Private Trainer

Oathbound sat inside the dojo he had recently reserved for a student he was now expecting. It came to him as a surprise that a unicorn would come to him for combat training when there were actual unicorns who could train her while all he had was a neckpiece that basically made him a unicorn.

The mare had been very inexperienced, according to herself anyway. This had made him smile slightly. "Build them from the ground up and you ensure solid foundations." He recalled from his days as the Captain of the Canterlot Guard. It was always amusing to see the looks on the faces of the recruits when he purposefully let himself be disarmed of his weapons before realizing he had conjured weapons at their throats, before he'd explain to never underestimate an opponent. Always expect the unexpected. Shield yourself from the threat that doesn't exist, because the moment you don't, it will prove to be a fatal mistake.

But now he was getting side-tracked. He sipped from a coffee cup that he grasped with his magic, the light-blue aura surrounding the cup being emanated from his necklace, while reading one of the magazines that cafe-areas in these places always had ready, waiting for the mare who would learn from him the ways of magic.
Learning magic from an earth pony. The irony wasn't lost on Oath, who smirked.

Fantasy pushed open the door and walked into the dojo, her steps small, slow, and insecure. Her head was bowed slightly, her ears folded back, and her eyes darting around the place, taking in her surroundings detail by detail. It took her a few seconds to notice that Oath was in the room with her, where he was, and what he looked like.

Fantasy stopped and looked at him. He was an earth pony, and yet... he was using telekinesis. With a magic amulet around his neck. That... Fantasy wasn't sure what to make of that. On one hoof, the amulet raised red flags for her. On another, it was kinda cool to see an earth pony using magic like that. Plus, the amulet didn’t look menacing, like most bad things in Equestria.

Fantasy looked at him for a moment longer, then darted her eyes to the right (she’d seen people in media do this when uncomfortable or unsure (or amused at someone’s expense, but that came with a smile)), then back at the pony. She lifted her hoof up slowly in a small wave, along with a quiet “Hello?”

Oath's ears perked up as he heard the quiet and unsure greeting, glancing in her direction while lowering the magazine a bit so he could look at her clearly.
The mare certainly matched the description of who he was supposed to train. White as parchment, blue and brown mane in a ponytail, quill as a cutie mark.
"Ah! You must be Fine Fantasy! Come on in!" He said, putting the magazine down and giving her a smile as he waved her over to the other chair on the other side of the table he was sitting at. He'd brought it with him at the owner's permission.

"Name's Oathbound, I'm your trainer for the time being. Now I know, you might ask me why I would be training you in combat magic. The reason is...." He left the question unanswered as he tapped his amulet, which began to glow before it send out a light-blue orb of magic as he conjured an axe a fair distance away from the pair and flew it around a bit, making sure to not let it come close to them before he made it disappear in a wisp of light.

He then looked at her. "How about we ask eachother some questions to get any confusion out of the way? You can go first if you want." He said as he grabbed his coffee cup with his hooves this time and took a sip, swapping his usage of magic to the simple usage of hooves with no effort whatsoever.

Fantasy's eyes darted again; she was already in the dojo. She knew what he meant, though; she just thought it was a little odd.

Next moment, Oath confirmed his reasons. Fantasy had been wondering if he was teacher or another student, taking the class at the same time as her.

Fantasy saw Oath tap his chest with his hoof, then realized, as an axe materialized out of blue magic, that he'd actually tapped the amulet on his chest. Huh, Fantasy thought, Thought it was just controlled by telepathy. Eh, okay. Fantasy was pretty impressed by the display, but it didn't show on her face, which remained blank except for her eyes, which at least showed focus.

When he was done, Fantasy's attention went to him again. She felt very slight irritation when he did the questions thing; it reminded her of when her counselors forced her to socialize, either with them or other people in their small group. What was she supposed to say to them? She didn't say things! Of course, this didn't show on her face, either.

She thought for a short moment, her brows furrowed and eyes falling to the floor, before she looked up again, face the same as it was before (except maybe her eyes were a mote wider), and asked, "Where'd you get the amulet?" Really, what she'd meant was "why do you have that amulet?", but she also wanted to know where he'd gotten it and how; she figured she'd get three answers for one if she asked this. Then again, the pony might miss the point and only give one of the three answers. If that happened, she'd be forced to drop the subject and remain curious, lest she seem rude and nosy.

Oath knew that this question would come up among the first he would be asked. He'd already told the story enough times to basically have it beaten to his head, so he just nodded as he rose from his chair and walked slowly to the window as he spoke.

"I got it during my service as the Captain of the Canterlot Guard. It was given to me by Princess Celestia herself to serve as my badge of office. Now I can't literally live without it. If I take it off my body will start to leech the native magic within me and my organs will start to deteriorate. In exchange I have the powers of a unicorn, though limited outside of combat usage." He said, sighing fondly at the memories of the solar diarch before looking at Fantasy.

"Now then... Why me? Why not choose an actual unicorn to teach you?" He asked, studying her face closely as he awaited her response. His guess was that the mare was simply just too shy. But he knew such things were rarely the case.

Fantasy's head tilted as Oath told his story. "Um..." in response to his question, which he seemed to want her to guess at before he actually answered. "because that amulet makes you as good as any unicorn teacher, if not better? In some ways?"

"Also, your... mag- your body leeching magic from... itself?" That story was fishy, thought Fantasy. How would that even work? She decided to voice such questions. "I'm sorry, but I'm not sure it works that way? I mean, it sounds similar to somepony telling me their body is eating itself up, basically starving, but given the context it'd be because the body doesn't know how to feed itself. Doesn't the pony body produce its own magic?"

Oath had smiled when Fantasy complimented him for his abilities, even if he had only shown briefly what he was capable of.

That smile quickly faded as she showed her skepticism. He sighed before taking it off, holding it in one hoof.
"I'm one of the few unfortunate ponies who suffer from a disease known as Manavoid. It causes my body's magic production to grind to a halt due to the magic flowing in from outside sources, such as this here." He waved it around a bit for emphasis. Before her very eyes, albeit almost imperceptibly, Fantasy could see his skin wrinkling and his posture becoming ever so slightly shaky.

"I think it has something to do with the body protecting itself from being overloaded with magic. Adult unicorns don't suffer from this, but foal unicorns and every other pony species apart from the alicorns can suffer from this." He had clear bags under his eyes now. "But unicorns have a much higher capability to hold magic within them once they reach adult-hood and also have a higher magic production rate. The foals can't hold as much though, and because of their direct channeling instrument, the horn, they channel away the excess magic instead of shutting off their body's own magic production. This is what we know as magic surges that the parents of unicorns dread." He finished, putting his amulet back on. This made him sigh in relief as he quickly began to look like he was regressing in age, back to the state he was in when Fantasy had walked in.

"This magic production is used to maintain certain bodily functions, like the higher strength of Earth Ponies and the flight aid of pegasi, along with their cloud manipulation. Without a source of magic, these functions will search for magic embedded within the body, primarily your organs, to fuel their functions. Let it go unhindered and one will die within a week of premature organ aging and the consequences that follow such as kidney or heart failure." He said grimly. "One becomes addicted, more or less, to the magic that they came into contact with. Such was the case with me when Celestia gave me this." He tapped his amulet again, though this time there was no reaction from it. "Without this... I will die. Had Celestia known this, she wouldn't have given it to me or have it made in the first place. According to her she made it specifically for me and enchanted it herself. Had she known of my dormant disease, I'd still be in the Guard most likely. As it stands, my disease only came to be known after I first took it off that following night. Had to be rushed to the infirmary before they realized the symptoms."

Fantasy was silent. She... thought she understood. The magic production organ-thingy in him had never activated, had always stayed dormant since foalhood. Now, to have Earth Pony magic, his body took magic from everywhere else... Fantasy saw the immediate effects taking the amulet off had on Oath, and was surprised he'd last a week.

She didn't know what else to do, so she stayed silent, looking at Oath, expecting him to continue or change the subject or go on to the lessons... something. She felt sorry for this pony.

There was no sense in keeping the subject about himself, Oath reckoned. He was here to teach this mare how to work combat magic.

But there was something he needed to ask her before he got into the stuff that he was hired for.
"Why do you want to educate yourself on combat magic? It is not something one just teaches lightly." He asked, keeping a stern gaze on her, casting a lie detector spell that would inform him straight-away if she was lying. She seemed sincere enough, but shyness only went so far when honesty is concerned. Sometimes one is too afraid to tell the truth so they must resort to lies.

In this case, however, he could not teach this mare magic if she was here on unpure reasons. Self-defence was something that he could understand. But if she were to use something that he could teach to murder, then it would be on his conscience. And he already had more than his fair share on his conscience.

"Oh... um..." Fantasy hadn't really thought very far ahead with her reasons. She just... "I... I guess I just wanted to? And maybe know how to defend myself in case I ever go on an adventure." Her gaze dropped and she crossed one foreleg over the other nervously.

"Spur of the moment that has stuck to her... Well, I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, Equestria is plenty peaceful, so not many really HAVE a reason to learn combat magic unless they are part of the Guard." Oath thought to himself as he studied her face closely just in case his spell had failed to detect anything. The spell was simple and easy to cast, but that left it with plenty of loopholes for expert liars to exploit.

In the end, he could see no ill intentions in or behind Fantasy's reasoning, so he cancelled the spell and his expression softened considerably.
"In that case I offer you this: I will teach you basic self-defence magic that allows you to be safe against most dangers. In addition, I will teach you some ways to defend yourself without using magic, via some martial arts." He said, knowing that magic was a tool and like any tool, could be denied to an adversary. And in a combat situation versatility can mean the difference between life and death.

"Really?" Fantasy's nervousness practically vanished. "T-thanks!" she nearly squeaked. So... her nervousness wasn't completely gone. Then again, it was basically never gone.

But now, she had a big, eager grin on her face; her eyes were wide open; and her legs were stiff. Fantasy was trying not to bounce in place.

Oath was finding it difficult to not smile a bit at Fantasy's eagerness, the young mare's enthusiasm reminding him of his early days in the Guard.
But he was not here to cater to the wishes of a unicorn, he was here to train a unicorn to defend herself.

"First off I will show you a technique that some classify as a spell but I personally think does not fill the criteria for a spell." He said as he went to grab a punching bag and set it up while moving the table and chairs to a corner.
He then looked at her. "It's called The Repel, which sends out a kinetic blast from your horn to knock attackers down. It's not a powerful spell, it has low range and it relies on the opponent's force behind their attack, but it is easy to cast and does not tire you out." He demonstrated this by punching the bag so hard it tapped the ceiling a bit. As it was about to hit Oath a distortion in the air showed how the bag lost all it's momentum and went backwards a bit before calmly swinging back to a resting position. "As you can see, it can knock your opponent back slightly, which gives you an opening to either retaliate or run, whichever you need to do. You use this technique by piling some mana into your horn, then expelling it out in one heartbeat. You do not need to remember any sort of magical formula for this, which helps a lot since it can be ingrained into muscle memory easily." He said, punching the bag again before casting some spell on it. This time, as it came swinging down, he stepped back and watched as the bag kept it's momentum, touching the ceiling with every swing from one side to the other.
"Try it now." He eyed Fantasy with an expectant look.

Fantasy's eyes darted to Oath briefly before locking onto the swinging punching bag. She examined the general area to find a good place to stand, hopefully a little away from the bag so she wouldn't get hit in the face should she fail (which, given her inexperience with magic...).

For a moment, she thought she might have to get right in the way, given Oath's demonstration, but (fortunately, she thought) she couldn't actually find an opportunity to safely do so. So instead, she stepped just short of where the bag would've hit her head.

Fantasy looked at the swinging bag again, then closed her eyes and concentrated. Magic was still a new thing for her: it had been as difficult finding the function for that as when she'd first tried to wiggle her ears as a human. Celestia had spent a lot of time trying to help her, and had only managed to get anywhere when she startled Fantasy into her first magic laser blast (which, unfortunately, also hit her in the face).

Fantasy had a hard time building up what she thought might be the right amount of magic (what looked like a small, glowing orb at the tip of her horn) and when she felt it might be the right time, released that energy in a roughly forward direction. The pulse was somewhat sloppy, and instead of stopping the bag, it took most of its kinetic energy and started it swinging diagonally, in slow, clockwise ovals.

Oath nodded as Fantasy's first attempt resulted in a semi-success. He tapped it with his hoof and stopped the bag, taking away the rest of it's momentum that his spell was helping it maintain. In the back of his head, he chuckled as he remembered some of his first attempts with this particular spell: Newtrot's First Law. He had made sure not to use this on the super ball he had gotten as his first target: The first time was the last. If only the first number on the bill he had to pay for the damages had been the last as well...
"Well done, Fantasy. It took me 3 tries to get to that sort of result. The earlier tries resulted in me getting my muzzle full of punching bag." He said, chuckling before punching the bag again. "Now, try again. This time try to make it come to a full stop."

Mentally Oath took a note of Fine Fantasy's aptitude for this stuff. He had seen other unicorns do this same thing and, despite this being a spur of the moment desire to learn, she had a real knack for getting this stuff memorized. But as a unicorn, she lacked many of the desired traits that an earth pony (Or worse) had in a bout of hoofticuffs. The next spell he was going to teach would help her even the odds.