Everdeath

I woke everypony up bright and early in the morning, I wanted to get started on training them for combat as quickly as possible. "Up and at-em everypony!" I yelled, hitting my sword off of a tent pole creating a loud metallic clanging.

Rainbowdash groaned as she flew out of her tent, she was followed by Fluttershy. "Sargast I know we are learning how to fight today but come on! The sun only just came up!" She whined.

"Yes darling! I need my beauty sleep!" Rarity complained as she stomped out of her tent. Twilight emerged from her tent right after.

"Well Rarity, beauty isn't really our top priority right now." Twilight said as she stretched.

"Well Twilight, not all of us like to get up at the crack of dawn." Rainbow said to the lavender alicorn. Twilight frowned at her.

"Mornin gals!" Applejack said walking out of her tent.

"Good morning everypony!" Pinkie yelled while bounding out behind Twilight, she wore a huge grin as she normally did. Luna was the last to arrive, she landed in the middle of the campsite.

"Where were you princess Luna?" I asked her. "Weren't you supposed to be guarding?"

"I just came back from chasing off a couple of curious tigers." She said to me.

"Oh, okay then. Alright everypony today you are getting taught how to fight, both with empty hoof and with weapons. But first things first, lets eat." I declared. They all seemed to enjoy this idea of food because they all rushed in around the campfire, looking at me as I got the food bag out of my tent.

***

After eating a hearty breakfast of sandwiches and apple juice, we cleaned up and I drew a circle around the middle of the campsite. "This will be the fighting ring, self explanatory no? So to start things off I am going to see how well you mares can fight, I will base my teachings off of this. Me and Lu-" I was cut off as a strong kick connected with my jaw. I looked up to see Luna standing a few feet from me with a smug smile on her face.

"You were inside the fighting ring, were you not?" She said to me. We all laughed, after I popped my jaw back into place of course. Luna now stood in an offensive stance, so I struck up a defensive stance. "I'll go easy on you." She said to me.

"Don't, I wanna see how you fight." I said back.

"Are you sure Sargast? I have fought in many wars." She said.

"Yeah, don't underestimate your opponent though." I replied. "Come at me." She took to the skies, gaining a considerable amount of height. She then dived down at me, readying a punch. "A hit like that would instantly kill me." I thought. "I better not be there than." At the last second I jumped out of her way, she flared her wings out but still landed hard. I then swiftly advanced on her and started firing off punches, she blocked each one and countered with a strong hit to my stomach. I decided to use a different tactic, and if this didn't work I would be screwed. I stood perfectly still, watching her every movement. I focused on her and zoned out on everything else, I could hear her heart beating at a steady pace. I saw as her right side tensed up, indicating that a punch was coming, knowing this I grabbed her hoof and yanked her towards me. Fast as lightning I whirled around and gave her a back kick to the face. I feared for a second that I had broken her nose or something and paused for a bit, spinning back around slowly. I was met with a face-full of hoof as she punched me in the nose, I saw blood hit the ground notifying me that my nose had broken. It was on now. She charged me as I got up and let off a volley of punches, I took a beating but saw my chance and took it. I leaped forward and punched her in the gut, continuing I pushed her to the ground knocking the wind out of her. I took this moment to punch repeatedly, hammering her with hit after hit. I got up and stood at the ready in case she tried anything.

"Good job Sargast." She said standing up, brushing the dust off her coat. She seemed fine, though on the other hand I seemed to be missing a few teeth, my nose was still bleeding but I really didn't care, a quick death would fix me right up. "Nopony has ever gotten so close to winning."

"What are you talking about, I won!" I exclaimed.

"No, you didn't, I held off, I could have killed you around five times if I felt like it." She said to me.

"I told you not to hold back." I said to her.

"Well I decided to anyways." She said back to me. I suddenly remembered why we fought in the first place. I looked over to see four of the ponies now arguing too.

"Princess Luna could have killed him five times, I saw it!" Twilight said to Rainbowdash.

"Yeah well Sargast could have totally taken her if he hadn't have stopped hitting her while she was on the ground." Rainbowdash argued back.

"I am siding with Twilight on this one! Luna won and you both know it!" Rarity said to Applejack and Rainbowdash.

"Well ya'll need to get your sight checked sugarcube, cause I saw both times where Sargast held off because the princess can't just come back from the dead!" Applejack said to Twilight and Rarity. Pinkie and Fluttershy seemed to be playing rock, paper scissors off to the left.

"Hey! Hey! BREAK IT UP!" I yelled at them. They all turned to me, their faces red. "Jeez I thought you mares didn't argue a lot! Anyways that is fighting, so who's next?"

"You aren't tired?" Twilight asked me.

"Nope." I said.

"Me next!" Rainbow said.

"Well since your bones aren't super strong like Luna's I will put pillows on my hooves." I said, walking into my tent looking for some pillows. I came back to see Applejack and Rainbow standing in the ring together.

"We decided to tag-team you, since we are just beginners." Rainbow said as she shared a sly smile with Applejack.

"Okay, I can take both of you." I said to them, stepping into the ring. Then I heard something, a small high-pitched sound. Like a mouse dying, I perked my ears up, listening. Then the sound intensified quickly, turning from a small sound to a bell ringing in my ears. My brain felt like it was burning, I fell to the ground, holding my hooves to my ears. A small, choked scream escaped my throat.