Empire of Mercy

"I still don't understand why I'm here." Twilight complains, disgruntled. Much to her great dismay, just before Celestia had left the library to return to their duties, the princess had informed her that she would be joining Rainbow Dash for combat lessons.

"I thought you liked learning new things, what gives?" Rainbow Dash asks, flicking a glance backwards at Twilight as she leads the way towards the barracks. She had assured Celestia that she could find the way there herself, so Celestia had left ahead of them to arrange for a tutor to meet them.

"I do! And I was perfectly content learning things in my nice, cozy library." Twilight grumbles.

"C'mon, you gotta be more adventurous than that! We're going to learn how to fight!" Rainbow Dash grins broadly, stopping before the door leading out to the barracks, turning back to wink at Twilight before prancing on outside. Thankfully, her hooves are all healed now, such that one would not be able to tell they were ever injured at all, so she is able to move to her full capability once again.

The faces of their tutors are, to Rainbow Dash, unexpectedly familiar. Mooncrescent and his brother, Starblaze, are busy preparing the clearing set aside for the princesses two students, placing out training dummies, weapon racks, and more. Rainbow Dash blinks in surprise at the two colts only a few years older than herself. "H-huh? What are you two doing here?"

Mooncrescent waves cheerfully at Rainbow Dash and smiles. "Celestia told us you were getting antsy with your studies, and asked us to help give you a break with some combat training! I hope you're ready."

Rainbow Dash shakes her head in consternation. "I... No, why would she assign you two? You're still cadets yourselves! Not to mention, you're not even pegasi. Where's Silent Serpent?" Rainbow Dash asks, notwithstanding the fact that Silent Serpent was also not technically a pegasus.

Mooncrescent shakes his head. "Celestia asked us, not her." He states, firmly. "Most of the old guard were trained in the old ways of combat from before the recent reforms. We're the star pupils of our generation, so nopony else has mastered the new styles as well as us! Trust me, you're in good hooves." The colts disarming smile makes it hard to doubt him.

"And, I think you forgot that your friend here isn't a pegasus either." Starblaze points out behind his brother. "I'm sure Celestia will ask the captain to show you flying combat techniques eventually, but everyponies gotta start with the basics. No matter if they're an earth pony, unicorn, pegasus, chiropteran, or whatever else."

Rainbow Dash quirks her mouth, feeling perhaps a little unsatisfied. But she can't complain too much; she is getting her way, after all. "Alright, then. So, can we get this show on the road?" Rainbow Dash asks impatiently.

"Hold on!" Twilight interjects. Rainbow Dash glances over at the filly and groans; She has the face she gets whenever her curiosity is piqued, meaning she was probably in for a dramatic delay to actually getting started. "What do you mean by 'old ways' and 'new styles', precisely?" And why haven't I heard about this from Shining Armor, for that matter? Twilight silently adds the last part to herself.

Starblaze smiles at the filly while he sits to explain. "Until recently, most of the guard was equipped almost exclusively with spears and shields, despite centuries of development in technology and military tactics since the last major conflict. But Equestrian Intelligence shed some details on foreign weapons development and trends in recent conflicts in Prance and Skyterra which spooked Celestia right and proper, and lead them to adopt a series of military reforms. Most of them are still getting pushed through, since outside of Canterlot its much more difficult for Celestia to rapidly change things around. Drill sergeants need to get rotated around, equipment needs to be swapped out or mothballed... But here in the palace, at least the Royal Companions are already equipped in the new style."

While Starblaze explained, Mooncrescent went to the armory to fetch equipment, and he is now returning with a veritable mountain of odd-looking weapons the likes of which Rainbow Dash has never seen before held in his magic. "Here, put these on! Watch me, I'll show you how." Mooncrescent demonstrates, sliding a vambrace with a mechanical assembly onto his hooves before tightening the straps. Two blades protrude from the vambrace, one on either side of his hoof, but they are currently folded back to rest parallel to his leg, meaning they didn't obstruct his freedom of movement.

With a flick of his hoof, Mooncrescent demonstrates the mechanism, the folding assembly snapping down to place the two blade parallel to the hooves where they curved slightly like a predators claws. And then, equally as quickly, Mooncrescent presses the blades against the ground and twists his hoof at an angle, resulting in the blades folding back up against his leg once more. "They're not as well suited for formation combat as the old spear and shield lines, but these weapons allow much more mobility and better individual combat capability, things which Celestia emphasizes are more important in modern warfare."

Rainbow Dash tries to imitate Mooncrescent, with some difficulty fitting her hoof into the vambrace before flailing it around trying to get the blades to extend. Her tutor giggles and pulls her aside. "No, see, like this. The motion has to be pretty fast or it won't get past the springs in order to snap into place." He explains to the struggling pegasus.

"What about the rest of these? What are they all for?" Twilight asks, motioning towards the variety of other bits and bobs Mooncrescent had brought out. A couple are obvious enough; Bows and hornblades. But others resemble nothing so much as long blades with oddly sinuous curving lines and no apparent grips or straps.

Lifting one in his own levitation, Starblaze twirls a long, double-edged, S-shaped blade embedded with diamonds into the air. "This is a spellblade, its a weapon for unicorns. Once attuned to its wielder, it becomes remarkably easy to control with levitation for you, and very hard for anypony else. I'm personally something of an expert in its use, while my brother generally prefers the use of hoofclaws and hornblades."

Starblaze nods at Mooncrescent, before setting down the blade and picking up some others, which appear similar but are notably shorter, with one side blunted and attached to some kind of harness. "And this is for our resident pegasus. Wingblades. I don't think I need to explain how they work?" Starblaze scratches the back of his head. "...Although, I don't know if I can actually show you how to put them on. We'll just focus on other weapons for now, I guess."

Twilight's disinterest seems to have evaporated in the face of all this new information, and she carefully leans over the spellblade with keen interest. "Attuned to the wielder? How does that work?" She asks, reading the old ponish runes engraved on the blade. "Mooncrescent"... But I thought Starblaze said that he was the one who used the spellblade?

"Ah, noticed the engravings I see." Starblaze lifts the blade again, spinning it around over his head, showing remarkable control over the blade as he sweeps it around his body, between his legs, over the back of his tail, all without the shining silver metal touching him a single time. "We pick out gemstones and resonate with them so that their magic matches our own, making them easier to affect. Then, we engrave runes that hold emotional meaning to ourselves, because magic responds to emotion. So the more deeply the engravings resonate with us, the easier it is for us to wield."

Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes as Twilight continues on the conversation with Starblaze, and focuses her own attention on Mooncrescent, trying to imitate the unicorn's technique to snap the blades out. Eventually, she manages to kick her leg hard enough to snap the blades down, embedding them in the soft soil when she puts her hoof back down again. "Hey, I got it!" She grins. "I'll be a natural at this, just you watch! So what now? We gonna spar?" Rainbow Dash asks, overeagerly.

Mooncrescent just raises a brow in return. With a sudden movement, he sweeps out a leg and kicks out Rainbow Dash's from under her, resulting in the pegasus falling flat onto her face , unable to move her legs to correct her balance with the blades buried in the soil. Standing over the pegasus with a taunting grin on his face, Mooncrescent offers a hoof. "I think you're going to need to learn how to wear the things first before you worry about fighting with them. C'mon, we'll familiarize you with all the different options you have. Then we'll focus on footing, stance, and avoidance. Attacking comes last. Won't be winning any fights if you don't survive, first." Mooncrescent states in a strict tone.

Rainbow Dash grumbles. That's twice in one day now that she'd gone for a fight only to be instantly disabled. Alright, maybe I'm not quite that awesome. Yet. Rainbow Dash's expression turns fierce and determined, and she nods her head. If she wants to stop embarrassing herself, she needs to learn. "Alright, fine." Rainbow Dash replies, pulling herself back up to her hooves by herself.

What follows is about an hour of Mooncrescent simply demonstrating to Rainbow Dash how to move and what stance's work with each of the different kinds of weapons, how to carry them without inhibiting her mobility while still being able to strike at a moments notice. Bows, Hoofclaws, Caestus, long hooked blades which extended perpendicularly to the hooves, and more.

And of course, Twilight analyzing each weapon in detail. Its a constant uphill battle for Starblaze trying to get his pupil to focus on learning how to use the things, instead of just trying to study their inner workings. "These are amazing! I had no idea that Equestria had things like this." Twilight states, enchanted, as she twirls an amethyst-studded spellblade around. It was a training model, not specifically attuned to her, but by matching the gemstones to her magical aura she can feel how easy it is to move.

"Oh, you've seen nothing, yet. You should see what some of the colts in R&D are cooking up." Mooncrescent pipes up. "I've seen some of what they're working on. Full automatons powered by magic engines, prosthetic limbs, mechanized artillery..." The colt shakes his head. "I swear, Equestria is on the verge of some kind of technological revolution."

Twilight's eyes widen in wonder. She would have to ask Celestia to let her see some of that for sure! This is an entire new world of things to study for her. She opens her mouth to ask another question, only to be interrupted by Starblaze loudly clearing his throat to draw her attention back to the matter at hand.

Rainbow Dash tunes out the conversation, trying to focus on her stance. She's back to using the hoofclaws; Out of all the weapons she'd tried, they felt the best to her. "So like this?" She asks, widening her front legs and hunching over.

Mooncrescent shakes his head. "No, your weight is too far forwards. Gonna make it hard to move back quickly if you need to. Try and balance your weight a bit more. And keep your legs bent slightly, that way its easier to spring at a moments notice." The colt demonstrates, taking up a wide stance, carefully balanced, looking a little bit like a panther getting ready to pounce.

Rainbow Dash does her best to follow suit, not quite knowing what to do with her wings as Mooncrescents example didn't exactly have to worry about that. Eventually, she decides to flare them out a ways, to help with her balance. Mooncrescent smiles at her, encouragingly. "Good! Now you're getting it. Now we can start working on some defensive techniques."

Mooncrescent has Rainbow Dash take up position on the opposite side of a small arena from him. The training hoofclaws they are both equipped in are dulled for safety, but even so Mooncrescent places a foam block over the top of his own to ensure no harm comes to his charge. "Should I get one of those too..?" Rainbow Dash asks, cautiously.

Mooncrescent just shakes his head. "Ha, no need. I've gotten hit by much worse than a filly’s blunted training claws before, I'll be just fine. Alright, come on and take a swing at me so I can demonstrate." Rainbow Dash nods, and hesitantly swings one of the two hoofclaws at Mooncrescent, who just ducks out of the way, giving the filly an amused glance. "Faster than that, I'm not going to be able to showcase anything special if you're moving at the speed of a breezy."

Rainbow Dash huffs. Did this pony just call her slow? Alright then, buster, its your funeral. Rainbow dash pounces and swipes a flurry of blows, no longer holding back; claws swinging left, then down in an arc, then up in an uppercut. Mooncrescent leans left, then right, then hops over a swipe, before stomping down with his hoof and pinning Rainbow Dash's hoofclaw in place. Still, the colt seems more enthused than before. "Thats the spirit! Now, did you see how I moved when you went for me? I always dodge just the least amount possible, though it'll take you some practice to get a good enough sense of space to figure out where that is. For now, you should just try to avoid getting hit and learn spacing later. Now, you try."

Mooncrescent lets Rainbow Dash go, and then after making sure the filly is ready, lunges for her. He is moving fast enough to be a threat, but telegraphing his swings enough to give the filly a reasonable chance to react. Rainbow Dash dives to the side, avoiding the first swipe, only for the other hoof to come down and strike her on the muzzle. Thankfully, the foam pads cushion the blow, leaving the only injury to her pride.

"Too predictable. You need to get in your opponents head, move in ways they don't expect so they can't counteract you. And you need to plan ahead." Mooncrescent advises, backing up. "If your first dodge is too extreme, you'll throw yourself off balance and won't be ready for the next hit. Over-correcting can be just as dangerous as under-correcting."

"Yeah, ok, that makes sense." Rainbow Dash confirms, standing back up and getting into stance. Just like with flying. Dodge one obstacle too fast and you'll careen into the next. It makes intuitive sense; now it's just time to put it into practice.

Satisfied that Rainbow Dash is ready, Mooncrescent beckons the filly, standing upright and ready. "Again!"