Carolina reared back and threw herself at Curved Swords, hitting him in the air. Her jump being slightly more powerful made Curved Swords fling a few feet away from her. Behind her, Bound Shield threw himself on top of her to hold her down. The two guards had won every spar for the past while, where as she only managed to land three hits across the four hours of fighting. This made Carolina seethe with rage.
Fortunately, anger is a very good motivator.
Kicking her leg back, her hoof hit directly onto the cap of Bound Shield's left hind leg. The guard let out a pained grunt and winced. This was the first time that she had a good opening, and she sure as hell wasn't going to let it go to waste. She flipped around and grabbed either side of his jaw and slammed her skull into his. The guard let out a quick yelp as he stumbled backwards. Behind her, however, was curved swords, who incidentally was also trained at attacking during any opening. While she smiled at the backpedalling Bound Shield, Curved Swords ran into her and headbutted her in the ribs. Carolina gasped in surprise as she flew to the ground, skidding a few feet away from her attacker.
"So you used to be a soldier?" Curved Swords asked as she got back up.
"Something like that," Carolina muttered. getting back on all fours.
"Could have fooled me," he chuckled slyly. "You must have been pretty terrible at it."
Carolina let out a small growl as she darted towards him. Curved Swords sidestepped her with ease and smirked. He quickly leaned to the left, and then quickly began to shift to the right, intending on hitting her with his side. Reading his movement, she quickly fell to her stomach. Curved Swords saw all but too late what her intentions were, as his momentum was already too much and he quickly toppled over her.
"And you're supposed to be trained to protect royalty?" Carolina asked with a sneer as she walked over him.
"Aye, I am," he said with a nod, then shifted his gaze to a spot behind her. "And so was he."
Carolina snapped her neck around, expecting to see Bound Shield ready to attack, but he was simply watching from a dozen or so feet away, gently rubbing his head from her prior blow. For a brief moment, she felt safer. She then remembered how she and the others in the Freelancers fought, but before she could turn around, she felt Curved Swords' back hooves digging into her side, and she was sent flying ten feet away.
"If you were an assassin, I'd consider the Princesses saved," he said as Bound Shield placed his hoof on her neck, signifying a defeat.
"Only because you fought dirty," she hissed in anger, glaring up at Bound Shield.
"When you've been around for a long time, you quickly learn that's it's either you fight nobly and die, or you fight to win and live another day," he explained simply as he strolled up to her and held his hoof down to her. "And where the Princesses lives are concerned, I'd rather win, wouldn't you?"
"Can't argue with that," she mumbled, grabbing his hoof to let him hoist her up. She rubbed her side and winced, knowing that three or four of her ribs may have been cracked from the kick. "I guess that's enough for today. You okay for doing this again tomorrow?"
"We're supposed to do whatever you say," Curved Swords said with a shrug. Princess Celestia had assigned each of them to watch over both her and her friend in the hopes teaching her about this new place, and in the short while he met her, he had already gained a a significant amount of respect for her. Not many ponies are keen to fight any Royal Guard, let alone after defeat again and again. She had spirit and ambition, and this made him grin at her. "But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't considering this as practice."
"Yeah. Right. Practice," Carolina grumbled, knowing that she wasn't really providing that much of a challenge for them.
"Yes, practice. When we started, you could barely keep up, but you're quickly catching up to us, providing an almost fair fight," he said with a chuckle. "Give it another month and you might be able to hold one of us down before the second one jumps in to take you out while you're too busy celebrating."
"Bound Shield over there doesn't seem to be too hot of a fighter," Carolina said, motioning her head towards the other guard who was now leaning against the wall, eyes closed as he rubbed his head.
"He's only been in the guard for a short while compared to myself. Often ditches out of the training regiments, which has gotten him in trouble more times than the sun has risen in the past three hundred years," he sighed, shaking his head. "Good kid, but definitely not the most capable of us. I'm kind of hoping that our little practice sessions might rub off on him too. You'd make a better Royal Guard than ninety percent of the stallions and mares here..."
Carolina smirked at him. When she first arrived, she was worried that the brightly colored ponies would be like something out of a child's cartoon. But it seemed that humans and ponies might have more in common than she first thought, looks and build aside. This was one of the few times in her life she was glad she was wrong. Because of this, she had a feeling that Caboose and Washington might not be the only ones that might want to be her friend. Now thinking of Washington, she looked to him and her smile faded slowly. He simply stared at her blankly.
"You guys mind giving Wash and I a few minutes in private?" she asked hesitantly.
"Of course. I should probably bring him to the doctor's anyways," Curved Swords sighed as he walked up to his ally and propped his leg up over his neck. "Shouldn't take longer than half an hour."
"Won't the Princesses get mad if you leave us alone for that long?"
"I won't tell if you won't," he chortled, then paused in the entrance to look back at her. "But you should probably go to the doctor's as well. Might have broke something in our little fight."
"I will in a bit."
"Alright. And remember, if she asks what happened..." he stopped.
"I'll tell them that I asked for it," she said with a smaller smirk, too busy looking at Washington.
"Thanks. Don't want word to get out that I hit mares that aren't in the Guard," he said with a soft laugh as he went through the large doorway to get his friend some medical help.
The sound of the doors closing quickly echoed throughout the large room while Washington simply stared out of the window behind him. Carolina wasn't the best at picking up on how people are feeling, but it was quite clear to her that Washington wasn't himself. He was more distant than ever, and he only ever spoke when it was just the two of them in the room. Less than two whole days here and his eyes were already as bloodshot as if he had been up for weeks without sleep. His dirty blonde hair looked messy, surrounding his pointy horn. Carolina knew that the horn on his head was one of the main reasons he was the way he is.
"You're learning fast," he said emotionlessly, breaking the silence as he continued looking out the window. "Pretty soon you'll be back to your good old self."
"Yeah, well," she began with a hollow chuckle. She stepped next to him and looked out the window with him, seeing Ponyville off in the distance. "Maybe not so much on the 'good' side of things, though..."
"Maybe you're right," he sighed. "But then again, I wasn't so good myself, was I?"
Carolina said nothing. Washington looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, and she offered him a sympathetic smile. Washington made a low grunting noise and readjusted himself, looking back out the window.
"On the bright side, the weather here is nice," Washington started. "But Bound Shield told me that the weather in this place is made by the flying horses in this place." His last words came out forced, filled to the brim with disbelief, as if he couldn't believe his own words. "Flying horses," he repeated. "Sounds so stupid to say it out loud..."
"You okay, Wash?" she asked, sitting next to him.
"Oh, I'm fine. One hundred percent. In fact, just before we came here, I was secretly hoping that we'd be whisked off into a magical land and turned into fucking ponies and go on happy adventures filled with friendship and magic. And wouldn't you know it, we all somehow went into the memory unit, designed for artificial intelligences, mind you, and my wishes came true," Washington said, laying on the sarcastic tone as heavily as he could. "Yeah, I'm just peachy fucking keen, Carolina."
"It's different. I know that just as well as you," she said. "But this is the hand we've been dealt, and there's not much else we can do besides move on..."
"Carolina," he said with a weak laugh. "We're talking ponies. There's magic. There's ponies that use magic. There's ponies that have wings and can fly like birds. There's a pair of ponies seven feet tall that can fly and have super strong magic that rule over.... wherever in hell we are! This isn't a hand we were dealt, Carolina, this is a whole God damned different card game. And seeing you and everyone else just moving on without much second thought..." he scowls. "I feel like I'm going insane all over again."
"You're not going insane, Wash," she sighed. "You're just overreacting."
"Overreacting. Over. Reacting?" he repeated slowly. "If anything, I'm underreacting."
"I--"
"I've been insane, Carolina," he snapped. "I know what it feels like, and this feels a hell of a lot like it. Or have you forgotten what happened back with Epsilon when I first got him?"
"I... no. No I haven't," she remarked, looking to the ground. "You didn't handle him well."
"Of course I fucking didn't , and I'm lucky to have survived that whole shit," he hissed as he snapped to his feet and walked to the window behind him. Looking to Carolina, he waved his hoof to the outside world "But this? This is a whole new level of... whatever the hell this is!" Washington's horn then quickly began to glow gold, and he let out a pained yelp as a migraine suddenly ran through his head. Letting out a pained whimper, he rested his head against the window, slumped down and looked down at the floor, barely able to shake his head. "I just... I just can't handle this shit, Carolina. You, the Reds and Blues and the others... You guys are able to just stop thinking about the situation itself. But I can't. And if I'm going to speak honestly," he said in a low voice, focusing on the town far in the distance. "I think I'll die here before I ever will."
Carolina remained silent. There was nothing she felt she could say that would put him at ease. All she could do was sit with one of her only friends, watching as he slowly began to go insane again.
"Erm, excuse me?" a voice said from the doorway. Washington and Carolina turned around to see the younger of the two Royal sisters, Luna, standing in the doorway with a small frown on her face, mane shimmering and moving slowly. "I heard yelling. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"No," Carolina said after a brief moment of looking at Washington, realizing there was simply nothing left to say for her. She would say she was there for him, but unfortunately even she wasn't sure that she would be of much help. She simply looked to Luna once more and shook her head. "No, you're not. Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing is wrong," she replied softly, looking to Wash. It wasn't too difficult to see that he had many emotions crashing through him at once, none of them being positive. She then looked back to Carolina and offered her a smile "Celestia and I were just wondering if you would be so kind as to join us for dinner in two hours?"
"Wash?" Carolina asked.
"Whatever, sure," Washington uttered with a shrug.
"We'll be there," she nodded to Luna.
"Wonderful," Luna said with a happy smile. "We'll send for you when it's ready."
"What about the guards?" Carolina inquired.
"You may tell them they will be dining with us as your guests tonight," she replied, bowing her head. Squinting, she hesitated. "Agent Washington, are you alright?"
"Just fine."
"You do not have to come to dinner if you would rather dine alone," she said quietly. "We would take no offense."
"I'll go," he said firmly, looking into her eyes. The pair locked gazes for an awkward moment before Luna blinked and nodded twice at him, then left the room.
Once again, Carolina and Washington were alone.
"I guess I should probably go see the doctor about this," Carolina said finally, starting for the door as she glanced back at him. "You going to come?"
"Nah, I just... I'm just going to stay here for a bit. If I'm not here when you're back, I'll just be in my room," Washington sighed. "My room... in this castle."
Carolina sighed helplessly, then walked up to the door and stopped. Looking back at him through the doorway, she opened her mouth, but she had already said everything to him she could really think to say. Looking down, she walked out and shut the door behind her. She was hoping that on her way to the doctor's she could think of something to say to him that would make him feel better, but deep down, she knew that there wasn't much she could say to help him.
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I have a feeling that Luna is gonna pop into his mind later on
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That's the point, really.
Not sure when I'll have time to explain it, but this is the jist of it:
When the Reds and Blues went into the unit, they didn't realize it was real. They just thought they were in the memory unit, much like Church was originally, so they felt that this "world" was simply Caboose's wild imagination, thus they weren't surprised. Well, they were, but that's why they took everything so relaxedly. But when they had learnt that they were indeed in a new world, they had already been there for months, adjusted to what it's like, so they didn't need much convincing.
As for the newcomers, Doc is still cautious and nervous about the place, whereas Donut is simply really open minded and happy to meet new ponies. Sis is too dumb to care, and Junior is more or less just happy to be with Tucker again.
I am surprised that Carolina took things as well as she did when she first ventured into the unit, then again she was not in that that great of a mental state to begin with. I guess Wash, and Doc are the only completely sane ones of the group of newcomers so the two of them having a little more difficulty is understandable. Maybe Wash needs to be reacquainted with some Logic if he wants to come out of this with his mind in one piece.
4713311 I was honestly looking forward to an "I know what it feels like to go bat-shit insane" talk between Luna and Wash, but the dream walk would be cool, too.
Poor Wash
4714066 We're ALL looking forward to that conversation.
So then. Celestia appears to have a guard from Hammerfell.
Well Wash, you're denying the fact that you're overreacting. People who usually are will say they aren't.
That's the kind of indifference I would've expected from Church.
You'd think Carolina would've brought up how she had a dose of insanity herself from having Eta and Iota inside her at one point. 
"Behind her, however, was curved swords, who incidentally was also trained at attacking during any opening."
Should be capitalized.
This chapter was great, but I did notice many parts where you switched from past tense to present and that is one of the biggest things i hate about grammar errors, it breaks immersion and it is hard to tell you are doing it until someone points it out
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If she said it, it would be different because she didn't go fully insane with them. Wash, on the other hand, went from being the lovable goofball of their group to a stern and serious person. He was changed COMPLETELY by his little bout of insanity, whereas Carolina... she pretty much stayed the same. That was why she was given Sigma. Because she has a strong mind and he wouldn't be able to overpower her thinking. That's why she's more concerned with moving on rather than thinking about it too much because she knows if she stopped to think about it for too long she might just go insane.
Washington/Luna, washingtuna, i ship it
4715054 Insanity; isn't it grand?
I dimly remember that I asked for Wash to lose his sanity at one point... Take backs?
4715061 ... Go on.
4715061 YES!
4715166 and yes, thank you for signing your death *kaboom*
It also might not help Wash's sanity issues, with the fact that Donut might say who shot him when he talks about his past.
I also agree with Albino pygmy rhino117.
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I got a feeling that Caboose is going to be the one to help Wash with his sanity problem.
When I started reading the first one all I had watched was the first two seasons and only made it to chapter 192, now that I watched all 10 seasons I remembered it again and I am now finally up to date with the story!! Now I can subject myself to waiting for the next chapter in agonizing pain!! Yay!
His name was Curved Swords. Curved. Swords.
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But there's not 10 seasons, there's 11 and half of season 12, silly!
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booooo.
4719807 but I haven't watched any of 12 and only half of 11. So that's why I only said ten.
4714432
Bow chicka wow wow!
4724768 Totally didn't realize the unintentional innuendo in my statement
Bravo 
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Y U NO MOAR?!?!?!?!?!?!
Would Carolina be better fighter if she Ai or that rule doesn't apply in this world.
We all can only hope that Wash will recover..... keep trying Carolina.... he needs all the support he can get.....
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