Brother's Lament

Chapter 5: Combat Magic 101

The next day a tired looking Bass Rhythm was walking down the path with Warsong towards the Everfree forest, Bass Rhythm being too tired to even notice what was going on didn’t notice the darkened forest looming ahead of them, looking down at his fore hooves focussing on moving one in front of the other, blood shot eyes hidden behind his black spectacles and Celestia’s sun barely above the horizon.

Warsong sighed and looked behind him lashing his tail a bit in annoyance “You shouldn’t have gone to that ‘party’ you so call it, I told you to get rest.”

Bass Rhythm just grumbled under his breath, his head held low and his main hanging over his eyes “Sorry ‘mom’ “

As the darkness of the Everfree forest engulfed them Bass slowly rose his head yawning loudly “Did Celestia lower her sun?”

Warsong just smiled as he forged on ahead, looking around him, sensing the presences of the creatures around them, almost daring them to attack him, a wry smile coming to his muzzle “No boy…We’re in the Everfree forest” Bass’ eyes shot open as he seemed to visibly tremble “The E-e-everfree forest!?”

The crimson stallion looked back at him with a frown “Get yourself together boy, this is where you will train, I’ve already created a clearing and set up training equipment. I had a little conversation with a rhyming Zebra though; we came to an agreement over the terms of which our training will be held. No explosions, no destruction of the environment, logical things in my opinion”

After some more time walking along the path within the Everfree forest they stepped into a clearing, the trees that were here seemed to be ripped out like weeds and were turned into training equipment for the ground seemed freshly buried and the grass in patches

Warsong stopped in the centre of the clearing before turning to look directly at his student “It’s not pretty but it’ll do the job, ok front and centre.”

The blue unicorn complied and yawned loudly again for his trouble before his teacher spoke again “Combat Magic 101, first things first, what you will be learning and what you will be doing”

Warsong began to pace back and forth finding that it helps him think “You will learn the ancient art of combat, from what I see now it isn’t practiced that much anymore, all the more reason for me to teach it. Combat magic isn’t all about killing, it’s about stopping the enemy from killing you, in its own right it’s self-defence but it’s a bit more…Violent, yes you will disable the enemy but you’ll be disabling them to the point they will never think of hurting you again.”

Warsong continued his explanation on the values and objectives of the ancient art before he continued on the exercise that his student will take part in.

“You will exercise physically, mentally and emotionally, Magic draws from both mental and physical energy. You get tired the more magic you use, you get headaches when you use big spells, if you are not cool, calm and collected your spell could backfire.”

Warsong walked among the tree stumps, ripped from the earth, the thick wooden logs that belonged to those stumps and the boulders that dotted the area “So to fulfil these requirements you will be lifting boulders and tree trunks with your magic. You will be exercising your muscles, to keep you emotionally under control I will be putting you under pressure as you perform tasks for me. But this is not all you will learn, you will study history, math, science, a powerful unicorn is a smart unicorn, I hope that I am not losing you”

A snore was all that answered him as he turned to see Bass asleep where he stood, anger boiled up inside of the ancient warrior as his transformation spell removed itself and he grew to his full height yelling with the Royal Canterlot voice

“WAKE UP YOU SLOTH!”

The force of his voice sent Bass Rhythm flying into a nearby tree he was already awake as soon as Warsong spoke, his vision blurred as he looked up towards his great uncle

“Your…taller.” He mumbled as he was lifted by a red glow and was brought back before the ancient warrior

“This is a my true form, the smaller version of myself you saw before was merely a transformation spell. This is the effect of the goddess’ blessing I received over a thousand years ago.”

Warsong turned from him and stood before a tree trunk he had buried in the ground “Now, show me what power you have, shoot the trunk with a beam of your magic.”

With this Warsong stood out of the way as Bass Rhythm stood before the trunk, his face showing visible signs of struggle as green magic charged over his horn, a white point appearing on the point of his horn as it grew in size just before it fired a green beam of energy shot at the trunk when the light cleared a scorched mark was the only evidence of a beam having been fired at it, Bass Rhythm was rubbing his sore forehead as Warsong nodded

“Good for a first timer, but it has plenty of room for improvement”

Bass had a look of frustration when he looked at the taller unicorn “Like you can do better”

The only reply he got from Warsong was a silent stare to which the blue stallion lowered his gaze before the ancient warrior pushed him aside, his own horn fired a beam in quick succession, the red energy cutting through the tree trunk and destroying the boulder behind it “You were saying?”