//------------------------------// // Knee Deep // Story: Aces High // by CrazedRambling //------------------------------// Aces High Chapter 4: Knee Deep The energy I felt after having dove into the pool in the Royal Guard's secret chamber was invigorating to say the least. It was still the dead of night, but there was no way I could sleep in a state like this. I felt as if I could fly directly into the heart of gryphon territory without stopping and take on any challenge presented to me there. Was this how the other dozen ponies of the Royal Guard felt at all times? If so, I could see how they were stronger than pretty much any other pony in Equestria. The feeling was like a drug, something to make you unstoppable and at the peak of strength at all times. Then there was that little buzzing feeling in the back of my skull, just waiting for me to access the brief experiences I had been given by the memories of the pool. I could handle anything that they threw at me in their 'training'. But first I had to make it through the night. I grunted in frustration as I paced about my personal quarters in the castle. I picked my head up from my angry glare at the floor in order to more properly observe my surroundings. A decent sized bed inhabited the wall directly before the door to this offshoot chamber. It was certainly a welcome change compared to the stiff cots that filled the barracks at the the training grounds, and an even more comfortable sleeping arrangement than the cold stone floor of Celestia's spire. A nightstand stood to the left of the bed, the lamp already on and casting a cozy glow over the room. To the right of bed was a split armoire and dresser, the top half being an area for hanging fancier clothes that ponies would want to keep wrinkle free, the bottom half for storing the more daily clothes that would certainly be folded up. Aside from those few furnishings, the room was bare except for the pony mannequin where a full suit of guard armor could be placed. I hadn't received any kind of armor yet, though I was new here, and they probably needed to take custom measurements. Granted, neither Schism or Rift Walk had been wearing any armor while guarding Celestia at the press conference, nor had any of other members of the Royal Guard been wearing any armor. The former of the two cases may simply have been that the meeting had been on short notice, and the latter could easily be explained by the fact that it had been the dead of night. Who would wear their armor to sleep? I stifled a giggle as I thought of Gravesend in her full suit of armor, trying to curl up comfortably in a bed similar to mine. I couldn't help myself though, and a burst of laughter escaped my muzzle as I pictured how it would look mentally. I silenced myself again, hoping I hadn't awoken anypony in the adjacent rooms, despite the thick walls of stone barricading anypony else from whatever sounds I could be making. I thought of how I could possibly make the room feel a little more homey, its blank stone walls not seeming very inviting to any extent. For that matter, the meager belongings that I had brought with me from basic training could all fit in the night stand's drawer if it weren't for the uniform currently hanging in the armoire. Some of my anxious energy faded as I realized that those little baubles in the drawer and that uniform made up all of my worldly possessions at this point since the gryphons had surely destroyed my cloud home above Ponyville. All my stuff, my pictures, some clothes, my video games, my trophies and medals... it was all gone. I stomped my hoof on the floor, squashing the thought both physically and mentally. Hundreds of ponies had lost their own belongings, not to mention their lives at Ponyville. The survivors and my friends lost everything they owned in Ponyville too. I was hardly alone in this matter, and quite frankly, I didn't really save many things that might have held sentimental value to me, so I was only missing out on the material belongings themselves. In fact, Twilight and Applejack were the only ponies with anything of their own, and Applejack would probably lose her farm to the invaders in the near future. Regardless, none of the inhabitants of Ponyville had escaped the utter destruction, having lost friends, family, or at least their belongings. I was one of those lucky few to have not been there at the time. I should be counting my blessings, not lamenting my petty personal belongings. Even if I had lost all I owned, I still kept my most valuable possessions; my friendship, and my life. I wouldn't allow myself to forget that fact since so many didn't keep either. I shook my head, my mane falling to the other side of my face and covering my right eye. I blew the stray strands away and continued my contemplations of the room. "Honestly, I'm getting more like Derpy every day and..." And I wasn't going to continue down that mental path I concluded. Right. So. Mannequins. Those are nice this time of year. Yep, couldn't have picked another topic. I gave a frustrated groan, chastising myself for wasting all of the time I had to waste like this. Reminding myself of Ponyville and thinking about how mannequins were 'this time of year' wasn't helping me at all. Especially the latter, which made no sense whatsoever. 'Think about the room some more.' I mentally told myself as I squeezed my eyelids shut to shield myself from my scatterbrained antics, as if they were something physical that I could see and subsequently block out. I recalled that I was only in the personal area of the quarters I had been assigned. That left the living area and the bathroom. Actually, thinking of the bathroom, a nice hot shower should calm the nerves some, not to mention I had been sweating profusely in fear as I had walked the halls with the 'Silent Dozen', even more so in their secret chamber. Showing up to my first training session smelling bad would hardly make a good first impression as to the seriousness of my intent to learn. Getting to the bathroom did require strolling through the living area though, and since I was certainly in no rush, quite the opposite in fact, I decided to study the room that I had ignored as I crashed straight into the bed once I found my residence in the castle. The sofa immediately grabbed my attention this time, being a custom design based off of my coat, and striped with the same colors streaking through my mane. My ears perked up as I saw the couch, my pride being touched by the gesture. A painting of Celestia accompanied by another of Luna, both in all of their glory, hung over the sofa as a reminder of what I was here to do. Both had approving gazes, meant to encourage those looking upon the paintings. I couldn't help but notice that the two individual paintings were displayed in such a way that the Princesses would have had their backs turned to each other were they to pose as they had in the paintings. That fact struck me as odd, I assumed that the paintings would have been arranged to have the Princesses facing each other, symbolizing the unity of their shared leadership. Instead, they appeared as individual rulers, the at ease expressions belying some sort of distance between the two of them. But I was still putting to much thought into the little things around the room. Directly before the colorful sofa was a television set, a decent sized flat screen hanging from the wall, perfect for any down time that I might have. While the television set wasn't even close to the best money could buy, it was still above average quality, probably showing all broadcasts in high definition. An equally fancy stereo system was hooked up to the television, a radio option appearing present on it as well. Both had inputs for gaming consoles, probably available at special request. Being employed by the Princesses did seem to have its perks, and we were all ponies after all, we had our own interests outside of being guards, even the members of the highest echelons of power. In fact, there was just such a rumor, one that named Princess Luna as an avid gamer in her downtime... 'Huh, wonder what Celestia does in her downtime?' I thought. 'Then again, she probably doesn't get much, being a ruler and all.' I considered. Couldn't she just hand some of her responsibilities over to Luna though? She could certainly handle at least a few of the things that consumed Celestia's waking hours, even if she had been gone for a thousand years. Or was there still some distrust of Luna's ability to remain in control of herself even after the essence of Nightmare Moon was beaten back? Was there still some remaining piece of that darker side of the Princess after I had defeated her with my friends via the Elements of Harmony? Yep. I needed that shower. Too much heavy thinking was happening right now for my anxious mind to cope with. I was starting to distress myself with my own thoughts, which didn't help at all. I turned back to the threshold of my sleeping area, the door to the bathroom being right next to that of the aforementioned room. The bathroom was slightly more cheerful than the rest of the quarters, adorned with a few amenities already, though they were admittedly expected. A mirror doubling as a medicine cabinet, an anti-bacterial soap dispenser next to it for when washing your hands was simply unnecessary, two swiveling brush mounts, one for your teeth, one for your hair. Honestly, unicorns had it easy a lot of the time, brushing one's teeth and hair was easier with magic than with these swiveling contraptions. One of those wall flower air fresheners was already plugged in and emitting a pleasant lavender smell. From the lack of a cartridge, I assumed it had a magical scent dispenser. Just press a button, and it starts dispersing that scent about the room. Minor necessities were also included, tooth brush, tooth paste, tissues, TP for... ya' know, et cetera, et cetera. Fully stocked, I wouldn't have to 'requisition' fresh supplies for a while. The shower itself was somewhat interesting in design. Two areas were contained within, split off by an pane of opaque glass so that the inhabitant of the room and any guest could use both facilities at the same time if they wished. One half housed a bath tub where a pony could recline comfortably, while the other was a standing shower with something that looked like a cot for the pony in the shower to lay upon and let the water wash over them. The cot looked like it was made of some sort of waterproof material, and when I pressed my hoof against it, it molded to the shape of my hoof, slowly reforming itself as I released my limb from the pad. I grabbed some of the shampoo and body wash provided by the castle that was hiding in the storage space beneath the sink and mirror, and trotted back to the shower. As I stared at the standing shower and its comfortable looking cot, I felt the need to relax more than the cot would allow, opting for the tub instead. I wasn't normally the one to go looking for a calming bath, Rarity could claim that honor in my stead. But just this once I figured I'd spoil myself. Upon further inspection, I found the the tub was somewhat deeper than I had thought it was, and a few buttons on the side showed an automated hot tub cycle and scented crystal dispenser. Oh yes, I was going to spoil myself alright. I hit the hot tub cycle button and gave it a few minutes to heat up just right. A little countdown timer told me when the water would be ready for me, three minutes at its current rate. I gave a little 'hunh' in surprise at just how sophisticated my bathing options were. 'A few' perks indeed. Given the short amount of time needed for the tub to heat up, I went back into the living area of my quarters to finish looking around, playing a dangerous game with my wandering thoughts. I figured I would just note the rest of the things in the room, rather than dwell on any single object. Coffee table in front of the couch, a storage rack underneath the television and flanked by the stereos where I could put any DVDs or CD's that I accumulated, a very modern looking computer (though the damn things were difficult to operate if you weren't a unicorn) which occupied the space atop a desk with... With some sort of wrapped package sitting on top of it. I walked hesitantly towards the package, seeing that the wrapping paper was of a baby blue color with clouds covering it, reminiscent of a sky. A little purple bow completed the tidily wrapped box, giving me a hint as to whose hoofwork this was. I observed the box with an eyebrow raised in suspicion. I had missed the box yesterday and during my cursory view of the room moments ago. Granted, I had also missed the entire computer and desk at first glance as well, so I had my excuses, even if they were terrible. A beep startled me out of my concentration on the box, indicating that the bath awaited my presence. Turning back to the package, I shrugged and picked it up by the bow, walking back to the bathroom with my present clenched in my teeth. The box wasn't heavy, and didn't rattle as I gave a light shake, so I was slightly lost as to what the object inside might be. I wasn't concerned right away though, and I set the box behind the control panel of the tub as I stared into the steaming waters before me. Hesitantly, I dipped a hoof in to test the water. Nice and warm, just the way I wanted it right now. Satisfied, I set myself up the three steps to get into the tub, and slowly submerged myself in the warmth, though I was tempted to jump right into the water. Making a mess of my bathroom on its first use just wouldn't do though, and as I lowered myself down the matching steps inside of the tub, I was reminded of the glowing pool from just a few scant hours ago. The memories came buzzing back at the edge of my consciousness, and I was unable to grasp at any of them still. This bothered me more as I fully immersed myself up to my neck, so I pressed the whirlpool button on the control panel, and the jets on the sides of the tub sent the water into a gentle swirl. I hit one of the scent crystal buttons at random, and a few amber crystals were ejected from the jets as well, being swept up and almost immediately dissolved in the stream of water. The soothing aroma of honey filled the tub area, and I breathed in deep to pick up the smell before fully submerging my body in the water, shaking my mane around underneath. I felt the sensation of the cool air being pushed away by the warmth of my aquatic environment, finding myself pleased by the sensation, as if any accumulated grim and worries were washed away at the same time. I then put my head next to one of the jets, allowing it to blow my mane back as if I were gliding through the air and stretching my wings out to complete the feeling. Keep it simple. Keep it mundane. Find joy in the little things, for they are that which sustains you. That thought was intoned by a voice far different from my own, and that of the glowing pool. I whipped my head out of the water, spraying the ceiling and walls with some of the water in the process. So much for not making a mess. I shook my head to clear the water from around my eyes, further adding to the water on the walls. I was startled by the voice, and I looked around the bathroom to see if a pony or worse had gotten into my bathroom. Sliding the glass door to the side from the tub, I saw that nopony, or anything else for that matter, was standing in the room. Feeling cautious I allowed myself to slip back into the water wordlessly. I could very easily have just made up the voice to complete my own thoughts, no big deal. In fact, my thoughts were right, even if I wouldn't have put it quite like that aloud, this may be one of the few times in the future that I would be able to enjoy something like a warm bath. I should find some kind of pleasure in it, the voice was only of my design after all... Yes, we are in your head. But the others feel us too. This time I bolted forward in the water, veritably slamming the sliding door open to peek into the bathroom. Great. Now I was hearing voices in my head. Had the anxiety filled events of the past few days really driven me this far? Into total madness? You are not insane young Rainbow Dash. You simply require help right now. That is our purpose beyond our lives of the past, to help those that would defend Equestria, the voice continued, this time changing from a masculine tone to a more feminine one. We are meant to help you learn, by absorbing all of our knowledge that may be of assistance to you. "Wha- what do you mean?" I questioned aloud. The realization dawned on me that these were probably the voices of the ponies whose memories were in the glowing pool I had entered, the very buzzing sensation that had been at the back of my mind since then. Yes, we are the ones who have guarded Celestia since Luna was banished, though it would seem that the sisters are together once more. It was the first generation of guardians who thought that their successors might be able to draw from their experience to be more effective in their roles, the voice explained. "Well, what does that mean?" I asked as my muzzle contorted in confusion. "I certainly can't do any of the things that others in the Royal Guard can do." I said to the air as I tried to roll my eyes back and stare at my brain to tell it to shut up. The feminine voice chuckled in response. No being has ever had the power to convey the true experiences of even a single memory into a pony, the voice told me. Instead, we simply let the memories of each Guardian pass through your mind. This allows you to learn the things that they knew with greater ease than you would be able to otherwise, expediting the process of your training immensely, the voice concluded. So this buzzing in my skull was supposed to help make me a match for the other ponies on the Royal Guard? I could see how all of them had managed to fill me with awe in their simple presence. Each had experienced this same feat of magical influence and learned from the memories. But wouldn't that mean that all of them should have almost the exact same skill sets and expertise? No. Every single pony learns their abilities differently based on what they are naturally good at, excelling in particular subjects. Gravesend wishes to be the best at everything, but doing so leaves her with a lack of focus, so that while she may have many skills she can perform well, she has mastered none, the voice chimed in again. We can already sense that there are certain skills that you will be able to perform almost masterfully in, though only you can find out for yourself. Well, there are a great deal of ponies who don't have a drive to be the best at anything, why not simply expose every military recruit to the pool and raise an army of super soldiers. Once again, I needn't ask the question aloud, since the voices produced answers immediately. There is a certain quality of ponies, a dedication, which is required for a pony to be influenced by the pool at all. Many ponies cannot fulfill this quality, and thus far Celestia has been the only pony who can see this dedication in anypony. That is why it is only when she wishes a change to occur in the Royal Guard that anything happens. And I had this dedication. "Loyalty." I muttered silently. Yes, Rainbow Dash, and you are the first bearer of the Element of Loyalty to be placed on the Royal Guard. As much as Celestia may wish to protect you in the event that the Elements of Harmony are needed, you are a vital asset to Equestria. You are exceptional in all of the ponies to come before the pool in the past. You have the greatest ability to learn from us, and may surpass the even the greatest of your predecessors. I took a few moments to process what the voice was telling me. My pride swelled as the words played exactly to my weakness of praise. I could be the best? Like nopony ever was? I certainly hoped I wasn't insane, and that the voices were real. Maybe now, I could actually make a difference in Equestria with the opportunity before me. Our time is short Rainbow Dash. We can only directly connect to our hosts when they need us the most, and only for a short time even then, the voice told me. Everything is up to you now. Only your willingness to learn, combined with your loyalty can allow you to draw upon our strength. We hope that you do what is best for Equestria with the talent you display. Questions still burned within my mind. "Tell me how! I need to make a difference now that I know I can actually help!" I begged of the voice, splashing the steamy water around me as I threw my hooves down. Nothing but silence and the return of the tingling in my brain responded. I sighed as even more was thrown at me to consider. This bath wasn't proving to be helpful at all. Just as I had begun to unwind some, the voices cropped up to throw a wrench in my emotional recovery. Sighing at the situation again, I plopped down in the water, barely leaving my eyes above the water as I blew air from my nostrils to produce bubbles of frustration. If the voices were supposed to make life easier, they weren't doing a very good job of it. My ears perked up and I lifted my muzzle back out of the water as I recalled that I still had yet to open the package on the panel beside me. Looking towards it, I could see that the wrapping paper was soggy from my splashing and whipping around in the water. Hopefully whatever was inside was protected by the box itself. Searching for a distraction, I eagerly tore into the wrapping paper and lifted the lid off of the box. Inside, I found a letter and a picture frame that was facing down underneath of the letter. Drying my hooves and muzzle on the towel I had placed on the rack behind me, I picked up the letter first. Dear Rainbow Dash, I was so happy when I saw you in the castle earlier, and so relieved that you weren't upset at any of us! We missed you so much while you were gone, but we didn't know where to look first after you ran off, and after checking a few obvious places, like Cloudsdale or the hospital, we gave up. Oh, I'm so sorry that we ever gave up on you! We should have known you had your reasons for leaving and respected them. You're a grown mare too, and you can handle yourself just fine, probably better than any of us at this point, though AJ might disagree at that. Really, I just wanted to say sorry, for all of us, sorry that we ever doubted you. I know you said you had accepted us all back, but as usual, I have a nagging feeling like I haven't done enough, so I decided to get something for you. I realize that you didn't really bring much with you, and since you said you'd be here in the castle, I figured you might need some kind of decoration until Celestia can get somepony to move all of your belongings into the castle. I thought hard about what to get you, and nostalgia won out, so I teleported all the way back to Ponyville and back just to get this to you. I hope you get this, I had to ask one of the castle servants to deliver this since I didn't know where your room was. Your (hopefully) best friend, Twilight Sparkle Intrigued by the letter, which was clearly written before the destruction of Ponyville, probably as I went to chase down Celestia, I placed it to the side to pick up the picture frame. The frame itself was a simple wooden design, custom painted to match my mane, just like the couch, and while the paint job made me smirk some, the picture itself was what truly made me beam with joy, and a single tear to fall down to the water below me. When I flipped the frame over, I saw that the picture was the very same one that had been on my nightstand in my cloud home above Ponyville, the one of the six of us from almost five years ago, smiling together on a bright and glorious Summer day. It seemed almost a life time ago, and I had grown immensely since then, mentally and emotionally, and just a little physically. We had been carefree back then, none of this war nonsense, Gilda hadn't even shown up in Ponyville at that point. I hugged the picture frame to my chest, holding it close the wet fur above my heart. Enjoy the little things...echoed the words of the voices in my head. Friends. It was good to have friends. ********** Despite the odds, after finishing my bath-turned-thought-session, I dropped onto my bed and actually managed to fall asleep. I decided to give sleep another chance since the odds of being awoken again were slim, and I felt a sufficient combination of calm and tiredness take over my mind. But not before I placed the picture of me and all my friends underneath the lamp on my nightstand, pushing my alarm clock aside. I gave the picture one last glance, a smile etched on my lips before I let the darkness of my slumber overtake my mind. When I awoke, it was to the soft glow of my alarm clock... which read 11 o'clock in the morning! One advantage (or in this case, disadvantage) of being in a room without windows, is the fact that the sun doesn't shine through your eye lids and wake you up. But I mean, come on! I'm supposed to be out training right now, trying to make myself better! And nopony bothered to come and wake me up. I slapped myself in the back of my head for not thinking of setting the alarm on the clock itself. Now I had to rush and... I heard a loud knock from the direction of the entrance to my quarters. Well shit. Now I'm in trouble. I leapt from my bed, nearly knocking my bedroom door off of its hinges in the process as I dashed to greet whoever it was knocking on my door. On my way out, I hit the lights to both my bedroom, and the living room, whose switch was in the same spot on the other side of the wall. Before I even hit the latter though, there was already a comfortable light about the living room since it had the only windows in my new 'home', each of the two flanking a side of the television set. As the soft lights hummed on in both rooms, I was already at my front door, not even stopping to look through the peephole at who it might have been knocking. As I yanked the door open, I could feel the glowering expression on Gravesend's muzzle... at least I assumed that she was glowering at me. It was impossible to tell through her platinum armor. I stopped my motion entirely as I realized that it was the Pony of Death herself, my face stricken with terror at what kind of impending torture I was going to endure. I was locked in that pose of pulling the door open, staring wide eyed at Gravesend for about two awkward seconds before making a sound. "Yeah?" I managed to squeak out, finding that it was probably offensive to simply stand there staring at the terrifying pony, who I might add was still carrying around her wicked spears, even inside the castle. "You need to get ready." I stood there after hearing what she told me for a few seconds, still holding the door open, and of course I couldn't help but ask the most irrelevant question possible at the moment. "How do you do that thing with your voice?" I asked, of course voicing the stupidest question I had managed to come up with for days. Gravesend stared at me for a moment before rumbling back a response. "Voice filter. You don't think I actually sound like this, do you-?" she began, cutting off mid sentence and reaching up behind her head. Lifting a hoof to each side of her helmet, Gravesend switched four clips, each of the four clicking as she did so. I could hear a magical hiss as she pulled the two halves of her helmet apart, removing the headgear in the process. "-Because I don't." came a surprisingly soft and elegant voice as the helmet was removed fully. Now that I could see Gravesend in better lighting, I noticed that she could actually be considered a rather pretty pony. Femme fatale, I suddenly thought, pleasing to the eye, belying the lethal potential in the pony. A short, pale, jasmine yellow mane complimented her turquoise coat and lime green eyes quite nicely. Gravesend also couldn't have been too many years older than me, everything about her spoke of vigor and liveliness, and... and just wow. Here I was feeling... what? Attracted? To the same pony who I thought was full of murder and death just moments ago. As I sat there in astonishment of myself, Gravesend pushed right past me as if I was a cardboard cutout. "Hope you don't mind if I come in. I haven't seen these chambers before." she said, seemingly disregarding the rules of what most ponies would consider the privacy of the own home. I was further astonished by Gravesend's brazen self-admittance into my quarters, as if I should have been surprised at this point. I slowly closed my door and turned to find Gravesend looking at me contemplatively. "You sure don't have much around here. Looks like its all stuff the Princess provided. Custom sofa is a nice touch though. Plan on moving some more of your stuff here in the future?" she queried. "I... can't. I'm from Ponyville." I stammered out in response to my lack of furniture or decorative objects. "Oh." Gravesend said, only sounding somewhat apologetic. "Sorry about that. Tough break. At least the Princess wanted you here just before the attack, right?" she continued, only slight curiosity in her tone. I nodded and mumbled, giving some pretense of a true response. I felt I should bring our conversation back on topic. "Yeah... sorry about being late for training." I apologized, hanging my head down, feeling ashamed that I had already let down my squad. "Hey, no big deal. We all train together at the same time, so we don't start until all of us are there. Unless somepony has already said they can't show up. That does mean that we work the same amount of time every session, no matter how late or early we have to be up until to complete it." Gravesend explained, her voice still nearly free of inflection. "Actually, since we have to train you, there are special circumstances until you're ready to work with the team." she continued. "The others are all in session right now, but I've been given special leave. I get to be the only one to train you for now since I can cover all of the subjects the others want to teach you. This way I can help you get an understanding of everything and the others can give you further specifics into each subject. So for the next three weeks, I'm yours. The others that can teach you something have you for the last week of this 'one month plan' of yours." Gravesend concluded. Oh great, so I have the Pretty Pony of Death as my private tutor whenever I'm ready to train. "By the way, since I want to make the most of these three weeks, I'm going to be staying with you until we're finished." Oh double fuck. "I'll bring over some of my stuff seeing as how you have so much space." And now I have the Roommate of Death. ********** Turns out, 'some of my stuff' really means damn near everything worth bringing to Gravesend. By the time we were finished, really the only things left in Gravesend's room were the things we couldn't easily fit out the door or just plain didn't matter. With that in mind, I inherited many temporary belongings, which of course I was 'required' to make a list of, which I fondly entitled... Gravesend's Shit *One (1) Xbuck Gaming console *Thirty-nine (39) Xbuck Games *Two (2) Lazybuck Reclining chairs (one to take the place of my desk chair, the other to sit beside the sofa) *One (1) Macintosh Laptop (note to self, Apple family's technology firm investments paid off well, buy stocks) *Six (6) Issues of GameEquine *One (1) iStem MP3 Player (STOCKS!) *One (1) iStem Dock (refer to above note) *Four (4) Stephano Neigher Vampire/Werepony novels (burn if possible, I have better taste in books than that) *One (1) Pony Armor Mannequin *One (1) Mini-fridge *Entire Weapons Cabinet (the amount of deadly weapons this mare owns disturbs me) *Family Photos *Mister Blanket (grown mare with a 'blanky', don't ask me) *Other random crap that everypony needs. Of all the things that Gravesend brought with her, only the Xbuck was something that I thought I might use, and Gravesend seemed to be alright with sharing since she brought two controllers with her. Hopefully we wouldn't be playing anything to competitive since her magic would give her an advantage over my hoof movements. As much money as the gaming industry had invested in trying to come up with a controller for everypony, there still didn't seem to be a simple way to level the playing field between unicorns and hoof-bound players. One of the things I had noticed about Gravesend in my limited personal time with her was that she acted kind of... weird around ponies when she wasn't tasked with something. When she was at the gate as I first entered the castle, and at the gathering during the night, Gravesend was all business, grim faced with a goal in mind. But now, she acted almost juvenile despite the fact that she was older than me. She was kind of lazy, pretty sarcastic, and didn't really think about what consequences her actions or words might have. Actually, that sounded a lot like I... was. Before I grew out of it. Now I can't say that I'm some kind of upstanding pony that goes out of my way to help others or anything, but when I ran away from Ponyville, I came to realize that I needed to just do more. Gravesend was perfectly willing to do her job, and do it quite well I might add, but outside of that, she had no motivation to do anything but what she wanted to do. I could relate, but I chose to spend more of my free time being productive than lazing around like I had in the old days. Gravesend didn't seem to have had this epiphany yet. But overall, that was entirely irrelevant. I still needed to begin my training if I planned to live up to my self imposed goal. As I huffed from lugging the last Lazybuck chair over to the side of my sofa, I waved Gravesend over. "So we- I, should probably start training in a little while. Don't want to fall behind." I told her. Gravesend simply shrugged inside of her armor, though I could see on her face how apathetic she was about my training. What, did she not like me? Is that why she wasn't rushing to get me ready, to be an asset to the team? If that was the case, then she just got knocked back down to Death Pony level of friendship. Or maybe Gravesend just didn't really care about the war? She had been on the job far longer than me, so she probably knew just how strong Equestria's military might really was. Were we really so powerful that the destruction of one of our decent sized holdings unfazed Gravesend entirely? "Look, really its up to you when and for how long we train. I understand that you're not really good at anything other than being fast right now, so my expectations are a little low." Gravesend told me, not even bothering to look me in they eyes, like I was little more than a nuisance. I was somewhat mad at her for that. I knew that I wasn't a very good anything really, but Gravesend had to know that going into the pool opened up numerous paths for advancement. "Well, now seems like a good time to me. Basic hoof-to-hoof combat." I said through narrowed eyes, still annoyed at Gravesend. Once more, she gave a shrug. "Sure. Let me just go take off my armor and we can head out to the castle gym." she said disinterestedly before trotting off to my bedroom. Yes, my bedroom, because it wasn't enough that I had to share the 'house' with her, I also had to sleep in the same damn bed. Good thing there was plenty of space on the mattress. A few moments later, Gravesend walked out of the room without her armor, but levitating a notepad and pencil. I could see now that Gravesend's cutie mark was of a quill that seemed to ooze crimson. My expression screwed up as I tried to figure out how that cutie mark made sense. "It because I 'spell out a pony's death' and send the letter to the Reaper Pony." Gravesend enlightened after I was already behind her back, like she had read my mind. That or my expression gave it away entirely. "Its pretty symbolic, but it only made sense after I accidentally killed my best friend as a filly to get it. What a way to find out, right?" And all of a sudden, the 'elephant' in the room went from Ponyville to Gravesend killing her friend as a filly. I quickly trotted over to Gravesend's side to keep up, her eyes keeping straight forward. "I- I wasn't going to ask about that at all." I stuttered out in response looking straight at Gravesend to try and prove it with my expression, though she still wasn't looking at me. A second or two after I finished, Gravesend regarded me with a skeptical glance, returning her gaze to the path before us a moment later. "Oh really now... Would have popped up in conversation at some point anyhow, figured I would explain it then." she paused. "So what were you going to ask me then?" she added. I searched my mind for some kind of reasonable question, and stumbled upon a rather simple, but perfectly logical one. "I was going to ask about your mane. Why do you keep it so short?" I asked, giving a mental sigh as I barely managed to recover from the unexpected question. In response, Gravesend gave a little chuckle. "Clearly you've never worn metal armor before. While the enchantments on the armor keeps everything at a comfortable temperature, with a full mane, I wouldn't be able to breathe with it pressed against my muzzle the entire time. That and its just one less thing to worry about." she explained to me. Really, I should have expected that. A fully enclosed suit of armor probably wouldn't be very comfortable for me, not that pegasi every wore anything but light armor anyhow since they couldn't fly very well otherwise. Really, pegasi would probably get the short end of the stick during this war. We were better flyers than the gryphons, but our traditional aerial rivals were frankly stronger and tougher than pegasi. Only the biggest of us could even use the full sized guns that the earth ponies and unicorns could use since our bones couldn't handle the kick as well they could. As creatures of the sky, being light was a good thing, so pegasus bone density was lower than that of either of our earth-bound siblings. With that in mind, pegasi had to use underpowered guns and rely on our ability to shoot while flying, or get in close for melee attacks with traditional weapons. All the while, gryphons would be using their fully powered weapons to try and knock us out of the sky while the minotaurs would (hopefully) be occupied by ground forces. In order to make the most out of the Air Corps, the Princesses would have to find a way to mass produce guns enchanted for reduced kick, that way pegasi could use guns that would be able to rival the gryphon's. What would probably make the Air Corps truly carry their own weight were the bombers, quick, precise ponies who would carry the creations of the Ordinance Division ponies through the sky to strategically target clusters of enemies or areas of interest. Bombers walked the razor's edge of safety, being unarmored to remain as quick as possible while carrying and explosive that would surely kill them and many surrounding ponies if the bomb were to go off in their grasp. This made them prime targets for any gryphon or minotaur sharpshooters, since taking out bombers would be made a priority. Luckily, the gryphon's territory lacked most of the materials to create similar weapons, and there were fewer gryphons with the technical aptitude to create bombs. Sometimes war chariots would accompany bombers, utilizing the same magic that the sky chariots of Canterlot made use of in order for a pegasus pull gunners along as escorts. Gunners could either be ponies with their traditional shoulder mounted guns, or in the case of a heavily armed war chariot, each side of the chariot could have turrets placed on swivel mounts for even more destruction. Schematics for flying contraptions operated by ponies had been presented to the military for years, but implementation was slow since many pegasi felt that their individuality would be impacted by increased use of machines for aerial operations. But would that prove detrimental now that war was finally upon Equestria? Once again, my inner thoughts chewed through the time it took for me to move from place to place as I unconsciously followed Gravesend to the gym, only becoming aware of the fact as I walked face first into the closed half of the double doors. Gravesend had been holding the other door open for me to follow, and immediately let out a burst of laughter as I rebounded to awareness and rubbed my muzzle. I silently cursed closed doors everywhere. "You okay there Dashie?" Gravesend asked, a giggle still in her voice. Instead of picking up on the kindness of the gesture, I honed in on the fact that she had called me 'Dashie'. She wasn't supposed to call me that. 'Nopony but my friends were supposed to call me that. And you aren't my friend.' I thought venomously. I raised my eyebrows at just how much I overreacted to a simple name, surprising myself. Sure, I wasn't exactly friends with Gravesend, not yet anyhow. I did think she needed to be a little more in tune with possible reactions and consequences of the things she said or did. But I didn't hate her. "Yeah, yeah. Kind of got lost in thought." I said, looking away in embarrassment, both at my reaction, and the actual event of running into the door, rubbing my muzzle a little more as I walked through the threshold. When Gravesend told me we were going to the 'gym', I expected a big room full of training machines and free weights. Instead, the empty room before us seemed like little more than a large sparring room with a padded mat covering the floor. The walls were covered in racks filled up by training weapons of every variety. Wooden swords, spears, clubs, hammers, mock firearms, padded hoof covers, everything. Of course, I had asked for hoof-to-hoof combat training after all, what else could I expect. Stopping in the middle of the sparring mat, Gravesend turned to face me and then swooped her hoof in the direction of the rack covered wall. "Here it is. Our training gym." she said fondly. I looked at her in confusion once again. If this was the training gym, where were the others of the squad? I voiced my thoughts to Gravesend. "They're outside training. We try to limit indoor training to once a week so we can expose ourselves to a variety of conditions to be working in. That and we typically only spar in here, and quite frankly, we know who is best at what by now." she explained. "So its just us then?" I asked. Gravesend nodded in acknowledgement. I sighed, but sat down on my flank and began stretching in preparation for the impending terror I would face. As I leaned back to the floor, spreading my wings, I continued to flex my limbs to allow better blood flow and to loosen the muscles. As I did so, Gravesend walked up and stood over me, a look of concern in her expression. "Ummm... you okay down there?" she asked a little hesitantly. "Yeah, just fine here." I responded as I swung my lower body up and stretching my back. "Well, what are you doing then?" Gravesend inquired as she observed me. "Stretching. What does it look like I'm doing?" I asked, somewhat annoyed that she wouldn't let me finish my routine. "It looks like you're copulating with the floor." she retorted with a chuckle. I stood back up and looked as Gravesend skeptically. "Are you telling me that none of you stretch before you train?" I asked, surprised. "Eh. The others might, but I don't really pay attention to them before we get to work. More interested in actually getting down to business than any calisthenics." Gravesend responded matter-of-factly. "But by all means, go ahead and finish up." she continued. "You'll need all the help you can get." she finished with a cocky grin. I was over my head in pretty much every metaphorical sense of the word, by I was determined to give Gravesend a show since she was so damned confident in herself. I gave each wing another few rotations, checking my body over for signs of... well, anything that could be a problem. Satisfied, I looked back to Gravesend, who was waiting patiently, the look of skepticism and the slight grin eternally etched into her expression. "So, how's this supposed to work? You do a couple things and I try to replicate that, or what?" I asked of my 'instructor'. "Oh no, you don't get off that easily..." Gravesend said with a smirk as she levitated a set of padded hoof covers for each of us. "Now, I'm going to use my magic to shield both of us against blows, though the padding should typically dissipates anything that could actually cause any pain, even without the barrier. I'm going to give you a few free shots just to see how well you do. Everything goes down on the notepad after that." Gravesend explained as I slipped the covers onto each hoof. When I was finished, I could see and feel a dull pinkish glow overtake my body, a matching shield covering my sparring partner as well. "So, just... land a few hits on you?" I asked as I walked right up to Gravesend. She responded with a nod. With no clear idea of how to actually begin, I took on a loose stance like the one taught in basic training. I was a little hesitant to actually lay a hoof on Gravesend despite the shield. Noting my hesitation, she looked at me disappointedly. "Come on. Just hit me already." Gravesend said impatiently. Attempting to bring myself to actually hit her, I tried to recall the malice I felt towards her just moments ago. Narrowing my eyes with a small ember of hatred ignited in me, I was more than happy to oblige Gravesend. I started with a simple combination of jabs with my forehooves, a left-right pairing followed by an uppercut and finished with a heavy haymaker. I wasn't nearly as good as Baluchi was at this, as the grey pony would have been rolling around to flank his opponent or reposition himself, slipping in jabs just where the blows would hurt the most. Even with my lack of finesse though, the punches would have done some damage to my target without the padding and the shield. As it was, Gravesend's body simply reacted as if I had simply pushed her head around in the direction of my force. I landed a few quick slaps with my forehooves to disorient my 'punching bag' before pressing one hoof atop the other and raising them both in the air, only to quickly drive them both back down onto Gravesend's forehead in Ditch's 'patented' Lights Out hoof slam. Gravesend's head was forced slightly to the floor as I drove my weight down with the blow, though the shield clearly mitigated much of the movement. As a finishing blow, I quickly turned and bucked Gravesend in the breast as Applejack would have done to one of the trees in her orchard. I felt Gravesend lift off the ground a few inches satisfyingly. Feeling that I had performed adequately for the moment, I turned back around to face my tutor. Gravesend was looking at me with a slightly more interested look in her eyes. "Not bad Dashie." she said smiling, as I took note of the name again, being sure I would use it as fodder to fuel my blows again. "Looks like your time in training paid of some. I liked that bit where you smacked me over the head, except for one part. What do you call it?" Gravesend expressed with interest. "You mean this?" I asked as I demonstrated the slap to the Lights Out maneuver again. Gravesend nodded, though she stopped me just after I finished. "There's only one problem with what you did to line that up. The slaps don't guarantee disorientation, you need something heavier. Try it using one leg to smash me with the knee before bashing me in the head again. Go ahead, I still have plenty of shield strength." she encouraged. With nothing better to do I complied. As I went through the maneuver once more, I used the knee of my left foreleg to drive into the side of Gravesend's head, following up with Lights Out and the bucking kick again, stopping once again when I was finished. The way Gravesend had advised me did feel like I got more power out of the blows than with the slaps, and she expressed her own approval to me with another grin. "Good! Now hit me again, try and change it up some." she said enthusiastically. I looked at Gravesend incredulously, wondering just how much I could gain from hitting her again and again when I could accomplish the same with a simple punching bag. "Come on, we've only got all day to do this." Well fine then, if Gravesend wanted some more, she could have more. I struck out with my left hoof, my intentions full well being to punch Gravesend directly in the muzzle... only for my hoof to find nothing but empty air, and my target several inches to my right. I narrowed my eyes and attempted to slap Gravesend my right hoof, only to repeat results as she shifted her head back a few inches to avoid my oncoming blow. "Having trouble Dashie? I just want you to hit me, it can't be that hard." Gravesend mocked. I let loose a flurry of blows, lashing out with both forehooves and attempting to connect, both in alternating patterns, and in various restrained attacks as I prepared myself for momentary retaliation. I was never assaulted myself, though neither was I successful in landing a blow against Gravesend, causing me to become more and more frustrated with my results. I panted with increased efforts as Gravesend began to back pedal, matching my forward momentum and dodging each attack I sent her way. Sweat began to collect on my brow, and I grunted in frustration. "Don't get mad Dashie, get glad, I haven't even hit you back yet." Gravesend teased as my fruitless efforts continued. I began to weave my body, attempting to confuse my target as I laid down one useless attack after another. I was getting angrier and angrier, beginning to see just how I was supposed to benefit from this. Gravesend wasn't going to make it easy for me at all. And then, something clicked... As I made another pass at Gravesend, finding only air as she dove to the side, the buzzing in the back of my skull became more prominent. A vision of some sort overtook my sight as Gravesend pranced backwards and away from me. As though I were outside of my body, I saw myself come in at Gravesend again, feinting with my right hoof and driving her head back and leaving her off balance as my left swiped at her forelegs, snatching her hooves from under her and leaving her on the padded floor. As suddenly as it came, the vision was gone. I smirked with a knowing grin, sure that the memories were finally kicking in. I drove myself forward at Gravesend, throwing my right hoof at her face and halting the flow of the movement suddenly as her head pulled back, dragging my left hoof across her forelegs. Surprise struck Gravesend's face as she fell gracefully into a roll rather than landing sprawled across the mat. Okay, so the vision wasn't quite accurate, but I had actually managed to hit her! That was achievement enough for me. "And where'd that one come from Dashie?" Gravesend asked, genuinely surprised at my first successful attack. "Oh, you know, I just thought it was time to stop pulling punches and actually hit you." I said, teasing her for a change. "Uh huh." Gravesend responded skeptically. "Well lets see you do it again then." More than happy to. I found that as I attacked Gravesend again, there was a flow in her movements, that she moving in almost the same pattern for everything I threw at her. Determined to land another blow, I changed up the direction of my hoof in mid strike, impacting with Gravesend's jaw as she moved directly into my swing. Again, I soaked up the surprise on Gravesend's muzzle as if it were praise unto itself. I learned not to be so smug moments later as Gravesend adapted to my own tactics as well, mixing her own movements up as she began to feint forwards at me, stopping before laying a hoof on me, but driving me into my own defensive posture. Each time I flinched in response to one of Gravesend's feints, she smirked just as I had when I finally hit her. And then the first hit came. As I gave another false swipe, hoping to catch Gravesend moving directly into the path of my hoof again, she quickly turned the tables on me by ducking under both of my swinging hooves and giving me a quick tap underneath of my chin. I could barely perceive that Gravesend had touched me through the padding and the shield, and I may very well have been unable to if it weren't for the fact that I saw it myself. 'Gotcha', her eyes seemed to say as she drew back into a slightly more offensive posture. When I came in again, I found both of my hooves diverted to the side as both of Gravesend's drove them away just before they each smacked me in an ear. Once again, I could hardly discern the slaps, though this one could have been felt even if I wasn't looking, and the slight ringing gave away the fact I had been hit as well. Up to this point, I hadn't needed to defend myself, but now that the feints were coming less frequently and I was feeling more and more taps light up my head, chest, and legs... I wished that the buzzing could tell me how to solve that problem. Just like that though, I felt myself leaving my body again as time slowed down again. I could see Gravesend's hoof sailing through the air, looking like she wasn't restraining herself nearly as much as before. I watched as I dove towards the blow, using my own hooves and body to grapple Gravesend's stretching limb. I watched in astonishment as I yanked hard on her leg, flipping her over in the air to smack into the mat with a resounding thud. Then, I felt myself drawn in once more. Now that I had something seemingly effective to replicate, I simply needed to wait for an opening that would allow me to 'turn the tables' on Gravesend, both figuratively and literally in this case. She didn't seem to want to make this new maneuver easy for me to perform, however, and she wasn't so brazen as to continuously throw simple punches at me all the time. Sweeping and distracting blows were her attack of choice at the moment, and I was beginning to relent as the small pinprick attacks drew my attention from a swooping hoof that would smack my skull shortly after. I needed to expedite this some. As I caught Gravesend in the middle of a high arcing swing, I smacked away the distracting blow, and took a risk by diving in. I grabbed at the high-flying hoof, dragging it down over one shoulder as I rammed into Gravesend with the other. With her leg entrapped, I gave a heave, driving Gravesend off her hooves and into the air. At the peak of her flight, I gave a tug to bring her form crashing onto the mat, using her momentum to my advantage and increasing the impact force. The thud that I heard was even more satisfying than I envisioned it would be. As I stood triumphantly over her prone form, Gravesend let loose a burst of mirthful laughter. I couldn't help but begin to laugh about it myself. What I had just done seemed pretty... epic. I took a far more experienced hoof-to-hoof combatant, and completely laid her out on the floor. Damn those memories had come in useful after all. Ever the sportsmare, I stuck my hoof out to Gravesend to aid her in standing once more. She accepted the hoof in a friendly manner, and stood before me once more. "Okay. I'll admit it. That was entirely unexpected." Gravesend said happily. "I take it the memories have started to kick in?" she asked curiously. "Yeah, they really helped me out." I replied cheerfully. "I probably still wouldn't have hit you without them to guide me." I admitted. Gravesend nodded knowingly. "Yeah, I could hardly touch my dad when I got in, and I already had a lot of combat experience when I started. The memories definitely make an impact." Gravesend admitted in turn. "But come on, I should still have some power left for the shields. Lets finish up." I was happy to keep going, and I was actually beginning to feel I like I could become friends with this pony. Eagerly, we both took up our stances again. As I came in, Gravesend seemed to be moving slower, like she wanted to be hit. Now, granted, we had both been at it for a good hour by now, and I was feeling immensely tired myself, but I still needed to burn through the adrenaline rush I gained from my small victory. I found myself connecting more and more, even catching my sparring partner in another Lights Out routine. I felt like I was becoming something of an even match for Gravesend, though she was surely allowing me to feel like I had accomplished a lot since this was my first exercise, and encouragement was always helpful. "Okay, we should probably tone it down some. I've had to expend a lot of energy keeping these shields up for this long." Gravesend told me. But I didn't hear her. I was busy wailing away still. I struck her a few more times, and she retaliated in kinds. "Yeah, pretty soon I'm going to have to let this go." she said wearily. I didn't notice how tired she sounded. I was in my own land of a hoof filled blizzard. At that point, Gravesend had had enough. "Okay, lets stop it now. I'm pretty tired and- hey!" Gravesend continued angrily. I wasn't even paying attention. I was too caught up in my adrenaline and... a new memory that tried to show itself. Something to finish up, that was what Gravesend wanted, didn't she? I watched as the memory showed me what to do. I didn't even notice that something was wrong as I whipped my hind legs around, smashing them into Gravesend's skull, dragging the rest of my body along as I hooked a leg around her neck. As my mass flew around Gravesend, my hoof also smashed into her skull, driving it with me. Now in my control, I followed my momentum and carried Gravesend's head straight into the floor as I felt the shield evaporate under the impact. As I let go and fully composed myself after the landing, I turned to look upon Gravesend. That was when I first noticed something was wrong. Gravesend was trying to prop herself up on her forelegs, crimson matching the 'ink' of her quill cutie mark oozing from her mouth and one nostril. It was then that I realized I could have just injured one of my own squad mates, one of the ones I was supposed to work with and protect. It was only through her efforts to help me that I had inadvertently hurt her. After dabbing her lip and seeing the blood on her hoof, Gravesend stood with an unexpected swiftness. Before I knew it, she was barreling into my chest, and dragging me along for the ride. I barely recognized the fact that I was being rushed along on a pony's shoulder before I collided harshly with the wall, splintering some of the wooden training weapons and the racks holding them. The pain of the impact brought reality crashing into me, the wall seeming to be the very same force. I looked down at Gravesend, who at that point was suspending me by the throat with her right foreleg pressed tightly against my windpipe. I could see fury and murder in her eyes. Bloodlust. A sending for the grave. "What the fuck is wrong with you!? Did you just want some way to say you were better than me?! Because you aren't better than me! You're only alive right now because I allow it! Don't you dare to use a killing blow in sparring! You haven't killed somepony because of your naivety!" Gravesend raged. I was beyond terror as I saw the Pony of Death come to life before me. My mind raced about, trying in vain to solve nothing in particular. What happened to the whole 'life flashing before your eyes' thing before you died? Instead, I hung there on the wall wondering just what the hell was going on at that moment. I felt the pressure removed from my throat suddenly, sending me to the floor coughing as Gravesend let me down. When I looked up, I saw Gravesend was clutching her eyes tightly closed, her forelegs to her skull as the blood from her wounds trickled from her nostrils and mouth. Pain was very clearly etched across her features, but all I could think of was that I might have just trampled all over a budding friendship and almost killed somepony in the process. "I think I have a concussion..." Gravesend mumbled, her eyes still shut in pain. "You could use the first aid training though. You can't be in good shape either after I sent you into the wall." To be honest, I had not noticed the pain throughout my body until then, and when it struck me, it was all I could do not to fall to the mat entirely and cry out. I didn't feel like anything was broken, but something was sprained in my back, and I could feel the nasty bruise forming on my neck from Gravesend's leg, not to mention the other smaller bruises all of the jolting around had caused in the collision. Wobbly, I got to my hooves, trying to fight through the pain in my back. I stood next to Gravesend, putting a hoof on her shoulder for support. "I'm... sorry..." I managed to sputter out from my bruised throat, each word hurting me to say both physically and emotionally. "We should probably head back to my place and rest for a while." I suggested. Gravesend cracked her eyes open... her pretty, bright, lime hued eyes, and nodded slightly. The movement only caused renewed pain, and she clenched her eyes tight again, clutching her skull once more. In the end, we were two battered and weary ponies, leaning on each other to leave the gym and make our way slowly back to my quarters. It was then that I realized I was knee deep in this shit. This whole war, the Royal Guard, Ponyville... All of it. And all I wanted right now was to make it back to my room with a friend. ********** The walk back to my quarters was grueling with nothing to think about to distract me this time. Gravesend could walk better than I could, though she was dizzy, and my back was killing me, leaving me to guide her as I leaned on her for support. Truth be told, we weren't in very good shape right then, and I wasn't too confident in the basic medical training I had been given at the training grounds. Sprains, sure. I could deal with sprains and bruises, they weren't too bad. But concussions were a different story entirely, and that was surely what Gravesend had. All the symptoms fit, the sensitivity to light was surely what caused her to close her eyes, a headache could possibly be present, and the dizziness paired with generally reduced motor skills gave it away. Even if we got back to my 'apartment', I couldn't really treat Gravesend, and she certainly was in no condition to be trying to instruct me in how to heal her. I wracked my brain for what to do. I didn't know if there was a medical station in the castle complex, and if there was just where it might have been. Where should I go, who should I see what should I d- Oh. There was a medical pony in the squad. I mentally slapped myself in place of the physical thing, which was just too much for me to handle at the moment. We had a medical pony in our squad, duh! Why had I taken so long trying to think of some sort of solution when I could just rely on my squad like I'm supposed to and call on Blood for his medical expertise? But... how could I contact him? The others were surely training still while me and Gravesend crawled back to take a rest already. I decided to hold off on that particular question as we meandered down this hallway or another to get back to the relative safety of my quarters. The walking was probably bad for Gravesend, and she seemed to be deteriorating as we went, so I tried to pick up some of the slack and carry more of my own weight, fighting through the pain it caused. Grudgingly, I thought of how this was entirely my fault, how if I had simply listened to Gravesend when she had told me to stop then we wouldn't be in such a bad state. Instead, I found myself and another pony dragging ourselves along into my bedroom as I tried to place Gravesend onto the mattress comfortably. I dimmed the lights to cause her less pain as I inquired about where to find Blood. "Hnngh... open area left of gate... all there practicing... bastard's probably sitting there smugly while the others spar." Gravesend whispered to me through the haze obscuring her consciousness. She was in and out of it at this point, perhaps pointing to some more serious injury than just a concussion, and certainly something I couldn't deal with. Had I really hit her that hard with the final blow? I mean, with the mat, and the padding and the remaining shield... I had still hurt Gravesend, and bad if she was like this. I made a conscious decision that I hated and 'killing blows' that the memories might try to teach me, though I couldn't deny their effectiveness. I hit the lights on my way out of the bedroom to let Gravesend rest easier in the darkness. I slowly made my way to the bathroom, reasoning with myself that I had to spend at least a few minutes in the freezer setting I had discovered of the shower in my earlier inspection. That would prove useful in reducing the effects of my sprain, if only temporarily so that between that and some minor painkillers I could actually make it to Blood without stopping to recover. As I hit the button outside of the standing shower, a freezing mist began to spray from the dual shower heads. I stepped in and closed the door, laying down on the cot after I did so. This wasn't simply water being sprayed, water would have frozen at this temperature I realized as my teeth chattered from the chilling numbness that began to overtake my body after a few minutes. The good news was, the numbing sensation stopped me from feeling the pain of my back, and the liquid seemed almost willing to shed itself from my coat, eliminating the need for me to towel it off. Once I felt that the effects of the freezing would last long enough for me to make it to the front gates and back, I rose shakily from the cot, and opened the door to hit the button again so I could turn off the mist. Shaking my freezing body once more to repel any stray droplets, I walked over to the medical cabinet and scanned its contents for some minor painkillers. Just the simple non-prescription kind should do it, as risking something stronger was something I was unwilling to do. Popping open the lid with somewhat less shaky hooves, I tossed a couple pills into my mouth, washing them down with a mouthful of water from the faucet. Combined with the freezing shower, I wouldn't be able to feel my back pain for another half an hour or so, which should be plenty of time for me to make it to the front gates if I recalled the path correctly. I checked on Gravesend again to make sure she wasn't drowning in a pool or her own blood or some other such horror before I left, giving her a quick promise that I would be back as soon as possible with Blood. There was no acknowledgment from her, which both worried me and gave me some hope. Worry, that I had gotten no response, but hopeful that that was a sign she was sleeping and recovering right now. Brooking no more delays, I hurried to the front door, feeling no pain from my own injuries as I made my way there. I made sure to run swiftly down the hall to make the best time, unsure of how wise it would be to fly when I was this frigid. As before, no deep thoughts came to me as I rushed to find Blood, leaving me to simply focus on the task at hand without the welcome distraction of my mind-works. I avoided any errant ponies the attempted to greet me, servant or otherwise, with a quick wave of a hoof as I traveled onward, nearly crashing into opening doors thrice. Yes, flying would have been a poor choice. Eventually I burst into the light of the courtyard, my heart soaring that I was closing in on the rest of my squad and Blood in particular. I took a sharp left just before the area where I had been scanned by the unicorn scribe two days ago, seeing the self same unicorn standing at the gates, just as bored looking as before. I passed beyond the Grand Spire, its day guards only sparing me a passing glance as I rushed by them. I spent no time regarding them as continued at my breakneck pace. As I broke past the obscuring sight of the spire, I spied a ring of ponies in the distance. Being as good an indicator as any other that I was in the correct place, I put my head down and continued to run forward at the crowd. I only looked up when I heard the clopping of hooves together, and a few cheers from the gathered crowd. Apparently whenever the Royal Guard was training, anypony was allowed to watch the spectacle, and the circle of ponies showed their approval for whatever was going on right then. I proceeded to shove my way through the crowd politely, trying to make out exactly what was going on in the circle. I heard a few mutterings of protest, but upon seeing who was barging past them, many ponies changed their mumbles to wonder if I 'Was that the new one' or 'Where's she been?' in a far more polite manner. As I finally weaved my way through the last of the crowd of ponies, I had to stop myself just for a moment to observe the current training session. Several magically created obstacles dominated what actually turned out to be a pit, where several of the ponies of the Royal Guard were diving into cover on their half of the course. It appeared that each pony had been divided into two teams: Mordekai, Ashen, Schism, Rift Walk, and Crawler on one team, the triplets, Brayn, and Perdition on the other. Blood, it appeared, was on the far side of the pit in an observation box overlooking the events below. Each pony had a matching colored vest and headset on; either red or blue, each determining the team the wearer was on. On top of that, each pony appeared to have various personal additions to the outfit. Mordekai had a mock high powered rifle rigged on his shoulder, along with a pair of aviator sunglasses that seemed entirely appropriate for a sniper pony. In this particular case I discovered that the mock rifle fired off paintballs after witnessing one impact against a shield placed around Perdition. In response, the heavy weapons pony, who was wearing some contraption I couldn't identify on her vest, lobbed a mock grenade at her attacker from one of the barrels of the device. Well, that answered one question. Mordekai quickly leapt down from the top of the block of stony material her had been standing on in order to observe the 'battlefield' around him. The 'grenade' exploded where the sniper pony had been standing a moment ago, splattering everywhere over the top of the block with red paint and barely catching the end of his tail on his way down. Stomping her hoof in protest of her failure, Perdition trotted over to the choke point between the block Mordekai had been standing on and another block. There, she dug a small hole and proceeded to produce a device with a blinking red light from her saddlebags, placing the device into the hole and covering it again so that the light could barely be seen. A mine, I suspected the object was. I also inferred that the blinking light indicated which team the mine belonged to, exploding with a corresponding color when the vest of an opposing team member crossed into its area of effect. Satisfied with her hoofwork, Perdition turned back the way she came from and spoke into her headset, motioning with a hoof for somepony to come closer. In response, Brayn and the triplets came out from behind similar blocks across the way from the one Perdition had placed her mine at. The triplets took up defensive positions around Brayn, presumably because he was the one that could provide them with shielding, and because he was the 'brain' of the operation as their tactical leader. I noticed then that all of the members of the red team had little balls chained around their vests, though I could not fathom why. With Perdition as the cautious lead of the group, the red team moved in through the choke point and into blue team territory. What I saw of the blue team however was tricky. Four winding rows deeper than the red team was at that moment, I saw Crawler and Rift Walk. Crawler deployed a pair of small devices onto the ground, shielded by the walls of another choke point that the red team would have to walk through to finish exploring the blue team's territory. Once the two objects were down, I saw a mechanical shifting of parts occur as both devices unfolded into an upright position. 'Turrets,' I chuckled as I saw what Crawler was trying to do, which was to force the red team to walk into a point of ambush where to two miniature weapons could wreak havoc with their own small paint guns. Quickly after allowing Crawler to set up his devious turrets, Rift Walk teleported the two of them to a meeting point all the way at the far end of the blue base where a wall of supplies and weapons stood ready for the ponies to use them. There, Schism, Mordekai, and Ashen stood waiting for them, and after a quick discussion with Mordekai appearing to be the tactician of this group, Rift Walk teleported himself and the other four ponies to the mouth of the red base. There, Mordekai was further teleported onto the top of one of the blocks of the red team choke point, where he dropped to the ground and set up the bi-pod on his shoulder mounted rifle, giving himself extra stability. Crawler produced two more turrets from his restocked saddlebags, giving them to Ashen, who in turn took off from the ground, flying low over the bluish stone walls of her base to avoid being spotted. While her own stealthy capabilities and coat color helped her become nearly invisible against the walls, when she hit something on her vest, Ashen just... vanished. We've been developing a special spell based technology that should allow a limited chameleon effect field to surround the user, I suddenly recalled Rift Walk had told me. I felt that what I was seeing, or rather, what I wasn't seeing, was the result of that work. Back at the entrance to the red base, Crawler looked at the small monitor of a device worn on his leg, and proceeded to walk carelessly directly into the red base choke point, and nonchalantly kick the mine that I didn't even know was there directly into the wall. Also to my astonishment, the mine didn't react at the physical contact, or at Crawler's approach to the explosive device, where he proceeded to dismantle the mine in mere seconds. The tech wizard then seemed to scoff at the parts and pieces in his hooves before tossing them to the ground to be recovered later. Walking behind the walls of the choke point, Crawler retrieved a laptop from his saddlebags, his hooves flying deftly over the computer's keyboard as he went to work. As I saw Crawler speak into his headset, I saw a sudden jerking movement from one of the zebra triplets, who began to move in a full circle. What I didn't realize right then was that Crawler had hacked into the radio frequency of the red team, and began broadcasting himself under a filter effect. However, he only targeted one pony at a time in order to maximize the confusion among the red team's ranks. Now was the perfect time to strike for the blue, while the confusion was still present among their opponents. But they already knew that. As Perdition continued cautiously forward, shielded by Brayn's magic, she fell under assault by the turrets as she rounded the corner. Brayn quickly focused his attention of Perdition's shield, turning around from their flank where one of the zebra triplets was watching as well. Once she heard the turrets firing, Schism went over to the mine at the choke point of blue base and activated it with her magic, containing the actual paint blast inside of a shield she had placed around the mine, though leaving the explosive sound unaltered. At the sound of the blast, Brayn and the zebra triplets turned towards the explosion, with Brayn throwing shields up around the zebras, unfortunately leaving himself vulnerable. With this fact apparent as the shield faded from Brayn, Ashen made her presence known. Unnoticed by all of the ponies (and zebras) around her, Ashen had silently and stealthily made her way to just a few feet away from the center of the five ponies, where she proceeded to drop her two turrets on the ground, making themselves visible as they left her grasp. Soon, those turrets opened fire on Brayn, hitting him a few times and forcing him to drop his shield on Perdition and moving it over to himself, leaving her vulnerable. Taking this opening to act, Mordekai fired a precision shot from his rifle, drilling a paint ball into the back of Perdition's head and splattering her mane and coat with rich blue paint. I felt like I could almost see him mouth 'Boom. Headshot.' from his perch. Accepting that the blow would have been fatal in a true fire fight, Perdition dropped to the ground 'dead'. Rift Walk must have been perched on the top of the block next to the red team in his light-bent teleportation spell, because all of a sudden he flew into the air, landing directly on top of Brayn, knocking the shielded pony to the ground and disrupting all of the shields in his surprise. Once the shields were down, Ashen materialized behind of of the triplets and dragged a hoof cover across the zebra's neck, leaving a blue trail. In another instant, all of the blue balls around another triplet's neck exploded, covering the mare in blue paint as Schism walked out from behind a corner, her horn aglow. Mordekai took out the last zebra triplet with a second shot from his rifle taking the mare directly over her heart, splattering blue to confirm the kill. I could picture Rift Walk smiling as he gave a small poke to Brayn's forehead with his paint marked hoof, leaving a little blue dot. Five 'kills' in less than five seconds. "Blue Team wins!" came a triumphant shout from the loud speakers around the pit. All of the ponies in the crowd around me erupted into cheers and hoof clops for the winning team, whose members all bowed with the exception of Ashen, who stood there wordlessly.And I was supposed to be an asset to those ponies!? I couldn't even dream to be a valued member of this squad with coordination like that. All of these events occurred in under three minutes. Three minutes I realized that Gravesend could be in trouble! Pushing my way through the crowd again, I tried to get to the opposite side of the pit where Blood was. Oh this would have been so much easier if I felt I could fly right now... but at least this time the ponies were willing to part without to much fuss since they weren't missing out on the show below. Instead, the ten ponies of the two teams talked amongst each other about the results of the bout. My concerns had nothing to do with their conversation though, as I forced my way through the sea of ponies milling about in order to reach Blood. As I slammed the door open, I found an olive colored stallion with a black mane reclining comfortably in a chair, and despite his seeming at ease in his position, there was a scowl etched across his features. The frown only deepened as he reacted to my presence. "What the hell- oh. It's you. Gravesend is supposed to be keeping your fresh hide busy and we're in the middle of practice, so what do you want?" Blood asked gruffly, not at all changing his tone once he recognized me. "Gravesend-" I began, but flinched as I underestimated just how long the chilling and painkillers would last, my back pain coming back with a vengeance. Noticing my jerkiness, Blood's horn began to glow as I felt his magic scanning my body for injuries. Luckily, this kind of scanning didn't feel vile like the one I had been subjected to as I entered the castle grounds. Blood grunted as his magic diagnosed all of my injuries, from the small bruises, to the large one on my neck, and my sprained back. Wordlessly, Blood began his work of curing my wounds with his magic, mumbling to me as he did so. "What, Gravesend whoop your ass and you come crying to the medic to tell me 'Oh, she was so mean to me, how ever will I survive?', cause I don't have any patience for whining from the ponies I treat. I fix em' up, but I don't have to like it." he mocked as I felt all of my aches and pains vanish in the glow of his horn. I shook my head vigorously in response, my mane flying everywhere. "No, but Gravesend needs help, and bad!" I warned Blood. For all of his supposed dislike of everypony, Blood bolted up right quick at the possibility of an injured pony that could use his help. "Show me." And so I did as I ran back to my quarters with the medical pony in tow. I really wanted to fly to Gravesend as quickly as possible to make sure she was alright, but leaving Blood in my dust wouldn't help anypony at all since I still couldn't help her if I tried. Ponies parted immediately as they saw a pony from the Royal Guard rushing through their midst, and anypony who didn't move aside quickly enough was pushed away rudely by Blood's magic. He was certainly ready to help if he could, his grim faced expression overtaking the perpetual scowl. Back inside of the castle proper, we encountered no resistance from any of the castle servants, who all moved aside readily as they saw the two Royal Guards running towards some unknown objective in the castle. "What's wrong with her?" Blood huffed in questioning as we raced through the halls, clearly in need of some more cardio work, and less time spent in the chair 'in case' somepony got hurt, which could happen with all of the physical action occurring during training sessions. "I think she has a concussion, she hit the mat pretty hard and she's showing all the signs I was told about in basic training." I told him, far less troubled by the running. For good measure, I listed all of symptom that had cropped up. Blood bobbed his head in response, or at least I thought it was in response, since it could have just been the effort he was putting into running. Really, I was probably moving slower because of him. Within short order, we ran through the door that I hadn't bothered to close, slowing our pace as we did so as running was unnecessary with our goal just through the nearest threshold. The lights remained off in my room, indicating that Gravesend had yet to awaken. As we entered, I kept the light on the dimmest setting and hit the switch, though Gravesend still cringed away from the light, even in her unconscious state. Her mouth and nose had stopped bleeding, though some dried blood stained the sheets where her head rested. Blood closed in on her with a determined expression, whistling as he noted the physical signs. "Nice to see somepony put you on bed rest for a change." Blood said, his patient unresponsive. That seemed to worry him more, and he immediately set forth scanning Gravesend's body, noting nothing until the glow reached her skull. "Well, I'd say your prognosis is right, looks like a concus- well holy shit!" Blood cut off in surprise. "What, what is it?" I asked worriedly. Gravesend looked up at me with concern for the first time. "Our patient here has some intracranial hemorrhaging which is building up in an epidermal hematoma. Its a good thing you got me here when you did, in about twenty minutes she's probably start to suffer permanent damage." Blood told me. I looked at him in confusion, not quite understanding exactly what he said. Noting my confused expression, Blood elaborated. "Her damn brain is bleeding into the area between the brain and the skull, that's the intracranial hemorrhage. The pool of blood between the skull and brain itself is called an epidermal hematoma. If that happens for too long, the brain gets compressed within the skull, which can lead to a herniation of the brain. Imagine your brain popping out of your eyes sockets." Blood explained with graphic detail. I doubted that anypony's brain could actually pop out of their eye sockets as they would probably be dead before it got that serious, but the point was made; Gravesend was lucky to have a medical professional present. "Now, like I said, we caught this with enough time to prevent any brain damage beyond the hemorrhage itself. But we're going to need to relieve the pressure before that becomes a possibility. I can stop any further bleeding, but it's not good to leave that blood built up in her skull, so we're going to need to drain it here." Blood told me. I gulped at the thought of opening up Gravesend's skull right here in my apartment, but it needed to be done to save her life. "Alright. What do we need?" Blood smirked at me, surprised I would be willing to assist him. "You sure you want to do this, kid? It's not going to be pretty, so you won't be able to help if you're squeamish." he told me. I nodded my head to assure him that I was willing to go all the way through with this. "Well okay then. All we're going to need is a bucket of some sort, or to move her to the bathroom. But limiting her movement is for the best, so try and find a container of some sort." Blood advised me as I nodded in acknowledgement. I doubted that I had been provided a bucket, so I scanned the bathroom for something that would do the trick. Pill bottles, soaps and shampoos, extra toiletries, medicine of all sorts... but nothing bigger than a pill bottle to collect any fluid. But if it took getting blood all over my floor to save a life, I'd get over it. I almost went back to Blood empty hoofed, but my eyes settled upon my small trash can as I turned to leave. I quickly grabbed the cylindrical trash can and a fresh towel, just in case some blood spilled out. I returned to Blood with both objects in hoof after I dropped the remains of my gift wrapped box onto the floor. "Alright, not a bucket, but it'll do, and good thinking for the towel." Blood praised. "Now, what I'm going to do is use my magic to cut away the skin, fur, and hair to get to where the blood is pooled. That wound will be cauterized as I cut it, so there shouldn't be any blood until I actually get through the skull." he explained, looking me in the eyes reassuringly. "All I need you to do is to hold her head over the trash can while I work since we went through all the trouble to not get any blood on the floor." he told me. I gulped, hesitant now that I was actually faced with needing to participate. "Don't worry, we can do this. It just helps if I don't have to do this alone." Blood said smoothly. And with that, I forced myself to overcome my hesitation and helped reposition Gravesend so that her head would be over the trash can on the floor. With one final check that I was still with him, Blood began his operation. As Blood's horn glowed, a beam of magic struck out at Gravesend's coat in a circular pattern, burning its was through the fur, flesh, and bone. I could smell the seared fur and the meat beneath it, the stench almost making me wretch almost as I considered the same thing happening to me; only I was awake as it happened. I managed to keep myself composed and steady though as Blood continued his work. The smell of burning bone was just wrong to me, though it was nothing compared to the popping sound as the last of the skull was cut through and extracted with the medical pony's magic. Even as the cut was completed, blood flowed around the piece of detached bone, and removing the blockage only allowed the blood to pass unhindered. Truthfully, I was too horrified by witnessing the blood clear from the hole in Gravesend's skull, allowing me to see the gray matter beneath, in order to let of her head, or move at all for that matter. Gently, Blood twisted her head some to let all of the loose blood out. I could hardly believe what I was watching happen right before my eyes, another pony's skull cut open and their lifeblood spilling forth. Once everything appeared to be drained, Blood took the piece of skull, flesh, and fur, placing it back in the vacant space of Gravesend's head. To my amazement, Blood used his magic to knit the bone and flesh back together, even regrowing the hair. When his work was done, it appeared as if nothing had ever happened, no scar, not missing fur, not a single sign. I sighed as Blood took Gravesend's head from my own grasp and maneuvered her back onto the bed fully. I stared into the trash can to see just how much blood had come out of the wound, surprised when it appeared that the amount of the crimson fluid inside of it could have indeed fit in one of the larger pill bottles contained within the medical cabinet. Much to my relief, Blood instructed me to take our makeshift bucket and dispose of the contents before anything began to dry. Once I had disposed of the bodily fluids in the toilet (because I sure as hay wasn't going to bathe where somepony's blood had been), I went out to the living room where Blood already awaited me, the lights in my bedroom switched off. I sat down on my couch silently, Blood following suit. Both of us sat there awkwardly for a few moments digesting what we had just done. I broke the tense atmosphere by getting out the question on my mind. "Is she going to be alright?" I asked, fervently hoping I hadn't wasted too much time with the freezing mist and observation of the training match. "Yes, she was quite lucky that the hemorrhage had been a slow bleed. It gave her the extra time for you to find me and perform the operation. In another hour the damage could have been permanent." Blood said flatly, and then turned to me with an inquisitive expression. "Just what the hell happened to her? I know that you, a wet behind the ears newbie fresh out of training camp couldn't have done this." he asked. I sighed, afraid of recount the story, though I knew it should be told, if only to teach myself a lesson. "We were... sparring. About an hour or so. Gravesend... she just wanted to see what I could do at first, and then she put me through the motions of training, basic attacks, hitting a moving target, defensive stuff.." I paused here, knowing this would be the hardest part to tell. "She wanted to stop, said that an hour of prolonged shielding was wearing her magic down. But I wasn't listening. I-" I choked at this, but forced myself to continue. "I was caught up in the moment, in the memories. I kept hitting her, and hitting her, the shield getting weaker and weaker. The memories... they showed me something, some kind of special move. I bucked her in the head and wrapped my self around, punching her and driving her head into the floor. The kick was what broke her shield finally, and the punch did... this." I told Blood with shame, but I endeavored to add the last part. "When she got up, she was full of fury. She rammed me up against the wall, that was how I got hurt. Eventually she calmed down, told me never to use a 'killing blow', whatever that's supposed to mean to you all." I concluded. Blood remained silent as I recounted my short tale, nodding as I got to the last bit about killing blows. Blood pondered what I told him for a moment, then spoke up. "And... the memories. They showed you a killing blow during your fist session?" he asked curiously. I nodded in confirmation, not understanding the significance of that fact. Catching on to the fact that I was unaware of the seriousness of the matter, Blood told me more, evoking a history lesson in the process. "Killing blows... they were created by the first generation of Guardians. Nightmare Moon had driven Celestia and her defenders to extreme measures since she could empower her indoctrinated horde to live through far more punishment than ponies should be able to endure. In order to kill those few ponies empowered by Nightmare Moon herself, the killing blows were developed, a flurry of attacks meant to ensure a kill." Blood paused for a deep breath, not intending to stop explaining soon. "This knowledge of killing blows was kept secret after the war to protect innocent ponies, and as a failsafe in the even Nightmare Moon made her way back to Equestria. Sure, somepony could develop the same or new killing blows if they wanted, but the Guardians only discovered the most effective ways through killing dozens, if not hundreds of ponies during the war. Nopony could get away with that many murders, even if they could bear to commit such an atrocity to begin with." he continued. "To that end, only those exposed to the memories of the Waters of Equestria, the same pool you went into, could learn of the killing blows. Therefore, only the successor members of the Guardians, ourselves included, know of these techniques. These memories are supposed to be revealed in time, not shortly after one had absorbed the memories, making this instance very unique. This may be a foreboding portent of what is to come in the future, or of your own abilities if the memories chose to reveal this information so early on in your training." Blood concluded with a resounding final note. I sat there, awestruck. Once again, some sign pointed to me being some kind of 'super pony', even among the Royal Guard. I was told once by the memories themselves, and now by another member of the very same Royal Guard, that I could perform feats beyond the norm. What was this all supposed to mean to me? Blood interrupted my thoughts before I could delve deeper into them. "Killing blow techniques, as the name implies, are very dangerous. You have learned now why we never use killing blows during sparring sessions. Gravesend herself learned this same reasoning as a younger mare when she killed Quora several years ago." Blood said, and I felt like he was scolding me for my unintended actions. But now I had a new interest to pick up on. "Wait, who was Quora?" I intoned. It was Blood's turn to sigh this time, turning away. "Quora was... Gravesend's mother." he told me reluctantly. Wait, so Gravesend's parents had both been guardians? Now that was a freak thing, I could understand somepony from each generation of the family being a Guardian, but three members of the same family? That was just... unexpected. But now I could understand the anguish that had filled Gravesend's eyes as she raged at me for having used a killing blow during a sparring session. I reminded her of herself. Blood interrupted my train of thought again. "Now, Gravesend still has a grade three concussion, I've healed the physical matters, but the cognitive disturbances might remain for a little while. The hematoma also shouldn't have any impact on her, and nothing should be wrong with the patch job I did on the piece of skull. Nevertheless, I prescribe bed rest, or at least minimal physical activity as everything settles back into the norm." Blood advised. "Good luck for the next few weeks. You're going to need it now that Gravesend has a reason to make your life difficult, and don't you dare think that I'll be taking it easy on you either. You're going to learn everything I can cram into your skull while I have you. Maybe your brain will pop out of your skull." Blood threatened, his voice becoming gruff once more. I was startled at the sudden shift in mood and nearly fell out of my seat as Blood's vehemence was directed at me once more. Noticing my reaction, Blood laughed evilly as he walked out of the door, politely closing it behind him. I wasn't quite sure what to think about Blood. He was certainly unforgiving most of the time, but I had seen him at his best, as he worked to save a life, and I knew that he was entirely dedicated to helping ponies, even if it was his on special brand of 'help' that he provided. I was more interested right now of what I had learned of Gravesend's past. How had her mother's untimely demise impacted the budding Guardian, particularly when Gravesend was at such a young age? I turned my attention to the pony that I was lying on my bed, even now snoring in a soft manner that I found kind of... cute. Despite the obvious differences in the pony that I was, and my age, I felt that right now I was Gravesend's Quora. My useless questions, born out of my own 'curiosity', if that was what I wanted to call my insensitive interest, were of no use at the moment. Right now, I just needed to make sure that this pony was alive and well. To make sure that my friend, was alive and well.