Moon and Star
“As I’ve told you again and again, you don’t meet the basic requirements for becoming a royal guard.” said a golden armored pony
“I know what you’ve said, sir, but you have yet to tell me what these ‘requirements’ are.” Starburst said in an unmoving tone
The guard places a hoof to his face and rubbed his nose, “Fine you want me to be blunt about it, fine. You don’t meet our basic physical requirements for the royal guard. In other words, you’re far too small in height, weight, and muscular mass. As you are now you’d be more of a liability than anything else.”
Starburst growled on the inside. That excuse has been the biggest road block of her young life, and she was long past being fed up with it. She knew that she could handle the difficult training that was associated with being a member of the royal guard.
“I am fully capable of handling the rigorous training involved. All I ask is that you give me a chance to prove my abilities.” Starburst said firmly
“I’m sorry miss, but no is no. Now go home and stop bothering me.”
“What’s going on?” came a mature female’s voice
The mysterious voice came from behind Starburst, and when she turned to see who had spoken her jaw dropped like and anvil. The mare was easily one of the tallest ponies she had ever seen, not including the princesses.
Her height wasn’t the only thing that caught her attention, she was also an alicorn. The mare had long wings that covered her flank and the leading edges of her wings were a beautiful violet colored rose pattern. Her head was crowned with a broken unicorn horn with a pair smaller spike horns on either side of it.
The alicorn features weren’t the only things that Starburst had taken notice about this dark purple pony. She also had the deepest red pair of dragon eyes that she had ever seen. As if they could pierce her to the core.
The recoupment officer had also noticed this stranger and nearly had to force himself back to his senses, “Sorry ma’am, but this is a private matter. Official guard business.”
“Oh? The way the two of you were discussing it in front of the palace makes it hard for somepony not to take notice. Why don’t you just fill me in.” She says with a commanding smile
Starburst spoke first, “He is refusing my admittance into the royal guard.”
“Why’s that?”
“Mostly because of her physical condition. She doesn’t meet the minimal requirements to permit her entry.”
The strange mare looked at Starburst, “What if I train and vouch for her?”
The recoupment officer scrutinized her for a second, “Sorry ma’am, but who are you?”
She raised her wings to reveal a mid-evil shield with a sun and moon inside of it, “My name is Moon Shadow.”
The stallion looked at her in a mix of confusion and respect, “Chief Captain Moon Shadow?”
“The one and only.” She replies with a grin, “So what do you think of my proposal?”
“Well if she can meet your standards, then I suppose we could make an exception.”
“Good to hear.”
“Hold on a second. Who are you anyways?” Starburst interrupted
Moon Shadow looked warmly at Starburst, “An old friend of your mother.”
xxXxx
“Princess Twilight Sparkle, it’s good to see you.” Moon Shadow said as she hugged Twilight
“Moon Shadow, you know it’s perfectly alright for you to just drop the title.”
Starburst looked at her mother and at Moon Shadow in confused amazement, “You two actually know each other?”
“Of course we do, dear. Moon Shadow is quite the hero in Equestria. There’s even an entire book series about her and her adventures. I think that I have them in the library.”
That wouldn’t surprise Starburst one bit. She felt that her mother had almost every book that was ever written lied in the family library, all of which Twilight has had read at one time or another.
“So what can I do for you?” Twilight asked
“Well I caught this young filly fighting with the recruitment officer outside the palace. Apparently she wants to be a member of the royal guard.”
“Starburst, how many times have I told you to stop pestering the recruiters.” Twilight said sternly, the with a proud smile, “But it’s nice to see that you still haven’t given up on your goal.”
“So I take it that this isn’t the first time that you’ve tried to enlist.” Moon Shadow stated as she looked at Starburst
“No it wasn’t, and I’ll keep on trying till I am finally a member of the royal guard.”
Moon Shadow grinned devilishly at the young mares statement, “Very well, you’ve convinced me.” Then turned to Twilight, “Princess Twilight, with your permission, I would like to take your daughter on as my apprentice and train her to become my successor.”
Twilight looked back at Moon Shadow with wide eyes, “Are you sure? I don’t think that you’ve ever had an apprentice before.”
“You’re right, I never had one. But I have trained quite a number of other ponies in my time, all of which have done very well in their respective duties. And I feel that the same will hold true for Starburst as well.”
“Hold on a moment. Don’t I get a say in all of this?” Starburst said
Moon Shadow gave Starburst her attention, “And what is it that you would like to say on this matter?”
“Well first of all, you still haven’t told me who you are.”
“For somepony that wants to get into the royal guard, you don’t know the all that much about its most pivotal members.”
Starburst just looked at Moon Shadow, uncertain as to what she meant. It was her mother that had to explain it to her.
“Moon Shadow was the first mare to become Captain of the Royal Guard, and later the very first to obtain the rank of Chief Captain. She is the last of the warrior heroes in Equestria. And also the last of the devil ponies in the whole world.”
Warrior hero was something that Starburst had recognized. Her father would tell her storied of special ponies that lived during different times of the kingdoms history that had battle evil. There weren’t many, and admittedly she didn’t know each and every one. But one of the descriptions given did remind her of Moon Shadow.
But the other descriptions that her mother gave she wasn’t so sure about. There have been too many kinds of ponies that have held the position of Captain of the Royal Guard. Not to mention that she has never heard of a Chief Captain or of devil ponies.
“I’m sorry, but you’ve still lost me.”
Twilight looked warmly at her daughter, “don’t worry about it too much, dear. The two of you are going to have plenty of time to get to know each other.” Then she hugged Star burst with her wings, “If you survive your training with Moon Shadow then your acceptance into the guard is guaranteed.”
Starburst was still confused about the whole thing, but she trusted her mother’s judgment. “Okay I’ll go along with this training program of yours. What do you need me to do?”
“For now, just stand there.” Moon Shadow said, then she stood tall before the young mare and stretched her wings out away from her body, “I am Moon Shadow. Former Captain of the Royal Guard and Former Chief Captain of Equestria. I have been proclaimed by Princess Celestia as a warrior hero of the second age of the kingdom. And last of the devil pony herds. I do here by take the daughter of Princess Twilight Sparkle, one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and Flash Sentry, member of the Royal Guard, as my apprentice.”
After speaking Moon Shadow lowered her head and placed her broken horn upon Starburst’s brow. She then backed away and looked at the young mare, “Now that the formalities are taken care of let’s get going. Go and pack only your basic of needs for the months of training that you’ll be going through.”
Saluting with her right wing, Starburst answered, “Yes ma’am. Right away ma’am.”
Twilight watched her daughter rush off to her room to pack her camping gear and other supplies, “so you really think that this is a good idea?”
“At the very least it’ll keep her out of trouble.” Moon Shadow said with a half grin
“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.”