Second Wind

The crowd soon died down, and Vinyl was willing to allow you descend the ladder once you gave her a hug, and promised to see her tomorrow. You grabbed your blazer, buttoned your shirt, and slid the blazer on. Rarity was easy to locate in the crowd, being as they were dying back down, and her friends were no longer with her. You gave her a quick kiss once you got over to her.

"So. What'd ya think?" Rarity laughed at that question.

"You truly are like none other, darling."  You put your arm around her neck, and you walked out of the nightclub together.

The walk home was relatively easy. You weren't sure what time it was, but the sun was definitely gone now, as evidenced by the fact that the moon was now in the sky. The cool night air felt pretty good, too. You finally made it back to the barracks. The clock read "12:30".

Damn. It's past Midnight.

Both of you ascend the staircase, and unlock the door to your room. Rarity goes into the bathroom, while you change into your pajamas. You sat on the bed, staring at the alarm clock. It was really late. Rarity came out in her silk pajamas, and laid down next to you. You could tell you were both thinking about the intimacy, and it was starting to become awkward, so she broke the ice.

"Darling, don't get me wrong, you looked amazing out there, and I would love nothing more than to be intimate with you, but I'm really tired. I mean, you can still have dessert if you want it, but it might be a little...cold." You think about cold dessert for a minute. Cold apple pie. You cringe.

"I understand completely, Rarity. Hey, I'm off all day tomorrow after training. I'm sure we could find time then, right?" Rarity ran her hooves in circles around your chest.

"Well, darling, I'd still really like to cuddle tonight. If that's okay." You pull Rarity close to you, and let her assume her position on top of your chest, as she always does. She was out very quickly, her breathing becoming slow and heavy. After you reached over and set the alarm for 8:30, you relaxed your head, and let sleep take you.

_________________________________________________________________________________

"DECKER, GET THAT DAMN VAULT OPEN! I'M NOT DYING HERE! NOT HERE, NOT NOW!" You quickly fumbled with the wires to the explosives. You put the final wire in, enter the combination, and run out into the hallway, standing out of the way of the doorway.

"CHARGES SET, GET THE FUCK BACK!" Everyone did as they were told. Sure enough, an enormous boom vibrated the entire bank. As you turned around, you saw the two waves of SWAT officers with their shields drawn. They also held MP5s, firing randomly at you. You all quickly ran inside the vault. You slid your shotgun off of your back, loaded it completely. Thomas sunk against a wall.

"We're dead. You killed us. Rather than take our target, you kill him, and then insist on robbing a bank." He stares blankly at Anthony. Anthony didn't seem phased. He continued to bark orders.

"Everyone, take off your insignia, and burn it over here. If we leave any trace of who we are, you know they'll hunt down and kill our families." You ripped off the orange star stitched to your shoulder, and throw it in a pile with the others. Anthony lit it ablaze, and assumed position behind an overturned table in the vault.

So this is how you were going to die. 8 years in school, 4.0 GPA, renowned hacker, and you were going to die as a faceless bank robber. You couldn't help but think about what your Mom would think if she knew about all of this. No one says they want to grow up and be a mercenary.

You attempt to accept your impending death. If you surrender, you'll more than likely be sentenced to death, or your client will have you executed in prison. If you fight, and win, which is impossible, you would be killed by your client. If you fight here and now, you'll die. There was no escaping this. You were dead the moment your target was executed. You heard men yelling just outside the doorway. Victor leaned out, fired his shotgun, pumped it, and fired it again. You could hear the SWAT yelling in surprise, and then heard the loud crack of several MP5s firing. You then saw Victor jerk back, and hit the ground, pumping blood onto the ground from his neck.

This is funny. Here you are, about to die, and you have a silly regret. You didn't know the name of the kid that was your target.

_________________________________________________________________________________

The alarm is what stopped the dream this time. You got up, attempting to avoid waking up Rarity. You decided to not take a shower, you'd just get dirty again here soon anyways. You do go ahead and throw on some deodorant and a fresh shirt and pair of pants. You tried to remember how to assemble the armor, the way Virgil had done for you. You start with the greaves. You slide each of the legs on separately, fastening the front plates, before sliding on the back plates, and fastening them. You then slid the metal covers over your shoes, completely encasing each of them. You put your breastplate on over your shirt, and slid the armor sleeves onto your arms, lining up the bending part with your elbows. You flexed your arms in and out, just to make sure you had done it right.

Next came the gloves. They were interesting. You put on a pair of white gloves, followed by chain mail coverings, then golden plated gauntlets. You picked up the pauldrons, and clipped them into place by sliding them over the breastplate. You walk over to the chair by the door, where you had sat down your other equipment. Your slide leather belt on, and place your sheathed blade through the large loop on your right hand side, and you tied your leather satchel to your left hand side. You decided against wearing the helmet. Not until you were actually training. By the time you had got the armor all set up and put on, it was about 9:40. You decided to go ahead and head downstairs. You clunk down the staircase, and walk out to the back of the barracks. A good amount of Honor Guardsman were already there, slashing at the dummies set up with swords and spears. You noticed Oliver talking to a group of other guardsman. You walk over towards him.

"Oliver, good to see you!" Oliver perks up at the sound of your voice.

"Aaden! It's good to see you in armor! You look ready for war!" Oliver examines you.

"Well, you know. Guard of honor and everything." Oliver smiled and guided you over to a table that had a bunch of food set up on it.

"I know they probably didn't tell you this brother, but when we train new recruits, we set up breakfast out here. Bagels, doughnuts, coffee, orange juice, those sorts of things. Most important meal, you know." Oliver hands you a doughnut.

"White chocolate. I remember your affinity for them." You quickly eat the doughnut, and thank Oliver. You look up to the balcony. Sure enough, there's Rarity and her friends, plus Vinyl.

That was quick.

Virgil walked out from the barracks, and stood in the spot he did yesterday. He called out.

"Guardsman! Positions!" All of the Honor Guards stopped what they were doing immediately, and ran to their positions. As did you. You all snapped to attention, saluting Virgil.

"Alright Guardsman!" Virgil kept calling.

"Today, we are doing something a little more interesting. It's going to be a short day today! Being as Recruit Locke has shown an excellent prowess about him, we will not have to shape him up as much as usual! No sprints today! Instead, we will focus on sparring! Locke has shown that he already has the strength and endurance, so all we must do is hone and sharpen his skills! I have selected 3 spars for him." Virgil pointed at you.

"First, he will spar with Guardsman Gladius! Then with Guardsman Zweihänder! Lastly, with Veteran Guardsman Oliver!" You looked over at Oliver, who did not break gaze off of Virgil.

"Prepare yourself Guardsman! You have 20 minutes!" You decided to spend those 20 minutes stretching and removing the armor you spent so long getting together. When you were done taking everything off, you were only in your golden leggings and boots. You placed them by the breakfast table, and continued stretching. The preparation time was soon up. You heard Virgil whistle.

"Alright, Gladius, Locke, here is how this will work. Aaden, you will attempt to last as long as you can. When I believe either of you has been "killed", I will yell your name. Aaden, if I don't call your name, don't get too excited; the next challenger will already be in the ring. We do not expect you to win. We want to see your true skill." Virgil walked you over to behind the dummies, and the Guardsman named Gladius followed. He had also removed his armor. Virgil stopped, while both Gladius and yourself walked forward. You took a deep breath as you both started to circle each other.

You got this.

Gladius made the first move, ducking his head low, and sprinting towards you. You take the hit right in your abdomen, but you wrap your arms around his neck, and throw him aside. He stumbles back up to his feet quickly, and you begin to circle one another. Gladius charged you again, ramming your stomach again, but this time, your fingers slip from grabbing him. He essentially just got a free shot in on you. And it hurts. You hear a voice calling to you.

"Woo hoo, Aaden, go get get em', you can do this, you got it!" Without even turning around, you know it's Pinkie Pie. Gladius then attempted to charge you again. He made the mistake that would lose him the spar. You leaned your foot out, tripping him mid charge, and as he tumbled forward, you grabbed his hind legs, causing him to fall on his back. He groaned in pain and frustration. He hit the ground hard. Sure enough, Virgil called.

"Gladius! You're dead!" Gladius hit the ground with his hoof, and walked away while Zweihänder approached. He was a very large Earth pony. He walked forward, holding his head low. You started the circling movement this time.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Aaden now faced a very large Earth pony. They began the exact same circle movement. You looked over your shoulder. All of your friends had interesting facial expressions. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie both seemed to be excited, Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle seemed to be concerned, and Applejack and Vinyl were seemingly deeply intrigued. As were you. You watched the spar unfold. Aaden was already dirty, but you didn't mind that. He circled around the big Earth pony, until Aaden made the first move. He reached in with his fist, and attempted to get a quick grab on the neck of the Earth pony, but the Earth pony threw his head at Aaden, hitting him in his shoulder. They then went back to circling. The Earth pony then charged Aaden, and he didn't get out of the way fast enough. With a grunt, Aaden was sent on his back. The Earth pony then jumped on top of Aaden.

"Oh no..." You heard Fluttershy murmur. The Earth pony took one of his hooves, raised it up, and brought it down. Aaden jerked his head to the right, the hoof smacking a hole where his head used to be. Aaden then brought his legs up to the chest of the big Earth pony, and with a big kick using both legs, bucked the pony off of him. Aaden hopped back to his feet. The Earth pony seemed infuriated, and attempted to charge Aaden again. Aaden grabbed him, stopped him in his tracks, and delivered his knee to his chest twice, then grabbed him by his neck, and threw him to the ground. The Earth pony laid on the ground, groaning in pain. You could hear Virgil yelling from here.

"Zweihänder, you're dead! Get moving!" You watched as Oliver swooped down from the skies above, and landed right in front of Aaden.

_________________________________________________________________________________

It was Oliver. You made it to Oliver. Oliver smiled a quick smile.

"It is an honor, brother. Let us spar." Oliver then ripped his wings out, and burst towards you, his claws coming towards you. One slashed your chest, while the other grabbed ahold of you. He brought the other claw back up into a slashing position, but you grabbed it, and jut your head out, smacking him in the center of his beak. He turned around, grasping his beak. You took advantage of the moment, and grabbed him from behind. You hear Oliver laugh,

"Think brother. You need to think." That's when his wings extended, throwing you off of him violently.

He lured me into doing that!

You got back up. You landed right on your arms, and they were hurting pretty badly. He turned back around, and rocketed at you once more. You dove out of the way, and he flew right past you. As he turned back around, he flew low to the ground, dragging his front right claw along the ground. It ripped up the earth, as he got closer, and closer. You took a deep breath, and closed your eyes, letting yourself relax completely.

Think brother. You need to think.

Think.

You turned around, letting him come up on your back. You kept your eyes closed, and continued to breathe deep. You felt your heart rate slow. You could describe your environment perfectly now, even with your eyes closed. You could hear him getting closer. You could hear your friends gasping in horror up on the balcony. Your sense went into overtime. He was flying just low enough to allow this to work. All you had to do was time it right.

Think.

You held both of your arms out to your sides, extending them away from you. You then let yourself fall back. And you fell. Fell for what felt like an eternity. The moment you felt his wings, you would grab as hard as you could. Soon enough, you felt the feathers of his wings, and you grabbed as hard as you possibly could. You pushed yourself off of his back holding onto his wings, doing a pseudo-backflip, landing on your feet, and with him in your grasp. The pain from being stopped so suddenly and from you grabbing his wings so hard seemingly stunned him. You threw him on the ground, and put your foot on his neck.

Virgil was amazed. His whistle blew, but softly, because he was breathless.

"Uh...Oliver. You're dead." Oliver got up off the ground, and looked at you. His face was neutral and straight at first, but then it immediately burst into an incredibly wide smile.

"By the Goddess, brother! And here I thought I was out thinking you! You will make the Honor Guard proud!" Oliver patted you on the back excitedly, and led you over to Virgil. Virgil was still seemingly amazed. You didn't like fighting. But it looks like you really could fight, and fight well.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash was absolutely ecstatic.

"OHMIGOSH! DID YOU JUST SEE THAT?" She laughed wildly. Applejack was in awe as well, speaking in nearly a whisper.

"Ah ain't ever seen anything like that..." You couldn't believe your eyes, either. Aaden not only defeated a veteran Honor Guard, but he just did so in an incredible manner. All of you stared in amazement at Aaden. He was now completely covered in dirt, had blood on his chest from that slash, but he still looked incredibly attractive. You watch Oliver and Aaden talk to Virgil, when Aaden and Oliver start laughing. Hard. So hard, in fact, the Aaden has tears in his eyes. You could see them shimmering from up here.

For whatever reason, you started to feel very anxious. You wanted to talk to him. Not about anything in particular, you just wanted to hear his voice.

"Girls, you're welcome to stay here, I'm going to go meet with Aaden, bring him back here." Rainbow Dash immediately responded.

"Ooo, you know, I think I'm going to go with you. I've GOT to ask him where he learned that!" Vinyl also chimed in.

"Yeah, I wanna hear what honor-boy has got to say about that." You shrug your shoulders. You don't see any problems with letting them come with you.