Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Celestia clattered pots and pans together as she marched around Chael and Eclipse's room.

  "Why are you two still snoozing, huh?" She smacked Chael on the face with a pan.

  "Ouch! Old hag, why are you waking us up this early?" Chael groaned, rubbing his cheek. His biceps bulged out of his arms as he reached his face, his green eyes sparkling innocently.

  "Watch your tone, you little rascal!" Celestia retorted with a mock scowl. "Just ‘cause you’re my height now doesn’t mean you can show me attitude! And don't forget, you two have new training starting today!"

  She then turned to Eclipse, giving him a smack to the face with a metal pot, only to find him completely unfazed and snoring away as if nothing had happened. A vein popped up on Celestia's forehead.

  "Oh, you're a tough one, huh?" She teased, and pummelled Eclipse with exaggerated punches.

  Eclipse’s dark, purple eyes flickered open and when he did, he lazily shouted, "Ah, a ghost!"

  "A ghost? Who are you callin’ a ghost?"

  Bang!

  “Oww…”

  The wind blew past the landscape, carrying the detritus of dead forestry at the feet of three figures standing atop a hill, next to an unusually large tree spanning several hundred metres in height. Celestia had a serious expression on her face and the other two looked fairly determined.

  "So, what's our next training?" Chael asked impatiently.

  "Haha, I'm glad you asked, you runt. From today onwards you'll be taking your first step into surviving the big bad world outside."

  "Get to it, granny." Eclipse yawned. “I want to get this over and done with.”

  His, and Chael’s hair had grown down to their shoulders these past dozen months, and they never really cared to cut it. Their lean, muscular frames had also outgrown them several times over the past months, much to Celestia’s annoyance - after all, she hated spending money to buy new clothes so often for these brats.

  But alas, what could she do? These two were monsters in their own rights.

  A vein popped in Celestia's forehead and she threw a pebble at his face.

  "How. Many. Times. Have. I. Asked. You. To. Call. Me. Big. Sister!!"

  The pebble knocked against Eclipse's forehead, but he looked unphased, even though a small trail of blood flowed out.

  "Anyways, today you two will start learning to use weapons."

  Both of their eyes lit up. "Weapons?"

  "Yes..." Celestia said before she turned around, reached into something and pulled out two wooden sticks shaped into katanas, both differently sized.

  Chael’s jaw dropped, "Huh!? Where were you hiding those?!"

  "Hehe, woman’s secret." Celestia chuckled and she tossed one at each of them.

  Eclipse caught the smaller one without a change in expression but Chael's face was flushed red as the larger one was thrown at him. He fumbled slightly with the larger wooden katana before gripping it properly, his face warm with embarrassment.

  "Why did you give us these boring wooden sticks... I need a real weapon." Eclipse said.

  "You dumb brat, you will after you learn to use these," Celestia said seriously. "Now look closely..."

  “Of course!” Chael steadied his posture but his attention wandered for a moment.

  “No, not there, here.” Celestia said blandly, tossing another pebble at her pupil, and prompting Chael out of his day dream as the pebble bounced off his head.

  Celestia then assumed one foot set forward and the other angled slightly behind, her knees bent slightly to stabilise her to the earth. Her hips turned with her shoulders as she raised the wooden stick overhead.

  She drew in a slow breath and for a brief moment, everything went still.

  Then she stepped into the cut.

  Her front foot slid forward as her hips snapped through first, the motion flowing cleanly up her core and into her arms. The moment she did, a gust of wind sliced towards them and even pushed them back slightly. They put their arms out in front of them to protect themselves, and when they looked back up they saw her graceful stance, and the grass in front of her parted ways from her position to several hundred metres behind the duo.

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  "Woah... how did you do that with a wooden stick?" Chael asked, completely mesmerised, witnessing such a marvellous sight.

  Celestia laughed and puffed out her chest, "Kaha, that’s right! Isn’t your master the coolest person in the world?!"

  "So cool~" Chael and Eclipse said simultaneously. It was hard to tell whether they meant it literally or said it out of pure sarcasm.

  "From today onwards you two will swing these wooden katanas from sunrise to sunset like this!"

  A surprised look appeared on their faces, "That’s... it?"

  "Mhm~" Celestia mused, "but this is just to set a foundation for the second part of your sword training!"

  Eclipse and Chael nodded before they began swinging the sword down just as she did.

  Whoosh! Whoosh!

  "Whoa! This is easy!" Chael laughed.

  "Right?" Eclipse said.

  Celestia positioned Chael’s arm a little lower with her trusty wooden stick, “Too high.”

  She then wacked Eclipse’s right leg, “Take a step back with your right foot you rascal. What are you, a ballerina?”

  The duo gritted their teeth, supressing their annoyance, but Celestia kept on disciplining them for the next few hours until their form was utterly perfect.

  “Swing a little harder, Eclipse!”

  “Control your weapon, Chael.”

  “Stop breaking form after you strike, Eclipse!”

  “What did I tell you about keeping your stick too high, you rascal!”

  Only once she was satisfied, did she sigh in relief.

  “Forms passable, now.” Celestia smiled. “I’ll go take a nap. Keep swinging until sundown!”

  It was now late into the evening.

  The sun glowed a crimson hue on the duo as they continued to swing down.

  Swish! Swish! Swish!

  Even Eclipse who would usually be half-asleep was fully conscious right now, and the both of them were in a pool of their sweat. Their clothes, faces, and hair were completely drenched in exasperation. Eclipse’s grey hair clung to his forehead and his eyes were scrunched up in concentration.

  "Ha! This is just swinging a stick... why is it so tiring..." Chael asked with furrowed brows.

  Eclipse gritted his teeth. He didn't reply and kept on swinging.

  "That’s because this requires your absolute concentration." Celestia's voice suddenly resounded from behind them.

  "Ah!" Chael jumped up in astonishment and broke his ironclad stance, "Where the hell did you come from?"

  "Kahahah!" Celestia laughed, "I've been here the whole time! I just concealed my presence because I didn’t want to disturb you two."

  Eclipse finally broke his stance and looked back at her. She was lying against a tree with her legs crossed.

  "A true warrior needs a focus as sharp as his blade!" Celestia sipped on a gourd of ale. “Especially if you ever encounter someone like me in battle.”

  Chael audibly gulped when he saw noticed Celestia’s dishevelled state, clearly the result of too much drinking. He looked away quickly and muttered, “You’re absolutely correct.”

  Eclipse looked at his wooden katana. His fingers had caved into the wooden hilt from how hard he was clutching it.

  Days and nights went by and weeks passed.

  The season soon shifted from autumn to winter. During this time, they had spent most of their time swinging their swords down, perfecting their form and focus to the best of their abilities. The landscape was covered in a thick blanket of snow, and yet atop a certain hill, two large patches surrounded Eclipse and Chael.

  They puffed out warm smoke and they hadn’t broken their stance since a couple of days ago, and yet, they were barely sweating. They hadn’t uttered as much a single word to each other and their eyes contained a different look to when they had started.

  About now, each of their strikes were performed with the airtight stance that Celestia had demonstrated at the start of this training.

  “Ha!”

  Eclipse and Chael swung down their weapons in unison, and the perfect technique coupled with the right amount of strength caused small arc of wind to part the frosted leaves on their path for a few metres. Though it wasn’t nearly as impressive as what Celestia had showed them, it was very impressive to see how far they had come.

  This had been their thousandth swing that day.

  "That’s enough!" Celestia said. The duo broke their airtight stance and took their gaze behind them, "You two have perfected your form to the next level about now.”

  Chael smiled, "Let’s go!"

  Celestia sniffled. She had a cloak on to protect herself from the falling snow. She turned her back to them, “C’mon inside. You two must be pretty hungry. Hurry before I catch a cold.”

  She took a few steps forward but realised they weren’t following her.

  “Actually…” Chael exchanged glances with Eclipse before looking back at Celestia, “We want to continue training.”

  Celestia looked astonished. “Huh? What about food?”

  “I feel so clear-headed right now that food is that last thing on my mind.” Chael said, as he gazed up at the falling snow.

  Eclipse, who would otherwise be asleep right now, looked more focused and vigorous than he had ever before, “Can you show us the next part of the training?”

  Celestia looked at them hard for quite a while. Her eyes were concealed by the cape she wore so it was impossible to tell what she was thinking at the moment. Eventually, a faint smile curled across her face and she fully turned around and threw her cape to the side, “Very well then. Eclipse, give me your katana.”

  Eclipse tossed his stick over and Celestia caught it before she made her way over to a small tree which had the last of its leaves remaining in the winter.

  "Watch closely." She ordered before landing a powerful kick to the tree, making it shake and shed several tens of leaves.

  As they floated down Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before opening them once again. She gracefully arced the katana across the myriad of leaves, and in an instant, all of them got sliced in halves. She looked to be in complete peace while doing this task. It looked like it was second nature to her - something extremely easy.

  Eclipse observed her demonstration and Chael took in everything she did with his hands behind his back. Strangely, they weren’t the least bit surprised.

  Celestia turned around, "Did you two see that?"

  The duo nodded.

  "Merely form without accuracy is like a hunter without his bow.” Celestia threw the katana back at Eclipse, “You two know what to do, right?"

  "Yes." They said simultaneously.

  "Heh! Get your asses to work then!" Celestia said before vanishing from their sight.

  Eclipse walked up to the tree and kicked at it with a similar force Celestia had used and several tens of leaves came floating down. Celestia observed them from afar, "This should keep those brats occupied for sometime..."

  She then took a big gulp from her gourd of ale. Eclipse took in a deep breath, his eyes shut and his form airtight. The leaves kept floating down until they were about halfway down Eclipse, and then he opened them again and at an inconceivable speed, slashed at the air with a single arc.

  Celestia peaked with an eye open. Nothing happened, then, just as she took another sip, all of the leaves split into perfect halves.

  Celestia, who was happily drinking her ale, spat it all out and began choking, "Wha- what...?"