Chapter 7:
Level Zero
Twilight had thought the Hall of Warriors was amazing. But that had simply contained relics. Artifacts from times of glory long past. As Luna led her into the Training Hall, Twilight nearly suffered another joy overload as she saw the current heroes of her time in action. This was better than the tournament. She was getting to see her heroes private training session! This was the ULTIMATE thing for a fangirl like her.
Rainbow Dash sparred with Fluttershy on top of a sapphire blue bowl, their limbs blurring as they dodged, ducked, and parried each other while keeping the bowl from spilling each other out onto the combat floor. Their blurs of yellow and blue almost seemed to mix to create a strange green blur.
Just beyond them, Pinkie Pie was cackling with glee, jumping along a series of pipes as fire tried to blast her into ash. Yet the pink mare was untouched; not a single strand of ash dotted her perfect figure.
Ahead of both of them, Applejack was barreling through multiple training dummies, leaving a flurry of shrapnel and wood chips in her path.
Above all of them, Rarity maneuvered on several swinging rings, practically dancing around and even through the metal obstacles. It was effortless, and she didn't have a single scratch!
As Twilight stared, awed at the white unicorn's grace, she failed to notice that Rainbow Dash leap away from Fluttershy and landed on a spinning platform just ahead of the purple unicorn. Spiked balls swung back and forth, attempting to dislodge the cyan Pegasus, but Rainbow Dash was untouchable. Slamming both her hands into one of the obstacles, she blasted the training tool into wooden chunks, one of which bounced off Twilight's horn with a spark.
"Oh, sweet Celestia…," Twilight whimpered, shivering as Luna chuckled at her discomfort.
"Let's get started," Luna declared, indicating for Twilight to take to the training grounds.
"Wait, wait, wait. What?!" Twilight swallowed, gazing with fear upon the many tools of training. The spiked balls, the spewing fire. Even the training dummies were spiked.
"Uh…Now?" Twilight squeaked.
"Yes now. Unless you think that Master Celestia was wrong, and you are not the Celestial Warrior," Luna snapped. She was secretly hoping that the unicorn would say that so she could send her on her way, and they could find the true Celestial Warrior.
"Well... Um... No…It's just that…I've always been more of a scholar. I don't think I can do all of those… well… um…moves," Twilight whimpered, pointing vacantly at the training room floor.
"Well, if we won't try, we'll never know, will we?" Luna asked sensing the unicorn's fear and nervousness.
"I mean… yes. I'm just wondering if we could… try something more on my… level," Twilight admitted, running after Luna as she began to walk to the edge of the hall.
"And what level would that be?" Master Luna asked tiredly.
"Well, obviously not a master. So… maybe Level… Zero?" Twilight admitted with a breathless chuckle.
Luna chuckled, "There is no such thing as level Zero,".
But as Twilight looked desperately around the room, her eyes lit up.
"Here. I can practice on this!" Twilight said, bounding her way over to a plush, round, bouncy dummy.
"That?! We use that for training children! And for propping the door open when it's hot. But, if you insist…," Luna demanded, following after her.
But the latter half of Luna's explanation fell on deaf ears. For in the time Twilight had taken, the Furious Five had noticed the unicorn that had upstaged them and had left the training room floor to check her out.
"The…" Twilight gulped.
"The Furious Five!" She bowed low to them. "It is such a great honor to meet you all. You're so much bigger than your action figures," Twilight whispered with absolute reverence.
Pinkie giggled at the unicorn's humility always the most friendly she bounded forth to introduce herself, only to be stepped on by Applejack, who had noticed Luna's glare. As Applejack held Pinkie back, donning her Stetson with worry, Fluttershy tried to give a polite if nervous wave to the unicorn. Though due to her blindfold, she ended up waving at Luna. Rarity managed a light bow of respect, though Rainbow Dash scoffed and looked away with her arms crossed. She didn't understand how Master Celestia could choose a nobody like the unicorn over one of them.
"Go ahead, Unicorn, show us what you can do," Luna said, waiting for Twilight to show her kung-fu skills.
"Um, are they gonna watch or should I just wait until they get back to work or something?" Twilight asked, seeing as how the Furious Five were still around and not heading back to their training.
"Hit it," Luna ordered. She was trying to keep her cool.
"Okay, I mean…I know the rules. So I'm not allowed to use magic and my Kung-Fu skills might not be as good as….later on." Twilight said, rubbing her arms nervously.
"Just hit it, Unicorn," Luna ordered, a little louder and more sternly.
"Alright. Whatcha got? You got nothing because I got it right here. Are you picking on my friends? Get ready to feel the thunder. Watch me do my crazy feet, watch me do my crazy. I'm a blur, I'm a blur. You have never seen Twilight Style, you've only seen The Rarity or the Pinkie Style…" Twilight said, talking to the dummy like it was an actual bad guy as she started doing the styles of Rarity and Pinkie Pie, which Pinkie finds very funny. Rarity has heard that someone copying you was the highest form of flattery, she wasn't so sure about that. She felt sorry for the mare.
"Come on, bring it on. Snick any Snake," Twilight continued talking to the dummy.
"Will you hit it?!" Luna snapped, getting greatly annoyed by Twilight's antics.
Twilight stopped and turned to her, "Alright. Alright," She said as she faced the dummy and gave it a light nudge, and leans back a little.
"Why don't you try again, Unicorn? A little harder," Luna suggested.
Twilight then gave the dummy a harder punch and turned to Luna with a determined smile.
"How's that-," Twilight tried to say, only to be interrupted when the dummy slammed into her and knocked her back.
The Furious Five walked forward to help her only for Luna to stop them as they watched. Twilight was on the spinning platform as spiked balls swung back and forth, attempting to dislodge the unicorn. Twilight struggles to dodge them until she slipped and got stuck.
"Oh, that hurts!" Twilight yelped in pain as she looked to her right and saw the other half of the spiked ball with no spikes heading towards her and sending her flying through the air, screaming in slow motion.
Twilight landed in the sapphire blue bowl but ends up rolling around in it.
"This will be easier than I thought," Luna commented.
Twilight dizzily managed to get out of the bowl but has now entered the sharp training spinning dummies. Twilight ends up being hit and smacked as the Furious Five, except for Rainbow Dash, looked away from the Unicorns' misfortune. Twilight kept getting hit by the arms of the dummy until one hits her in her sensitive area.
"Ooooooooooohoooooooo, my tenders," Twilight whimpered in pain as she struggles to get up.
But then she got attacked again by the dummies and ran out of the way screaming in gibberish. That's when Twilight noticed she was standing on something and looked down to see she was standing on a series of pipes which means one thing…
"Uh-Oh," Twilight whimpered, getting a bad feeling.
Before she knew it, fire burst out three times as the Furious Five and Master Luna looked away from seeing the Unicorn getting burned. Burnt, hurt, smacked, and beaten, Twilight heads to them with the top of her mane burning and panting. When she arrived, Twilight blew off the fire a little and turned to Luna.
"How did I do?" Twilight asked with a smile.
"There is now…a Level Zero," Luna replied, putting out the tiny flame as Twilight plopped to the ground in defeat.
Author's Note: You know, first impressions and First Day of Training are very important, even if you're not very successful as your heroes.
Also, Happy Presidents Day.