After Twilight was released from the hospital, she went searching for her teacher. She spent the time searching looking at the sights, committing them to memory. There were various shops and houses, including a bazaar and a potion shop.

Twilight eventually ran into her teacher when she entered the bar that was behind and above a strange shop that seemed to have nothing for sale. After the former pirate payed for his meal, he silently led Twilight to the place where he would teach her how to wield a sword.

"Now, young lass, we have a month to get ye up to the skill of the green-clad lad. I don't want to hear any complaining, or I'll drop yer lessons." The pirate explained. "Am I understood?"

Twilight nodded. "Crystal clear, sir," She said.

"Good. Now, there's a wooden sword on the side. you'll start with that." As he spoke, he indicated the wooden weapons on the side. Twilight ran to grab one, eager to learn. She returned with a medium-length sword. "Good lass. Now, I'll show you the basic stances, and I want you to mimic me. We'll get to the actual combat later."

He showed her the stances, and Twilight followed them, getting struck by a boken every time she faltered or missed a stance. This went on for about a week, when she had the basic stances down to an art.

"Wonderful, Missie. You may just impress this old pirate, yet. Now we move on to combat using these basic stances. I'll use the boken I was disciplining you with. You will use the wooden sword you practiced with. You must land 100 strikes on me before I land three on you." As he explained the rules, he flexed his magic out so it displayed a scoreboard. "Is that understood?"

Twilight nodded. She felt nervous, but wouldn't let her teacher down. "Understood, Teacher."

"Then let us begin! Have at you!" He got into a basic defensive stance. Twilight got into a stance she was comfortable with.

"I'll be sure to impress you. Teacher!" Twilight exclaimed before she charged at him, going into an overhead strike using her right hand while she coated her left in her magic, increasing its defensive strength. The former pirate blocked the strike with his boken, easily pushing her away. He then spun into a horizontal slash, but Twilight used her wooden sword to block the intended attack, using her left hand as a brace. This continued, with Twilight getting some hits in before the pirate managed his first successful strike on Twilight. She growled and returned to the offensive, managed to increase her hit count to thirty before the pirate was able to block her strikes.

"You're starting to tire." He proved this by getting a second hit in, knocking her back, where she stood, panting.

"I... can still continue." Twilight said, her determination winning out as she charged once again, getting a few more hits in before the pirate landed the third and final strike on her, knocking her on her back, with the boken pressed against her chest.

"This fight is over. You did well. I was not expecting you to get even this far. Every week, we will do this test, if you pass the test one week, the next week's will be harder. Take some time to rest. By the time you are done with my training, I will expect you to be able to hit me 100 times without being hit once by me. And, so you know, my name is..."

Author's Note

Author's note: That is Chapter 4. Please send comments with suggestions for the old pirate's name.