I stood over the slumbering Rosie as a sadistic grin took its place on my lips, my hands gripping the handles of two iron skillets that I had borrowed from the kitchen. It was about ten minutes to sunrise, give or take a few, and I was going to give my new apprentice the traditional Ranger wake-up call at six in the morning. I couldn’t help the glee that filled my body to the brim as I hovered next to the bed, given I hadn’t had a chance to do this since my days at basic training back on Earth. You only get to experience a cadet’s first wake-up call once, and it becomes an addiction from the very first time. I was scratching an itch that had been left alone for years, and it was going to feel so good using my commander’s voice again after so long.

Just as the sun began to climb into the sky, I clashed the skillets together multiple times, causing Rosie to jerk and cry out like a chickadee as she floundered out of the bed and fell onto the floor. She struggled against the sheets for several minutes before managing to free herself, jerking her head around the room before settling her gaze on me.

“Rise and shine maggot!” I yelled in my best drill voice, “The sun’s up and so are we, so I don’t want to hear any bellyaching out of you unless I say so!” She lay there frozen for a moment, so I decided to get her rear in gear. “When I ask you a question the first and last things out of your beak should be Ma’am, am I understood?!”

Rosie nodded dumbly, although she quickly corrected herself as I lifted one eyebrow, “Ma’am, yes ma’am!”

I nodded approval, “Then get the lead out of your feathers and get your rear in gear. We’ve got a long day ahead of us and I don’t remember lying down on the floor being on that list. Move it, Private, or I’ll shove my boot so far up your ass you’ll be picking the gravel from my treads out of your beak!”

That got her moving, and I followed close behind her as we exited the castle and made our way over to the track, “Now give me twenty laps of the track, and make sure to sound off when you finish each one or else I’ll make you start over!”

“Ma’am, yes ma’am!” Rosie answered as she began her first lap, falling into a loping trot as she made her way around the first bend. I watched as she kept her wings tight against her body, and I nodded in approval as she completed the first half of the loop. So far, she wasn’t doing so bad, but she still had nineteen more laps to finish.

“Let’s see how much energy you’ve got left after all twenty laps.” I muttered to myself as she powered into the second lap, her face narrowed in determination as she called out loudly, “One!”

For nearly half an hour she kept at it, working off each lap with little difficulty as she counted up to twelve with next to no issues. However, by the time she got to lap fifteen, she was starting to flag in her top speed, and by the time she got to eighteen, her steps had slowed to a crawl. She was barely doing better than a walk as she completed her nineteenth lap, and I watched as she began to stumble around the first bend, her steps wildly erratic and her path wavering as she struggled to stay standing. Her breaths were coming in ragged gasps, and her beak was frothing at the corners as she struggled to keep her head from hitting the dirt. I almost felt sorry for her as she slowly made her way back around to the finish line. She stumbled over the mark and halted her steps, her legs held wide to keep her failing balance as she lifted her head to look at me.

“Twenty.” She managed to croak out between gasps.

I nodded, “Not bad, Private, but you’ve still got a long way to go before you’re in top shape. Now, since we got your legs all warmed up, we’re going to see if you can use some of that Auramancy stuff you exhibited yesterday. Show me what you can do.”

She looked at me like I had grown a second head, “Now?! After doing all that you want me to try and use that energy stuff?! Are you crazy?!”

My gaze remained level, although I hardened my eyes as I stared her into submission, “Did I ask for your opinion?” I pointed to the ground with one hand as I barked out the commands, “Drop and give me fifty push-ups for mouthing off, and you know what, why not add another twenty for making me waste valuable time teaching you discipline instead of working on your training.”

She grumbled under her breath but didn’t argue, dropping into a plank position as I began to count off the pushups, “Down, and up. That’s one Private, let’s see if you can count to ten before you need to ask your mother for help. Down, and up.”

“Two!” Rosie cried out as her forelegs shook with the effort of keeping her body off the ground.

“Two, what?” I asked as she struggled to keep herself aloft, “I don’t remember saying you could leave off the rest while working out!”

“Two, hrr, ma’am!” She forced out as she began shaking from head to tail.

I nodded, “That’s better. Let’s see if you can keep that up till you finish.”

I worked that poor hen to the ground for the next three hours, using pushups, sprints and other grueling physical labor to break her down to the bone. It was only after she was barely able to stand up straight that I called a break.

“Alright sunshine, that’s good enough for now. Take five to catch your breath and then we’ll get back to Auramancy training.”

Rosie didn’t need to be told twice. She flopped onto her stomach and groaned in discomfort as her legs curled up against her belly. Her eyes were shut tight as her muscles spasmed from time to time, and I was genuinely concerning I had pushed her too hard for the first day.

I knelt down next to her and enveloped my hands in warm green energy, placing them over her shoulder and flank as I worked my energy into her body. She hummed in relief as the cramps in her muscles began to subside, and she managed to look up at me with one eye as she lay there like a limp noodle.

“What are you doing?” She asked as I finished up and pulled my hands off of her body.

“Healing you so that way you don’t tear a muscle or pull a joint once you get up.” I replied. “I may be a hard-ass, but I’m not going to leave you in a state where you could seriously injure yourself. What kind of teacher would I be if I beat my student into a pulp and then let her body fall apart afterwards? That wouldn’t help you get stronger, that would just break you like a twig.”

Her head flopped against the dirt as her gaze traveled to stare off into space in front of her, “If this is the basics, then I shudder to think of what will happen later in my training. Maybe I’m not cut out for this kind of thing after all.”

“Now there will be none of that,” I said with some measure of force as I picked up her head and turned it so she was facing me, “you’ve done well for your first day. In fact, I’d say you’ve done better then most of the recruits I’ve trained over the years. You just need to keep at it and the rest will fall into place on its own. Don’t give up so easily. Use that frustration to drive you further, so that way once you become a warrior you will have the knowledge that you got back up and kept going, right here, right now.”

For a moment she simply stared at me, as if she hadn’t heard what I had said, then a light of determination lit up in her eyes, and she ground her beak together as she rolled onto her stomach. I stood up and stepped back as she slowly got her legs under her, pushing into a sitting position before forcing her hind legs to straighten. She shook like a leaf and she threatened to fall to either side several times, but with each wobble she grunted and held firm, forcing her body into a fully standing position before turning to face me once again.

I nodded my approval, “Very good. You’ve passed the first test.”

“Test?” She inquired, adding in a “ma’am” when I gave her another raised eyebrow.

I smirked as I realized I was pulling some kind of Shaolin mind game with this next bit, “Yes, you’ve passed the first test in mastering yourself. You have proven that your mind is stronger than your body, which is the first thing you must do before you can become a true warrior.” I tapped her on the forehead and then the center of the chest, “The mind and the heart are powerful things. A warrior knows that as long as both are stronger than the limits her body puts on itself, there is nothing she can’t overcome.”

I let Rosie ponder that for a moment before turning around, spying Swift as she walked up to our little training session with an unhappy expression. “What took you so long. Whatever happened to being my personal guard?”

“Shut up,” was the clipped reply. “I’m not in the mood right now. I had to search the entire castle for your hairless behind and I finally managed to find you out here in the open with nopony keeping an eye on you.” She growled at me as she walked up and jumped onto her hind legs, placing her forehooves on my shoulders as she glared at me, “What would have happened if the necromancers tried to take care of you while you were all on your own? Who would have been here to help you fight them off or to run for help?”

I rolled my eyes, “Relax, Swift. Rosie was here with me the entire time, so I had someone who could run for help if anything happened. You need to take a chill pill and let some of that stress go before you say something you’ll regret.”

Swift continued to glare at me for several more seconds before letting out a gusty sigh, “Fine, I’ll play it your way, but from now on you need to wake me up if you’re going to be taking the Princess out here to kick her flank into next week.” She glanced at Rosie with a worried expression, “Speaking of which, this one hasn’t been pounding you too hard into the dirt, has she?”

Rosie shook her head, much to my delight, “No ma’am. She’s been making me tougher so that way I can handle more advanced training down the road.” She looked up at me with a wide grin, “Isn’t that right, Lehrer?”

“Lehrer?” I echoed, “Want to run that by me again in English?”

Rosie seemed to realize what she had done, blushing bright red as she averted her gaze, “Oh, sorry, it’s just that Lehrer means teacher in my native language. It’s a sign of respect to be referred to as such by one’s students.” She glanced up at me with a dejected expression, “You aren’t mad at me for calling you that, are you?”

I waved off her worries, “Don’t think too much about it. I don’t care if you call me that. Just remember to use ma’am during training, or I’ll kick your sorry flank into next week for forgetting proper form of address.”

She snapped into a salute, “Yes ma’am!”

Swift whistled, “You got her trained to do that after only one morning?” She glanced up at me with awe in her gaze, “How did you manage that?”

I grinned as I walked up and ruffled Rosie’s head feathers with one hand, “Trade secret, Swift, trade secret.”

Rosie purred under my touch before stepping back, a bright blush on her face as she stammered out, “S-Sorry, it’s just that felt really nice and I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable with my purring.”

I rolled my eyes as I waved off her comment, “Don’t worry about it. Between you and the ponies I’m used to it by now. What is it with you guys and ear rubs anyways?”

Swift shrugged, “I guess our ears are more sensitive than most of us thought. I have no idea why that is, but at least it seems ponies aren’t the only ones who have that weakness.” She glanced over at Rosie and gave the hen a flirtatious wink.

Rosie averted her gaze as she hid behind one wing, “Please don’t look at me like that. It makes me feel like I’m being put on display.”

Swift’s expression quickly morphed into one of concern as she walked up to the younger gryphon, “I’m sorry Rosie. I only made that little joke because I felt like teasing you a bit.” She gently lowered her wing with one hoof to look into the gryphon’s eyes, “How about this, I promise not to make jokes about you anymore, if you forgive me for hurting your feelings, deal?”

The blush around her beak spread down Rosie’s neck and up her face as she and Swift realized that they were nearly touching each other’s faces, and they sprang apart as they averted their gazes from one another. I nearly fell over in stitches as I struggled to hold in my laughter, because it was painfully obvious that these two were going to hit if off at some point. The only question was when Swift would muster up the courage to ask Rosie out, and if the hen had the confidence at that time to accept the proposal. Of course, there was no way I was going to let either of them get away with pulling that shit in front of me. Oh no, it was all just too easy.

I clapped my hands a few times to get their attention, “Alright ladies, you can kiss and make up later. Right now we’ve got more important things to do.”

I ignored their indignant sputtering and vibrant blushes as I turned to face Rosie once again. Apparently, my firm gaze was enough to pull her out of whatever was going through her head, because she immediately snapped to attention under my scrutiny.

“Now,” I said calmly, “last time I asked you if you were willing to attempt using aura, you questioned my methods and paid the price for mouthing off. Are we going to have any problems like that in the future?”

She shook her head forcefully, “No ma’am!”

I held back a smile, “Then I suggest you have faith in my judgement, as well as in yourself. You are capable of more than you realize. You just need to believe you can do it. Now, try to use those emotions you were feeling earlier, and push them from your chest into your claws. If you do it right, you should end up with colored flames around your forelegs.

She nodded, closing her eyes while Swift and I watched on. She sat back on her haunches and clenched her claws into fists, her expression growing firmer as her eyes pressed shut. For a moment I was worried she wasn’t going about it the right way, but then I saw the telltale glint of red around her claws. It wasn’t much, and it was threatening to go out with each passing moment, but it was aura, channeled on purpose for the very first time.

Rosie didn’t even need me to tell her to open her eyes. She did that all by herself once the minute flames stabilized around her claws. Her eyes widened in shock, causing the flames to sputter for a moment, before she mastered herself and returned the flames to their original size. Each one was only about the thickness of my fingernail, and only covered about half of each fist, but it was there, and a vibrant orange-red in color.

“I, I did it.” She managed to say in awe as she unclenched her fists, allowing the small flames to form into twin balls of energy about the size of a grape. She looked up at me and Swift with wonder in her eyes, “I really did it.”

I smiled, feeling a measure of pride that she had gotten so far on only the first day. Then again, she had already been manifesting the energy, she just needed a push in the right direction to get it out on command, “Indeed, and to think you doubted me when I asked you to do this earlier.”

Rosie looked down at her claws, watching as the flames slowly absorbed back into her body, leaving her legs bare after a few moments. She returned her gaze to me and smiled, “Ma’am, can we get back to training? I want to learn more about what I can do.”

I chuckled as Swift rolled her eyes, “That was your training for today.” I forestalled her question with a raised hand, “Listen to me when I say that I want to push you further, but when it comes to Auramancy you can’t rush things like physical training. I can pound you into the dirt six ways from Sunday and you’ll be fine after a day of rest. If I overextend your abilities with aura, well, we could be looking at life-long damage to your body that no magic in the world would be able to heal. Not even my own aura abilities would be able to help you if you went into burnout from overuse of your power.”

Rosie’s expression shifted into one of uncertainty, and for good reason. Auramancy could be very dangerous if not handled properly, as the masters from my journals had stated dozens of times in their rants about overzealous students trying things they weren’t ready to do. However, I didn’t want to scare her off using her powers, so I walked up and rested a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t be afraid of your new abilities,” I reassured her, “just remember that you need to take things one step at a time and you’ll be fine. Listen to what I ask of you and you’ll be using your power in no time at all, just have patience.”

She nodded in understanding, “I understand, Lehrer.” She bowed her head to me, “Please, can we continue with my training in the art of combat if my Auramancy training is finished for the day,” she glanced up at me with a sideways grin, “ma’am?”

I felt a grin forming on my own lips as I gave her a playful glare, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.”

In an instant, my demeanor shifted as I slipped back into ‘drill mode’, “Alright Private, since you seem so eager to get back to being pummeled into a fine paste, how about we put you through some actual combat training?” When she hesitated to reply, I barked at her in an even louder voice, “Damn it all, when I ask you a question you had better answer me or I’ll unscrew your head and turn your skull into a drinking mug!”

That snapped her out of it, casing her to snap into a salute as she stared straight ahead, “Ma’am, yes ma’am!”

“Bullshit, Private.” I countered, “You think you can handle going toe to toe with me in the ring? I bet I could take you out with one hand tied behind my back because all I see in front of me is a big, fat turkey!”

Her gaze narrowed but she didn’t rise to my bait, “Ma’am, I can handle it ma’am!”

I got right up in her face and bore my gaze directly into her own, “Look me in the eyes and tell me that you can beat me in the ring. I want to see the grit in your eyes when you tell me how much of a pussy you think I really am.” She refused to move her gaze from mine but didn’t reply, “I said look me in the eyes and tell me how badly you can beat me in the ring. What happened to all that gumption from a second ago? Did it all just up and fly away once you realized that I could kick your beak in without even breaking a sweat?”

Her eyes twitched, and I could feel the heat coming from her gaze as she replied in a tense tone, “Ma’am, no ma’am.”

A devilish grin formed on my lips as I glanced over my shoulder at Swift, “Oh, I get it, not wanting to look like a fool in front of your new marefriend, is that it?” I returned my gaze to Rosie as her cheeks flushed bright red, “Is that it? Are you so scared of looking like a little tool that you’d refuse to fight me?” I got right up in her face again and screamed, “Answer me when I am talking to you, Private!”

The corner of her beak creaked slightly as she ground her beak against itself, “Permission to speak freely, ma’am?”

I felt like this was the turning point. If she did what I thought she was going to do, then we were one step closer to seeing Rosie as a full-fledged warrior. “Granted.”

She turned her gaze to meet my own and growled out, “Buck you.”

My grin shifted from devilish to straight-up sadistic, “Oh, so you think you’ve got a pair of balls under all that soft pigeon fluff.” I fell into a combat stance as I squared off against her, “Then come at me, little bird, and let’s see what you’ve got.”

She let out a screech and charged at me, her claws igniting once again with aura as she pounded across the grass. She swiped at me and I was forced to duck as her claws sailed through the space my head had occupied just a moment before, the force of her strike waving my hair in the breeze as I planted my fist in her gut.

She wheezed as I leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Channel that anger into power, but don’t let it control you. Remember, you are the master of your own body, not the other way around.”

She grunted in the affirmative before shoving me back with one claw, crouching as she began circling me like a predatory cat. I followed her with my gaze by remained in one place as she came around behind me. She paused for just a hair too long before striking, allowing me to counter with a spinning heel to the side of her head as my shoe drove her off course. She sailed by me and grunted as she landed flat on her stomach, although she quickly got back up and fell into a proper stance almost as soon as she hit the ground. There was a growing bruise under her cheek feathers where my foot had hit her, but otherwise she seemed to be handling things just fine.

“That’s it,” I egged her on, “use those emotions to keep yourself going. Remember that I’m more experienced than you, so you’re going to have to think outside the box in order to beat me.”

Her beak curled into a smile as she began circling me again, “I’ll keep that in mind, Lehrer. I won’t let you down.”

I glanced over at Swift, who gave me a nod of approval along with a nearly invisible smile. Apparently, things were going better than expected, although I knew I was probably going to pay for my little side jokes later once Swift got ahold of me for my own training.

We broke for lunch a couple hours later, nearly eating Twilight out of house and home as we packed away the food. Swift managed not to gag this time when Rosie and I had our cooked trout, although she still looked a little green around the gills as she picked away at her own salad. We moved on to armed combat after lunch, although Rosie quickly demonstrated that she had next to no actual combat experience with a blade. Forms and stances were all fine and dandy, but in a real fight one needed to be able to go with the flow of battle instead of being a brick wall.

My blade rang out as it clashed against Rosie’s, the gryphon stumbling back under my assault as I mercilessly pounded at her defenses. We had already gone over basic blocks and counterstrikes, so now it was time for her to put the things she had learned from me and Swift into practice. The only problem she seemed to be having was getting her wings under her, so to speak, and actually trying to hit me with the sword. We were using actual blades, so the edges were sharp, and she lacked the skill to hit me with the flat of the blade, so the risk of injury was very real if she managed to score a contact. Of course, I could heal myself using my aura abilities, but she was still hesitating to actually swing to injure.

“Come on, Private!” I yelled at her as I managed to break her defenses and press the edge of my sword against the side of her neck, “My grandmother could do better than this. Imagine if you were protecting your chicks or something, would you go easy on me then?”

“I’m trying ma’am.” She replied as she stepped back and hung her head in shame, “It’s just that I’ve never actually tried to hurt someone before.”

“Then you need to grow a pair and learn how to,” I countered, “the enemies you face with be going for the kill nine times out of ten, so it’s either you or them. Frankly, I’d rather have my student live through her first fight if I’m going to take my time to train you. So,” I threw my blade to one side and spread my arms wide, “hit me.”

Her eyes widened in shock, “What?!”

“Are you deaf as well as a coward,” I retorted, “I said hit me, or are you still too scared of seeing blood that you can’t do it?”

Rosie looked at her blade like it was already soaked in blood, her eyes wide with horror, “I, I can’t.”

“Bullshit, Private.” I yelled, “You’re more than the little kitten I met yesterday. I’ve seen the fire in you. Now do us both a favor and swing that sword like you mean it, or you can consider your training under me at an end.”

Her gaze snapped to me, “You mean I can’t be your student anymore?”

I shook my head, “Not unless you can prove you can swing that thing to actually hit something other than a target. A warrior who can’t hurt his opponent is a dead one, and I won’t train you if you aren’t willing to go all the way. Now hit. Me. With. That. Sword!”

Rosie clenched her eyes shut, letting out a warbling cry as she lunged at me, swinging her blade in an overhead arc that was perfectly aimed for my collarbone. She had her eyes firmly shut, and I could tell she still wasn’t putting everything behind her strike.

I sidestepped, allowing her to sail through the space I had just been in, and stuck my foot in between her hind legs as she passed, causing her to stumble and fall as her sword clattered to the ground next to her body.

“You’re still holding back,” I said slowly as I stood over her, “I want you to come at me with everything you have, and I want you to watch as the blade hits me, or else you can pack up your things and fly on home, because you will never be a warrior if you can’t overcome this.”

Rosie panted as she forced herself to her paws, gripping her sword as she turned to face me. The hard glint in her eyes nearly caught me off guard, but I felt a measure of pride in my student as she fell into a combat stance and squared off against me. I nodded to myself as she prepared to strike, and I readied my energy as she let out another cry and lunged for my midsection. She kept her eyes open through the whole way, watching as the blade in her claws arced around towards my ribs.

At the last second, I charged my arm with blue energy and placed my flat hand in the path of the blade. It impacted my palm and I closed my fingers around the blade as I slid to one side slightly. I held firm as Rosie powered through the strike, eventually making me skid a good two feet to my left as she finally let off the pressure.

She seemed to realize what had happened as she came back to herself, and her eyes widened as she spotted my hand holding her blade just inches from my ribs. She dropped the hilt as she stumbled back from me, looking down at her claws as she sat back on her haunches and held them before her like she couldn’t believe what she had just done. I dropped the sword, shaking out my hand to relieve the sting from the force of the impact as I walked up to the seemingly distraught hen.

“Hey,” I said carefully as I walked up and sat down next to her, “it’s alright. You didn’t hurt me other than a bruised palm, so no harm done. You did very well getting over your fear, and I can tell you’ll only get better from this point forward, now that you can put everything you have into your training.”

“I wanted to hurt you,” Rosie said almost too softly to hear, “I actually wanted to see you bleed.” She looked up at me like she was scared to even move from her seated position, “Why do I feel so good when I could have killed you?”

I placed a hand on her shoulder for comfort, “It’s alright, the thrill of battle can feel amazing in the heat of the moment. It’ll get better with time. The one big thing I have to ask you is, now that you know you can harm others, will you do so again if you have to?”

Rosie looked away for a moment, her expression marked by a furrowed brow and a slight frown. She didn’t answer me right away, but when she did she turned to look at me with a light of determination in her eyes. “Yes, I will be willing to hurt others if I am forced to, but if and only if there are no other options at my disposal.”

I smiled, ruffling the feathers on her head, causing her to giggle as I stood up, “Congratulations, you’ve passed your second test.”

Rosie leaped to her paws and yelled in triumph, “Woohoo! I did it!” She performed a little victory dance as I walked over and picked up the swords, lost in her own little world as Swift walked up to me.

“You know she’s only going to get worse the longer she hangs around with us, right?” The mare asked as she glanced behind me at the giddy Rosie.

I chuckled as I slid the blades into their scabbards, “I know, but it’s fun to see the joy she gets from a job well done instead of a blank wall of stone like in basic training. I kind of like this more informal way of teaching cadets, maybe I’ll do something similar once Luna gets me my own command.”

Swift rolled her eyes, “Faust help them if that ever happens.”

I bumped her in the shoulder with my hip as Rosie calmed down and walked up to us, a beaming smile on her beak as she spoke, “So what’s next, Lehrer? More combat training?”

I shook my head, “No, I think we’ve done enough of that for one day. I think as your final lesson, I’m going to teach you how to sense your energy. That way it will be easier to get it to go where you want it to instead of blindly floundering about.”

Rosie tilted her head slightly as her expression shifted to a confused frown, “Sense my energy, isn’t it just my feelings given physical form?”

I chuckled at her naivete, “Not quite. You see, Auramancy is the magic of our soul, allowing us to manipulate the energy given off by our spirit and form it into different ‘spells’. The color of that energy is dependent on our mood, so feeling different things can cause different effects. However, this is useless if you can’t tell where the energy is in your body, so that’s why I’m going to show you how to sense the heart of your being, or core, as the old masters liked to phrase it.”

“Core?” Rosie asked, still looking confused.

I tapped my chin with a finger as I thought of a different way to put it, “Think of your core as the source of all your aura energy, kind of like the power plant that feeds a city with electricity. If you can find out where that core is, and can tell how much power if being put off and where it is going, then it will make channeling your energy a thousand times easier.”

Her eyes lit up with understanding as she nodded, “I get it. It’s like the fire that feeds the forge. Without knowing how much fuel is in the flame you can’t tell if it’s hot enough to melt the metal or not.”

I lifted one eyebrow at her sideways perspective, and she blushed as she averted her gaze, “My uncle works in the palace armory, so I hang out with the smiths more often than not if I don’t have any duties to perform as princess.”

Swift and I nodded, “I see,” I replied, “then I guess if that works for you, then so be it. Now,” I channeled a small ball of blue energy into my hand, holding it up to Rosie’s chest as I knelt down in front of her. “I’m going to put this energy into your body, and I’m going to move it around inside you until I find something of interest. I want you to try and sense the energy and if it interacts with anything inside you while I do that. The one place that my energy can’t go should be your core, so try and feel for any gaps in my own aura before feeling out your own.”

Rosie nodded and closed her eyes, allowing me to place my palm against her chest and sucking in a gasp as my energy began to flow into her, “I can feel it.” Her voice had taken on a breathless quality as her beak hung open in wonder, “It’s like a cool wave of water moving through my chest.”

I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me, “Now I’m going to move it around, so try and feel for any gaps in my energy. The biggest hole should be your core.”

She nodded again, taking a deep breath as I began to move my energy around inside her body. I moved it along her shoulders and over her back first, thinking it might be closer to her wings given her avian breeding. However, I came up with nothing. So, I moved my energy through her body and into her gut, although once again I came up empty. Feeling a flash of inspiration, I moved my energy up towards her heart, and it was at that moment that I encountered true resistance. Rosie gasped and I could tell she was feeling the same thing I was, although as my own energy interacted with hers I could feel her core trying to push my energy out.

“I can feel it.” Rosie whispered, “It’s like a little heartbeat, only it doesn’t keep pace with my real one.”

I smiled, knowing that she had finally sensed her own energy, “Good, now I’m going to pull my own energy out of you, so I want you to keep focusing on your core and the energy its producing as I move my own out of your body.”

I focused and retracted my aura from her chest, feeling her core send out waves of her own energy to fill the gaps as my own retreated. I moved my hand away from her breast as she hummed in what almost sounded like pleasure, and I smiled as she held up one claw.

Before I could even ask what she was doing, Rosie sucked in a deep breath and then let it out in a slow gust, her claws forming a cup shape as soft yellow flames began to dance over her foreleg. She smiled without opening her eyes, and closed her claws into a fist as the flames condensed over the outside of her leg like a gauntlet. She took a moment as the flames stabilized, and then opened her eyes to stare in wonder at the fire that slowly danced and flowed over her limb.

I clapped my hands in unadulterated pride, “Well done, Rosie, well done indeed.”

Swift nodded, staring at the flames as they slowly dissipated, “Amazing. To think after only two days you could get that level of control.”

Rosie blushed as she rubbed the back of her neck with one claw, “It was a lot easier once Sarah showed me where to look.” She turned to face me with a wide smile, “I couldn’t have gotten it so fast if she wasn’t such a great teacher.” She bowed her head to me with a smile stretching across her beak, “Thank you so much, Lehrer, for teaching me this truly amazing technique when I only came to you originally for combat training.”

Now it was my turn to blush as I tried to roll with this sudden praise, “Oh it wasn’t much. I’m still a novice when it comes to Auramancy, so teaching you the basics was half guesswork and half luck. I’m just glad my idea actually worked instead of making you feel like a fool if you couldn’t sense your energy.”

Rosie walked up and jumped onto her hind legs, wrapping her forelegs and wings around me in a hug, “Even though it was a shot in the dark, you still managed to teach me, and for that I am truly grateful. You didn’t have to show me how to use Auramancy, and yet you still took the time to teach me as well as train my combat skills.” She pulled back and rested her paws on my shoulders, “I know I’ve said it already, but thank you for doing this for me. It means the world to me that someone would take so much time and effort just for my sake.”

I gently pushed her off of me, feeling my face heating up as I tried to keep my cool, “Yes, well,” I cleared my throat to get rid of the sudden crack in my voice, “I’m doing this because your father asked me to and is paying me for my services. The Auramancy stuff is a bonus because you showed a rare talent. You managed to manifest your aura without any training, and that means a lot coming from the only other living auramancer in the world.”

I noticed the slight expression of guilt that flashed over her face, but it was gone before I could be sure it was there. “Anyways, I think that’s enough for one day’s work. Let’s go get some dinner and then rest up for the rest of the evening. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I got run over by a train and then pounded with a meat tenderizer.”

Swift chuckled as Rosie nodded her agreement, “I don’t know about you, but I could go for a few rounds in the ring. Remember, you still need to train your own sword skills if you want to ever stand a chance of properly training young Rosie here.”

I groaned but relented, knowing that trying to get out of this would only make the beating worse, “Just take it a bit easy on me, my energy has been worked over as it is, and my body feels like a pounded pile of bread dough.”

Swift smirked as she drew her own sword, taking up position opposite me as she grinned around the hilt, “No Pomishiz.”

Rosie sat down on the edge of the track, watching us with wide eyes as Swift and I squared off against each other. This would be the first time she got to witness Swift and I sparring, so I made a silent promise to myself not to take it easy. I had to put on a good show for my apprentice, after all.

For a moment we simply sized each other up. I knew I couldn’t use my super speed with my energy reserves so low, and I knew that Swift knew that I couldn’t use my energy to my advantage, so I had to step up my game or risk getting pounded into the dirt by her superior strength. In an instant it all came down to who moved first, and Swift was the one to take that initiative. She pounded up to me and swung for my real leg in a low sweep, forcing me to jump back or risk losing the limb. I brought my own blade down in an arc aimed at her neck, the flat turned so that it would pound instead of slice. Swift parried it with her own blade and locked the cross guards together, driving me back with her strength as I struggled to stay standing. This was one of the worse positions I could get into, because I knew she wasn’t going to let up until I either got pushed out of the ring, or fell on my back and lost my grip on my sword. I could have dropped the sword and capitalized on her overcorrection, but that wasn’t the point of this exercise. The entire point was to use my blade to defeat her, not my close quarters combat training.

I twisted the blade in an attempt to break the lock, but Swift quickly disengaged and swung for my head while my grip was changing, forcing me to make a half-baked block that only took half the force. The rest of the strike ended up in my collarbone as the flat of the blade smashed into my shoulder, and I grunted as shots of pain lanced up and down my arm. I nearly lost my grip on my sword as my fingers went numb, and I was forced to take several steps back to let my body recover from the impact. Smaller and cuter they might be, but these ponies packed a wallop.

Swift grinned around her hilt, not bothering to trash talk me when we both knew what she’d be saying. Instead, she rushed me and swung for my arm again, this time aiming for the elbow as I tried to bring my blade to bear. I managed to block the strike, although I felt like I had stopped a truck with my bare hands, and took the moment of recovery to make my own swing at Swift’s face.

Her eyes widened as she ducked, and I used that instant to slam my blade down on top of her own, driving the tip into the ground as her head bent to the side at an awkward angle. Before she could react, I used my left hand to grip her own blade around the cross guard, locking her in place as I pulled my own blade from the dirt. Given her odd angle, she couldn’t overpower my arm as I brought the other limb up and around to smash the flat of my blade against the side of her head.

Swift cried out, releasing the hilt of her sword as she ducked back and wobbled on her hooves. Her eyes rolled around in her head several times before she shook it to clear her vision. However, by that time I had picked up both blades and pressed them against her throat in a scissor cross, effectively locking her head in place for risk of cutting her own neck against the cold steel.

Swift looked down her muzzle at the two blades crossed under her chin, and then up at me with a surprised expression, “Well, this is unexpected.”

I chuckled as I removed the blades from her neck, handing her back one of them as I sheathed my own, “Rosie isn’t the only one with a good teacher. You’ve been doing an amazing job teaching me to think outside the box, and I managed to use that during our duel to my advantage. I will admit, though,” I swung my right arm around to try and get the blood flowing again, “you managed to get me pretty good with that shoulder hit. I’m sure it’ll be bruised for a week the way you swing.”

Swift laughed, “Yeah, had I been using the edge you’d probably be needing a doctor, so I guess the fight could be called a draw.” She walked up and offered her hoof, “Good match. Let’s make sure to have another tomorrow once you get feather brains over there up and running.”

“Hey!” Rosie fluffed up like a cat as she blushed with a murderous expression, “I can hear you, you know!”

“You were supposed to.” Swift and I chorused as we laughed. I took the offered hoof and shook it once, acknowledging Swift’s respect with a nod before turning back to Rosie.

“Don’t worry about it too much,” I said as we walked up to the sulking gryphon, “We’re just having some fun. We know you’re new to all this, so we like to make fun of you every once and a while. As my old drill instructor used to say, ‘you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, or in your case shattering a few egos’.”

Swift giggled behind a hoof as we walked back into the castle, “I’ve got to remember that one. That’s pretty good.”

I smiled as the smell of roasted vegetables met my nose as we walked into the castle foyer, “Well, I could share some more of my old boot camp stories over dinner. I imagine we’d all get a laugh out of that.”

Swift shared a look with Rosie, who nodded her approval, “Sounds like a plan. Lead on to the food, Sarah.”

I nodded, following my nose to the dining room, where Twilight and Spike were already setting the table. We sat down and enjoyed the sautéed vegie fry that Spike had cooked up, and I shared a few of my stories from basic training. Half of them had us in stitches, while the other half got me some horrified looks from the peanut gallery. Swift and Rosie took the darker humor in stride, although I toned it down a bit for Spike because I didn’t want to scare the little guy. Meanwhile, Twilight was taking notes like a madmare, and I could have sworn that I could smell smoke coming from her quill because it was moving so fast.

After dinner we packed it in and I took some time to myself in my room, showering with nice hot water to help get rid of some of the aches and pains I had accumulated over the day. My shoulder was a vibrant purple and yellow from the base of my neck all the way out to the curve of my arm, and I had a feeling it was going to be like that for at least a week. Meanwhile, the cuts Rosie had made on my forearm were already healing, although they would still mark my flesh with a quartet of pink lines for a couple more days at least.

Once I was finished with my shower, I plopped down on my bed, listening to the birds chirping outside as the sun began to set. All and all, it had been a productive day, and I was actually looking forward to getting up the next morning. Of course, waking up Rosie was only part of the fun, given she’d probably be expecting something like that from now on. I’d have to stagger my surprise wake-up calls so that way she’d stay on her toes, er, claws as the case may be.

“Goodnight Carpet Sense.” I said softly, knowing that the living floor covering was listening.

“Goodnight Sarah,” he replied, “although if you wouldn’t mind, please refrain from using water to wake up miss Brightwing, it takes forever to dry out if I get my fur wet.”

I nodded, chuckling at the mental image of a soaking wet Carpet Sense giving me the stink eye, “Will do, buddy, will do.”

Author's Notes:

Woohoo! Three chapters in three days, I am on a roll! Also, I finally cracked 150,00 words!! This is amazing!! Anyways, hope you guys are liking all the fast updates. I know I certainly am. What do you think of our newest cast member? Is she someone you could learn to like, or do you think there's something else going on? Either way, I'm not saying anything because that would be spoilers, so have fun arguing in the towel section below.

As always, I enjoy hearing from you all. Leave a like, follow and comment if you so desire, and I'll see you all next chapter,
Shadow Quill, Messenger of the Moon.