"I worked hard to get the respect I deserve around here, and I won't allow you to just get it off the bat because your some special grey pony who just so happened to skip a test."
She pressed a bit harder, causing Slash to close one eye in pain, then let off. She trotted a bit away.
"Get ready to begin warming up," the mare said, a sadistic smile on her face.
"Aren't you going to teach me how?"
Her smile widened just a bit. The answer to the question was obviously a no.
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Slash came out of the warm up with hot, warm blood flowing from a few cuts the littered his body.
The warm up was just a few laps around the training area, but his partner Shezra made it a race, and on multiple occasions she cut in front of him abruptly and tripped him. He really didn't know what her problem was, and wasn't sure there was one; she could just be nasty so she could be nasty.
Limping slightly, he suddenly felt a shoulder against his, holding him up.
"Woah there, you look like your about to fall over! Shezra really did a number on you." The shoulder that was supporting Slash belonged to a light green earth pony with a well kempt brown mane. "I think I say this for everyone, but we sure feel sorry you need to be teamed up for her." He said with a flick of his tail. "We really don't know what her problem is. It could be that fact she thinks we all look down on her because she is a female, but in all actuality only a few trainees did that, not the hole lot of us. However small That 'whole lot is' actually is." He said with a smile.
The earth pony led Slash over to a wall, where the Pegasus got his footing once again.
Pulling a roll of bandages from a bag by the wall, he unrolled it. "We have a few seconds, let me wrap up some of those cuts for you."
"Wait... Tell me your name first." Slash said looking over at the green stallion, who smiled.
"It's Jay." Slash smiled. "I'm sure you already know my name."
"Who wouldn't."
Jay smiled then began to tightly wrap one of Slash's legs with a bandage, staunching the flow of blood. After a moment, the pressure gave Slash a better sense of security, and with gritted teeth he was able to walk with a less noticeable limp.
It was a good thing.
"If you get anymore bandages covering your body, we'd have to call you something like boo-boo."
Slash coughed. "Please don't, I just need to keep pressure on my chest because I have a..." He trailed off.
"A what?" Jay asked, confused.
"A scar." Slash finished banging his head on the mental wall in his mind. He wasn't supposed to tell anypony about it, right.
"Why cover it?" Jay asked perplexed. "Battle scars are cool!"
"It's not a battle scar." Slash snapped before the image of a sharp axe flying through the air, the sharp edge grinning wildly before slicking into flesh.
A twinge of pain spiraled out from his scar, and he grimaced.
Shifting uncomfortably, Slash looked down and prayed his scar hadn't started to bleed.
"If it's not a battle scar, what is it from."
Slash looked up, breaking a trance he had been in.
"Oh... A stunt." Slash said, shifting his wings.
"It was a wing bound high dive." Slash said. "I was up on a cloud, then I bound my wings so I couldn't rely on them then I jumped. Landed in the water, but sliced up my chest on a rock."
Jay's eyes were wide. "Ouch. Why jump off a cloud like that?"
Slash smiled, flashing his cutie mark. "I'm a dare devil." He said with a happy tone.
"Woah.."
"EVERYPONY, get your flanks over here!" Draco called, only shouting 'everypony' at the top of his lungs.
The conversations around the arena ceased and bat, earth, Pegasus and unicorn gathered around the instructor who limped from where he was sitting to a barrel, hopping ontop.
"While I know you all know the three things we hold responsibility to protect in this land, Slash does not. So let's tell him!" He said opening his bat like wings.
"The first thing we strive to protect is who?" Dark wing asked eyeing the trainees.
"Princess Luna!" All twelve trainees barked, minus Slash who listened contently, taking to mind these things he needs to know.
"Second!"
"Equestria!"
"At finally!"
"The night our princess created and rules."
Draco gave a small twinge of satisfaction on his lips in the form of a smile before speaking up once more.
"These things have no order, and all three should be protected with your life equally, and bravly, risking hoof, wing and horn. Stay strong on the battlefield, and strong in heart. Break up for one on one sparring! Improve, and practice. Unicorns, no magic, and Pegasai - bat ponies, hooves on the ground, unless your jumping of course." He paused.
"Slash,"
"Yes."
"Good luck, I never do battle training before some sparring, so I want you to try your best." He said with a smile. "Shezra, go easy on him."
Slash's eyes widened. Now she had permission to hit him! He meekly thought before Draco flew back up to his barrel.
"You all have eight minutes! Go, and may Luna watch Over you!"
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A thin bead of sweat slid down the fur on the side of Slash's head. Shezra stood about four foot away, nostrils flared, legs apart, hooves scraping the dirt and fire blazing in her eyes like a wicked mare.
"It's time you get out into your place, and see just how ~not~ special you are." She said before taking a harsh step forward, a poof of dust rolling up from where her hoof impacted the ground.
As Slash took a step back, Shezra charged. She only took three steps before she was close enough to spin around and plant both of her back hooves into his chest. ~hard~.
The air left him, and he staggered back, bringing a hoof up to his bound, an now probably bruised, chest.
Shezra looked back at him with a smug look before stooping into another charging position.
She again charged, and Slash made an akward jump to the side, landing weirdly on his hooves and collapsing. His chest ached, and he felt the need to just sleep, but the hoof placed deep into his chest made that seem impossible.
He felt his body convulse, and sure he was going to lose whatever was in his stomach.
Shezra had pause her onslaught for a bit, waiting for the Pegasus to get up.
After a moment of contemplating how to keep his stomach from emptying it's contents on the training field, he managed to get to his hooves, panting hard.
Shezra looked up from where she was examining her hoof. "Not done yet, ho ho, your beginning to see now how insignificant you are." She said, smiling.
Slash put his head down and opened his wings, then closed them remembering the rules. Growling, nostrils flaring, he charged.
He ment to charge his forehead into Shezra's chest, but was met by empty air, then his back hooves getting pulled out from under him. He landed with a sickening thump. Shuddering breath, aching legs he got up once more. Prepared to charge once more.
This time, Shezra simply dodged to the side and spun quickly, using full force to buck Slash's flank.
He was thrown harshly against the wall.
He had but a lick of strength left, and when he looked up at her moving over to him smugly, swishing her tail like that he came to feel a feeling of hate, anger.
Being fed by a dark force inside, he looked up at Shezra eyes dark, eyes piercing.
Her voice just fed the fire.
"And you want to join the lunar guard? You can hardly fight! You have never seen the hardship like we are goin to experience, never have you seen the darkness, or been in close proximity to it. You are innocent, and you don't belong here." She hissed these words down at him, and Slash met her eyes, piercing green to sky blue. His mind had long since been dimming, giving into the words of the other. The wispers.
A dark shadow covered Slash's eyes. His voice was low, and filled with a gravely feel and a soft seductive purr. "Innocent... Me? Him? Please, if you don't mind, let me quote a mare I met recently, ' you have never seen hardship' let's analyze that statement. It is a lie, and let me tell you, that you have never seen the darkness like I have, you have never seen the Rainbow Falls run red."
A dark chuckle.
Shezra growled deep in her throat and in a flash brought her hoof down on Slash, wanting to end him for such words.
She was stopped by a grey wing. And while the Pegasai's wings are usually frail, Shezra felt like Slash's was a brick wall. She pushed a bit harder, moving from the bottom of her hoof to the flesh just above it, allowing her to put more weight down on it.
The wing didn't move, and she saw just the glow of green irises from under the black and white mane of her training partner.
Startled, she jumped back, and Slash got up, dark smile in place.
Anger filled her mind and she charged again, prepared to knock the Pegasus out.
Above them, Draco had been watching the exchange warily, and was prepared to stop the maddened earth pony from attacking Slash against that wall, but had paused when Slash held his grownd. A bit more wary now, he moved a little lower in the sky, his wings flapping slowly, moving him down. He then prepared to dash when he saw something.
It was the way the new trainee stood. His posture was perfect, and his composure was cool, he was battle ready, but also prepared to kill. He could see powerful tendons moving under Slash's fur. It was now Shezra who was in trouble.
But the Pegasus moves faster then he expected and was just about upon the deep purple earth pony when a flame of magic erupted between them and there stood an orange unicorn, one hoof held up blocking Slash and the other blocking Shezra, who in the heat of Slash's attack charged as well.
Draco landed. "General Pyrojack," he said exasperated, addressing the stallion. Pyro flicked his tail to show he acknowledged his presence, but he turned to Slash, whispering in harsh tones so only the other stallion could hear. "This is not how you prove yourself...or are you even Slash?" He growled critically.
The grey stallion sighed. "It's nice to meet you too. And I'm not the one who needs to prove themselves. Tell that to the Façade." His eyes were still dark. "He was the one feeling the anger, the emotions I feed from most, or fed him, either way..." He smiled, teeth slightly pointed. "I had
Fun." Then his eyes rolled up into his head and red bloomed on the bandages on his chest. Collapsing, Pyro used magic to cushion his landing. The unicorn turned to Darkwing. "Hello Captain. I need to borrow this Pegasus for a bit. Tend to the wounds of that earth pony."
"But I don't have any wounds!" She said angerly, feeling once again belittled.
Pyro gave a small chuckle. "You fought ~him~ and you don't have wounds, Bravo, but really, you should be lucky your alive."
"Slash is ~no~ threat to me! I have no reason to fear him."
"Who said I was talking about Slash." Smug smile.
Pyro used some magic to lift Slash from the ground and place him on his back, huffing from the weight.
"Good day," he said then walked off, complaing to the unconcious Pegasus about his weight.
"That General is an arrogant prick!" Shezra growled, and Darkwing knocked her on the head. "Show respect. That was our princesses apprentice. He has a ~much~ higher rank than you."
With that he walked away, and it was then Shezra felt something wet running down her hoof.
Looking down, she saw about half a dozen cuts littering the leg she wrestled on Slash's wing. Blood oozed from them slowly, dripping into the dirt of the training ground.