Chapter Two: Training. Also, Girls!

Monster

Chapter Two: Training. Also, Girls!

“Shiny...” Said a voice, as if far away, and I felt my shoulder move.

“Uhhh.” I tried to swat the hand away from my shoulder.

“Shiny.” The voice was clearer, and my whole body started shaking.

“UHHH.” Go away! I’m trying to sleep.

“SHINING ARMOR GET THE FUCK OUT OF BED YOU HAVE PLACES TO BE!”

“AHHHH!” I screamed as I fell off of the bed, after my dad shouted into my ear. I stared at him for a full second before shouting, “What the hell, dude? I was sleeping! I got into a bad fight yesterday, as I’m sure you saw the bodies in the street!”

He looked at me for a second before replying, “...Go take a shower. You have an hour to get to the castle.”

The castle? Why would I... OH SHIT. I shoved past dad and ran down the hallway. ‘Why did I have to get stuck doing this? Well, I won’t jump through that bitch’s hoops. The only reason I’m going is to learn to fight better.’ I thought, as I rushed to the shower.

One considerably short shower later, I was clean, semi-refreshed, and off to learn how to guard a tyrant.

At exactly 11:57 A.M, I walked through the gates.

At exactly 12:02 P.M, I walked into the guard training area.

I watched a Mage officer pull out a watch, and mouth, ’12:02?’

At exactly 12:03, the same officer came over, and floored me.

“What the fuck?” I yelled from the ground, whilst rubbing my chin. Nothing seemed to be broken, but by Discord, it hurt!

“You’re late.” He said, with an expressionless voice.

“By three minutes! THREE!” I screamed.

“Look you pussy, if this is how you react to a hit, we have more work than I had originally thought.” He said, while shooting me a smirk that said, ‘I’m better than you, and you can’t do shit about it. (You know the one.)’

“You wanna fight? Let’s do it then.” I said, while pushing myself off of the ground.

He looked at me like I was stupid. “...Do you even know who I am?” He asked, sounding surprised. I opened my mouth to reply that I didn’t give a shit, but he cut me off. “I’m Midnight Strike. The royal guard captain,” he said slowly, as if talking to a child.

“Then I guess it’s gonna be that much more embarrassing when I kick your ass,” I told him cockily. He just shook his head, and motioned to one of the fighting circles imprinted into the grass.

Long story short, he kicked my ass.

I walked into the circle and cracked my knuckles. He walked into the circle and immediately went into a fighting stance. I followed suit. He had a stance I had never seen before. His hands disappeared behind a veil of shadows. Magic. My mind instantly felt... off.

‘Oh shit.’ I forgot everything I knew about fighting, and rushed him. He did a jump kick, and shattered my nose. I stood back up in time to catch a spin kick to the face. This time I didn’t go down, but tried to punch him. He leaned back, and watched my fist go by. (A technique he later called ‘Dodging the Bullet.’)

Not pausing to let me correct myself, he completely broke my nose with a punch of his own. I went down hard. His hands stopped glowing, and my mind cleared.

He walked over to me, “Give up yet?” He asked while offering a hand to help me up.

“You fight well, for a Mage,” I said whilst grabbing his hand, “but you should’ve kept up the magic.” I finished, as I pulled him toward me and planted my feet in his stomach. Feet firmly planted, I kicked as hard as I could, and launched him across the circle.

I immediately sprang to my feet and rushed toward him, trying to press the advantage. Of course, I forgot he was a Mage. He just threw his hands in my general direction, and a way over-powered gust of wind launched me about thirty feet out of the circle. I landed on a sharp rock, which had pierced one of my lungs. I laid there and started to drown in my own blood. Strike came over and waved his hands, healing me instantly.

That was it. I had lost. I only got one damn hit in.

We spent the rest of the day going through hand-to-hand combat techniques. At the end of the day, he asked me what guard regiment I wanted to join. I chose the night guard, because I didn’t feel like dealing with stuffy assholes during the day.

I started walking home, wondering once again how this had happened. I never asked for this. I never wanted this, as I’ve said multiple times. I mean, sure, my life wasn’t perfect, but at least I could make sense of it. This? I’m alone now. My only friend, my brother, -Not by Blood, but by Bond- had abandoned me. I only had Twi left. I couldn’t include my father in that, because he was a Princess loving jackass.

And of course, there was Blade, for whatever that was worth.

They say hindsight is 20/20. Well, looking back, it was worth quite a lot, actually.

The next day, Saturday, at around noon, Twi and I were just sitting around the house, reading. Out of complete boredom, I put my book down, and looked at her.

“...Wanna learn how to fly a kite?” I asked, somewhat hesitantly, because I knew how she loved reading.

She stared at me for a second, before a sunny smile broke out across her face. “Okay!” She said, with more cheer than I could ever muster up. It was absolutely infectious.

I felt a small smile form on my face in return. She was quite literally the only light in my world at this point in time. I would give everything to protect her. “I’ll be right back,” I told her, running upstairs to grab my kite. I suppose I should get on with describing the damn place.

The front door opened into a kitchen, with light blue walls, and small little designs that Twi and I had scribbled while growing up. The kitchen broke off into dad’s room if you turned left, and the living room if you chose the right door. The living room was simple: two recliners, a couch, a small table in betwixt all of these things, and a bean bag in the corner, Twi’s little ‘reading area’. There were stairs in the living room leading upstairs, where there was my room, Twi’s room, and a bathroom. There was also a door leading to a bathroom off of the living room.

Twi’s room was a light magenta, with a bunch of magical stuff scattered on her floor, her bed being the only solace, an island among a sea of paraphernalia.

My room was much simpler. It was black. I had a bed, I had a desk, I had a dartboard. I had a closet, which contained clothes, my kite, and a few other miscellaneous items that aren’t really important enough to mention.

But that’s a hell of a lot of buildup to say I ran upstairs and grabbed my kite. Then, without stopping I ran through the living room and threw Twi over one shoulder, the aforementioned party giggling like mad. I made it all the way to the door before I saw the gap in my planning. I knelt at the door and turned my back to it.

“Would you kindly?” I playfully asked over my shoulder, in a faux polite accent.

“Of course, dear sir!” She said in a fake posh accent, before breaking into giggles again. I grinned, knowing this would be a good day.

The walk to the park only took about ten minutes. At least, it would have, were we walking. But I still had Twi over my shoulder, so I moved at a pretty fast clip to keep her entertained. We made it in about five.

When we got there, I explained how to fly a kite to Twi, and got it in the air to demonstrate. Of course, flying it means running around. In a park. It was just my luck that I accidentally ran into one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen in my life. Ran into in a literal way. Yeah, we both went down. Fuck. Twi ran over to see if I was okay, but I was busy checking on the girl I knocked over.

She was holding her hand to a cut on her forehead, which was bleeding a lot. “Wha- what happened?” She asked, in an extremely dazed voice. I stopped and actually looked at her. Her hair had yellow, purple, and magenta in it. She also had pointy ears. ‘Pointy ears. Okay, she’s a Mage.’

I looked at my sister. “Have you learned how to heal yet, Twi?” She nodded. “Awesome.” I went back to looking at the girl I knocked over. Her eyes were locked onto my face, and as my mind registered something I hadn’t noticed before, I looked at her in fear. I looked at her ears, then back to her eyes. “Oh sh-.” I cut myself short and looked at Twi. “Crap.” I corrected myself. Twi’s hands were surrounded by a purple aura, and the wounds on the Archon slowly started to close.

Archon of course being the fourth sub-race of human, combining Terran, Aviate, and Mage into one. Just being an Archon means being Royalty.

No lucidity filtered into her eyes, and that is when I started to think I may have fucked up big time. I lifted the Archon up, and told Twi to grab the kite. When she had it, we started the walk to the nearest hospital. It took us about twenty minutes to get there, and only about five for them to tell me what was wrong.

“She has a concussion,” The doc told me. “It will affect her thought process, her balance, and basically all of her motor functions. She honestly is in a state very similar to comatose, but for some reason she is hanging on to consciousness. We beleive it’s because she’s an Archon, but not one I’ve ever seen or heard of. We don’t know anything about her, and she’s in no shape to tell us anything, so she will either have to stay here or stay at your place.”

“She can stay at my place. It’s the least I can do for giving her a concussion.” I said, hoping dad would understand.

The doctor nodded. “In that case, I’ll go get her.” He walked away to get her.

I fell onto a chair and put my face in my hands. Nursing her back to health was the only way I could see for not getting charged with assaulting royalty. ‘Maybe when she snaps out of it, I’ll have enough time to explain that it was an accident, and that I’m really all that Twi has.’ I can only hope.

The doctor came back out, and I looked up. “She’s all yours.” He said. I nodded and thanked him or his help before departing. I carried her back to my house, and laid her down in my bed. I closed the blinds, and turned to leave. I could feel myself finally start to tear up in fear. Not for me, but for Twi if I were taken away.

Something grabbed my arm. I turned around, and the girl was looking at me in sadness. “I’m so sorry,” I told her, while brushing away tears. “I never meant for any of this to happen.” I saw a tear start to form at the corner of one of her hawk-like eyes.

She opened her mouth, possibly to try to comfort me, but nothing came out. I nodded and felt the tears start in earnest. Great, racking sobs that put me on my knees on my own floor. Thankfully, the Archon’s hand was still on my arm, and she pulled me onto the bed and held me while I cried, her hand stroking the back of my head. At some point, I started talking. I told her everything, more than I had ever told another living being. I told her about Trix, I told her how I disliked Celestia, I told her about Blaze, about Blade. I talked about Twi, how I was worried for her. Finally, I told her about my fears of jail because of assaulting her. She was an excellent listener.

Might’ve had something to do with the fact that she was unable to talk. But, I digress.

Finally, when I felt like I couldn’t cry anymore without dying of dehydration, I stopped. And still she held me. I just sat there in her arms, feeling better at getting that all off of my chest. Of course, I had to ruin it by looking at the clock.

“Oh gods I’m late for training Strike’s gonna kill me!” I yelled in one giant breath, while rushing out of the room.

The Archon just shook her head. ‘Boys.’ She thought.

*THUD* “AW FUCK, MAN!” I yelled, pained. Strike’s fist was moving so fast. It was as though his fist was leaving a slipstream of blood behind. Mine, in case you were wondering. I threw up a hasty block at his kick, but he just kept the motion going and hit me with his other foot. In the face. I went flying back, and slammed into a wall. ‘What is this, a Bruce Lee movie?’ I thought. And then I thought, ‘Wait, what? Who the hell is Bruce Lee?’

Shaking my head at my own ridiculousness, I got back to my feet just in time to catch a punch straight to the face. I don’t mean a hook, I mean he hit me square in the nose. Now, I don’t know you’ve ever had your head against a wall, and then be punched into it, but I can tell you that I went down fast. Just, out like a light, you know?

I was jolted back to consciousness by a bucket of ice water directly impacting my slightly fucked up face. “So, you gonna be late again?” He asked in a polite tone, as though he had asked something as ordinary as, ‘pass the butter, please.’

“Sir no sir!” I yelled, still in a shitload of pain.

“Good.” He waved his hands and the pain slowly disappeared. “Now get up, we still have training to do.” The training was basically the same as the punishment for being late, except for the fact that he used magic to soften our blows.

When I got home from training, it was about 6:15 in the morning. I immediately went to check on the Archon. She was sleeping. She looked absolutely adorable. I resolved to check on her tomorrow, after I woke up. I walked downstairs, and fell onto the couch. I then pulled out my mp3 and chose my ‘sleep’ playlist. It’s amazing what magic can do, huh?

Anyway, I started drifting off, as the opening bars of Monster by Aviators and Omnivore filtered through the headphones. I fell asleep right as the lyrics started.

Too bad I had to ruin it by dreaming.

(These lyrics are all done by ear, and I apologize if some of them are wrong. Also, I suggest pausing the song between each verse, if you choose to listen to the song while reading.)

‘So beautiful,

And more than I could ever dream,

So how I thought you’d see that I,

Wasn’t what I seemed.’

I could see the Archon. She seemed to be waiting for me. But... she couldn’t see me. At least, she couldn’t see the real me. She couldn’t see what I was.

‘Time went by,

And I fell so in love with you,

Leading myself to believe,

What wasn’t the truth.’

The scene shifted, and I could tell that time had passed. We were both older, and I was carrying around a darkness she still couldn’t see. I told myself it wasn’t there, that I was imagining things. ...I started to believe myself.

‘It feels like I fell asleep,

And woke up in a nightmare,

Fighting through, A world of Chaos,

You’re the reason that I’m here.’

Another shift, and I felt... different. Angry. She had discovered my Heart of Darkness. I... I was fighting an unwinnable war... Alone.

‘And you’re the only one I’ve dreamed of,

You turned me away,

Turning me into,

The monster,

I am today.’

I saw myself confronting her. Celestia was there as well. Something about this scene just felt innately... right.

‘I abandoned Order when you broke my heart that day,

It then occurred to me,

Chaos

Is the only way.’

I saw the statue of Discord offering me power, and he said something about a... a price? I shook my head, the price was too high. The eyes of the statue glowed, and I was hit with an intense feeling of grief.

‘When all you thought of me,

“He’s a beast that can’t be tamed”

The monster that you saw me for,

Is the monster I became.’

I was standing on a hill overlooking a plain. the plain was scattered with bodies of Celestia’s soldiers. I laughed.

‘It feels like I fell asleep,

And woke up in a nightmare,

Fighting through, A world of Chaos,

You’re the reason that I’m here.’

I was being... chased? But... there was nothing behind me...

‘And you’re the only one I’ve dreamed of,

You turned me away,

Turning me into,

The monster,

I am today.’

Whatever was after me, I could feel it getting closer...

(Dubstep)

I turned around, magic crackling in one hand to obliterate whatever was behind me, and saw... a mirror. But I looked barely human. I looked... Demonic. I fell to my knees in shock, and... horror at what I had become.

‘I’m not the same,

Because of what you did to me,

Well I’ll show you that,

I’ve become what you thought me to be.’

I was once again in front of Celestia and the other Archon. I gave them an evil smile, and threw a bolt of magic.

‘If I can’t have you,

Then,

I’ll throw the world away,

Oh you are to blame,

For turning me into the monster I am today’

I saw the Discord statue again, but this time it was different. I destroyed the statue. I saw a dark form slither out among the dust, before the scene shifted.

(Sick Beats)

I was in a forest, and there was a small Zebrican child. Daddy, she called me. We were... In a forest?

‘It feels like I fell asleep,

And woke up in a nightmare,

Fighting through, A world of Chaos,

You’re the reason that I’m here.’

I saw Midnight Strike, kneeling before the Discord statue, praying. It was telling him of the price that I was told of. He nodded, and drew a knife.

‘And you’re the only one I’ve dreamed of,

You turned me away,

Turning me into,

The monster,

I am today.’

I felt... Alive. I was tearing my way through Celestia’s army with almost no effort, and a power I had never seen before.

(Dubstep)

I felt... Awful. I was watching Canterlot burn... I asked myself if this was all worth it.

I couldn’t answer myself.

(End song)

“AHHH” I was jolted awake by someone grabbing my shoulder. Without thinking, I grabbed the person’s arm, and rolled of the couch, in a way that made them end up in the spot I was just in. I calmed down as soon as I saw it was the Archon.

I had the distinct feeling that I was having a nightmare, but I couldn’t remember anything I had dreamed.

“You know, you didn’t have to sweep me off my feet. A simple ‘thank you’ would have worked just fine.” She said, somewhat irritated. Even her voice was adorable.

I scratched the back of my head sheepishly, and blushed. “Sorry. But you shouldn’t even be moving yet, let alone wandering around the house!”

“Well, Archons heal fast.” She said nonchalantly. “So anyway, you told me your whole life story, but you forgot the most important thing!” She paused. “Your name! I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours first.” She finished.

“Oh, that’s easy. My name’s Shining Armor. And you?”

“Well Shiny, my name’s Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but you can call me Cadence.”