>You stand before the other bat pony holding a spear and look at the instructor pony, same old guard pony who was the instructor back when you were trying to become a guard
"I still don't get why I'm here, I don't want to be a guard pony anymore"
>The instructor lets out a gruff laugh
>"I'm just curious how well you'll do Daylily, I heard you were training in the wilderness so I'm interested to see how well you'll do"
>You should be heading home, but...you too are kind of curious on how well you'll do
"Well, I guess it could not hurt to spar a little, I'm also curious how well I'll do"
>The instructor nods
>"That's the spirit, you remember how this works right?"
>You nod and look at the spear tipped with a brush and a thick goop of red color
"Yeah, any mark on a vital area means loss, and if you get your hoof or wing marked you have to stop using that part of your body , or decare a loss if you thin you can't go on anymore, if it is a big enough of a mark instead of a light scratch"
>The instructor nods
>"Yeah that's it. Hey you, if you loose to a mailmare I am going to make you work your flank off more than you can imagine so shape up!"
>The other bat pony nods and takes stance
>"You sure you don't want a spear?"
>You nod as well and the instructor shrugs
>"Begin!"
>And the stallion instantly jumps up into flight and dives towards you with his spear
>You easily sidestep his charge but just as you're about to turn around and deliver a small attack on him but your eyes go wide and you quickly flap your wings and send yourself flying a few steps away
>The stallion had instantly whipped around as he came down and wiped at you with his spear
>He's charging at you again as you land down so you quickly do a back flip with the help of your wings and use your tail to kick up some dust and sand off of the ground
>The stallion tries to stop himself but due to the nature of the ground of the arena he skids forward a little instead of coming to a full halt
>And you dive through the now settling little cloud and deliver a punch, but he manages to block it with his spear
>But your assault does not end there, you use the hoof you punched with to make contact with the ground and quickly spin to deliver a kick as he's still blocking, making the spear in his hooves wobble
>The stallion slides backwards on the ground as you spin around so you're facing him again, plant your hind hooves back onto the ground and use your wings again to take a long hop backwards
>And then you instantly fold your wings back close and start hopping from side to side towards him at a rapid speed
>Left right left right left right
>but just as you're two hops away instead of left->right->attack, like he expected you to as she swings at thin air, you took a hop to the left and then another one towards him and more to his left, positioning yourself behind him and delivering a full body slam to his back, sending him flying
>You take flight at him as he gains his balance in the air and stays in flight, but you were not fast enough as he turns around and brings his spear down
>You parry it with your hooves while giving a quick powerful flap of your wings to drive you as close to him as possible so that you won't get hit by the brush
>And you manage to just barely do so, but the combined force of him bringing the spear down and you flying towards him makes the spear break as you parry it with your hooves held in an X shape before your face
>The stallion abandons his now broken spear and puts up his hooves, but then instructor suddenly shouts something
>"Take these you two, this will take forever if you turn it into fisticuffs"
>He threw both of you a set of training claws, same kind of buildup as the training spears, wood, brushes and red paint gooey enough to not fly all over the place during practice
>You catch yours and slip them on as the stallion does the same
>Claws...you're not big on aerial combat either, but the stallion seems like he prefers to stay in flight
>He comes at you and swipes at you with his and you counter them with yours, both of you getting red paint all over each others training claws
>These things are mobile but lack in imapct...what if...
>Instead of doing simple swipes you use your wings and rotate yourself in the air as you swipe with the claws, roundhouse swipe after another
>This uts the stallion on the defense as he has full time trying to parry your furious strikes and has no time to break his defensive posture
>But then one of your claws breaks down due to your furious usage of them
>The stallion takes this chance and comes at you again, making you have full time dodging his attacks in the air
>You don't want to risk destroying the other one because you have no idea how badly beaten it is, so you just dodge instead of trying to guard against his claw attacks with your singe one
>So instead you dive down and get on the ground
>He follows you, claws raised for a dual strike
>But you side-step it and grab onto his tail with your mouth and use his momentum to send him flying wildly up into the air
>You shoot up towards him as he tries to regain himself in the air but he's not fast enough and you deliver a big uppercut with your training claws, leaving big long trails of paint along his abdomen all the way to his chest
>The instructor lets out a gruff laugh as both of you land down and catch your breaths
>"Trainee you lost to a mailmare! That's just sad hahahahaha!"
>the stallion hangs his head in shame and grumbles something while you wipe some sweat off of your brow
>"Nice fighting mailmare"
>The instructor pats you on your shoulder and then drags the stallion away somewhere while talking of toilet duties and other fun punishments
>You take off your training claws and start heading towards home for a good shower