For the next weeks and months I fell into a repeating routine of training in the morning with either Spear's constructs or would do physical training with Diamond whenever he fucked off to Canterlot, which was maybe twice a week. Then would shower, change and go find Dash to either hang out with her, go to her house to hug and talk or go to her house and fuck. I had thought that our relationship was just going to turn into sex which I honestly wasn't all that against, but would still suck since I genuinely liked talking to Dash and was getting much stronger feelings towards her. I mentioned the whole sex thing to her and she just mentioned how we hang out and talk more than we have sex, so I dropped those thoughts pretty quickly. I almost missed my birthday when September rolled by, I was so into my life here and so used to not having a phone or calendar to look at. Twilight had one but it was in horse words so I couldn't read it. It was only when Twilight mentioned birthdays.

"So Aron, do humans celebrate their birthdays?" She asked one morning as I stood in the middle of the room stretching, I was getting pretty strong now as well as my reaction time getting much quicker. I was proud of the monster I had become.

"Yeah we do, though you need to learn that when asking shit like that you need to explain what the concept is." I replied with my arms outstretched above my head.

"But you knew what a birthday was!" She cried.

"Yeah you were lucky, do it even if I don't know what it is, saves an explanation later. I didn't know what a Unigue was til you told me to try it. If you'd just asked me 'do humans have Unigue' I would've presumed you meant a sex thing."

"That's fair enough then. Going back to my original question then, when is your birthday?" She asked.

"September fifth. Why?"

"Aron that's in two days!"

"Holy shit it's September already? Fuck back on Earth I would've had snow by now, it still feels like summer."

"Autumns in Equestria are always very tame and the warmth continues up until mid-November, then we have Winter Start-up. It gets pretty cold, I suggest talking to Rarity about a coat or something warm for you. I'd suggest you talk to Rarity about more clothes in general. I can only wash the 'Sarcastic Comment Loading Please Wait' top so many times."

"First off you don't wash my clothes. Spike does. Secondly it doesn't help that I am some clothes down since some are covered in blood and I refuse to even look at them."

"You seem to be taking that very well, besides the original reaction."

"Yeah a day of sex helps a lot in that matter, plus I've been pretty open about my feelings towards what I did. There are more subtle things, like hating myself at night or refusing to look at anything relating to the event."

"You still wear your sword every now and again."

"That I do, but I can clean swords and I doubt dog blood is the first blood that Spiritus has tasted. Swords are just tools. A T-shirt that I liked being covered in blood and having gone through a battle I never wanted to join reminds me of bad memories. Yeah Spiritus kinda does but not on the same level. It's fucked logic but when have I given you evidence I'm smart?"

"You can be intelligent. You have good morals."

"I can take things seriously too but fuck that noise right in the snoot." Twilight rolled her eyes.

"How do we get along like we do?" She asked.

"Conflicting personas, different opinions and mannerisms usually work well together since it is truly two minds thinking on one task. Though I seem to get on with everyone I meet, even the ones I piss off. So I guess ponies are just overly friendly creatures."

"Who have you.. er, pissed off?"

"Luna, thought you knew that?"

"I knew of that." I was the one to roll my eyes that time. There was a knock at the door.

"Probably Spear, speaking of, you seen Diamond this mornin'?" I asked walking to the door.

"He went out with Lyra yesterday did he not? Might have stayed over hers."

"Alright, he's a big boy I'm sure he's fine." I relied and opened the door. Sure enough Spear was standing at the door.

"Good morning Twilight Sparkle, good morning Aron. Are you ready for your training today?"

"Of course, just finished my stretches."

"Excellent. Where is Sergeant Diamond? I know he likes to watch and what we are doing today he might enjoy."

"Last I heard he was with Lyra, can find him if you want?"

"No no, his loss. Miss Sparkle would you like to spectate our bout today?"

"Wait what?" I asked. The laugh from Spear didn't fill me confidence.

"I feel like it is time to move onto blunt blades, you have had enough practice with wooden swords. To initiate you into blunt swordsponyship I feel like it is time for me and you to train, rather than a construct. I will be casting spells on both of us for smoke to rise from wounds to stimulate blood, like the construct." I gulped.

"As much as I'd love to watch that I have some errands to do today, I'm sure Aron will tell me all about it later." Twilight said and walked into the kitchen.

"You might want to make notes if that is the case Aron." Spear muttered with a horrifying grin.

Turns out the only note I needed was that blunt weapons hurt like a bitch and Spear was much stronger, faster and just genuinely better than any cloud construct. I very much hated training with him.

My birthday came next, it actually happened to fall on a Saturday so got the day off training to piss about at home, not that I would've gone to training on my birthday anyway but whatever. I was thinking about staying at Rainbow's the day previous but figured I wouldn't really want to leave once I got there, so instead stayed in the library most of the day. I woke up naturally without anyone at the end of my bed. I could hear muffled voices from the main room, one sounded like Pinkie Pie and I smiled and rolled my eyes. I tried getting up as quietly as possible but they stopped almost as soon as I touched the ground so I presumed there was a spell on my room to tell them when I woke up. I got dressed pretty quickly and decided against arming myself in any way. I cracked my knuckles and prepared for the door. I opened my door to see Twilight and Diamond sitting at the table eating, like any other day. Guess I imagined Pinkie.
Fuck I was full of myself. Still disappointed though.

"Mornin'." I grunted, yawning slightly.

"Hiya Aron." A disembodied Pinkie Pie said from next to me, I jumped quite a lot and looked around.

"Fuck sake Pinkie." Diamond muttered, Twilight's horn started glowing and suddenly the room was full of ponies, all of Twilight's friends, Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Lyra, fucking Sunflower and Grumble.

"Surprise!" The lot of them shouted. I actually noticed a load of boxes on one of the kitchen counter, all in varying degrees of wrapping.

"Did we surprise you? Huh huh huh huh?" Pinkie asked. I tousled her hair slightly.

"This is nice, how long you lot been here?" I asked.

"Been here since last night." Pinkie replied.

"I live here." Diamond muttered.

"About five minutes ago." Vinyl grunted, she was hungover. The others gave me their answers, Dash walked over and hugged me slightly.

"Well I presume Pinkie is hosting this and I've only just gotten up, so I guess have fun or do whatever." I muttered, a couple nodded and then looked to Pinkie Pie.

"Well you two know what you gotta do, why don't you open some presents over breakfast?" Pinkie declared, the first was aimed towards Vinyl and Octavia, the second at me. I just smiled again and walked over to the table. Twilight floated over a plate of motherfucking pancakes drenched in maple syrup.

"Happy birthday Aron." Twilight muttered as she floated them over, most had started socialising amongst themselves, I saw Vinyl and Octavia set up a really small stage with some speakers and the like at the back of the room, Grumble was talking with Diamond. Lyra and Dash were talking and everyone else was mixed up all over the place. It was nice to see. I started eating my pancakes and very quickly noticed a small box with solid red wrapping with an orange bow, Pinkie was standing across the table with a huge grin on her face.

"Openitopenitopenit!" Pinkie demanded. I started to undo the bow and then ripped into wrapping. The box itself was a likewise red colour which seemed weird but i didn't complain. I opened the box and saw a dark blue ball with light blue strips on it. I wasn't overly sure how to feel about Pinkie's gift. I smiled and looked up at her.

"Thank's Pinkie." I said trying not to sound fake, she seemed to buy it, squealed slightly and ran off.

The next present to come came in the form of Grumble and Sunflower holding a pretty long, big present between then. Sunflower had an adorable smile and Grumble looked happy too. I'd finished my pancakes by then and had Twilight float the weird bouncy ball into my room so I didn't have to look at it. For some reason I just felt dirty looking at it, like it was satanic or something. I couldn't put my finger on one feeling I had towards it so just tried to hide it away.

"Hey Aron, happy birthday." Sunflower welcomed when I noticed the pair, they laid down their present and stepped back in unison, was pretty freaky to see.

"Good seeing you two here." I replied and pulled over the present, Twilight moved my plate with magic. I began to unwrap the thing, as I tore away the paper I noticed it was covering a pretty big, wooden box with a metal handle and flip lock, I moved the box around and clicked the lock up.

"You'll want to keep the box." Grumble said smiling. I looked at him then back down at the box and opened the lid.

"When you mentioned you had started training we looked it up and found out you were training with swords and crossbows. You already have a sword..." Sunflower started, I pulled out my present with wide eyes, these two guards I barely knew got me a legit, masterworked crossbow. It looked amazing, I was holding it out and noticed a small quiver with bolts had been lying under the weapon. The thing was primarily made of dark oak with hints of iron or steel all over it. I noticed Celestia's mark had been engraved on either side of the main body of the crossbow. I raised the weapon and looked down, only iron sights but the sight was still pretty damn good. I very much had to hold it in two hands, and the fucker was pretty heavy. But it would do the fucking job if need be.

"I'll test this later." I said neutrally. Then put the crossbow down, I pulled out a bolt from the quiver and noticed how long the tip was, there were hints of red in the metal but primarily it was silvery, like iron.

"Bolts are made out of Crimson Steel and iron." Grumble explained. Crimson Steel being an Equestrian alloy, a mix between steel and something called Orcrundium which is a bit of a mouthful. I wasn't sure of it's rarity, I was just glad they had not got anything with Blusteel in it or something, then I would have definitely owed them.

"I see." I muttered and put the bolt down, then stood up and walked over to Grumble and hugged him, he pushed back for a second but eventually just took it. I let go and did the same with Sunflower. She took the hug like a bitch and held tight. "You two are fucking awesome." I whispered, then pulled back from the hug and looked over the crossbow again.

"Will save Spear Wielder having to get you a crossbow to train with himself now." Diamond muttered, he just kind of appeared behind me, was pretty strange honestly but I didn't question it. The three of them so close together fucked my brain up. Sunflower was easy to spot, being a chick but still.

"That's true enough. Shouldn't you be with Lyra?" I asked.

"It is your birthday." Diamond muttered.

"True enough." I said and raised my glass, which was juice. "And there isn't a man or pony I'd rather spend it with than you lot." A couple people laughed at that but I just looked stupid not drunk. "Twi you got any alcohol. Or will there be alcohol?" I asked. She rolled her eyes.

"Later, bit early to drink isn't it?" Twilight asked. I shrugged.

"It's always time to drink somewhere. Do you guys have timezones?" I asked.

"Yes." Diamond muttered, I shrugged.

"Alright. Seriously you two, this is fucking awesome."

"We had to pull some strings with Celestia to get it here but your reaction was worth it." Sunflower replied, blushing slightly.

"I mean, hopefully I won't ever have to kill anything with this but if I get good at it i'm so showing skills off one day." I said lifting it in one hand looking down the sights, aimed away from anyone, though it wasn't loaded, Grumble laughed slightly.

"I'd like to see that. Though Spear is a primarily melee trainer, you might want to find a crossbow trainer."

"Eh if he can't train me at all maybe, but I'm sure I can learn myself, the iron sights look pretty good." I replied shrugging.

"Yeah improved iron sights. They are pretty rare." Grumble explained.

"Huh really? How come, use scopes more?"

"Scopes?" He asked, I just waved him off. "Most ponies never use crossbows for anything further than forty meters, unicorns do sometimes but they usually have spells cast by either themselves or others to improve their sight temporarily so they shoot more accurately at further distances. Gave you IS because it is easier to train with and not being a unicorn we figure this would be easier in general." Grumble said.

"Makes sense I guess. I appreciate the gesture for the sights, we can talk later about maintenance and the like."

"Actually we made a list for you, so you can look it over whenever you want." Sunflower said, arching her neck and head back unnaturally and pulling out a bit of paper that I chose to believe was from her vagina. I grabbed the list from her mouth and then put the crossbow away in it's case.

"Be-ar-be." I said. The blank stares made me giggle. "Be right back." I explained, the ponies waved me off, I took the crossbow and put it on my bed, then thought about it and put it in my wardrobe with my clothes. I really needed some more honestly, but the only person I knew who made clothes was Rarity and fuck that, she seemed to overdo everything. Before I left I noticed a gold ticket sitting in the bottom of my wardrobe, I picked it up and read over it, I'd complete forgotten about the Gala. I really did need some better clothes for that, can't just show up in extreme casual. It sounded like something major. I put the ticket on a cabinet so i didn't forget it again and walked out. Only to see Rarity, the pony I wanted to see ad at the same time didn't want to see. I hadn't been able to look her in the eye since the dog attack. I'd barely spoken to her. Always avoiding her, though she seemed to have done likewise.

"Aron, whilst you're in there, can we chat?" She asked. My heart instantly feel, I noticed she was floating a rather large bundle of presents behind her but that didn't help my feelings. I looked around the room but nobody was paying attention to me. I decided to bite the bullet.

"Sure come on in." I said and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. I sat down on the bed and gave a side glance to Spiritus sitting against the wall in it's scabbard. "What do you want to talk about?" I asked, she looked pissed for a second, it was a dumb question but fuck her.

"You've been avoiding me. Since the, fight." I opened my mouth to speak. I felt it forced shut. "And I have with you. That day was very, traumatic, for both of us. I know you've been dealing with your trauma in your own unique ways. But I have yet to really deal with mine." She paused. "Aron, what happened will never leave my mind, what you and Diamond took part in was barbaric and wrong, I hate to bring this up on your birthday but you have been doing a good job at hiding whenever I try and contact you. That all being said.." Another pause, I wanted to die, to cry and to kill myself. "You saved my life, I don't know what would have happened had you not showed up when you did, you two saved my life. I will always be thankful for that, now. Don't tell any pony about this, but.." She lent in and hugged me, softly, she was squishier than Dash and a lot warmer, not Celestia level of hug but I'd hug Rarity anytime with no issues.

"I.." I found myself saying, i paused only out of shock I could suddenly talk again. "I am sorry for what happened, and yes it will be with me for the rest of my life, I see their faces Rarity, when I am alone, in the dark or sleeping. They are there, when I close my eyes they appear. It's hell, I hate it."

"I know Aron, I've heard stories of warriors coming back, it is as far from glorious or honourable as one can get. I doubt this will help but I made you some new outfits, I tried following what your current clothes are like." Rarity replied after another pause and put about half a dozen packages on my bed.

"Thanks Rarity." I said, feeling a tear fall down my face. She reached a hoof up and wiped it away, which would've been nice if she hadn't used a fucking hoof, that shit hurt. "I'll open these later, I also need a favour or a commission from you." I muttered.

"Favour, I wouldn't charge you for my services. What is it?"

"I need a suit for the Gala. I actually forgot it was a thing, Twilight got me a ticket months ago when I was still meant to act as her guard, I know Dash got one so even if I lost my ticket I'd probably have to go."

"I will get on it right away. I'll need you to come by for measurements." I looked over to my presents.

"How did you make those then?" I asked.

"I got your bloodied top out of the trash and cleaned it." She muttered. I raised an eyebrow. "Well I got Spike to, but I know you wear baggy clothing a lot so if they are too big it won't matter as much, I don't like it but this was for you, not me."

"Y'know Rare, you can be pretty cool sometimes."

"Well thanks Aron, that means... A lot." She said, I rolled my eyes and stood up, then opened the door for her, she trotted out and after a glance at my sword, I followed her out.

My next chat was with Applejack, I'd spoken to her a bit but her accent and my way of speaking we didn't mix well. We got on great but just had mutually agreed to not talk to each other for more than twenty minutes. About ten minutes passed of me just wondering around talking to people, except Vinyl and 'Tavia who were still setting shit up when the orange farm horse came over to me.

"Heya Aron, happy birthday!" Applejack greeted.

"Sup AJ, thanks." i replied, she looked genuinely happy.

"Aron, ah know me and you get along well, despite our, Ah-gree-ment."

"Go on." I said, folding my arms. The library door opened via Twilight magic and in floats a huge fuck off barrel.

"Well we had an early harvest this year and distillin' ended a couple days ago. So you Aron are the proud owner of the first barrel of apple cider in Ponyville." Applejack declared.

"Well this is officially the best birthday ever. I should've found out I had evil magic in me years ago." I said, would've saved a lot of heart ache. The barrel floated onto the table and a shit load of cups appeared from the kitchen. I noticed a tap thing and really looked at the barrel, was taller than me and probably about four feet across. "Time to drink, fuck it." I said, grabbing a cup and pouring it out. I took a large gulp, knowing that Equestrian alcohol was like flavoured water and welcomed the stuff down my throat. It was godly.

"Glad you're enjoying yourself Aron, because this party is about to get EPIK!" Vinyl shouted suddenly, I could hear the 'k' in epic as well. It made me flinch slightly. "Now Aron, me and Octi weren't really sure what to get you but after PinkFest I figured what better than to write a song for you? Most of this was me but Octi helped a lot." Vinyl declared, wait a song? They started to play a song I knew I had heard before on Earth. Something very familiar. Vinyl's horn started glowing and she started to sing.

"I'm gonna fight 'em off"... Vinyl Scratch wrote Seven Nation Army. I think I came in my pants that day.

Most of the song was the same, the voice was a female and some of the words were changed around a bit but the song still worked and fuck was it amazing. There was an chorus of cheers and clapping when they finished, Octavia looked somewhat pained but Vinyl seemed happy.

"Happy birthday Aron, you beautiful bastard!" Vinyl declared, the music actually started then, they started playing background music and the like and I started seeing ponies drink. Even Grumble and Sunflower which I felt was odd.

"Shouldn't you guys not be drinking?" I asked. Grumble shrugged and downed his glass.

"If we are too drunk to fly back we'll just crash... somewhere in Ponyville." Sunflower replied. "Could probably sleep outside if we have to." She added.

"I'd say you're welcome here but it's not really my house. Ask Twilight, or Applejack, she lives on a farm so bound to have room." I said.

"Yeah will do." Sunflower replied.

"Though most aren't as lightweight as you are Aron." I heard a Diamond grunt. I turned to face the guard and the four of us formed a weird square thing.

"Hey the cups at PinkFest are like four times the size of glasses I'm used to. Hell that barrel could probably kill me." I said.

"Yeah sure. That barrel is overkill but there are a lot of ponies here." Diamond replied, I looked around and noticed that none of Twilight's friends had any alcohol, well Dash did but she was talking with Vinyl, who likewise had a glass floating next to her via magic.

"Most seem to be drinking, Octavia isn't, neither are many of Twi's friends. Fuck knows where Spike is. But he wouldn't be drinking either."

"Guess they do not drink, I am surprised you two are drinking." Diamond said, then pointed a hoof at the two chariot ponies. They both looked at me for a second.

"Well Aron is really the only one who we've been sent out to collect from Ponyville, we barely make trips to Ponyville without him, nopony comes here, it's a tiny town next to an Everfree." Sunflower explained to him. "And depending on how drunk we get, if Aron does require us to give him a lift into Canterlot I will most likely tell him no." She shrugged at that.

"I believe telling him to fuck off would also work." Diamond said. I smiled and rolled my eyes.

"Shut up Diamond."

"Well if I do that I can't give you your present." I got stumped at that, unsure how to react. "Twilight." Diamond called after a second, with a slight smile. In floats in a pretty large chest thing. It got placed on the table and I walked over to it. There were two clips to open it and I started to open it up.

"This comes from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna more than I but fuck you." Diamond explained. I looked at him and noticed the other two guards had turned up at the table. I opened the lid and jumped back when a loud click sound came from it, two platforms shot out to the side of the box, followed by a third forwards. Inside was what looked like pieces of armour, like something that would go on armour to make it bulkier and heavier. Two shoulder pads, some leg armour or knee pad things and a chest plate that would cover a lot of my back and some of my chest. There were some bracelet things for my arms as well. All sitting in some kind of padding, I'd seen it on Earth a couple times, usually for holding miniature models or something. The metal was the same gold colour as guard amour and looked pretty badass. I grabbed a bracelet and saw some clips and padding, I unclipped it and put it on, fit really well, thought was a bit loose but I figured that was due to wearing a thin top that day. I raised my arm to inspect it and was pretty damn happy with it.

"Well thanks Diamond, I'll probably go to Canterlot soon and thank at least Sunbutt too, probably make an effort to wear this. Look like a true lil' warrior for her." I said, patting his shoulder and taking off the armour.

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly, I talked to some people and got increasingly drunk as the day went on, Grumble and Sunflower did in the end get completely smashed and passed out together somewhere in my room. It was sweet but annoying, they just walked right in and passed out before even reaching the bed. I think Pinkie or Twilight ended up putting them in bed. Octavia got bored and left but Vinyl stayed, eventually just putting on a random playlist or something and started being a member of the drunk squad with everyone else. She also passed out pretty quickly, the cider barrel was drained fairly quickly but after a quick run to Vinyl's house the DJ came back with a lot more stuff. Most of Twilight's friends left at around four or so, well started leaving at four. Rarity fucked off first with the goodbye of:

"I'll see you later Aron, I left Sweetie Belle alone and I don't like leaving her for too long, I hope to see you soon for your measurements." I wasn't sure what to say to that, especially after our chat so before I could answer she just walked out. Applejack was next with basically the same excuse as Rarity but with her sister/spawn. Plus with looking after a farm and the like.

For anyone interested, there was a cake, just a generic birthday cake with some candles on it. Pinkie Pie apparently didn't know how old I was, and neither did I honestly, possibly twenty-three or twenty-four at that point but I really didn't know, this was the first birthday I'd celebrated in years.

Towards the end of the party, or at least by the time all of Twilight's friends had gone, all but Dash, Grumble, Sunflower and Vinyl were passed out or sleeping in various areas of the library and Diamond and I were forgetting the worries of the world at the dining table munching away at some food Dash walked over to the table.

"Hey Aron can I talk to you privately for a second?" She asked. I looked into my room, the door was open so I could see Sunflower and Grumble collapsed on my bed. The kitchen was where Vinyl had passed out with the now empty cider bottle and a couple empty glasses. I wasn't sure where Twilight was so I just turned to Diamond and stared at him.

"Would you?" I asked. Diamond nodded and walked off, I didn't see which direction he went. Dash sat down where Diamond had been sitting. "What's up?" I asked.

"Well it's your birthday." She started.

"That it is." She smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, I wasn't sure what to get you.."

"Jus' bein' here was enough hun." I replied.

"Well that's good, but I promise I'll make it up to you." She said, smiling, then kissed me on the check and walked off again.

Two days later found me out in the field again holding a dull sword, my new armour parts on and far too many spectators. Diamond, Lyra, Dash, Twilight and fucking Rarity had shown up to watch me get my ass kicked from Spear. As Grumble and Sunflower had said my swords trainer had no idea how to train me in crossbows and had suggested I make a trip to Canterlot to request another trainer from Celestia. I wasn't overly fussed on that though since I was still a novice at swordsmanship and didn't want another training regiment just yet.
Spear and myself were glaring at each other readying ourselves, the rule was that Diamond would start the fight so we both had time to prepare, which I thought was weird but figured I'd get my ass kicked whatever rule was in place. I had my sword outstretched and offhand ready like usual, Spear had a spear saddle on, the same thing I had fought so many times. Though this time was the real thing. My armour was pretty uncomfortable and the sky was full of clouds so it was actually fairly cold, not winter cold, but still cold. I barely blinked and just went through tactic after tactic in my head at the speed of a computer. I could tell Spear was doing roughly the same, only he probably had a tactic ready that would win the fight.
It felt like hours but eventually I heard a bark from Diamond that would start the fight, I immediately dodged to the left and parried a stab from Spear, he moved fucking fast when he wanted to, he was also actually fucking growling at me which was kind of freaky but it only took me a second to realise he was doing it in an attempt to freak me out. I was tempted to try and do the same but very quickly decided against it when the best idea I had was baring my teeth and screaming. I figured that would look stupid.
I blocked and parried a lot of Spears attacks and got a few stabs in myself, neither hit each other but we hadn't moved further than two feet from each other for a long while, our spectators were completely silent. Dodging a spear was stupidly difficult and parrying them was even harder, but I'd gotten a lot better at it with the training and just focused on keeping close to my trainer as he seemingly threw his spear around wildly, the tactic I'd picked up from my training and video games was basically to keep either close to enough for a spear to be no threat, or stay far enough away with a longer weapon. The logic of pikes out range spears and crossbows or guns out range pikes. Most of the time spears are focused on cavalry but since technically everyone here was cavalry the best thing to do was learn to deal with spears no matter the situation. I had tried thinking up logic one would use in Dark Souls, dodge a lot and use speed against the enemies, go in for back stabs and parry a lot of attacks, but considering I sucked at those games and could never afford 3 I quickly dropped those thoughts. I tried very hard to not think on tactics I'd picked up from video games since this was the real world, and no matter how nice the graphics or immersive the game, fighting in real life is a hell of a lot more lethal than video games.
I didn't really notice I was lost in thought, trying to think of a way to beat this guy until I felt a very sharp pain on my arm where the metal of a spear had smacked against me. I instinctively yelled out and almost dropped my sword, solely on the fact it fucking hurt. Spearpoint stepped back and either didn't immediately go in for the kill or considered that enough of a wound that I was dead. I gripped my sword again and stood up straight, ignoring the already growing bruise on my bicep. My whole left arm had gone practically numb.

"Continue, that wouldn't have been enough to kill." Spear grunted, smiling slightly. He was enjoying this. I gave Rainbow Dash a quick glance who looked slightly concerned and maybe bored. I wasn't overly sure, I looked down quickly enough and took my pose again. Spear started to circle me and I took the chance to charge him this time, which thankfully he wasn't preparing for, I managed to smack him across the head with my sword blade, the clang of metal on metal was actually a rather nice sound, very unique and elegant, despite everything. I spun round quickly enough and noticed my trainer was somewhat dazed. Spearpoint had made a point more times than naught that swordfighting would take at the minimum of two years for me to hold my own against training soldiers and at least ten before I was any good at it. Which matched with the stuff I knew from home, 2-5 years is good enough, 10-15 years to be actually amazing at it, and 15+ to master it, but it could never be truly mastered. From the fight with the dogs and from what people (Diamond, Spear, Grumble, Sunflower) had told me most races aren't training all that much, with shit like dragons and magic in the world, races like the dogs preferred to have the advantage of numbers to win fights. Send wave after wave of canon fodder against mages and they will eventually run out of mana, although here they just referred to it as 'magic' and 'unicorns', rarely saying mages, they didn't really have a lore as to where magic comes from. Which seemed weird considering mages definitely run out of magic here, so whether it was a stamina thing, a training thing or mana was a set amount here was unknown. Although since Celestia could supposedly move the sun and was thousands of years old, compared to say, Twilight who barely knew any combat spells, I believed it was a training thing, the more you use magic, the stronger it gets.
With Spear's head apparently ringing from that blow I tried going in for another attack, lunging forward and slipping slightly and stabbing into a piece of his side armour, which brought Spear back into the fight and he twitched to the side, making me fall further. I got a face full of dirt and rolled over quickly, avoiding a stab from his weapon. I jumped up quickly and managed to grab his spear as it flew past with my left arm, I quickly got my legs ready for a dive and pushed out as soon as he pulled the spear back. My left arm was most likely pulled from it's socket from the pain I got but I was determined to win, and my arm was already fucked from the hit it took earlier. As I jumped forward towards my target I aimed my sword towards him.
However doing so many things all at once kinda fucked with my head and I ended up swinging at nothing and falling on my stomach again, the sword flying off somewhere. I knew immediately that I shouldn't have tried to pull of that move but I really didn't care, I was ready to get healed and move onto the next fight so I could learn Spear's weaknesses. I didn't even get the chance to stand up before I saw the tip of a spear in my face.

"You're reckless today, get Twilight to heal you and we can try again, you really damaged your arm." Spear almost growled at me, I didn't blame him. Wasn't really feeling it today and was unsure why. I just stood up and walked over to the group.

"Twi think you can heal me? Huge bruise on my left arm and probably dislocated it." I muttered.

"Of course." She muttered and her horn started to glow. My arm lost all feeling in it pretty quickly.

"You've done better than that before Aron, what is wrong?" Diamond asked bluntly. I shrugged.

"Honestly dude I dunno, really reckless today. Not feeling it and unsure why. I just have this weird feeling that something's coming. I dunno how to explain it. Maybe I miss Earth, maybe I hate being a fighter more than I thought. Hopefully I'll improve."

Turns out after another bout I got a lot better, still got my ass kicked and once training was done Twilight was out of magic to heal me and I was told to stay in bed for a few days. Spearpoint was pretty fucked up too but not nearly as close as I was. Fighting sucked.

Author's Notes:

short chapter that took far too long
really want to get to the 'good/fighting' bits but still got to actually get there