As the Medical Guard was finishing up for the day Biblo pulled me aside to meet the captain, a white furred Pegasus, with a purple mane, by the name of Comet Glider. He was an older Pegasus, and light scarring could be seen on his muzzle and legs. Either the Medical Guard did indeed see direct combat, or he had served in some other guard previously. He smiled in greeting to us as we approached him.

"Biblo, your progress continues to be astounding," he said with pride. "Two days ago you were getting your flank whipped soundly in the weapon training, and while you might not have won your matches today, you stood your ground remarkably well. I have never seen such dramatic improvement in such a short period of time. You should be proud. I wish you actually would join, you have the makings of an elite. Meadowbrook has been even inquiring about your progress."

Biblo beamed at the praise. Her posture straighten a bit as she did.

"Thank you Comet," she replied in an upbeat tone. "I appreciate hearing that, but still not interested in a soldier job. I did want to ask if you could make similar arrangements for Pearl as you have for me. She hasn't been doing much for activity lately, and she is getting a little plump."

I gave Biblo a level look, I wasn't getting fat. I gave my flank a considering look. Maybe it was getting a little better insulated. I was just being sensitive, she had just said plump.

"You aren't as out of shape as Biblo here was," Comet said as he looked me over. "We don't typically train with Thestrals though. I have no problem with your tribe, but I would worry about some of the other members of the guard taking issues. I am not refusing you training with us, just telling you that you may face some issues which I may not be able to protect you against."

And we were back to dealing with this. Comet Glider seemed nice enough. I took him at his word that he personally had no issues with me, though that could be a farce. I wasn't really ready to deal with soldiers taking cheap shots at me while doing this, if I did it at all. However, Comet Glider hadn't finished speaking.

"Before you get discouraged, let me tell you that Meadowbrook has already anticipated you might ask to do so. She told me to let you know she would arrange for a personal trainer, one who won't tolerate prejudice towards you. Unlike Biblo here, you will get a specific pony working with you, though you will be still training on our grounds. If this is acceptable for you of course."

Meadowbrook was still watching out for me. I half wondered if this was also the start of Alicorns spying on me, but seemed fairly pointless to do here. Every pony was an agent of Meadowbrook here. I would just be grateful that my needs had been considered.

"So will I be able to meet this personal trainer tomorrow then? " I asked.

"Actually you can meet her in just a moment," Comet Glider laughed. "I was told to get her right away if you decided you wanted to do some training. She is in the temple waiting. She arrived earlier today. If you want to do training I can go fetch her right away."

This was some pony specifically called in for me then. Meadowbrook couldn't have been sure I would do this could she? Perhaps she put Hot Sticks up to pushing me to do it. I felt mildly manipulated, but it wasn't a major concern. I did need to get back into shape. I nodded to Comet Glider my desire to do the training.

"I was told to additionally warn you that she is a Thestral as well," Comet Glider said with caution. "She is a bit odd for a Thestral, as you'll see. She is aware of your circumstances, and has no hostility towards you."

My stomach sank, and every limb stiffened. It would take more than words to assure me of that. Besides my mother, about the best treatment a fellow Thestral had ever shown me was ignoring me. I could see the fur on Biblo's back rise as she took a more defensive stance.

"I will give her a chance. The first time she taunts me, or anything else hateful, I am done with her though," I said looking him in the eye to measure he understood me.

Comet Glider nodded, and took off to a balcony well away from my own. He was gone less than a minute when he came flying back with my trainer close behind. I guessed she really was just waiting.

My trainer was definitely no Thestral I had ever met. She was huge, and muscular, with golden colored fur, red mane, and had on armor with no insignia, hiding her cutie mark. She looked like a particularly large Earth Pony had sprouted bat wings, fangs, and tufts on her ears. I would think I would have heard of a Thestral like this, word got around Thestral communities about any Thestral who was different. Between her coloring, and sheer size, she definitely would have been discussed. Despite her imposing size, I felt strangely calmer seeing her. We were both types of Thestrals that our fellow tribe members hated. There is a sense of kinship in being some pony labeled freak, meeting another pony who would also be labeled freak.

"Pearlwort, I take it?" The great golden behemoth of a pony greeted me. "Glad to meet you. I am called Golden Sunset. I have heard a good deal about you, and I volunteered my services to Meadowbrook when she was considering ponies to work with you."

Biblo took a brave stance in between me and Golden Sunset. It was actually mildly comical watching a Crystal Pony try to be intimidating versus this monster sized Thestral. Golden Sunset could likely crush Biblo's skull with one hoof.

"I am watching you miss Giant-Bat-Pony!" Biblo shouted at the mare. "If you do anything to hurt Pearl I am going to make you pay. I don't care how big and scary you look!"

Golden Sunset looked amused at the fact she was being challenged by a pony half her size.

"No need to worry about that," Sunset chuckled. "I know how to control my own strength. Pearl and I share a lot in common, you and I do too I think. You'll both likely be spending a lot of time with me, if Pearl wants my help. I'd like you two to consider me a friend. If any other pony decides to make trouble for her I will be quick to put a stop to it. Ponies don't typically pick fights when I am around, I am a little bit intimidating."

"I'm still watching you," Biblo said moving a forehoof to point first at her eye and then at the Thestral.

"Then you'll learn I mean what I said with time. I respect you being cautious." Golden Sunset said, still smiling.

I decided I needed to let Biblo know that I wanted to trust this Thestral. Easiest way to do that was to give Biblo a hug. Biblo loosened up her stance as I did. After releasing the hug she gave me a look of adoration, and then turned back to the newcomer to give one final cautious glance, before stepping out of the way.

"You can call me Sunset for short if you want. I would like to see where we are currently at with you. Think the best way to start is the same as any other pony, on the obstacle course. No using your wings though, we will work out them separately, for right now I just want to work out the rest of your body. I don't expect you to do it well yet, I just want to see you putting full effort into it."

Biblo seemed to approve of this, and gave me an encouraging look. I looked over the obstacle course again. I had known it was where this would start, and I wasn't looking forward to doing it for the first time. Biblo might be able to run it with ease now, but her first day running it definitely left an impression on me.

"I leave her in your care then Sunset," Comet Glider said. I had actually forgotten he was still here. "I hope you you do well, Pearl. I may allow you to train with my guard, eventually, as Biblo does. If it reaches a point Sunset thinks it is okay. I respect her judgement. Good luck to you," and with that he took back to the air and quickly out of sight.

"Biblo and I will sit up here and observe for right now," Sunset said. "After we have watched you enough, to see what you do on your own, I will come down to give you feedback, and suggestions, on areas you seem to be most struggling. But for right now, she and I will just watch and chat together."

I nodded and hopped down into the courtyard as I started making my way to the dreaded obstacle course. I mentally prepared myself for what was sure to be a frustrating experience. I was actually glad of my leathery wings, instead of feathered ones, for once. The thought of having to clean large amounts of mud out of feathers might have made me give up before I started.

Ouch! I had just completely screwed up on trying to clear a wall that I was supposed to jump, and done a hard splat against it. This was only going slightly better than I expected. I could clear the balance beam section with ease, likely due to my better sense of gravity as a flyer, but the rest was more or less identical results to what Biblo had endured day one. I was glad Hot Sticks wasn't part if my audience to laugh at my attempts.

I took the time as I climbed to where the balance beam was to give a look at my audience. Biblo must have spotted me, because she gave me a wave. It didn't look like they were being hostile to one another, so that was a good sign. They also hadn't come down to give me any advice. That might mean I wasn't doing anything completely wrong, I just had to keep trying.

I cleared the balance beam again with ease, glad there was at least one thing on the course I wasn't embarrassing myself with right now, and headed straight down the other side for the next obstacle. The next obstacle were a string of small buckets I had to step in and out of, without tripping and falling, while moving at a brisk pace. So far I had fallen each time. I focused myself, and started through, and I managed to do it this time. I lost my balance on the last bucket, but was able to correct myself before I could fall flat on my muzzle again. I grinned at my success as I continued on to the next section.

I tried turning to glance at Biblo and Sunset to see if had seen my accomplishment. That turned out to be a bad decision though. Being a klutz kicked in, as I took my eyes off the path I was running, and I tripped. I tumbled like a kicked ball into the nearby wall of the courtyard, finally landing with my rump planted up in the air against the wall.

Ouch. Not sure which hurt more, my pride or my back.

I took advantage of my position to look up at Biblo and Sunset, first thing I noticed from my angle was actually the various balconies that were on the temple complex, and the ponies on many of them. I had an audience. Further I could make out two of them in particular, one had Hot Sticks watching me, and another had Meadowbrook. My pride was definitely the thing hurting more right now.

Glancing down to Biblo and Sunset I could see Biblo trying to signal encouragement. Sunset on the other hoof was following where I had been looking, and was looking the balconies over herself, she then looked back over to me. I hadn't made a move so far to right my position, as I was focusing on not having yet another panic attack at the attention.

Sunset signaled Biblo to follow her, and hopped down into the courtyard basin, walking over to me. I still was laying with my back against the wall when they came up to me.

"I think we can call this done for today," Sunset said. "It isn't likely I can make ponies stop looking out here, but I can spare your pride for the moment. You really did well for the first few runs. I think with just practice you should master reflexes, and build the muscle back up, to run this without trouble. I don't think I need to tell you where your one big mistake was this time. You don't have the reflexes yet to be trying to divide your attention like that--not yet anyway, we will work on that. You did well enough for today, be proud of yourself."

Biblo came over and gave me a hug.

"You did better than I did," she said proudly. "So don't be embarrassed. We'll both be able to run this together with no problem soon, and get your flank looking all sexy!"

Upon hearing this Sunset let of a small chuckle. I resisted the urge to blush and tried to do my best puppy dog eyes to Biblo. Between my pitiful position and the eyes I was sure to be effective.

"Isn't my flank sexy already?" I asked with my most pathetic pout.

"It is plenty sexy, we should always strive for improvement thought," Biblo hugged me tighter and laughed.

"Well, your pride isn't that hurt," Sunset said while trying to resist laughing. "We will keep at this over the next few days, along with some other exercise. That is if you don't mind me working with you. I'd like too, I could stand to be around some different ponies than normal while I am in Harmony."

I gave Biblo a look considering Biblo was the one who had just spent the last hour or so sitting next to her talking. Sunset seemed to be friendly, but Biblo was the one who actually got to spend time with her so far.

"Sunset, do you mind if I give you a hug?" Biblo asked her, taking my hint.

Sunset paused, she must have been aware of Biblo's abilities.

"You can hug me, but I need to warn you that your abilities won't work on me. Your welcome to try them on me, but you likely won't get any information that way."

Biblo gave Sunset a confused look, and stood up and wrapped her foreleg's around the massive Thestral. Sunset wrapped one foreleg around Biblo returning the hug. Biblo held on for a moment before releasing and bringing back to all four hooves on the ground. Biblo looked extremely puzzled.

"How are you doing that?" Biblo asked with confusion. "I can tell there is something there, but I can't feel it like I normally would. It is like a pony is in another room with the door shut. I can hear them moving around so I know they are there, but I can't see who it is. Maybe that's a bad analogy, but it is the best I can think of right now."

"I told you I could help you too," Sunset said as Biblo continued to stare in confusion. "I'm an empath too. You might not have realized it, but I was getting a feel for what was going on in your head as we were hugging. I know how to shut things out though. You can't get in my head if I don't let you, and I can't get into your head without actually trying."

"But how?" Biblo seemed really uncomfortable that the tables had been turned. "You aren't a Crystal Pony. I doubt you are a changeling either. How do you have those abilities?"

"Just consider it part of my talent from my cutie mark," Sunset responded. "I would like to be able to teach you how to be able to do the same. Meadowbrook told me you can't help doing it with just about every pony you touch, and worse, unlike me you actually absorb in personality traits over time. That can't be good for you. I know how frustrating my empathic abilities became, before I mastered them, I can only imagine what you go through."

"I do want to be able to control it better, but I don't know how to trust a pony I can't tell the feelings from," Biblo said as she was torn between the two concepts.

"I can let you feel that I am sincere in wanting to help," Sunset replied. "I can't fake feelings. But I am only letting you in for that much. I don't like ponies in my head. Consider it me trying to help you learn how to trust without having to invade another pony's head."

Biblo nodded agreement, and went for another hug. They then embraced as before, only for a few seconds longer. When the released Biblo tilted her head as she typically did when thinking over what she just felt.

"So what do you think?" I asked Biblo.

Biblo looked at me and then looked again at Sunset for a second before looking back to me again.

"I think she is being honest," she finally replied. "Sunset wants to help, and she does seem to like us. I want to trust her, it just feels weird not being able to feel everything that she might be feeling."

"Do you think she is a good pony?" I clarified.

Biblo nodded without hesitation.

"Yes, I can't imagine those kinds of feelings from any pony that wanted to hurt you or me."

"I know I can help both of you." Sunset spoke up. "I also know you both have every reason to feel cautious of Thestrals after what you went through. I am not like the ones that hurt you. I want my privacy to be respected for right now, but I may open up a bit more in time. Right now I just want to do what I can to help."

I reached out a forehoof to her now knowing that she could easily read my feelings through contact if she wished. I was cautious about her, but I wanted to trust her as well. Part of trust was having faith in the good intention of a pony.

"I accept," I said as Sunset and I gripped each others forehooves.

Next Chapter: Chapter 12: Threat Assessment Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 16 Minutes