Purity Ebonshield

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Estelar Siete Pureza Ébanoscudo was most thankful that there were the four of them training just the one Engineer Royal. Educating him was like to teach a young, strapping colt, full of boundless energy and enthusiasm, yet with none of the lazy ignorance of youth or the obnoxious petulance of adolescence. He had a good physique, yes, but also he learned from his mistakes, and he listened attentively when anyone spoke to him.

After Ignacio had retired back to his minbar, the initiates Carto and Águila brought up training dummies and held them fast as Anonymous demolished them with repeated blows of his mace. That was a heavy, brutal weapon, and Ebonshield could see how wielding the lump of metal tired her VIP. As his shadow had made clear earlier, the mace was too slow to catch a nimble fighter like herself, but he demonstrated now just how destructive the Minotaur's "twenty blows mace" was against whatever he could hit.

After reducing the dummies to scraps of wicker and burlap hanging off wooden frames, he concluded by obliterating the frames themselves by learning to strike with the edge and the central boss of his shield as well. Though he seemed to enjoy greatly this destruction, this did not occupy him for long; he demanded shortly after that he be assailed in turn, that he might learn to defend himself.

The Specialist Glamerspear was first; she launched her ‘training’ projectiles at a distance, teaching him to dodge and to guard with the most protected parts of his body, and also to angle his shield properly against strikes. These principles he grasped quickly, and soon she was shooting at him as he jogged around the arena, avoiding or deflecting many of her attacks. And even when she hit something other than sand, armor, or shield, he did not need long to recover.

But this was not enough for him either.

He demanded next that the Specialist Sparkshower charge at him with practice spears, teaching him to brace and dig in as necessary. This she did, with charge after charge that held fast against with his shield, until twelve lances lay broken on the arena floor, the splinters hastily brushed up by the initiates. When Ebonshield asked, he complained that his shoulder was a little sore, but even this was solved simply by discarding the shield.

Now comfortable against a pegasus' charge and a unicorn's projectiles, and with the magic of that unicorn spent and the wings of that pegasus worn out, then came the turn of the Corporal Bound to don soft padded horseshoes and lash out against him, without his shield. Again, he proved himself agile and durable, taking blows and learning quickly to weave his body to avoid or deflect them with his armor. This went on for some time, until the earth pony of considerable fortitude was exhausted, panting, and drenched with white sweat-foam.

Ebonshield was next.

After the Engineer Royal redonned his shield and she exchanged her blades of metal with ones of wood instead, they began to spar. With her, at least, he was not on top of things, and she exploited opportunity after opportunity to find a way past his defenses. Yet her employer most demanding still commanded that she give him more, and cast down his shield and mace to seize two more of the wooden practice daggers for himself, ordering that she continue to fight him in mock, and teach him the technique which had bested his shadow.

For certain, in the art of duelling he did not know the proper ways, and there were many times of many rapid ends, as she found easily the areas undefended against which to place her own wooden blades. But, if the attributes physical demonstrated thus far had not sufficiently impressed her, then the ability of the Engineer Royal to learn from his mistakes was additionally surprising. Each opening she exploited and exposed was soon closed once explained, and though the batpony soon found new ones or reopened the old ones, the Engineer Royal did at least manage to make her work to find them.

And that work was exhausting.

By the time her body was almost ready to give up, the two practice blades were sufficiently his own that he was able to draw the match out long past the time when things should have been over already. And the end came unexpectedly: seeing an opportunity to strike from behind, the sergeant leapt over him and twisted onto her back as she flew.

This was a good idea, and she was certain of striking his exposed rear. Yet she executed the maneuver too slowly, and as she sailed over his head, her long-armed enemy simply reached up and seized her with a grip most firm, before tumbling over backwards and driving them both into the sand. The strange grab-and-throw was itself inefficient action, ill-suited for a real fight, but he performed well nonetheless by quickly bringing a wooden blade up against Ebonshield’s throat even as she lay there, stunned from the surprise, the impact, and the firmness by which he held her body.

"¡Cedo!"

"Hah! Whoo! Gotcha at last..."

Breathing heavily, and even choking a bit on his own saliva, he unhooked his arm and released her from his grasp, removing his hand from the sweat-soaked fur of her abdomen as he tried to sit up.

She felt the sensations most conflicted.

On the one wing, she was disappointed to have failed to find her mark.

On the other, what a thrilling end to their dance mutual!

"... Welcome to -- cough -- suplex city, Sarge."

All she could do was lie on the sand and try to recover her breath, her body drenched in white sweat-foam. A batpony ought to beat her wings to cool herself, but to beat her wings at this point would do little more than drain the last drops of energy in her; for now, she simply had to 'shut down' her body and wait out the heat.

Sitting beside her, their VIP pulled off his helmet and shook his head with vigor, spraying his own salty moisture everywhere. Coughing again, he brushed the strands of hair out of his eyes, then placed the helmet down on the ground.

"Alright. I think I'm done for today. Did I do alright?"

Ebonshield was far too tired to answer him, but thankfully, she was not alone.

The Specialist Glamerspear waved a hoof angrily at the Engineer Royal. "’Alright’! After five hours down here, and four ponies KO'd to show for us, he asks us if he did alright!"

Slowly and lethargically, the three Equestrians approached, and Ebonshield felt strong enough to at least roll over onto her belly.

Specialist Sparkshower, her visor locked up, floated down and picked up the helmet of their VIP as he struggled to his feet. "You did great, sir! This was awesome! I'm tired too, but I can't wait to come back!"

With a tremendous grunt that left Ebonshield at least a little satisfied that the Engineer Royal was perhaps just as tired as she was, her VIP heaved himself up and took back the head-piece.

Suddenly regretful, the pegasus looked down as Ebonshield, too, painfully got to her hooves. "... Oh... But maybe I should bring my own practice lances next time. I feel a bit bad breaking all of the batpony ones down here."

Shrugging the sand off, the weary batpony shook her head at her. "While considerate of you to think this, Specialist, your concern is unnecessary. There is no shortage of such items in the Grand Hall of Stars. And the Rocks who made them will be satisfied to know that they were put to such good use."

This pleased the pegasus, who smiled eagerly.

The moment Ebonshield was back on her hooves, the two initiates rushed forward, carrying a water-jug and a number of metal cups, which they immediately proceeded to dispense amongst the group. She’d lost count of the number of times now that refreshments had been distributed; as the Specialist Glamerspear said, they had been down in the Rookery for five hours, and a long five hours as well. The fighting had not been continuous by any means, but still!

After taking a sip of water, Anonymous dusted the sand off of his helmet and kilt. "Well, I'm disgusting under this armor. Are those showers in those alcoves around the ring, Sergeant?"

She nodded. "Yes, Great Lord. For washing away the sweat and sand."

He sighed. "And of course, I was so excited that I forgot to bring a change of clothes. Something to remember for next time. You all go ahead and rinse off if you want to; I'll wait until we're back in the palace."

Ebonshield was confused momentarily before realizing that the Great Lord did not wish to return to the palace in only his undergarments, particularly if these were soaking wet from the shower. And re-donning the sweaty armor would, after all, be counterproductive.

Oh well!

She had hoped perhaps to be able to get a better look at the creature who had, in the end, wrestled her forcefully to the ground. A shame the arena did not have proper walls against which he could have pinned her instead!

Rolling his shoulders and then stretching out his arms sideways, the Engineer Royal grimaced in pain. "...After the workout you four gave me, I need a nice, long hot bath and a nap... and maybe a massage, too."

Perking up again, the Specialist Sparkshower lowered her water-cup, which has already been twice refilled by the eager Águila, and exclaims brightly. "Oh! Lily and I know where you can get a great massage! -- I mean, a great massage, sir!"

For her impetuous outburst, she received a tired scowl from the corporal and a smile from Anonymous. "Have a favorite spa in town, do you? I imagine it's this place you went on Sunday?"

The pegasus nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, sir! Tell him, Lily!"

For her part, the unicorn appeared less enthusiastic. "It's, uh... Well, it's a nice little place, sir. Clean. Large baths. Good service..."

She scratched one forehoof at the nape of her neck, underneath her helmet. "... Just maybe a bit low-brow for somepony of the Blue Chamber, that's all."

Anonymous took another sip of water. "Oh? I imagine there's a private members-only club or something I ought to be going to instead?"

Glamerspear forced a smile. "Something like that, sir. The kind you'd need an invitation to."

Sighing, he laughed. "Heh. Well, I could use a spa afternoon now, to be honest. No time for an invitation and an application and vetting process and all that. Let's try this place of yours. I'll take a quick rinse and then we can drive over there in the steam car. How about it, Corporal? My treat."

At the mention of that vehicle, the cheeks of Corporal Bound changed from a dark brown to a color much lighter, and Ebonshield could see her swallow nervously.

"Yes, sir."

Anonymous turned to the batpony. "You too, Sergeant. If we're done here, I mean."

She took a moment to think if there was anything left to clean up. Ignacio was asleep in his minbar -- she could hear him snoring. No sense in waking him up just to give thanks and to say good-bye. Her initiates had done their duties and could now be dismissed to tidy the arena before retiring to bed. The Reverend Mother had said her piece, and departed. Her accounts with the band and its music-director were already settled, as well.

Quite contrary to everything that Carmen had said, Tonino had stated categorically that he and his 'band of rocks,' as Ignacio had affectionately disparaged them, were quite happy to play for her and her colorful comrades, as well as their alien VIP, at any hour of the day whatsoever. Provided, of course, that she continued to supply them with contraband materials 'borrowed' from the palace storehouse such as tobacco and alcohol.

On that front there was no difficulty -- the storerooms were trivial to break into for someone who already had access to the palace, and they were also so amply supplied that she doubted her unauthorized requisitions would ever be noticed.

But perhaps it would still be best to obtain the payments officially for next time.

That was something which could be discussed later, when her VIP felt enthusiastic once more to return for a second training session -- if there would even be such a thing. She looked up at the strange bipedal creature, with the smile infectious, the endurance incredible, the movements agile, and the grip strong and firm...

"If you are satisfied, then we are finished here today, Great Lord. And I am pleased to accompany you to such a place."

"Great! What did you say it was called again, Specialist?"

Ebonshield did not hear the answer. Frowning, she continued to examine her VIP.

He did beat her, in the end.

That was significant. None of the sixes had yet managed this, and not for the lack of trying. She had been exhausted, but he had been tired also. And his shadow had put up a considerable fight. Could this creature be the one to satisfy the command of her Master Draxon? It would remain to be seen if the Engineer Royal truly wished for additional lessons. But if he did...

Allowing herself a few moments more of the daydreams, she headed to one of the shower-alcoves and quickly rinsed herself off, then prepared to escort her VIP out of the Rookery, reloading her blade-devices with their weapons lethal.

She knew Mother Carmen well enough to think that merely because she said that they would not be molested on the way out, that did not mean that this would be true. There might still be a fight waiting for them before they could reach the attractive young Lieutenant Rapid and his little Royal Under-mountain Constabulary border-post inside the orchard shed.

After all, Carmen had said nothing about Marcos...

Next Chapter: Chapter 77 Estimated time remaining: 22 Hours, 23 Minutes