Chapter 14: Martial Arts Masters
Twilight and I sat down for a while, just chatting. We talked about everything. She was able to relate to things I talked about, like my high school, and when I graduated, especially after she had seen some of my memories and knew some of my feelings. We were actually able to talk about things like we lived in my world forever. She knew almost everything about my world from me, and she even formed her own opinions about things, like politics, the economy, and other social issues. I wasn't really able to see much of her mind, but either way she seemed more interested in my world.
"I don't see why the people in your world don't just understand they're all exactly the same, just like all of ponykind, and get along. The world would be much better, and you could accomplish so many things," Twilight said.
"I know, but humans are a competitive, violent race. Although they can feel compassion and care for other living things, they can be ruthless killers, so savage they could make the most vicious animals look docile," I said to her.
"You're right. I guess that's why your world needs you guys with your superpowers, to save them from themselves," Twilight said.
"Yeah, wait, what do you mean, you guys?" I asked.
"Oops, I might've seen a little more in your mind than I meant to," Twilight started.
"What did you see?" I asked.
"Well, I saw who those guys that were following us were, you met them in your world," Twilight said, "they were superheroes, right?"
"Yeah, one of them saw me doing my thing in public, I stopped a guy who stole a woman's purse. They 'recruited me the same day, supposedly they needed me to fight Xendo," I said.
"Speaking of which," Twilight said, standing up stretching again, "let's see what we've learned."
Twilight began punching and kicking at the air at true saiyan speed. She looked like she had been a saiyan all her life the way she moved. She continued practicing her moves and attacked the air before stopping to face me.
"So, what do you say, care for a quick match?" She asked lowering her eyebrows.
"What, you wanna fight me?" I asked.
"No, not fight, just a quick, practice-type thing, to see where you are," She said.
"Well, if you say so," I said, taking a fighting stance, "but, don't feel bad when I beat you."
"Alright, let's go!" Twilight shouted, running at me.
She started off the fight by throwing several punches at me, all of them I caught with my fist or dodged, but just barely. She kicked at me in a wide swing with her leg which I dodged by jumping over her leg as she swung for me. I continued up and over her head, landing behind her. I turned as she did, blocking another kick with my forearm, her shin striking hard against my arm, actually stinging a little for being in a dream.
"Alright, time to use a little more strength," Twilight said.
Before she could react I ran at her, punching and kicking at her. I connected a couple of punches, but she blocked my kicks with her hands. I punched straight for her chest, Twilight grabbing my left arm before I could connect held me tightly by the wrist. I swung at her with my right, again she caught me by the wrist. She started to turn, still hanging on to my wrists, and tried to throw me off my feet. I left the ground, pulled by my arms, and started to swing around.
Twilight was now spinning in a circle, leaning back to hold my weight, spinning faster and faster. She let go throwing me far into the air. She jumped at me, punching me in the face, and kneeing me in the stomach. She jumped back and landed on the ground at the same time as me.
I ran at her, jumping up to trying and send a flying kick to her stomach. She reached out with both arms, grabbing my leg by my ankle with one hand, and at my calf with the other hand. Twilight quickly lifted me over her head and threw me to the ground hard.
I landed on my face, quickly rolling over onto my back. My eyes shot open in surprise as I saw Twilight coming down over me from high in the sky her leg extended, trying to land on my stomach.
I quickly rolled out of the way, watching Twilight slam into the ground, her leg stabbing into the dirt up to her knee. She quickly pulled her leg out of the ground and followed me as I jumped up into the air. We started punching at each other again, Twilight landing her hits on me now.
We landed back on the ground twenty feet apart. She pulled her arms back and began throwing energy balls at me. As they came at me I punched each one, every blast exploding against my fist.
"Alright," she said smiling, "full power it is!"
Twilight shouted at the top of her lungs as a bright white aura flared up around her, arcing and crackling here and there with electricity. The wind generated was intense and the ground shook and cracked open slightly in certain areas. She may not have transformed, but she was now fighting at Xendo's full super saiyan strength and power, and I could feel it. The power was immense.
She came at me again in a blur and delivered a single kick straight into the side of my abdomen. I think she may have kicked me in the spleen, but I didn't know for sure, all I knew was that it hurt like hell and sent me sideways. I slid across the grass, gritting my teeth in pain. I decided there was no reason to try and fight Twilight at that power, I went super saiyan without a second thought.
I rushed at her in attack, she countered every one of my hits and I countered every one of hers. There were kicks, punches, elbows and knees. She punched me in the face a bunch, I tried to avoid hitting her in the face and stuck to hitting her in the chest or stomach. Finally, Twilight ended it by sending the mother of all knee strikes right into my stomach, throwing me back across the ground. I landed, sliding a little bit before coming to rest, lying on the ground in pain.
"Wow, how exciting, so is that what its like to fight?" Twilight said, her aura fading.
"Oh," I groaned, "that hurt, why did you have to hit so hard?" I asked.
"Dako, it's a dream, the pain isn't real," she said, shaking her head.
"Yeah, the brain makes it real, I know," I said, holding my stomach.
I returned to normal, trying to calm down. I sat up slowly, standing up, walking towards Twilight.
"Man, you fought like a real saiyan alright," I said, "you should've been born one. You'd probably be the first female super saiyan."
"Thank you, but before you start congratulating me, what the heck was that all about?" Twilight asked.
"What do you mean, I fought right, I didn't use any dirty tricks," I said.
"No, you lost, to a girl," Twilight said bluntly.
"Yeah, a girl with the power of a super villain," I mumbled.
"Dako, I don't think the original problem was your strength or your power. I think you don't believe you can beat him," Twilight said.
"What are you talking about? Of course I believe I can beat him, I will," I said.
"For the umpteenth time Dako, this is a dream. If you believed in yourself then you would've beaten me. Power, strength, none of that means anything here in this dream world, you need to believe in yourself if you want to get better and if you want to beat Xendo," Twilight said.
"You're right, but I guess if I don't believe, it's because I don't feel like I've trained enough yet," I said.
"Okay then, let's keep training, we've only been here for two days so far, imagine what we can do for a total of thirty," Twilight said.
She walked up next to me and got into a practice stance.
"Are you ready?" She asked me.
"Yes," I replied, mimicking her stance.
As before, we began practicing our martial arts. Twilight told me before that she was able to see the diagrams from the books she had and was just imitating the moves and postures. She was able to extend her spell to show me the diagrams as well, but I kept getting out of time with Twilight to practice, so I just practiced from her form alone.
We continued training, practicing every move in each book, imitating each pose over one hundred times each, some close to three hundred times. There we stood, side by side, punching and kicking at the air in unison, practicing stances, poses, sweeps, jumps, everything.
Five days had passed when we finished ten books out of the sixty books in total Twilight had collected. At the rate we were going we could finish all of the books in time to have one more practice fight before waking up.
"Alright Dako, now that we've made it through these books so far, I want to step up our training," Twilight said in the middle of our practices.
It had been so long since either of us had said a word that it almost took me off guard.
"How, what do you have in mind?" I asked.
"I want us to be able to practice on some dummies, if we're reaching a higher level, there's no sense in continuing to attack the air, we should have something to hit," Twilight said.
"Ah, I got you, we need a punching bag. It's one thing to learn the moves, but it's another to learn how to use them and with how much force," I said.
"Exactly," Twilight said.
She turned around to look behind her and started smiling. I turned to look in the direction she was and saw a pair of dummies standing out in the open field.
"You know, I'm kinda gonna miss this once we wake up," I said, "come to think of it I kinda wonder why we haven't woken up yet."
"Well, I won't miss anything, I know how to lucid dream," Twilight said, "and the reason we're still asleep is all part of the spell I made."
"Huh, yeah I guess so, if I ever realized I was asleep like I do know or as much I've reminded myself I would've woken up a long time ago," I said.
"Exactly why I put it into the spell, we couldn't risk something like that for as long as we need to dream, especially since we've been in nothing but R.E.M. sleep for the past hour in real time," Twilight said, walking over to a dummy.
"Wow, I really need to thank you, a lot. You made a whole spell just for me and you put a lot of work in," I said, walking over to my own dummy.
"Alright Dako, following me like before, I want to start repeating a couple of moves on the dummies, then we'll finish up our entire training with the rest of the highest level books," Twilight said.
"Right, say, what all will I have learned after this over, like, in total?" I asked.
"Well, from all the books I collected and including what you already knew, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Tai Chi, Wushu," Twilight started, "Shaolin, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Iron Shirt, and finally as a cool down, a little bit of meditative Qigong."
"Holy crap, will I use all of that?" I asked in surprise.
"Maybe, you never know how the fight can go. What's important is that you know how to use all of these techniques and understand how they work, which is what you'll notice by the end of our training here," Twilight said.
"I see. And we'll be able learn all of that in the next twenty five days?" I asked.
"Yes, considering we don't need to eat or sleep or take any kind of breaks here, we can practice continually here until we've finished," Twilight said.
"Cool, I'm ready to learn this, I'm ready to do whatever it takes to beat Xendo," I said.
"Good, that's the spirit," Twilight said.
We started yet again, performing or moves quicker now, striking our practice dummies, going through the poses and stances from each form of martial art we had learned so far. Next we continued learning the rest of our moves and practiced on the dummies. I was determined to make myself perfect, to become a precision fighter. I was ready to abuse the fact that I was able train in such a way, turning a five day ultimatum into the ultimate opportunity to take down Xendo once and for all.
Twilight and I went through several dummies over the course of our training. Every time she dreamed up a supposedly tougher set we seemed to catch up with them, going through them just as quickly as the last. Twilight even suggested that I transform and practice my moves as a super saiyan. She knew that I wasn't very skilled with the super saiyan form, considering I had been back home for a year with no room to use it.
I figured that if I wanted to beat Xendo, someone who possibly spent their whole life fighting from the day they were born, then I would have to get very familiar with my abilities as a super saiyan. I started out destroying dummies very easily, I was clumsy, but eventually with some guidance from Twilight I was able to get it under control. From then on she started using Xendo's full power alongside me.
Twenty days had passed by now, and I was fighting just as well as a super saiyan as I was in my normal form. Twilight and I had gone through at least two or three hundred training dummies, but it was worth it. I was getting better, the moves coming to me more naturally, and quicker, I needed less guidance from Twilight now. She said we were on the last ten books. A total of fifty books had been taught to me in just a couple of hours in real world time
"Wow Dako," Twilight started, "you've come a long way, a very long way."
"Well it's all thanks to you, but remember that we aren't done yet," I said.
"Yeah, you're right, but still, you fight so much better now," Twilight said.
I resumed my practice as Twilight watched in awe, observing my new skill. I was using every move I knew on the dummy before me in a blur of pure speed and accuracy. I finished off the dummy by kicking it in half.
"Oops, I broke it, I guess I need another," I said.
"No, no more," Twilight said.
"Huh, why not?" I asked.
"Now it's time for your cool down," Twilight said, "we're going to meditate now."
"Aw what!? Why, don't we have ten more books?" I asked.
"Actually, those last ten are all meditative books and are supplements to all the martial arts forms you learned, they're to help you focus," Twilight said, "plus, I want to make sure that your brain is saturated and soaked with everything you learned."
"Okay, I guess we could meditate," I said.
"The spell I've been using the whole time should help completely imprint the knowledge into your brain as secondhand nature," Twilight started, "but I wanted to help you out every way I could by spending thirty straight days learning and repeating these moves, and finally some meditation."
"Alrighty then, let's get started," I said eagerly.
"Okay, sit down in front of me," Twilight said, sitting down.
I sat in front of her ready for her instruction.
"Okay, now clothes your eyes and focus on my voice, listen to what I say very carefully," Twilight said.
"Okay," I said, closing my eyes.
"Now, breathe slowly and deeply, calming yourself," Twilight said slowly.
I did what she said.
"Put yourself in a state of relaxation, think of the things that make you feel calm," Twilight continued.
I did just that, relaxing my muscles, trying to stay loose and light, anything but tense. I started thinking about the wide open spaces of Equestria, all of its natural beauty, and I thought of sleeping in with Fluttershy. I thought about holding her in my arms, the feeling of her soft warm fur against my bare chest, and the sound of her gentle breathing. I imagined holding her body to me, her form against my own. I could picture stroking her mane slowly and gently, lightly rubbing her shoulders, all the way down to her flanks, occasionally squeezing them gently, patting or rubbing her flanks softly.
"Now, continue breathing and staying in that calm state, remove any stress and negativity from your mind," Twilight said softly.
I sat there feeling the most relaxed and tranquil I've ever been.
"Now, let's holding this state for as long as we can," Twilight said.
After that she remained silent for a very, very long time. It was just us, the silence in the field around us, and our thoughts. We just sat there, meditating, not moving a muscle, with not a single breeze or outside sound to disturb us. Finally Twilight spoke.
"Okay, you can open your eyes," Twilight said.
I slowly opened my eyes and looked around and at myself, then finally I looked at Twilight.
"That was, well I have no words to describe how relaxing that was," I said softly.
"Yes, that was very nice, in fact, I might do this again for myself when I have the time," Twilight said.
"So, how long was that, fifteen minutes or something?" I asked.
"Dako," Twilight giggled, "we've been sitting here in this meditating position for four whole days."
I was surprised, but too calm to show that I was with any facial expression.
"Wow, that's amazing," I said, standing up slowly.
Twilight stood up and walked to my side.
"Now, we have one last day here for an entire session of Qigong exercises," Twilight said, "this should help you focus on and be able to use everything I've taught you since we started when you're in the heat of battle and should help make your transformation and energy attacks much easier to use and fluid."
"Right, the final touch," I said.
Twilight began to move in a series of poses and motions, instinctively I followed her movements exactly. She led me through our final meditative exercises of relaxing poses and movements meant to help heal, and she was probably trying to heal my mind after everything we taught it in five real world hours.
After all of our exercising Twilight finally stopped and turned to me.
"Well Dako, this is it," Twilight said to me.
"It is?" I asked.
"Yes, it's been almost one more whole day here," Twilight said.
"Wow, thirty days in a dream, learning all of this," I said.
"Are you ready?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, I think so," I said.
"Good, I've taught you everything you need," Twilight said.
"Thank you for everything you've done," I said, bowing to her.
"You're very welcome," Twilight said, chuckling with pride.
"I'm going to miss you, well, the saiyan you that is," I said, "I've enjoyed the time we've had together."
"I've enjoyed it too, and I'll definitely miss this body as well, but it's served its purpose." Twilight said, looking over herself one last time.
"Thank you for all you've done," I said, reaching out to hug her.
"Aw, you're welcome Dako," Twilight replied, reaching out to hug me in return.
She fully understood just how important I felt this all was to me. We hugged each other for a short while before letting each other go, taking a few steps away from each other.
"Ready now?" Twilight asked me.
"Yes, thank you, Master Sparkle," I said to her, bowing one last time.
"Alright this is it, here we go," she said, a single tear rolling down her face, "see you on the other side."
I opened my eyes, staring directly at the ceiling. I sat up on the floor of the library, looking around. Twilight sat up next to me, looking around as well.
"Well," I started, "we're back."
"Yes, so, how do you feel?" Twilight asked.
"I feel pretty well rested," I said.
"Do you know how to fight?" Twilight asked me.
I suddenly shut my eyes real tight and gritted my teeth in pain. I was hit with a sudden migraine headache.
"Ah! Oh, my head," I groaned holding my head between my hands.
Twilight shortly did the same only seconds after me.
"Ah!" she gasped, "it's like a combination of hitting your head really hard and brain-freeze!"
"Agh! Yup, it's there, it's all there, everything, I know it all!" I groaned still in pain.
"Ah, you're right, I know it too," Twilight moaned.
"Geez, you could've warned me it was gonna feel exactly like someone shoving sixty books into my head straight through my eye sockets!" I grunted, my head throbbing.
"I didn't know it would do that! This was my first time using this spell!" Twilight said, rubbing her temples.
I slowly stood up, wobbling a bit.
"It doesn't matter, it worked, I know everything now, I know how to fight," I said, struggling to stand.
Twilight and I sat down for a while with ice packs on our heads, reviewing every single thing we had learned, testing each others knowledge. As it had turned out, the entire training session was a success, I knew the entire contents of all sixty books.
"This is great," Twilight said, "now all we need to do is make sure you're well prepared for the fight the day after tomorrow and we're all set."
"I know, I'm actually excited to fight, just because I know I'll beat him," I said.
For the rest of the day Twilight continued quizzing me on all the techniques I was taught. I passed every single on of her tests, and then she compared her tests to what was in each book. She confirmed that I had everything down, and that I was in fighting condition.
It turned out Fluttershy was at the spa with the others for the whole day so Twilight and I would have no distractions. When Fluttershy returned that night I told her all of the great news and Twilight stood by as my witness. She praised my skills and said she was absolutely confident that the fight between me and Xendo would be a quick one.
It was late now, and Twilight was getting ready for bed, and so was Fluttershy and I. As I was making my way to the guest bed to wait for Fluttershy, Twilight stopped me.
"Hey Dako," Twilight said.
"Yes Twilight? I mean, yes Master Sparkle?" I said.
Twilight giggled a little.
"I'll have to get used to that," she started, "I just wanted to say that before, when I saw you and Fluttershy sleeping in the same bed, I was always nervous you two might try something."
"Oh, well you know we wouldn't," I started.
"Yes, I know now that you two wouldn't" Twilight said, "but that's why I wanted to wish you sweet dreams, the two of you."
"Oh, thank you," I said, climbing into the guest bed.
Fluttershy came up the stairs and climbed into bed with me.
"Oh Dako, I'm so proud of you," Fluttershy said.
"Thank you, you ready to go to sleep?" I asked her.
"Yes," she replied, lying down, scooting next to me.
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her next close, Fluttershy doing the same. Right away we were cuddling and ready to fall asleep.
"Good night Dako and Fluttershy, sweet dreams you two," Twilight said.
"Good night Twilight," Fluttershy and I replied.
"Good night Fluttershy, I love you," I said, kissing her on the forehead.
"Good night Dako, I love you too," she said, kissing me on the lips.
Soon we were fast asleep, and I was ready for tomorrow. My last day before the big fight.