The effect of the Wooden Heart

The next day Sprit walked through the town with Bite, after the story yesterday he wanted to get on other thoughts. As he walked he heard a strange noise and as he followed it he saw Rainbow Dash who was kicking a cloud.

Spirit looked at her with a confused expression. "Hey Rainbow! What are you doing?"

" I only trained a bit extra because of the fight we had yesterday with Fallen."

"A battle? With Fallen?" 'They battle against a dark mage? Why?'

Rainbow nodded. "Yes Applejack, Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity Fluttershy and I fought against him and he defeated us all!"

Spirit opened his eyes wide. "How?" So Rainbow started to explain.

After a long explanation Sprit nodded. "Ok I understand how he beat you but why do you wanted to battle with him in the first place?"

"We wanted to show him that friendship is stronger but as he defeated us. I wanted to train harder to beat him!" She kicked the cloud again for a few times then looked back to Spirit.

"My teacher always said you shouldn't train fighting alone. If you do, you would only make more mistakes!"

Rainbow looked at him in disbelieve. "You teacher showed you how to fight?"

Spirit slowly nodded not liking where this was going. "Well, yes but I wasn't very good. I only know some tricks, nothing more!" 'And hated it!'

And Rainbow ask the question he didn't wanted to hear. "If you know how to fight why don't you show me this tricks in a battle?"

"I could but..." He looked to Bite, searching for help, but he just nodded in the direction of Rainbow. "Ok but where?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "In the arena of course!" And she flew off.

"But I have... to get my stuff first." Spirit sigh and he walked slowly back to the cottage as he reached it he walked in his tent and searched for his fight equipment. 'Been long since I used them!' He put his weapons in his bags together with a few fighting elixirs. 'I don't think I need them but always better to have them around.' He put his saddlebags on and walked in the direction of the arena.

As he reached the arena he saw that Rainbow was already ready to fight.

"Why did it took you so long?"

"If you want to fight with me I will use my weapon." With that he opened his saddlebags and pulled two wooden claws out of it and laid the bags away.

Rainbow chuckled. "This is your weapon? Some claws made of wood?"

Spirit ignored the chuckle form her and nodded. "Yes it is. So first of I am not a good fighter and second, you should know that I always fight with Bite." As he said that Bite walked next to him and stretched his back.

Rainbow protested. "Hey that's two against one! That is not fair!"

Spirit shook his head. "No it is not but do you think that the battle against Fallen could be called fair? My teacher taught me very early that you shouldn't ask for fairness in a fight! You know, in my first fight, my teacher fought with his Manticore against me alone!"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Fine! I trained so hard I can't lose!"

'I can't believe she did not protest any further!' Spirit walked in the middle of the arena and stopped there. "If you say so. Anyway get ready!"

Rainbow flew in the air and pointed with her spear to him. Spirit puts the claw on and closed his eyes. "Bite watch out she is very fast so wait for her to attack so we can counter. But don't be too hard on her, I think she doesn't know what it means to fight against two at once." He waited and opened his eyes and saw Bite nodding.

Spirit turned to Rainbow. "Ok we fight till somepony of us is disarmed, is struck down or one of us gave up! On three! One... two... THREE!"

Rainbow instantly rushed at him as he said three. Spirit jumped a bit to the left and Bite rammed Rainbow as she landed. As she stood up again she saw them both charge at her so she jumped in the air but Bite jumped too and Spirit jumped on the back of Bite and attacked Rainbow. She tried to doge but he did not aimed at her, he aimed at her spear and his claw hooked at the end.

Spirit used his weight to pull her down. She tried to free her weapon but his claw didn't gave in. As they landed on the ground Spirit let her weapon go, she instantly tried to get in the air again but didn't saw Bite jumping at her. He stepped on her wings and hold them down, Rainbow on her side tried to hit Bite with the end of her spear but it was blocked by Spirits claw. He grabbed her spear with both claws and twisted it so she had to let the spear go.

Bite let her wings go and Spirit threw the spear before her hooves. "Not bad Rainbow but if you fight against two you have to be more defensive." 'Be happy that I am not my teacher, or it wouldn't end so painless.' But he kept this thought for himself.

She rubbed her hoof who hurt from the twisting. "But you said you were not good at fighting!"

"Yes I did but I have still more experience in fighting than you do. I have fought more battles than you did but I lost every single one of them till now. "

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Against who did you fight before?"

"Well the most of them were against my teacher except one. In which I fought against Leaf." He stopped. '...No you did this to come to other thoughts.'

"And you lost all of the fights?"

Spirit first didn't response but then nodded. "Yes I did. Also my teacher used a similar fight style so I was able to learn much from him. In comparison to you, I don't think Fallen is able to teach you any pegasus techniques and even if he could, only knowing how to fight doesn't mean you can fight. That takes much work!""

She rolled her eyes. "Ok ok I get it! You are the better fighter."

"This is not what I meant. For example I know how I should fight but my physical abilities are not enough for that but for you, you should ask Fallen to fight against the Pegasus shadows more often for starters... and if you want I can show you some tricks."

"Ok let's go but I want a rematch after that!"

He tapped on his chin. "Ok I will train with you a bit but you have to listened! And for the rematch, I will do it when you have learned more about how to fight."

Rainbow nodded.

"Good now, stand in front of me." As he said that Rainbow instantly stood before him.

"I will try to attack you and you just have to doge! Understand?" She nodded.

Spirit attacked her with one of his claws. Rainbow tried to doge by duck her head but Spirit didn't aimed for her head but for her spear. He grabbed it with his claw and disarmed her.

Spirit rolled his eyes. "You did the same thing again if you want to doge you have to keep you're weapon as near to you as you can or you can be disarmed easily. We do it again."

They did that for a few times till Rainbow was able to doge him without being hit or disarmed. They also did some other doge exercises but they were all done quickly. As they finished the last Rainbow wanted to go on immediately.

But Spirit shook his head. "I only wanted to show you how to doge somepony who want to disarm you, instead of hurt you but still, Fallen is your teacher not me!"

"Oh come on! Let's do the rematch at least!"

"No we trained the whole day! We both are too exhausted for a proper fight and I said that we do a rematch when you learned more! Also I am hungry."

"You three can eat with us!" Spirit turned around to see Twilight.

Spirit smiled. "Yes that would be great. But only if it doesn't bother you!"

"No it is no problem. Spike is making pancakes."

"Alright, do you want pancakes Bite?" He turned around to see that Bite nodded and barked a bit.

He chuckled a bit and turned back to Twilight. "I think he wants to come too. What about you Rainbow?"

"Sure! I am in!"

They walked to the castle and Twilight brought them to the dining hall. They all sat down except Spirit. "I will go help Spike a bit!"

He walked into the kitchen where he found Spike already cooking the first pancakes. "Hello Spike. Can I help you?"

"No thanks. But could you say me did Twilight brought somepony expect you with her to eat?"

"Yes Rainbow and Bite are also here."

Spike turned to the pancakes and nodded. "Good to know so I have to make some extra! Does Bite also eats some?"

"Yes he dose but could you give me the batter for his pancakes, so I can add the blossom powder to it?"

"Of course." Spike turned around and gave him a bowl of batter. Spirit put it on the counter and grabbed a vial with powder from his saddlebags. He opened the vial and pour all of it in the batter. He mixed it for some time and gave it back to Spike.

"Here is the batter for Bites pancake. Don't mix it with the other!"

Spike grabbed the bowl and started making the last pancakes. "As you say! Tell the other the food is finished in three minutes."

Spirit nodded and walked back to the other. As they waited Bright joined them. "Hello Spirit and Rainbow. Oh and Bite! What brings you all here?"

Twilight answered for them. "They are going to eat with us, did you told Fallen?"

She nodded. "Yes but he won't come he is still working on an experiment."

Sprit petted Bite on his head while listening. "Is that normal for him?"

"Yes sometimes he left out a meal to finish his experiments." Twilight stated him, while Bright walked over to Bite and petted him.

Rainbow smiled. "Well more for us!"

Suddenly Spike opened the door with two plates of pancakes, one with normal ones and another with pancakes with green points. Bright quickly walked over to Spike and grabbed the seconded one for his back with her magic. "Let me help you Spike. Why are there green points on it?"

"These are the pancakes for Bite I put some powder in it. Just lay the plate over there!" Spirit pointed to one corner of the room, then walked over to Spike to help him carry the other plate to the table.

Bright laid the plate down but turned to Spirit. "Why does he have to eat different one?"

Spirit raised an eyebrow and turned to Twilight. "She doesn't know about magic plants?" Twilight nodded and looked a bit ashamed. "Well for the short version, Bite has to recover his magic and I use a magic powder from a plant to do this."

Bright turned to Bite who already ate one of the pancakes. "Interesting, when will I learn about magic plants?"

"Later, first we finish your other studies. " Bright seems a bit disappointed for a moment.

"I could show you something about magic plants and nature magic!" At this Bright got big eyes. "But only after you finished your other studies and Twilight has to give her ok!"

Bright nodded happily. Spirit wanted to say another thing but was interrupt by Rainbow. "You can talk later, I am to hungry to wait any longer!"

They all nodded and so they started eating. After a while Twilight spoke up again. "So how does it come that you two trained?"

Spirit looked to Rainbow. "You can explain!" Then turned to Bite. "And how do the pancakes tastes?" He felt an big amount of happiness. "I take that as a good." Turned smiling back to his food and listened.

"So I wanted to train to beat Fallen. Then Spirit found me, we talked and I challenged him for a battle. He accepted so we went to the arena but suddenly he said I had to fight against him and Bite."

Spirit interrupted her. "I never said I would fight alone and also it has been long we fought together and Bite grew much since then!"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Anyway we fought for some time till Spirit disarmed me. He told me I should doge better. He showed me bit how to doge and then you came."

Suddenly Bright spoke up. "If Spirit and Bite can fight so good how about a match against Twilight?"

Spirit was so surprised that he choked on the pancake. Rainbow punched him quickly on his back. Twilight nodded to Spirit. "Yes we could do a small fight for training. If you want Spirit!"

Spirit chough heavily. "Well we could but I don't think the match would be long. Bite what do you think." He turned to him and waited.

Bite thought for a moment but then nodded so Spirit turned back to the others. "Ok then we can fight but I will use some extra tricks so I have at least a chance!"

They all seemed a bit surprised but Twilight nodded. "Then let's go to the arena!" With that they all went back to the arena. As they three make them self ready for battle Spirit didn't put his saddlebags away this time.

Spirit turned to Bite. "Bite remember I won't be so fast with these bags we have to be more defensive this time." Bite nodded and Spirit turned to Twilight. "Good we are ready! The rules are if someone of us is disarmed, struck down or give up the battle ends. Bright count down from three!"

"Ok then THREE... TWO... ONE... GO!"

Spirit grabbed instantly in his bags to pulled out a black bottle and threw it right before Twilight. As it hits the ground the bottle broke and black smoke instantly covered a big area of the arena. Bite instantly ran into it and disappeared but Spirit stayed outside. Meanwhile Twilight tried to find a way out of the smoke but when she tried to flew out of the smoke something hit her several times and then suddenly was grabbed by something, she swung her sword around and heard something break. As she was free she quickly flew in the air.

Spirit saw that she flew out of the cloud so he threw another bottle in the cloud and it quickly cleared and he could see that Twilight had cut one Bites wooden paws off. While he was rebuilding it Spirit turned back to Twilight who was shooting several bolts to him. First he didn't knew what to but then got an idea and threw several bottles to her. Everyone of them was hit by one bolts they all broke and a big cloud of green smoke flew to Twilight. She on her side started flapping quickly with her wings and blew the smoke to Spirit.

The smoke covered him for a second then disappeared but he got it in his eyes so he closed them. 'No, that is bad! Quickly I have to lose this bags!' He dropped his bags and he took a deep breath started concentrating on his bond to Bite. Twilight now attacked him with more paralyze bolts but Spirit doge everyone of them. She was surprised how he managed to do this without seeing anything and decided to try it in melee fight. She attacked him but he blocked every attack from her and counterattacked her every time but she could block every one of them.

After some time she looked around and saw that Bite was only sitting and looked at the fight. She got an Idea and turned away and started attacking Bite and as she did Spirit stopped instantly and Bite started fighting just like she expected she was able to hit Bite on one leg and he broke down. Instantly Bite stopped and Spirit attacked her from the side. With furious attacks with his claws he was able to disarmed her from her sword.

Twilight shot a bolt that Spirit have to back up to doge. Twilight saw that he was running towards her again. She thought quickly then threw her shield in direction of Bite and it hit him right at his head and he broke into pieces. Twilight turned back to Spirit who stopped in the middle of his attack and she was about to shot a last paralyze at him. But Sprit stopped her.

"You won! You don't have to paralyze me."

Twilight stopped and instantly the others came down. The first who spoke was Rainbow. "That was awesome! You beat Spirit! He had no chance! Oh sorry no offence."

"No problem but could someone give me a wet rag for my eyes!"

Bright levitated one over to him. "Right here!"

"Thanks!" He rubbed his eyes clean and then turned to Bite who was fully repaired now. "Good fighting my friend, it was my fault that we lost!"

Twilight walked to them. "You fought very good but did I got it right that you watched yourself through Bites eyes when you were blinded?"

He nodded. "Yes it is a bit hard to aim like this but we trained this a lot back in my homelands. But my mistake was to try blinding powder in the first place. It only gave you an opportunity to separate us. I lost the battle as I tried this."

They looked confuse at each other till Rainbow turned back to him. "Why did you fight on if you knew you would lost?"

"Because this battle wasn't about winning I just want to see how good Twilight is, this never was a competition or anything like that!"

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "It was not? Anyway do you will train with us or not?"

'When did she got that idea?' "Bite what do you think?" He turned to see that Bite was thinking for some moments then nodded. "Ok then but not every day, I will tell you when I will train you!"

Rainbow instantly flew into the air. "Oh yeah! Spirit will train me and then I will beat Fallen!"

He turned to Bite. "She did not get that, I meant only once a month or so? And also did she forget that I am not a pegasus?" He turned to Twilight with a confused expression.

"She is just happy to train with someone how doesn't remind her of her mistakes all the time!"

He raised an eyebrow but then shook his head. "Anyway I have to go if she comes down again, please tell her that I will tell her if I train with her but she shouldn't expect that very often."

"I can do this."

"Lets go Bite!" Spirit walked away closely followed by Bite.