Chapter One
I stood over my opponent as we both drew our weapons. He drew a mace and I drew a sword, both made of wood.
My orange opposition taunted me. “Face it Cloud, you can’t beat me.”
“Remember Firestorm, this is a test of form, not tongue,” I replied as we began to circle one another. Then, Firestorm began to swing his weapon as he charged at me. I dodged out of the way just before he landed a blow. I raised my head for a downward strike when he bucked me square in the jaw, shooting my head back as he swept my front legs from beneath me. I hit the floor as he tried to land a blow on my back but instead took a headbutt to the throat. I got up and slammed into him, knocking him over. We rolled off each other and got to our hooves.
“Still wanna say something ‘Storm?” I asked my friend, Firestorm, as I opened the arena door. We trotted out into the atrium of the Cirrus branch of the Pegasus Crusades. Several pegasi were beating up dummies or fighting one another. This was the place where most of the training was done.
A small, black mare trotted up to me from a severely scarred dummy. “Nice fight. That’s a record time, no?” She asked.
“Don’t know, Black Wing. I don’t keep track of stuff like that. All that matters is that I learn, and if I don’t learn, then my goal is to teach,” I said.
Several Pegasi shot me odd looks as I walked to the weapons rack. I stored my wooden sword and took my armor, sheath, and claymore, Nothung. I quickly got into my armor and clapped Firestorm on the back.
“Don’t feel bad about the loss, but watch out for Black Wing. She won’t let you hear the end of this.” I said with a chortle
“Yeah, I know," Firestorm said as he strode past several wrestling ponies in a corner of the large atrium we were in, out to the cloud-track. “Wanna run some?”
“Yeah, why not... I've got nothing better to do.”
********
Inside, I met up with Black Wing in the mess hall. I curled my wings up around the hay bacon, chewing at it slowly.
“You really should use a fork to eat that, you know.” Black Wing said, staring at my wings.
“Maybe so, but you never know when a pair of extra hooves will come in handy.”
“I think I know what Firestorm would do with them.” She said with a grin.
“Oh please, I could do so much more with them than you think.” Said Firestorm, jokingly.
“Enough, you two,” I said shaking my head at them
“So, Firestorm, how’d you feel about that match?” Black Wing said mockingly.
“Okay, I understand that I lost that match, but do you really need to rub it in?” Firestorm asked.
“She wouldn't be teasing me if you didn't go around drunkenly yelling that you could ‘whoop my ass like a misbehaved foal.'” I said, chuckling.
“Mayb-” Firestorm began, but was cut short by a blue pony putting her hoof down on the table.
“You three need to stop arguing and follow me.” The blue pony commanded.
“Night Shift? What’s up?” I asked.
“General Twister needs you in the briefing room.” The mare said, trotting away.
I stood up, and signaled for my teammates to follow me.
********
We trotted into a large room with a round table. The walls were rather bare, but the table had a large map pinned to it. On the side sat General Twister, a large grey stallion. He motioned for us to do the same.
“Okay you three. I’ve caught word from one of my scouts that the Earth Ponies have camps set up here, here, and... here.” Twister said, pointing his hoof at three locations around the Pegasi’s piece of land.
“I assume you want us to take them out?" I asked
“Yes, but make sure absolutely nopony gets out. We’ve received word that a military commander is stationed at one of the camps, and who knows what he could do if we let him live.” General Twister said, sweeping his hoof into the Earth Pony-controlled territories. He slid a map across the table towards us. “Take that and go. The walk shouldn’t be more than a few days.”
I slid my chair and threw the general a salute. “Alright then sir, we’ll get right on that.” And with that, I strode out of the door.
Black Wing and Firestorm rose from their seats and followed me, getting suited up in their armor and weapons. Black Wing wore a black cloth tunic with chainmail inlay. Firestorm wore the same armor as I did, just with a different color scheme.
The armor was fairly simple, plate and chainmail were bound together, the helmet had sliding plates from below the chin that latched to the rest of the helmet.
The weapons were colored per request. My claymore’s blade was a brighter white and the hilt was the same material but darker. The pommel had a dragon’s head while the crossguard bore large, dragon-like wings. Black Wing’s dagger was longer than the average one. It had a black handle while the blade was a greyish color. Firestorm’s mace was barely smaller than a short sword. The hilt was a light red that faded completely to orange.
“Are you two ready yet?” I asked.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Black Wing replied, knotting one of her hoofwraps. We began galloping across the cloud city of Cirrus. When we got to the edge of the city we dove off and in a few moments we had set off on our journey.
Authors Note: Thanks to my friends who made this an RP and thank you to sqarishoctagon for coping with my less-than-mediocre writing skills. This chapter and all others will still be edited, so check back in for better/clearer writing
Author's Note
Seriously, this chapter and most others will remain WiP's for a long time.
Sorry about the lack of action in this chapter, but trust me, the next one is full of the stuff.
(Estimated release of next chapter- 1-3 weeks.)
