Unforeseen Anomalies

Chapter 3: Training

Celestia had thought it over. “I want to help you learn magic and how to fly.”

My eyes widened. “R-really?”

“Yes,” she says, nodding her head. “I will teach you. I will also have my third-in-command help Silver lining with his abilities”

Silver perks up. “Really? That’s so cool!” I bet that if he still had hands, he would do a fist pump.

Celestia lit up her horn and opened the door, revealing a buff earth pony guard.

“Silver lining, this is my third in command officer. General Fury” Fury bows as his name is mentioned. “I want you to go with him and learn how to fight. I see potential in you Silver lining, I believe that if you devote enough time and energy, you have the capability in surpassing General Fury.”

I look at General Fury to see a slight look of disapproval in what Celestia said about him, but he salutes and beckons Silver lining to follow him.

When they are gone, it leaves only me and Celestia. Luna got bored and went to do something else and I’m not sure where Cadance went.

“Now… follow me so we can begin your magic training.”

Nodding, I stood up and followed her. She led me to a closed door, which I opened. On the other side was a wide open room. It had a mannequin of a pony.

“Alright, the first time using magic can be very harsh, which is why we did it in here.” Celestia lights up her horn and envelops herself and the walls, ceiling and floor in a yellowy-golden glow. “Close your eyes and relax. Be aware of your surroundings. Feel the power of magic in the air around you. Channel that harnessed energy into your horn and fire at the dummy I have set up. Do not worry about the mannequin, I had it enchanted to put itself back together after it gets blasted to pieces.”

“Okay… relax, be aware of surroundings, harness magic, focus into my horn and… fire!” I open my eyes expecting the dummy to be blown to pieces, instead, some orange dust falls onto my muzzle, which I realize came from my horn. “Darn, I thought that would work.”

Celestia smiles at me. “My dear, magic is difficult to get the hang of. You must keep practicing. Now. Try again.”

I tried again. This time producing sparks from my horn. I tried yet again, this time successfully sending a beam of magic at the mannequin. I open my eyes expecting massive destruction. Instead, I see a small flame that flickers out of existence when a breeze comes through the open window

“ARGH!” I yelled out of frustration.

Celestia wraps a wing around me. “I must say you are doing really well so far. You are the third magic user to do that on, on her third try” That made me smile. “Do it again”

I do so, practicing again and again, after a while my magic gets powerful enough to destroy the entire mannequin, which made Celestia proud.

“Alright, Reise we are now going to try levitation. After that, teleportation.” Celestia summons an apple and puts it down on a table. “Imagine the apple in 3 dimensional space inside your mind. Once you have that in your mind, imagine yourself picking up the apple while feeding magic into your horn.”

I do as she says, I pick up the apple in my hooves and I examine it, trying to get a 3d image into my head. Once I do, ii put it back down and I start channeling magic into my horn and I imagine myself picking up the 3D apple image inside my mind. When I open my eyes, I gasp. “I did it!”

“You sure did, My Little Pony. Next I’m going to have you pick up something heavier… such as this desk.” She points her hoof at a large desk stationed near the door. “Do the same thing as before but with more magic in your horn. And do be careful with the desk, I use it for many things”

I nod and I imagine the desk in 3D space again. Imagining myself pick it up. When I open my eyes, I see the desk hovering 3 inches in the air, barely moving. I smile at my accomplishment.

“Am I done with levitation?” She shakes her head. “Not yet, next you are going to pick up multiple items at the same time.” My eyes widen, of course, how did I not see this coming… “The concept is similar to levitating one item, but picture both items in 3 dimensional space and imagine picking them up at the same time.” She demonstrates, picking up both rocks in her magical aura. “Now you try.”

I do as she said, but I fail to pick up both of the rocks. I glance up at Celestia before trying again, this time I manage to get my aura to surround both rocks but I am unable to concentrate enough to lift them both into the air. I let them go, I take a deep breath and concentrate deeply, forming a strong grip on both of the rocks. With much difficulty, I manage to get them both suspended in the air at the same time. I wipe sweat off of my forehead before I slowly move both rocks around in opposite circles. I manage to do three complete circles with both rocks before I lose concentration and one of the rocks starts circling the other way.

I sigh. I was so close too. Celestia turns to me and summons three more rocks. “Now hold 5 rocks”

My jaw fell open. “Five?! I know that even I am not ready for that yet.”

Celestia’s smile falters slightly. “I know you ARE ready, my dear-“

“’You just gotta believe’, I know. I’ve heard that so many times”

“You doubt yourself. Just try it once, then we will move onto basic teleportation and that will be it for today’s training.”

I smile. “Let’s do this then.” I walk up to the new stones and I examined them carefully. Mapping them out inside my head. When I am ready I stand back and I light up my horn, funneling in an impressive amount of magic. I focused on each of the stones, lifting them up one at a time trying to get a feel for them. When I feel comfortable, I lift all 5 rocks up at the same time. The amount of raw magic being channeled into my horn is like no other feeling I’ve ever experienced… it felt great.

Drunk off magic, I fail to hear Celestia call out to me as my horn becomes encased in an eerie orange light. Believing that I can do more, I start swirling the five rocks around my body, slowly at first but gradually getting faster.

I open my eyes, the magic overflows and I lose consciousness.

A while ago. Silverlining’s point of view

I follow General Fury out of the private room and into a long hallway. Once the door closes, General Fury turns to me. “Alright soldier, here’s the plan. We are going to go down to a combat arena. We are going to start off with a simple spar, I want to know what you are capable of. Then, we will begin focusing on your weaknesses and improving your strengths. Got that soldier?”

I salute him. “Sir, yes Sir”

He smirks. “Good, but no need to call me that, I ain’t your daddy”

We walked in silence, passing quite a few guards on our way. It seems news of a new princess has already spread to Baltimare, Ponyville, and most of Canterlot. Once we arrive at the combat arena, General Fury jumps up onto the mat and beckons me up.

“Alright! Let’s do this!” He lunges at me with his hoof, I manage to dodge most of the attack, but his hoof still connected with my left cheek drawing a line across my face where the skin broke.

I launch an attack of my own, balancing on my front hooves, I kick him in the side, sending him flying across the mat. I let him get up, it wouldn’t be a simple spar if I started beating him while he was down.

When he rose, he roared and charged at me. As time seemed to slow down, I swing my hoof into his chest, sending him flying above me. He looks at me. “If you keep beating ME up, I won’t be able to help you improve your combat abilities” he rose again and decided to play this carefully. He sidestepped in a circle, me going the same way. Waiting for the other to strike first. I stumble on the mat sending me off balance. Fury, taking advantage of this, threw his hoof into my muzzle, sending me across the entire room, which was an easy thirty feet.

I sighed and got up. “You win, did you get your evaluation complete?”

“As a matter of fact… I did. You excelled at hoof to hoof combat, you failed at Balance, and you were moderately good at distractions. Overall evaluation: you need a lot of work. While your hoof to hoof combat is rather good, it still needs a lot of work.”

I salute. “Sir, yes Sir”

He sighs. “Are you trying to frustrate me?” I shake my head. “Good, go see the medic to get your minor injuries healed up and meet me back here in 5 minutes.”

I salute again and I leave the room in search of the medic. I find her pushing around a medical cart with her magic. I stop her. “I was just in a sparring match and I want to know if you can help me with these minor injuries I have.”

She nods and my body lights up in a blue aura, I can feel the broken tissue on my left cheek reconnect and mend together, I can feel my spine realigning after it got messed up when I was thrown across the room and crashed into a wall. The aura fades and she starts walking away again.

“Thank you.” She nods. I gallop back to the sparring arena to see General Fury wielding a spear.

“I’m back, the nurse wasn’t too hard to find and she fixed me up, good as new.”

He smiles and puts the spear away. “Good, let’s start working on your athletic endurance.” He points to a strip of white paint on the floor, it goes around in a circle around the entire room. “I want 10 laps. Now!”

I grin and I start running.

Five laps in, I am starting to feel the signs of fatigue.

“MOVE IT! MOVE IT!” Fury was yelling at me wanting to keep me going.

Despite the fatigue, I am able to run 2 more laps before I collapse of exhaustion. I breathe heavily and I see General Fury walking towards me. “Well, I’ll admit, I didn’t think you’d make it as far as you did.”

I stand up and I walk to a water fountain. I lean forward and I start drinking the cool, refreshing water.

With a satisfied sigh I turned back to Fury who was smiling at me. “Ready for some more physical training?”

“Yes I am.”

“Good, follow me, we are now going to put you up against a dummy. The dummy will by magically controlled, it will try to attack you, but its movements are very predictable.”

I turn a corner and I see one of the dummies in action, fighting against a guard. It wielded a shield and a sword. Both of which I could tell were very real.it slashed at the guard but he jumped back to avoid the swing.

I turn my attention back to General Fury as he stops to talk to a unicorn, whom of which I am assuming will be controlling the dummy I fight against. I saw the unicorn’s horn light up and he levitated two swords over to a dummy, I had the feeling this wasn’t going to end well on my first attempt. Fury put some armor on, he had a helmet, armor on all four of his legs, a small shield on his back and a sword in his mouth. He turns to me. “This is how you are going to be wearing your armor when you go to fight the dummy, I’ve told the unicorn to take it easy on you since you are new to this and would probably prefer not to have your balls cut off by a dummy. Come with me we are going to find you some armor to wear.

We browsed through the armory. I found a set of armor that fit me perfectly and was my favorite color! Dark blue! General Fury rolled his eyes when he saw my excitement for the armor. Once it was fitted, I received my shield and sword. General Fury had me run three laps around the armory to get me used to the weight of the armor. When I finished, I was sweating up a river. Fury and I walked back out into the area with the dummies. Fury went and asked the unicorn to heal me of my fatigue, which he did.

I was ready. I took a step towards the dummy and glanced toward the unicorn who nodded and lit up his horn, taking control of the dummy. I took a step back as the dummy stretched its arms out, each arm carrying a sword.

Cue epic battle music… now

I didn’t have time to react as the dummy swung the sword in its right hand directly downward. I closed my eyes and heard a clang… the sword hit my shield!

I took the momentary advantage to lunge forward, swinging my sword at its chest. It cut a deep gash, bits of hay fell out onto the floor.

It swing both swords, one vertical and the other horizontal, I blocked the vertical sword with my own but the horizontal sword hit me in the flank. It wasn’t a deep cut, but if it didn’t get healed soon, I may die.

I glared at the dummy with determination in my eyes. I spun around, balanced on my front hooves and kicked.

*CLANG*

I look back to figure out what happened when I realize the dummy had the two swords crossed in an ‘X’ shape which blocked most of the force of my kick. Luckily, I saw a crack on both of the swords. This battle won’t last much longer. I smiled at the thought, which I immediately regretted because the dummy swung its sword…

The sword cut a very deep hole in my side, somehow missing all of my vital organs. I fell over, so the injury was facing upward. A little ‘water’ spout of blood erupted from the wound.

The last thing I remember of that night was General Fury calling for a medic team.