Moon and Star

“What kind of sick twisted pony came up with this sort of training?” Starburst asked in a strained voice

Moon Shadow smiled to herself, “That would be my master, Captain Heavy Shield.”

She wasted little time in starting Starburst’s training. The two made their way to an ancient looking training ground and set up camp just outside of the track field. Once their camp site was finished Moon Shadow strapped a series of heavy metal slates to Starburst’s back and told her to start running.

“Why would he use this sort of torcher to train a pony? I can hardly move with all of this weight on me.”

“That’s the idea.”

“But why? There’s got to be twice my weight that you tied to my body.”

“More or less. The main idea for putting weights on you is to weigh you down and build up your muscular mass and increase your total strength. This also increases your stamina in difficult situations, which proves to be incredibly handy. Truth be told, by comparison, I’m being nice.”

“You call this being nice?” Starburst questioned

“Oh most certainly. My master tied twice his weight to my back and strapped some to my hooves. I moved slower than you are now.”

Starburst stopped and looked at Moon Shadow, “You’re joking, right?”

“Not even close. Now hop to it tiny, you still have ten laps to go before we can start on your warm up exercises.”

Starburst wasn’t one to complain, she thought that it was anti-productive. She would spend hours helping out on the Apple’s farm, sometimes from sun up to sun down, working alongside Del and the rest of his family without so much as a whimper. But for some odd reason she knew that whatever training that Moon Shadow had in store for her it would test not only her abilities but also her resolve. And she wasn’t going to give in.

Moon Shadow on the other hand couldn’t help but feel nostalgic at the sight of the young mare struggles to move around the track. Memories of her own training flowed through her mind almost all of which were less than pleasant ones. Running in the snow covered mountains, sparring with veteran solders, battling wild beasts, and that was before she was Starburst’s age.

She had decided that when she would train ponies she wouldn’t be so harsh on them. There were ideas that Heavy Shield used that she liked, strap on weights being one of them.

Starburst had finished the run and staggered to her master and stood still waiting for the next round.

Moon Shadow looked at the sun then back to Starburst, “Not bad, but next time you are to cut a full minute off of your time. Understood?”

“Yes ma’am.” Starburst said through a heavy breath

“Now rest for a bit then we’ll start on the warm ups. We’ll begin with twenty wing pushups, followed by…”

Starburst stopped listening and wondered how easy it was for her to be talked into this situation.

xxXxx

Night had come and the young mare was exhausted like never before. All of the running, jumping, and flying had taken up most of her energy. She was surprised to have the strength to eat let alone anything else after what she was put through.

Once she was done cleaning up from dinner looks over at master, who was laying on her belly reading a book with strange looking scratches on its cover.

“Excuse me ma’am, but how much longer do I have to wear this thig?”

Without looking up Moon Shadow answered, “About six more months.”

“I have to wear all of this for six more months?!”

“No, not just that. I might add more over time, depending on how well you’re managing with the current weight. I want you to be able to move around just as easily with them on as if they weren’t even there.”

“I don’t know how my back will be able to take all of this.” Starburst sighed

“Don’t worry, you’re a tough little filly. You’ll survive.”

Starburst sighed again and laid down next to her master and took notice that the book that she was reading had the same kind of markings on its pages that were on the cover. They looked like ink versions of scratches, scrapes, and claw marks. It was a form of writing that she had never seen before, and considering that her mother was one of the biggest book worms that she knew, it said a lot.

“What is that?” She asked

“It’s dragonia, the written language of dragons.”

“I don’t think that I’ve ever seen writing like that before. What does is say?”

“It’s a story that an old friend of mine wrote a couple of centuries back. I could find you a translated version for you if you want?”

Starburst looked at her master with a raised eyebrow, “Your friends with a dragon?”

“Yes I am. With several actual, your Uncle Spike being one of them. But this story was written by a longma, or a draco-pony as most ponies call them.” Moon Shadow said with a soft, but warm, smile

Starburst took notice of her expression and grinned mischievously, “Is he somepony special?”

“Everypony is special in their own way, my young apprentice. That is something that had taken me a while to learn. But enough about that, you need to rest for tomorrow. We’ll be starting up bright and early and you’ll need all of your energy for it.”

“Yes ma’am, but before I do I have a question for you. If you don’t mind that is?”

“Of course not, what’s on your mind?”

“Well your nothing like any other pony that I’ve met, so I was wondering what exactly are you?”

“I suppose that’s a fair question. I am a devil pony. The name comes off sounding like I’m some sort of evil creature that haunts the dreams of little fillies and colts. You see over a thousand years ago a rouge group of changelings abducted pregnant mares and used dark magic to alter the unborn pony. Originaly I thought that it was an attempt at cross breeding the two, but after a lot of research I learned the truth of my heritage.”

“But why would they do that? For what reason would changelings want to alter a pony?”

“They were trying to breed a race of warrior ponies that they could control. But once my forbearers matured they turned on their creators and destroyed them. It wasn’t till my generation, the third generation, that we had a balance of power and intelligence which would terrify ponies for centuries. Even your mother and her friends were scared of me when we first met.” Moon Shadow said with a smile as she recalled the memory

Starburst raised a hoof slightly, “Wait a moment; my mother was scared of you? But you’re not scary at all.”

“I guess you could blame your Uncle Shining Armor for that. When she was just a little thing he would tell her stories of how devil ponies would take fillies away and eat them for dinner.”

Starburst had a hard time imaging her favorite uncle tormenting her mother with scary stories. But figures that Prism did more or less the same thing to his siblings.

“Now to bed with you, the night is fading and you need your rest. In the morning we start the fun stuff.”