The Black Rose

My training needed to be improve if I wanted to avoid a beating like Strong Hoof gave me again, so I went to the only place I could think of, The home of the Bat Pony Tribes. Now everyone knows about the Thestrals, Princess Luna’s guards were made up almost exclusively of them, draconic winged pegasi more closely related to bats then birds. What was less known is that like us they too had three tribes Thestrals, Nightsabers, and Grove-Walkers.

Nightsabers are more well known than people realize since they can literally blend in with a unicorn populace with the only difference being that their horns were more curved and pointier than their unicorn cousins. They also tended to be combat magic specialists and sociopaths lending themselves well to their efforts at being Princess Luna’s Wardens and interrogators (read torturers). They are delightfully loyal to their Princess and will only serve her whims, so training with them was not only impractical, not a unicorn after all, but impossible without a princesses orders. That last bit was NOT going to happen so my only other option was to go to Moon Strikes family.

Moon Strike was the only Nightsaber born into a proud clan of Grove Walkers and showed traits of both Tribes with his expertise in combat magic and blatant sociopathic nature. He also showed skills in stealth and physical combat which are the primary skills of the Grove Walkers.

Grove Walkers were not unlike our Earth Ponies, such as myself, except that they tended to have a black thumb when it came to farming and were larger than the average Earth Pony with the smallest of them being able to look a behemoth like Big Macintosh in the eye. With the largest being almost the size of some Saddle Arabians being nearly the size of their Princess.

Scoots came with me only because she had been trained here by Moon Strike before he passed and had information on the leaders of the various clans. She had been cast out due to her mixed heritage, her mom having been a pegasus of the Sun tribes as they called us. She was My daughter now and even though she wasn’t happy about going back she would be thrilled to rub her new mom in their face.

The Grove Walkers compound was borderline monkish with its ascetic and severe lines and utter lack of anything remotely comfortable. The Grandmaster, Night Strike, waited for me on the steps to their compound and despite the rumors of him being a taskmaster he was actually smiling. Though the fangs made it seem more predatory and less friendly.

"You have come to me, outsider, and I will agree to train you on this little ones word that you are worth it" Night Strike said in his gravelly voice. "I am to understand that you cannot speak?"

Signing with Scootaloo translating "Yes, I cut my vocal cords to save my own life from the ones I am training to defeat. Two are dead and forgotten, Two remain in the darkness of my mind."

"Very well, let me see what you can do" directing Scootaloo to a training arena nearby. "You will Fight each other first and you will train together. When and only when you are ready to learn from me will I teach you anything."

Taking a two hoofed fighting stance across from Scoots I waited for a signal to begin, Which the Grandmaster gave almost in a perfunctory way. Scoots was on me in moments aided by her wings, which while not able to make her fly yet certainly aided her speedy form of combat. Something that I learned quite quickly as her two front hooves landed in my gut, trying to knock me off balance. I countered by grabbing her right hoof and sending her flying past me into the nearby dirt. I quickly landed on her back and wrenched one wing and her same right hoof into a painful submission hold leading her to quickly yield.

"Good, good, you have learned some of our ways." Master Night Strike called from the edge of the arena "Enough for now, Young one, go get your wing tended while I prepare your lesson plans..." He continued ominously.

The lesson plan I came to find out was brutal in both its depth and scope, what followed was the toughest four months I have ever endured, by the end my hooves had been micro fractured hundreds of times and allowed to heal leading me to have hooves like steel plates, my already trim body now sculpted like marble with almost no excess body fat lending me further speed and stamina. The weighted training clothes we wore at all times toughened our muscles to the strength of finely woven cables. What I once thought of as a fine fighting form I now saw as flabby useless waste and this forced me to take in my fighting leathers in secret to now form fit once again to my sculpted frame.

Scoots had changed as well and could now take to the air for a good length of time before beginning to tire. She had been awarded a small set of throwing darts that could be hidden within her wings for actually managing to land a blow on Night Strike during our final sparring match.

"You both have changed much during your time here, no more will I teach you, unless you enlist in Princess Luna's Guard as there are techniques and mysteries that I would only entrust to them. Mayhap when your quest is done?" He asked

Master, My skills may be useful to her Highness but my past would come in between me and that lofty goal. I signed to him slowly as he had only just started learning to understand sign. Perhaps if I had joined, I could have left my past in the past, but that was not the path I chose.

Nodding, he turned dismissing us but not before I heard him mutter "Such a pity, you have chosen a dark path, I may one day be called to stop you..." with one last look back he left us to gather our things and head to the train station. Scoots, having settled into her seat said in a whisper "He knows who you are, he saw your leathers." she said this in a voice so small and terrified that I could do nothing more than bring her in for a hug and let her know it was going to be okay.

I hoped I was right....