~a few weeks ago~

"You must concentrate, flow the water from one vial to the other."

Inside a small cave outside the city Dream and Lucky are continuing their form of training. Lucky is sitting in the middle of a large stone lily pad in the middle of a pool of crystal clear water. In front of her are different vials, some have water while some don't. The cave sparkles with minerals in the ceiling, giving it that magical feeling.

The water that Lucky had flowing from the vials splashes to the ground and she stomps into a standing position.

"Why is this so hard?"

"The water flowing around this stone lily pad and under it interacts with the properties in the water that is in the vials. That is why this is a prime training location. You must try much harder at simple task to accomplish them here. Now try again, move the water from the first vial to the second, then the third, then the fourth."

Lucky continues to try and move the water with her magic from one vial to another.

~A week or so later~

"Good Lucky, keep the water where it is now."

Lucky is sitting in the same spot as she was with the vials. Except she has gotten used to the properties in the cave and now she is completely levitating the water as wavy, circular, shapes in the air, four in total around her.

"You can release the water back into the pool slowly now. That was very good Lucky, just unstable in its form."

"Maybe in a few weeks it will look better?"

"At this pace yes, that is a good spot to assume. But this last part is often the hardest, keeping the water perfectly circular for long periods of time requires patience."

~Current day~

"Perfect, keep that form a few more minutes."

The four orbs of water are pretty well perfectly circular, the surface of the water not moving a millimeter.

"Release."

"Oh, I didn't think you would be right about it being that hard to keep some water floating. But now I believe you, it must be this cave," Lucky is sweating and out of breath having to stop and get some air, "It's almost like the water under us is trying to suck the orbs down into it, it's weird…"

"Yes that it is. Now think of it as you and the powers you expressed when we assaulted the castle. If you force yourself too hard or exhaust yourself too hard you may lose yourself in the pool of water. But if you don't try enough to keep the balance in check, you will fall and be engulfed in the pool. You seemed to have a decent amount of control over it before, so really I think it comes down to you just knowing your limits and knowing yourself."

"Thanks Dream, so same time tomorrow?"

"Sure."

Lucky heads home, its night time in Verre, the door slowly opens as Lucky Dreams stumbles inside. Rain Dancer is sitting on the sofa eating some ice cream with an innocent look on her face. Lucky sets her saddle bags on the counter next to Rain's and plops down on the sofa next to her friends, a bowl of ice cream offered by Rain and accepted by Lucky which helps sooth the days pain and troubles.

"So, another rough magic training day trying to figure out your weird eyes?"

"I guess if you put it that way yes," Lucky shoves a spoon full of ice cream into her mouth, "except does everyone enjoy calling my eyes weird?"

"Just trying to lighten the mood… Speaking of moods, I wonder how Peach is doing."

"I am sure she is fine. Wasn't she supposed to visit though? I thought Honey Darling said something about her not staying permanently there or something like that. Maybe we should visit her; if we are having a rough time I am sure 'combat training' can't be any easier. "

"Let me finish my ice cream first."

"I didn't mean now, it's a bit late don't you think? How was your day anyways?"

"Well it was mainly a seminar between many of Equestria's top doctors and nurses. Nothing too stressful like that severed-"

"Whoa I am eating, let me eat in peace today… unless you want to use CPR already."

Outside the wooden windows the sun is setting. Being this tired isn't helping the sword training or the staying up late that Peach is having to get used to. While she is looking out the window and dozing off her instructor takes to opportunity to swing his wooden training sword at hers and knock it out of her mouth.

"All this time and you still can't do any better than that?"

"Well it doesn't help that its midnight!"

"Take this seriously and we can all leave then!"

Peach picks up the wooden sword yet again. Eyebrows arched angrily on both of their faces. They exchange a few blows with the training swords then back away. Repeating a few times until the instructor takes out a second training sword.

"Now hey! That ain't fair, you can't grip a sword with your hooves enough to hold two swords and if your mouth is big enough to hold two then that proves what I said the other day! You keep doing all these crazy things but you won't even tell me your name yet!"

"Who said I would use my hooves? If you want to learn combat that badly then shut up and learn."

The instructor pony bends his front leg and grips the sword with the arch created by the leg, balancing the sword there. He throws the sword up in the air, lunges forward with a swing of the sword in his mouth at Peach. Then as the sword in the air comes closer the ground he catches it with his tail and swings it into the same place on Peach's training sword that the first sword had hit causing her to fall backwards from the force of the strike.

"There, that's how you use two swords doing all these crazy things."

"Gah"

"You are improving though; remember when you first got here? You wouldn't have been able to block that first blow. But now you blocked both blows, you just need to work on your reaction time and strength."

"When can I go see my friends anyways? I was supposed to have went home and saw them by now, that's what we agreed on."

"Hmm, how about if tomorrow you can block that move I just did without falling I can give you a little while off. But not very long, we don't want you getting all weak on us now do we? Now off to bed, in the morning I will let you train however you like without my help in whatever way you want using whatever you have available. That way it may be a bit more exciting, and maybe you will have some tricks to use. Meet me back here at, hmm let's say, two in the afternoon?"

"Finally you give me some freedom!" Peach yells as she walks off to her bed chambers down the hallway in the back of the large training room. She is quick in bed exactly like the trainer said so she can get up early in the morning to train freely and kick the guys flank. Ya, that's what she would do, wake up and train her butt off to kick the guys flank…

~Verre~

"What do you mean we are ordered to stay here and leave them alone?" Lucky asks Honey Darling as Rain panics in the back.

"I wish I had answers for you two, but I was told that she is in some very important training right now and that we must wait a little while longer before we are able to see her."

"As long as it's only a little while longer I guess, can we at least know how she is doing?"

"Oh don't worry. She is doing great; she is getting tired out a bit, but doing well. I heard that she is progressing faster than anticipated and should be able to come back sooner than expected."

"Oh are we going to get an ear full when we get back… if she is having it any worse than we are make it two ear full's."

The two mope home slowly, Rain has calmed a bit after hearing that her friend did not die from some freak sword accident. By the time the two arrive back at their house it's still night time and they both agree it's time for bed.

"So we still all have more stressful training to look forward to… I never thought I would say this but I have had enough of magic for a while… I am ready for a break."

"We still have ice cream!"

"No amount of training will keep too much ice cream off us Rain… but that does sound nice right now."

~The Training Area~

(Thunk) "Ow… what the." Peach realizes that she fell out of bed, she had forgotten that she never brought her alarm clock with her and that the instructor had been waking her up every morning, but with him leaving her alone for the day she slept in. As she looks out the window she realizes that it's a lot later than sleeping in, Celestia's bright sun is wide in the sky.

Peach runs crashing through the door frantically yelling "what time is it?" to the other student that is left inside the dojo like building. Sweeping the floors he looks up then over at Peach "Why its twelve thirty."

Peach gathers up her training sword and everything else she can into a pile in her room. A plan strikes her head the minute she sees the wood working tools and ribbon she found. Her sword is wood, she found a metal ring that screws into the wood, then she also found some very strong blue ribbon that is easily as long as she was. The thing that surprises her the most is that the metal ring is large enough for her to fit her hoof inside, leaving its purpose unknown.

Around two in the afternoon the two ponies meet in the training room like yesterday. The instructor comes with his two swords at his side. Peach walks in holding her sword in her mouth. The very bottom of the sword, what would be known as its pommel or the counter weight at the end of its hilt, had the metal circle screwed into it and then the blue ribbon tied onto that. The ribbon flowed in the wind as she walked.

The instructor, still without a name, begins to laugh at what Peach has accomplished in the 24 hours. "What the heck is that? I am expecting you to have something mighty amazing to have had time to personalize your training sword with a ribbon!"

"Well why don't we just find out?"

The two come closer in the middle of the room and begin like they had yesterday. Peach clenches the sword as her instructor begins his assault. One sword flies into the air as the other comes clashing into Peach's, the sword in the air comes falling and the instructor catches it and thrust his entire weight into one swing with the sword into the same point of the last swing before his opponent gets time to recover their defenses.

But this time Peach does not fall, she does not take the clash head on with her sword. She twists her sword sideways slightly so the wooden blade slides against her trainers, successfully blocking the sword from hitting her body in any way.

Her trainer continues his assault with a loud outburst of laughter, "Whatever you have done seems to have worked! It has been a long time sense some pony has been able to block that move!"

The trainer pony begins to twist his whole body and pivots on one hind leg holding one sword in his mouth and the other in the bend of one of his front legs. The other front leg landing on the ground giving him the balance to strike Peach's sword yet again with the sword in his mouth, then with the sword in his front leg.

After the assault Peach let's go of her sword and grabs it by the ribbon swinging it in circles in the air, hitting the trainers swords multiple times. She then continues to use the metal ring with her hoof, swinging the sword with a little more control at the weaker points she spotted with her last strikes using the ribbon until finally she grabs the sword with her mouth and strikes with all her power against him, causing him to actually defend seriously.

"I think that's enough for now, you proved that your ribbon is worth keeping. I guess I won't make you take it off. But tell me, what did you do all day for training?"

At first Peach opens her mouth to lie to her trainer and tell him that she was training out back somewhere, but then she notices that both of them are out of breath. "To tell you the truth, I forgot to wake up and slept past lunch. Then I had no clue what to do and just happen to find some random tool and items. I don't know why but I decided to put them all on the sword." An awkward grin comes over her face and she begins to sweat even more.

The instructor laughs once again, almost to tears. "You mean I was brought to a sweat by a pony that slept past noon then randomly attached stuff to a wooden sword and came in here the way you did? You have to have had some sort of training before this right? You didn't learn this from just watching me did you?"

"Well, uhh, I don't know…"

"I guess that means you are getting close to being ready then… Follow me; there is something I must show you."

The two walk down the hallway that led to the instructor's bed room. At the end two doors presented their selves, one led into his room and was left open. The other creaked open as he opened it. A stair case was all that could be seen, pitch black beyond that. He enters his bedroom and switches a switch behind the door, which turns on some lights in the stairway. They continue down the stairs into a large basement with numerous swords and weapons hung on the wall.

As they reach the end of the room they reach a small shrine like set up with a single, very large sword hung on the wall. The shrine is more like a shelf, two small candles are lit under the sword and the entire shelving unit seems to encase the whole wall.

The instructor opens the case and retrieves the sword. The shiniest thing Peach has ever seen. A double edged sword, both sides of its blade appear sharp. It is completely symmetrical, even down to the hilt and pommel. The cross guard rectangular in shape but beautiful no doubt, engraved with swirls and wonderful markings.

At the very end of the hilt, where the pommel should be, was instead a large metal circle much like the one Peach had screwed into the wooden training sword. A large chain is attached to that circle that dangles down for quite a ways.

"That chain, is for extended reach. Like how you used the training sword earlier." The trainer offers some advice on the sword to the puzzled student as she stares at the sword.

While the thing is beautiful, it is a monster of a sword! Huge compared to anything a normal pony would carry, it will have to be carried on a pony's back when not being used. It's at least as long as she is, and its weight must be tremendous as it is made of metal.

"I believe this is yours now," The trainer flips the sword over holding it by the blade, not being cut by it for some reason while handing it over to Peach, "This sword has a wonderful history about it, dark none the less but unusual for those of us that know it."

Peach sets up the saddle bag like sheath that she was given with the sword on her back to carry it. Even the sheath is unusual with this sword. It's more like a bandanna or something of the like, it just wraps around her a few times on her waste to cushion the sword so she doesn't get hurt by it. Then it wraps around the sword a few times just enough to hold it on, but it doesn't even attempt to hide the blade or cover it.

The sword is surprisingly manageable, not as heavy as she feared; it is heavier than anything she used in training so she has more training to get used to. She has to get her strength up to get used to it.

"I don't think I can take something like this from you, I mean I haven't paid you or anything."

"Celestia has handled everything, no need for you to worry. If Celestia thinks you can handle that sword then I am in no position to argue with her."

"What good is it if it doesn't have a blade or a tip sharp enough to cut anything though?"

"Oh it does, it's just not a normal sword. You need to have some patience my dear Peach. This sword only will gain a blade when the wielder is truly in need of one, but when you do not need one it will not show itself."

"It will do what now?"

"You will find out soon enough, when the time is right the sword will show you what I mean. You know that even us Earth ponies and the Pegasi have magic like unicorns right?"

"Uhh, I guess? Just something about we can't use it for magic or something like that?"

"Exactly, this sword will use that power and thus you have a blade. That's why it's so special, and why only a special pony can wield it. Now go on to bed, we have a lot of training to do tomorrow. Leave visiting your friends up to me, I have something special in mind for it."

"But when in the hay are you going to tell me your name?"

"Oh yes, of course. I am Prized Blade; I know that's a rather ironic name for a combat trainer that deals in swords and a rather funny sounding name. But a name it is. Please, just call me Blade or something cooler than Prized, for the sake of keeping my school as high ranking as it is."

The two split up and their respected bed rooms, as Peach walks off to her room Blade walks into his. He pulls out a royal letter he had received earlier that day and opens it, "Yes Celestia, I think we have found the one." He then begins to write a letter back to the princess.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today Peach has proven to me that she has what it takes to be a fine sword wielder. She stood up to that technique without even training for it. She forgot to wake up, slept past noon, then came in and challenged me after losing. All she had differently was her training sword with the items you asked me to set out. She instinctively attached them exactly like the real thing.

Best of all the sword accepts her so far, nothing unusual yet. We will see how everything goes in the morning when we start training up again. I will let her keep it with her even when she heads off with her friends but I will do my best to keep an eye on her. To make sure the sword does not go berserk on them and harm any pony.

Your Faithful Combat Instructor,

Prized Blade