The Thunder Twist Chronicle

Chapter Eight

I wake up the next morning to Rarity tapping gently on my door.

“Thunder Twist?” She calls. “Thunder Twist, wake up, please. There is somepony here to see you.”

“Who is it?” I call out in a half dazed state.

“It’s Shining Armor, dearie.”

I am immediately fully awake. Shining Armor, the captain of the royal guard, is here to see me! What could he possibly want?

“OK,” I call out. “Gimme a sec.” I get out of bed, try to make myself as presentable as possible, and head downstairs.

Shining Armor is standing in the living room, talking to Rarity.

“-a will teach her personally to be skilled in advanced magic.” Seeing me he turns his full attention to me. “Ah, you must be Thunder Twist. My name is Shining Armor. I am captain of the royal guard. My sister, Twilight has informed me that you are to become one of Princess Luna’s personal. She has asked me to train both you and the Pegasus named Gambit. I thought that, even though you don’t get inducted until tomorrow, I should start training you today. Just to see what you two can do. How’s that sound?” He finishes speaking with a grin on his face.

I just stare. I’m going to be trained by the captain of the royal guard. I can’t believe how fast things are going. I only arrived in Canterlot yesterday, and I was already becoming somepony important.

Rarity looks at me worriedly. “Thunder Twist, are you alright, dearie?”

Her voice snaps me out of my reverie. “What? Oh, yes. Yes! That sounds wonderful!”

Shining Armor perks up at this. “Alright, let’s go. We need to get to Gambit, then head to the training yard.”

“Got it, sir.”

“Please, Thunder Twist, call me Shining Armor. I would prefer it if you looked to me as a friend rather than as a superior,” he gives me a friendly shove. “Let’s get going, then.”

We leave Rarity’s house and head down the street in the direction of Gambit’s house. The streets are surprisingly empty. Oh, wait! It’s only five in the morning. Nopony with any sense is up at this hour. I guess I have no sense. Ha!

We arrive at Gambit’s house after five minutes of walking silently through the empty streets of Canterlot. Shining Armor knocks on the door.

No response.

He knocks again, louder this time.

Still no response.

He knocks yet again, this time nearly breaking down the door.

“Hold on, damn it!” We hear Vinyl Scratch’s shout from inside the house. “Don’t you know what the fucking time is?” She unlatches the door and opens it. Upon seeing the captain of the royal guard and her son’s best friend standing on her door step, her jaw promptly hits the ground.

“S-Shining Armor. Thunder Twist. What are you two doing here?” I feel I should mention that she had her sunglasses on, even though she just woke up.

Shining Armor speaks up, “Hello, Vinyl Scratch. We are here to take Gambit to training. My sister, Twilight, thought that he and Thunder Twist, here, should be able to ahem,” he assumes a very convincing Twilight impersonation, “’fulfill their duties to the utmost tomorrow, when they go on duty.’” I have to hold back a laugh.

Vinyl, on the other hand, bursts out laughing. “That sounded just like her. I’ll go get him then.” She runs upstairs. We hear her knocking on Gambit’s door. “Hey, sweetie, time to wake up.” I can’t help myself this time. I shriek with laughter at hearing Gambit called “sweetie.”

“Mom,” we hear Gambit say tiredly. “It’s 5:15 in the morning. Why are you waking me up?”

“Shining Armor and Thunder Twist are here to take you to training.”

“WHAT? Why didn’t you say so? I’ll be down in a minute.”

We hear Vinyl chuckle then head back down stairs. “He’ll be down shortl-.”

She is interrupted by Gambit zooming down the stairs behind her. He looks at us with a huge grin. “When do we start?”

Shining Armor grins back. “When we get to the training yard from here.”

“Then let’s get going.” He leans over and gives his mom a kiss on the cheek, making my heart ache for a connection like that. Gambit then rushes out the door.

As we start heading down the street, Gambit starts spewing a stream of questions. After the third time he asks what we are going to do, I interrupt him.

“Hold your horses, there, ‘sweetie,’ we’ll find out when we get there.”

We arrive at the training ground shortly thereafter. It is an open, circular area with dirt on the ground. There are training weapons racked on the opposite side of the ring from us.

Shining Armor turns to us. “OK, guys, here’s the deal. This morning we will be doing hoof to hoof combat training. At noon we will take a short lunch break. After that, we will start weapons training. At five o’ clock you two will have a sparring match. Then, you will be allowed to go home. Oh, and flying is permitted. You will sometimes need that ability to gain advantage over your enemy.”

“But,” Gambit asks, “we have been at peace for the past twenty years. What enemies will we face?”

“There is always a chance that either of the Princesses may be targeted. It will be your job to protect Princess Luna from any potential threats. Now, let’s get to it.”

The next six hours progress swiftly but gruelingly. Gambit and I learn how to stand properly when facing an opponent. We learn different types of strike to incapacitate an opponent, but never to kill. Life is sacred in Equestria, and we do not believe in killing anypony, even an enemy.

Near eleven o’ clock, we start practicing on dummies. After about a minute of punching the dummy, I start to notice scorch marks on the burlap skin. Keeping up my stream of punches I call out to Shining Armor.

“Uh, Shining Armor? I think something might be wrong with my practice dummy.”

“Why do you say that, Thunder Twist?”

“Well, because each time I punch it, there is a burn mark right where my hoof just was.”

“Hmm.” He looks closely at my hoof while I continue to punch. Finally, he straightens back up. “There is nothing wrong with the dummy, Thunder Twist, but it does seem that you have a built in weapon.”

“Huh?” I stop punching and look at him blankly.

“Yep. It seems that you can command fire to come out of your hooves. You need to learn how to control this, so you will not hurt anypony. After lunch you will practice on controlling this weapon. I believe that after that you will be able to wield a flaming sword. You will also need to learn to control the heat of the flame.”

“Sweet, I’ll start now, so I can get started before lunch.”

Shining Armor laughs. “Haha, OK.”

I spend the next hour concentrating on getting my hoof to flame. After thirty minutes, I get a small flicker, and from there I just keep getting better.

After lunch, I continue my training while Gambit begins his weapons training. I am now able to make a two foot long tongue of flame that can cause instant second degree burns. I feel rather proud of myself. Now I just need to make it second nature, so I can do it in combat.

Five o’ clock comes without me even realizing it. Shining Armor calls out to the two of us.

“OK, guys, I think we’ll call it a day. No sparring today due to Thunder Twist’s unusual… weapon. I don’t want anypony to get hurt. We will resume the day after tomorrow.” He walks off, leaving Gambit and I alone on the training field.

“So,” Gambit says, “nice training, huh.”

I look at him. “Yeah, it was.”

“That flaming sword of yours was pretty bad ass, dude.”

“Thanks, man.” I look up to the sky. “I had better get back. Sil’s father is in town, and I’ve never actually met him. He’s always gone on business for months at a time.”

“OK, man. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He takes off toward his house. I stand there for a minute, then take off toward Rarity’s.
I land softly outside the door and walk in. In the living room, Sil is sitting on the couch talking to a white Unicorn with a blue mane and mustache.

Fancy Pants looks up to see me. He gives me an accusatory glare. “Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?”

Sil sees me and speaks up. “Oh, Daddy, this is Thunder Twist. He’s the Pegasus I was telling you about. Remember?”

“Ah, yes.” He looks back to me. “So you are Thunder Twist.”

I straighten up. “Yes, sir.”

“Well, Shining Silver has told me all about you. Am I to understand that you are living here?”

“Yes, sir, that is correct.”

“Well, in that case, go wash up. Dinner is almost ready.” He smiles kindly at me.

The rest of the night is spent around the dining table. We all talk of small things. Sil asks about my training. I give her a brief overview, purposefully skipping over my flaming sword. I don’t think I want to let anypony know about that just yet. Fancy Pants tells us about his travels. I listen avidly, though I have been to all the places he has. He has some really interesting tales.

After dinner, Sil and I walk up to our rooms. As we stare at each other before saying good night, a sudden impulse takes over me. I take a deep breath, undo my mask, take it off, and kiss her on the lips.
I meant it to be a brief one, but the feel of her lips against mine is intoxicating. After the moment of initial shock, she starts returning the kiss. Oh, sweet Celestia, this feels good. We stay locked like this for a good minute before I need to put my mask back on. Looking into her eyes, I see pure joy. I lean over and hug her tightly.

“I love you, Sil,” I whisper in her ear. “Good night. Sleep well.”

“I love you, too, Twisty. Good night.” With one last peck on the cheek, she walks into her room. I head into mine and crawl into bed, ready to face tomorrow.