Steel clashed.
The harsh sound echoed in the small training yard. The alabaster Unicorn gave her sword a slight flourish and brought it around to point at her opponent. A grin blossomed on her face as she took a step forward.
“I’m ready to accept your surrender, darling,” Rarity trilled.
Twilight lifted her sword into a guarding position, her magic flowing along the handle. Her stern frown didn't waver an inch.
“I wouldn’t be so cocky, my Lady,” she said, stalking forward slowly. “You have managed to keep up so far, but I’m still holding back.”
“Oh, Twilight,” Rarity tsked. “I thought I told you not to go easy on me.”
“It is for your own good.” Twilight flicked her blade back and forth. “While you have improved, you still have much to learn.”
“Such as?”
Twilight’s blade flashed forward, barely blocked by the Princess’. The two blades locked against one another, then with a sharp twist, the bodyguard’s sword came out victorious, ripping Rarity’s weapon clean from her grip and flinging it to the side. Before the fact had fully coalesced in her mind, the point of Twilight’s sword was against her throat.
“First, you can’t treat a longsword like a rapier: it has a different length, it’s heavier, and it requires a different grip. Its use in combat is completely different. You’ve been using rapier techniques and grips. Capo Farrier is a good style, but it translates poorly.”
The sword withdrew and hung by Twilight’s side. Rarity reclaimed her weapon and pouted.
“You could have told me earlier, you know.”
Twilight flipped her short mane out of her face. “To do that would not have taught you properly, and you asked me to train you so you could stand at my side if the situation demands it.”
“I didn't ask to be treated like a child,” Rarity huffed.
“In swordplay, you are, and I’ve yet to meet a child who properly respects fire without having been burned first.” Twilight sheathed her sword. “We’ll take a ten-minute break, then pick it up from the top.”
Rarity nodded and walked over to where a servant had left a platter of fruit and chilled juice. Helping herself to a few grapes and a deep sip of juice, she savored the taste for a moment before looking at Twilight.
“Isn’t there anything positive that this practice is showing?” she asked.
Twilight turned a page in her book, a goblet floating next to her.
“Your positioning has improved,” she said simply, taking a sip. “And your stamina has increased significantly since our first session.”
“That’s all?”
“All that pertains to this situation, yes.” Her amethyst eyes bored into Rarity. “Are you still having nightmares, Rarity?”
The princess turned away, hiding her face. Unbidden, an image of the stallion rose up before her again.
“What makes you ask?”
“Your eyes have a slight bagginess to them and several times I have heard you mumbling and thrashing in your sleep. It seems to be a fair assumption.”
Rarity shook off the image and turned to face her trainer. “I see his face still, yes.”
“In time, you’ll either move on or grow used to it.” Twilight sat her goblet to the side and rose. “We all do.”
“Have you…”
“Killed anypony, my Lady?”
Rarity blushed, looking away as shame at the question burned in her cheeks.
“Several times. Each in the service of your father. For most of them, I never saw their faces. Helms or distance being a sufficient buffer. But there are three that haunted me for a time. I can still see them even so many years later.”
She went and put a hoof on Rarity’s cheek, oblivious to the sudden racing of the alabaster mare’s heart.
“But dreams cannot hurt us, and there are ways to steer your mind to other visions.”
“How?”
Twilight stepped back out to the training field and drew her blade.
“Take up a blade of your choosing. If you score a touch, I’ll tell you.”
Rarity rose and pulled a flat-bladed rapier from the racks on the perimeter of the yard. It was a little heavier than what she had trained with but similar enough that it felt like an extension of her magic. She turned to Twilight and gave a fencer’s salute.
Twilight moved her blade into a guard stance and nodded.
And then brought her book up before her, turning another page.
“Twilight!” Rarity protested, stamping her hoof grumpily.
“Yes?”
“Put the book down!”
“I see no reason to. I’m behind on my reading. Besides, at your current skill level, I believe I may be able to do both.” While her face remained neutral, the impression of a smile might have arisen.
Rarity gritted her teeth. She could hear the smirk in the voice of her bodyguard.
“Besides, my Lady,” the soldier grinned, a twinkle in her eye. “Is this not how our relationship started?”
The image of a fresh-faced recruit with a book stashed in a bush, who snuck pages during training rose to the forefront of her memory. A soldier who was a little more lively, a bit more innocent, but still unmistakably Twilight.
“It may also be how it ends, Twilight.”
“Is that a challenge, Rarity?”
Without a word, Rarity dashed forward with a lunge that was easily parried by Twilight’s blade, then another, a cut aimed at her left foreleg, was deflected soon after. She withdrew, blade at eye level, and picked out her target. Rarity feinted a high thrust and then shifted for a cut along Twilight’s left flank. It, too, was parried with nary a glance from her tutor.
She’s taunting me, Rarity thought, feeling her grip tighten involuntarily. She surged forward, bringing her blade around for a riposte of the parry she knew was coming…
And stumbled when her blade met empty air. There was a sudden sting on her rump as the flat of Twilight’s blade smacked against her cutie mark, earning a yelp.
“Too hasty,” the bodyguard chastised, turning another page. “Did you honestly believe raw strength would carry you through? I thought better of you than that, Rarity.”
She laid down the book upon the table..
Her blade rose. “In a fight, chaos reigns and you don’t have time for all the fancy back and forth, or the niceties of saluting your opponent. It’s brutal and savage and it is very, very real.”
“If you don’t intend to deliver injury with a stroke, if you hesitate, you will find yourself bleeding.” She pointed to the scar on her face. “I told you how I got this one, yes?”
Rarity nodded. “An overeager recruit.”
“Yes,” she said, then raised her blade and laid it across the scar. “I hesitated because I knew the colt from childhood. I almost didn’t raise my blade in time. Hesitation kills. And you’re holding back because it’s me.”
Rarity looked away. “That’s a cold way of viewing things.”
“It’s the survivor’s way of looking at things, my Lady. It doesn’t matter who it is, but if you really want to learn how to fight,” Twilight said as she lowered her blade and slid it away. “Then you need to be prepared to kill. Swordmareship is a method for taking a life nothing more. It can be used in the defense of others, but no matter what pretty words you dress it with, it is a method of dealing death.”
Twilight leaned down and took the Princess’ chin in her hoof, tilting her face up.
“I know you care for others. You have a generous soul.”She smiled softly. “But despite your feelings, sometimes you have to be cold.”
As their gaze continued, Rarity saw a flicker of something else behind the sadness.
“I know your feelings towards me, my Lady,” Twilight said.
Rarity, caught by surprise, started to sputter. How had Twilight discovered the tiny flame within her heart?
“Don’t be surprised,” Twilight said with a smile. “I may be a soldier, but I’m not oblivious.”
Rarity stood, blade clattering to the ground. “How long have you known?”
“Since the carriage ambush.”
Rarity gawked. “That long? And you’re only speaking of it now?”
Twilight shrugged and returned to her book with a flicker of magic. “It wasn’t prudent until now. You need to be able to sublimate your emotions in a time of stress. I can’t —“
Rarity’s sword flashed out and soared at Twilight, making the bodyguard twist at the impact.
“Are you alright!?” Rarity suddenly cried, not having intended to do any real harm with her little sneak attack.
Twilight stood stiffly. Her voice one of regret. “This wound can’t be so easily mended.”
Oh gods, no,
Twilight turned, and revealed the tip of the sword buried deep in the cover of her book.
“I just got this one, too.”
A cushion soared over from the sidelines and pummeled Twilight’s face. Rarity debated fetching another.
“Don’t scare me like that!” Rarity shouted, giving another bap with the cushion.
“Don’t launch sneak attacks, then,” Twilight replied. “I’m supposed to be teaching you combat, not assassination.”
“Oh, just, you…” Rarity sighed. “Sit down and talk. I’m probably not going to get a hit in today anyways.”
Twilight nodded solemnly, carrying over the tactical assault cushion from where it had landed and sat near her Princess.
“Was I really that transparent?”
Twilight poked at the pages of her book, trying her best to determine the extent of the damage.
“You were good at hiding it, my Lady. But after your reaction at the ambush and the assassination attempt later, I began to put the pieces together pretty easily. You do tend to let your eyes linger, and you make comments that could easily be passed off as jokes. But in retrospect, and given your admission just now, it’s a little obvious that you hold me in high regard, possibly more than friendship.”
“It’s true that I value you,” Rarity agreed. “But as to anything more, well…”
Twilight waited while her liege gathered her thoughts.
“It would be horribly inappropriate,” Rarity murmured. “Quite a scandal if it got out. But I must be true to myself. I do feel a certain fondness for you, and my heart aches terribly at the thought of you being hurt.”
Her hoof reached out and covered the bodyguard’s own.
“And if you don’t mind my being a little emotional about you, I would do anything for you. I can be most thoughtful for those I love.” The word almost stuck in her throat.
Twilight mused for a moment, brow creasing. But she also never moved her hoof.
“Well, there is one thing,” she said, dismissing the illusion spells over the weapons, leaving wooden replicas in their place.
“Name it.”
Twilight lifted the book in her aura.
“Would you mind replacing the book that you so thoughtfully stabbed?”
A groan echoed throughout the training yard, underscored by a light chuckle.
Author's Note
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