"So, why are we doing this again?" Etch asked me, in my human form, with his wife Malina and son Grog on the sidelines.

"Well, I just got this feeling that I might need to fight using my human body, so I need to get used to actual fighting, as compared to street scuffles. That, and I know next to zilch about diamond dog anatomy. Everything I know about pressure points is based off humans. I need to figure out how you move, and what to expect. You were a guard for your alpha before he died, you should know some fighting technique."

"I do."

"Alright, so, we'll move onto that in a bit, but first, I need to take a better look at you. I'll start with the key differences. Okay, so, human legs, the knee bends forwards, on diamond dogs, in bends backwards. I know that to knock someone over, hitting them in the back of the knee is a good way to do it. I'm wondering if it's the reverse. Just try and stand still while I push on the joint."

Etch stood rigid, trying to resist any force exerted on him, while I put my foot to his knee and started pressing. It didn't take very much force to bend, and put him off balance. I let off, and allowed him to stand again, before taking another look.

The thing about dog feet, is that they're much like an elongated human foot, walking on tiptoes. The pads and claws are the toes and ball of the foot, while the 'heel' actually includes the ankle. Then there's a knee, the 'shin' and a second knee, then the leg, where it attaches to the body. By testing with Etch, I found that by pressing down on the heel, forcing him to walk 'flatfooted' would very nearly make him fall over, making him lean forwards on the other side to compensate. Soon as he did that, I could get under him, and as I learned from him, when fighting diamond dogs, it's ALL about who can get lower.

"When we fight one another, we must take care to never leave the ground, which is why when we fight, we like to run on all fours. It makes it easy to quickly dig into the ground and come up elsewhere in an ambush, and makes it harder to get under us." He explained.

"That's the problem, there's no way I can beat a diamond dog in getting low if they're on all fours, not when they can pretty much swim through loose dirt."

"Which is why you need to draw your opponent."

"Right, I need to pull them from their comfort zone and make them fight on my terms. So then, a feign. I have to make them go on the offense. The best way to do that is flying. They can't touch me without leaving the safety of the underground, but it doesn't help at all when WE'RE underground. I mean, So far, we've been winning because we have the range advantage, and the element of surprise, as well as organization. I need to figure out what to do if those are taken away. The flight advantage vanishes as soon as they bring out the nets, and if we're underground, enemies could pop up behind us at any point, or even in the middle of our defensive line, so there goes surprise. The only thing keeping us afloat is we're better organized, and judging by the coordinated attack on Signal, we'll lose that advantage as well, much sooner than I'd like."

"That is a problem, but I'm not sure what we can do about it."

"Well, when you're digging, what do you watch out for?" I asked.

"Well, gems." I resisted the urge to facepalm.

"Okay, let's play a game. I'll give you a sentence, with a blank. When I finish the sentence, you fill in the blank."

"Okay..."

"Oh please oh please, don't let there be 'blank' on the other side of this wall I'm digging through."

"Wadder!" Grog shouted from the sidelines.

"Lava!" Malina added enthusiastically.

"A pit." Etch continued.

"Alright, now, here's the question, why?"

"Well," Etch began, explaining for his family. "If you dig under the water level, then it all comes pouring out and floods the tunnels. There's often underground lakes or hotsprings. If you're not careful to listen for water, you'll dig right into one and drown. If you dig and you wind up above water level, then the whole area under it is useless. We can't dig there because if we do, the tunnels could flood at any point, without warning."

"Okay, so, water. I have a feeling lava goes for the same reason, except that it's also on fire." The three dogs nodded.

"Lava smells bad too." Grog pointed out.

"That.... that's toxic gas. Deadly if you breath too much of it. Okay, so why a pit?"

"If we come across a pit, we have to try and dig to the bottom of it, and it's a lot of work, but it's also dangerous because of falling. There could be lava at the bottom of the pit. We also don't like gravel or sand because it isn't sturdy. It can fall right out from under you if there isn't something solid under it, and if it's above you, even the slightest noise can knock it loose and bury you alive. We might be good diggers, but we still need air."

"Okay, so, water, I think I can work with that. Lava, not so much, and not when we've got thermite. Cave ins I could see using, toxic gas could be moved with a wind spell, Tricking enemies into falling into pits, what else do we have?"

"Tar. Black gunk. Sticky. Fall in, you can't get out. Tastes bad, burns." Malina stated.

"And tar. Hmm. Okay. So, I think it's mostly going to be about finding these locations to use to our advantage. How do they mark areas they've found?" I asked.

"Every clan has their own way." Etch said simply.

"Damn, that makes it complicated. Using a spell when you don't know what you have available will be, at best, a gamble. Cast an aqua spell, maybe nothing happens, maybe flood the whole warren and kill the one's we're trying to save. I'll need to think about it. Thanks for your time."

"It was nice to see you again, and that you are well." He bowed, as did his family, before I left.

"How are things Griffin?" Celestia asked as she passed by my room.

"They're going pretty well. I've got a particularly troublesome problem that I'm thinking about, so that's good," I like brainteasers. "let's see, I'm figuring some more magic things out, I'm going to be a father, I'm going to start working out my human body as well, can't complain."

"Um... what?" The princess stepped back.

"Yeah, Gilda's pregnant. I actually wanted to talk to you about that. I'm... worried." She came closer again.

"When aren't you worried?" She cracked a joke, I didn't laugh. "But under the circumstances, I think this time is justified."

"It's just so much, you know? I'm feeling torn. I don't want to fight anymore. I really don't. I'm finally starting to become happy. But then, Gilda's not ready to stop yet. I'll be going so I can protect her and my unborn child. But what about after the baby's born? Then what will happen? Will she stop? Will she keep fighting while I take care of the child? I'm damn sure I'm not raising a kid on a warship. And, will I be a good father? Or, will I be just like mine? I think that's what scares me the most, turning out like him and making the same mistakes he made." I hung my head as I sat on my bed. I felt something soft and feathery on my back, and found that Celestia was sitting next to me.

"I know you won't, because you'll do everything to ensure you do not, and I have come to learn that when you do something, you spare no effort. If anything, you'll be so desperate to not be a bad father that you'll smother your child and stop them from 'leaving the nest'."

"... oh no... what if I do that and then he or she grows up hating me because I never let them do anything! It'll be just like Finding Nemo, except the fishermen play for keeps!"

"I... don't know that reference. What I do know is you need to take a deep breath and calm down. Panicking won't get you anywhere." I was about to tell her my thoughts, but she cut me off. "And neither will rigid preparation." She didn't show any signs of pain.

"Did you read my mind? I thought my headache spell took care of that!"

"No, I didn't, I'm just getting to know you well is all." We sat and stared at each other for a moment before breaking out into giggles.

"Mphf, hahaha, oh noes! You've figured me out! How will I ever play pranks again?... Yeah, I guess you have had your fair share of practice dealing with a neurotic unicorn, no wonder you're so good at this." I laughed.

"Well, I'll let you get back to it." And with that, she left.

"Okay, gems in the gloves and shoes, focus on feeling their presence, an extension of my body, just like my wing, feel the magic flow, focus. And, volare." Unfortunately, I had concentrated only on the feet and not the hands as well, so I found myself off balance. Trying to shift my focus to my hands to regain control, I dropped my concentration on the left foot, and wound up hanging upside down by my right one.

"Ah crap." As soon as I cut the spell, I was dropped on my head. I rolled over and got back up, ready to try again.. 'And protect spell saves my rear again. Okay, hands only this time.'

It went much better. I had more balance, but I was using only my arms to hold myself up, with everything below them dangling limply without support from the legs.. 'Looks like I have a long way to go. Better check in with our fearless leader.'

"So, you figure it out yet?" I chided Inky, Chilly, and Posh. I didn't see 'Daft' Daffodil. They were all in the castle workout room, which they had reserved for the next three hours, so they could get some privacy.

"No. But I blame that on the teacher. You made it sound so simple in words. What kind of idiot tells us this stuff without showing us how?" Ink sneered.

"Yeah yeah, well guess what? It ain't that easy. I just fell flat on my face trying to fly without wings. It's not very easy keeping concentration on four different spots all at once."

"I don't see what's so difficult about it." I heard Daft declare. "I mean, you walk right? That's four hooves doing different things at the same time." I looked up to find that he was walking on the ceiling, floating a glass with a milkshake in front of him.

"Show off." Inky pouted.

"Wait... that's it! Daft, what are you thinking about right now?"

"Uh, nothing? I'm just walking around up here, drinking a milkshake."

"Programming!"

"Huh?"

"Mental programming. When you preform an action repeatedly, it becomes second nature, to the point that you don't even need to think about it, which means you can direct your attention elsewhere. Right now, you're filling and moving those gems unconsciously, so you can focus on levitating the milkshake with your horn. Okay, Inky, instead of doing them all at once, let's go one at a time."

For the next month and a half, we kept focus on one gem at a time, till we no longer needed to concentrate to charge them up. Then, we'd add one, while maintaining the other. Then another, and finally, the fourth. This was fairly easy for me, since I'd been 'charging' Hades for a long time before that, adding more focal points wasn't all that difficult. Then, we began working on having them move how we wanted, just by wanting it, like how I moved my prosthetic wing. The spell is activated by words, but is directed by thought. Once it was 'turned on', we just had to want it. You don't walk by thinking 'right foot, left foot' or breath by thinking 'in, out'. You just do. And by mid February, we had mastered it. We were walking on ceilings, floating around on 'invisible chairs', and, while this next bit wasn't any accomplishment for the unicorns, Inky, Posh and I were able to pick things up from a distance.

All while this was happening, we were still doing the boot camp training regime. We were getting stronger by the day, and surprisingly, I wasn't a string bean anymore. I was more like a regular bean, but hey, it was an improvement.

"Alright, the one thing we have to remember is that this levitation is slow. It's for lift, not propulsion, so unless you have something solid to kick off of, you won't go very fast. Just use it for balance and adding to your existing motions. We'll use accelero most of the time, fortis for the wall, and volare for soft landings and the balance poles. The competition is in two weeks, let's be ready to show Shining's squad what we're made of."

Author's Notes:

Welp, next chapter will be the competition. And then moving on from this story arc, getting back to stuff.