Tales of Equestria

                                          Chapter 10: The Night is Rough aka Training is Magic Part Two

I wandered around the castle, poking my snout in every possible place, and talking to anyone I came across. Eventually, the sun went down and I began making my way to the training room as Luna told me to. I trotted up to the door, and realized there wasn't a sound to be heard from inside unlike earlier. I carefully opened the door and looked around. Due to it being night time, it was nearly pitch black save from the bright crescent moon hanging overhead and a few dim lamp posts scattered about. I took a few steps forward into the room and began looking for Luna. "Hello?" I called out, "Is anypony there?". I suddenly had a strange feeling like I was being watched. I walked to the center of the room where there was a single lamp lit, and suddenly I felt something 'woosh' behind me and I whirled around to see...absolutely nothing. I backed up into the pole and looked around warily. "Ello guvna! You look tense there love, are you quite alright?" said a strongly accented feminine voice from behind me. I whirled around to see what appeared to be a dark purple coated mare. Except she had quite a few distinctly different features. First of all, her pupils were slitted not unlike a cat's or a dragon's. Next, she had a pair of sharp fangs peeking out of her admittedly cute smile. She also bore strange bat-like wings on her back as well.

She stood there smiling at me, standing not three feet from me. I jumped back and yelled a bit in surprise, falling over in the process. Yeah, not exactly one of my finer moments! The pony/bat thing started laughing, "Ahhhhahaha! Your quite the laugh mate!" She said, turning her head to call out into the darkness. "Ay! Silver Tip! Come check this pony out mate! He's a real hoot this one!". Before I could make a move, another bat-pony emerged seemingly melting out of the blackness of the night. This one was a brown furred, stockily built stallion. He looked at me for a moment then smirked, "I'll be he won't last a minute with us!" he said smugly. The mare shot him a smirk "Yea? I don't think he'll last long either. But we'll just see about that won't we mate?". I jumped up and began to slowly back up, "Alright, let's not do anything hasty now! I didn't mean to wander in here, I was just told-" I suddenly backed into something rather solid. I turned around to see a large rather evil looking bat-pony wearing full armor and an eye-patch staring at me. I jumped back and hoped this dude wouldn't instantly turn my story into a 'pulp' fiction! He glared at me for a moment then spoke in a deep voice, "So, are you the little runt that Mistress Luna told us about?". I blinked, rather nervous and slightly scared of this rather lethal looking bat-pony. He began to tap his hoof, as more bat-ponies trotted up, surrounding me. "Well? I'm waiting for your answer runt!", I took a deep breath and opened my mouth, "Please don't hurt me?". Dead silence echoed though the room for a good minute. Then suddenly they all burst out laughing, a couple falling to the ground and rolling around laughing up a storm. I suddenly felt like I had just walked into a huge joke everyone was in on it, except for me. The armored one with the eye-patch stepped forward and threw an arm around me, "You should have seen the look on your face! For a moment, I thought you were going to wet yourself newbie! Hahahaha!".

Yeah...hilarious..."W-wha?" I asked with the utmost intelligence in my confusion and slight embarrassment. He gave a slight bow and spoke in a friendlier tone, "Your Blade Edge, correct? Let me properly introduce myself. I'm Shadow Claw, commander of the Lunar Guard." He said gesturing to the gathered bat-ponies, who were still giggling and chuckling at me.

"I hope you'll forgive us, we have a bit of an image to uphold. And we love to mess with ponies a bit as well." he said smiling.

Wow, what do you know? These guys weren't as bad as I thought! I relaxed and bit and laughed, "Alright, I admit it. You had me goin there for a minute! But I was just letting you have your fun. I wasn't actually SCARED or anything dumb like that!" I said confidence returning. A few guards just chuckled at that little display. Shadow Claw adjusted some scary looking blades on his hooves and said "Hmm, I see. You have guts, just not the skill or strength to back it up! Lady Luna? What do you think?" he said looking past me into the darkness behind me. A giggle floated out of the blackness and Luna landed in the lit area smiling, "Indeed, he is quite amusing. I don't think we have ever laughed so hard as we have! Hahaha!".

After some introductions, most of the gathered ponies went back to what they were doing. Shadow Claw went over to the weapon rack and picked out a basic short-sword. "Alright newbie...let's see what you know. Mistress Luna?" He gave her a look. She smiled and took a sword of her own, tossing me one as well. "Woah, woah woah!" I said backing up not liking where this was going.

Shadow Claw chuckled and shot a grin at me, "Oh come on now my boy! Your eventually going to have to face more than just one opponent! Don't worry, we'll take it easy on you...but you'll never learn if your just given it! Now, hold up your sword and defend yourself."