[CJG] Delaying Tactics (Winter Tells Everstorm Part 1)
Winter took a deep breath, standing on a cloud high above Canterlot. Her eyes were closed, her wings were spread, and the bright sun shone down on her back from above. The cloud was almost two hundred metres above the overcast cloud-levels above Canterlot, and just a little below her flight ceiling. Her blue spikey mane blew in the breeze, barely shoulder length, and messy. Her white coat shone as she took a few more breaths of the air.
The teenage filly opened her eyes, taking another deep breath. “You can do this,” she told herself, staring down at where she knew Ignis Estate to be below the overcast clouds. “You can do this.” She knew she could. She could tell her mother. Her mom wouldn’t judge. Her mom wouldn’t care. So why was it so hard to work up the courage? Why couldn’t she just go down, march up, and tell Everstorm?
She growled in frustration, jumping down from the cloud and turning, beginning to wing her way towards Obsidian Martial Arts, a studio in the International District of Canterlot. She needed to clear her mind, and the best way to do that was always either painting or combat practice. The former would require her to go back to her house and possibly run into her mother, however, so combat practice it was.
She landed on the roof of the studio with very little trouble. It used to be that she couldn’t find her way around Canterlot outside the large sewers and storm water systems. It had taken her a while, but a shift in her thinking had allowed her to extend her nearly map-like memory of the tunnels to all of Canterlot. Outside Canterlot would still utterly destroy any sense of direction she had within it, though.
She walked over to the edge of the roof before jumping down onto the street with little trouble. It was three stories down, but flaring her wings at the end of her fall let her slow herself enough to land just fine. She turned to the door and opened it, heading into the entryway to the sound of a bell that rang through the building. “It’s just me, Sun!” Winter yelled immediately, heading behind the front desk of the building and out into the main floor martial arts studio.
A quick trip over to the shelving taking up an entire side of the room had her equipped with training knives. Small wooden props about the same size and shape as daggers suck out from her wing joint as if she had a dew claw, and overlapping her outermost primary was a small, plastic piece taking the place of the blade that would otherwise go there. Her forehooves were encased in weights to mimic the feel of the reinforcing gauntlets she would wear otherwise.
Once equipped, pulled one of the dummies over from the side of the room out into the centre and began. Pass, strike, sidestep, sideswipe, dodge, feint, strike, double-strike. Her mind began to empty and clear after a few moments, and soon, nothing else was really mattering but for the practice.
Unlike sparring, which forced her to clear her mind in a different way, focusing on her technique occupied her mind rather than forcing her to empty it. An errant thought couldn’t screw her up here, because there was no room for errant thoughts to enter. Not if she wanted to do it correctly.
She didn’t know how long it was later that Obsidian Sunrider, owner and Master of the studio interrupted her. “Winter Frostfire!” he barked, the name in Zebrican, getting Winter’s attention immediately.
The teen paused, looking up from her place at the end of a strike, right wing extended as she’d just passed the dummy. Looking around, she noted the bunch of stallions and mares at the entrance to the studio, just off the matt, before shooting Sunrider a sheepish smile. “Sorry, got a bit carried away,” she said.
“It’s fine, though if you want to stay, you can help me teach the class,” he said to her kindly, his voice far more confident than Winter usually heard from the stallion.
“This a Flash Storm class then?” Winter asked, smiling at Sun’s nod. “I’ll stay then. Should be fun.”
“Good,” Sun said with a smile. “Dummy needs to go away though.”
“But I thought you were leading the class?”
Sun snorted out a laugh, giving Winter a look as the filly moved to obey, despite the joke. He then turned back to the ponies at the entrance. “Form up and get ready to begin! What you were watching was an excellent execution of the Bladed Tornado style of Flash Storm. While not the most brutal of the styles, it is perhaps one of the deadliest. Winter there approximately Red Belt. She’ll be helping teach today.”
Winter moved to the back of the class as Sunrider began. The warmup stretches were followed by exercises, before finally getting to the actual learning and practicing of the art. Winter moved among the students, correcting them as needed, helping them and demonstrating as needed as well. While her main focus was on the slightly diverged Tornado Style of Flash Storm, she was well versed in the Classic Style as well.
“Hey, Instructor?”
Winter turned to look over at the stallion. Or rather, mostly a stallion as he was sitting on the line. If Winter had to guess, he was maybe nineteen, twenty years. “What’s up?” she asked.
“What did Master Obsidian mean by your belt level being approximate?” he asked curiously, running through the strikes and blocks with his partner still.
“Tornado Style of Flash Storm isn’t actually recognized by the Council of Masters,” Winter answered. “It’s a derivative taught mainly to the Special Equine Service, Military Guards, and various Intelligence Branches of the guard as a fast and brutally efficient takedown method. I just happen to be focusing enough on it that it would be a waste of time and bits for me to do the Council of Masters tests for any of the recognized styles of Flash Storm.”
She went back to doing her rounds, helping out. It wasn’t too long before Sunrider called an end to the practicing and they went through the Class Closing routine. After the students were dismissed and heading out, Winter went over to Sun. “This the only class you have tonight?” she asked him.
“Sorry Winter, whatever you’re avoiding can’t wait any longer,” he said in answer, voice halfway between amused and apologetic.
Winter sighed, rolling her eyes. “Fine,” she groaned, before heading over to the shelving and leaving her weights and practice blades there, which she’d been wearing through the entire class. “Thanks for letting me help, though Sunny. I did get a question on your approximately comment, though.”
He sighed. “I have to give your qualifications for them to trust you. You sure you don’t want to test?”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Winter answered with a smile. “It’s enough to know and be proficient. I don’t need any qualifications since I’m not going to be teaching it.” She turned and began to head towards the door. “Thanks again, Sunny, and I’ll see you around.”
She exited the building, before taking a breath and sighing, looking around as the sunset began to wash the city in shades of orange, the white marble of the city managing to make its own beautiful mirror of the sunset. Winter wasn’t able to delay any longer, sadly. No more delaying, as she turned and began to head towards her new home at the Estate of Lord General Ignis, where her and her mother now resided.
A while back, Everstorm had gotten a new job that came with a permanent posting in Canterlot. One as a Retainer to Lord General Ignis moving on from her former job as a Lunar Intelligence Agent in Their Majesties Service. Since then, while they still had their original house in the Lunar District of Canterlot, Winter and Everstorm had lived at primarily at the Estate of House Ignis. The Estate that Winter was heading towards now, though the filly was walking instead of flying. Another delaying tactic.
The walk back to Ignis Estate on the outer edge of Canterlot was long and towards the end, Winter even found herself slowing all the more. She was not looking forward to the coming conversation. Finally, she paused around the corner from the massive Estate, taking several deep breathes, before finally turning the corner, and heading towards the ancient fortress perched on the edge of Canterlot, and home to the House of Ignis for generations. Her new home along with her mothers. The place where she would finally tell her mother and things would change for better or for worse very, very soon…
