Guardian Chap 8

The Equestrian Guardian
Chap 8

"RISE AND SHINE PARTNER!!!" David's deep sleep was shattered by Applejack shouting directly in his ear. "It's time for Earth element training with your coach, Applejack!" David sat up and looked at his watch.  The analog numbers flashed 5:00am on the screen. "AJ it's really early." He said mumbling his words. "EARLY?! The Apple family is always up at 5:00am sharp." She yanked the blanket off his bed pulling him off as well. "Now on your feet, you got a lot of work to do today, so we need to get an early start."

Applejack raced downstairs as David rose to his feet. "Well, no point in going back to sleep, might as well get going." He dressed in some light clothing; a t-shirt and light elastic cotton pants, mainly used for running. He walked down the stairs to see Twilight at the table leaning over a cup of coffee. "Morning Twilight." David said as he grabbed an apple out of the bowl on the table. "Ugh…" was the only response he received. He then noticed that Twilight's eyes were bloodshot and she had dark deep circles under her eyes. She also appeared to be shaking even though it wasn't cold. David sat next to her and pulled her into a tight hug. "Everything okay? Did you not sleep well?" he asked very concerned. She pulled herself deeper into the hug as she spoke.

"I… had a nightmare last night. After it happened I just couldn't go back to sleep." This got his attention pretty quickly. "What happened in the nightmare Twilight?" Before she could respond however the door to the Library flew open. "Ya'll are still here?! Come on!!" AJ shouted as she ran back outside. David quickly grabbed his spell book and dashed for the door. As he did however, he stopped and turned around. "Hey Twi, we can talk about it later okay?" He then dashed out the door trying to catch up with AJ.

"Hey AJ hold up a second!" David shouted. AJ kept running, leading David directly back to Sweet Apple Acres and stopped right outside the barn entrance. David caught up with her completely out of breath. "Huff… Huff… Why are we back at the farm?" "Cause this is the best place to train yall's Earth powers." She said with a smile on her face. She led him behind the barn to a huge space of land surrounded by fences, but with nothing growing in it. "This is where we all go buck wild and have fun. Nothing grows here so ya'll can train and tear up the land to your heart's content." David smiled at the beautiful stretch of land before him. "It's perfect; I knew you'd be the perfect Earth training partner." Applejack smiled but her face turned serious.

"Nough gab, we got work to do." She sat down and opened the book to the next chapter of the spell book. David began calming himself, letting his body block out everything but his own heartbeat and AJ's words. "Ya'lls first spell is something called rock toss." David looked at the book and began practicing the motions in his mind. It seemed to be a projectile attack since the picture showed a pony thrusting its hoof forward and a stone flying away from it. David planted his feet into the ground and concentrated his energy. He felt himself connecting with the ground below and saw a rock rise out of the dirt. His gripped his fist and struck at full speed. The rock went flying forward and struck a section of fence knocking it over.

"WOW!! Did you see that?" AJ screamed, breaking David's concentration. "You plum knocked the fence over!" David's focus however was on the next spell since a checkmark had appeared in front of the first. "Rock Fists…" He said mumbling to himself. He threw his hands into the ground and let his energy flow through his arms, as he did he saw rocks and debris piling over his fists creating massive rock gloves. He began punching the air around him recreating boxing moves he had seen on TV. "Oh yeah… I could get used to this." As the sun continued to rise in the sky, David and AJ continued to practice new spells until it became too hot to practice.

"Phew… let's get into the barn its way too hot to practice right now." AJ said as she took her hat off her head. She wasn't kidding, the sun was beating down mercilessly onto the both of them, and David in his "infinite wisdom" had decided to wear a black T-shirt, and since black cloth absorbs heat he was boiling inside of it. AJ led him into the barn and the shade brought instant relief to the two exhausted friends. "I'll get us something to chow down on, why don't you climb on up to the upper level. It's a might bit cooler up there." AJ said as she walked off. David heeded AJ's advice and began climbing the ladder to the upper level. Once there he noticed the drop in temperature immediately. His entire body felt like it was cooling down already. As he sat down on some piled hay, he took the time to check his spell book again; "Only two more to go, but this is where it gets really tough." he said closing the book. The refreshing breeze and soft hay almost pulled him to sleep, but the peace was broken by AJ's voice coming from below. "Ya'll come on down, I got apples and water all ready for us."

David immediately climbed down the ladder to where AJ was already eating. She tossed him an apple slice which he quickly devoured, he couldn't help it he was hungry and these apples were way better than Earth apple's by far. The break was short lived however because they were soon out in the field again ready to get back to work. "I don't know about these last two spells AJ." David said looking over the 9th spell in the book. The spell was called Earth Wall, and the picture showed a slab of rock and earth protecting the pony user from harm. What concerned David was how big those slabs were actually going to be when he made them. His thoughts were interrupted by an apple smacking him upside the head. "OW!! Who threw that??" David said annoyed. He was answered by another apple but this time he caught it. He turned to see AJ standing about 15 yards away with a sadistic smile on her face. David's eyes grew wide;

"AJ you wouldn't…" "Oh I reckon I would, and I'll keep throwing em until you stop them with your Earth wall spell." She cried as she began hurling apples at David with her lasso and hooves. David dodged a few of them, but it wasn't long until he started getting pummeled by them. He threw both his arms up to shield his face and waited for the next apple, but to his surprise it never came. When he moved his arms he saw why. A small earthen wall was protecting him from AJ and her apples of doom. AJ came running around the wall, a look of pure joy on her face. "YA'LL DID IT!! That's another spell for the book." Just like she said, the book had added a check mark to the 9th spell and revealed the 10th. The final spell was called Earth Strike. It also had the same warning as the Flame Burst spell; DON'T USE UNLESS NECESSARY.

This time David took that advice and faced out toward the forest. "It looks like ya'll are gonna want to strike the ground in the direction you are facing. That way the spell goes toward the forest and not toward us." AJ said looking over the spell. David did just that, he faced toward the woods and with a mighty shout, he drove his fist into the ground creating what appeared to be a massive mound of earth that shot forward uprooting trees and demolishing ground as it went forward. As it vanished about 50 yards out David began thinking of how to describe that spell. It was almost as if the ground had risen up and literally bulldozed everything in its way. The serious thoughts were interrupted once again by AJ, this time she had tackled him to the ground and shouting about how cool the spell had been. "I reckon you're done with this chapter."

She said indicating that David's bracer had begun to glow and the green stone had begun to shine just like the red. "Come on, let's go tell the others!" She cried as she took off, with David close behind. What bothered David however was Twilights nightmare, which he would ask her about when he got back.