"Neither. I not your master, I am your teacher, therefore, I am not deserving of any title. I am Winter to you, and that's it alright? Good." Winter said, they reached a door in the back of the cottage and Winter pushed it open revealing a set of two shiny black doors. Winter pressed a hidden button and the doors slid open to reveal an elevator. "The basement's a couple hundred feet below." Winter explained getting onto the elevator, "Although Snow is one of the top-payed ponies in the West, she doesn't like to spend a whole lot on stuff she could live without, so, some of it went to building her sercurity bunker. She had something similar in Ponyville, but that's a highly contested town that isn't even near the West and the Storms, so this is the closest thing."
"That's awesome... I should've did the same for my weaponry! A basement! Good idea, Winter! Now, shall we begin my training?"
Velvet was excited. "It's the first time i'm going under the earth level with an elevator~! Is the basement as large as the cottage?"
"No." was all Winter said. The elevator jerked to a stop, and the doors slid open to reveal a massive room, there was a range, a mock-forest, an obsticle course, essentially everything. "It's bigger." Winter finished.
Velvet looked around for a minute before even breathe. "Bloody Celestia. Are you sure it wasn't an hundred soldiers army's hideout?"
"Nope, it was built under Snow, I did the decoration." Winter said, "Now, first things first, let's see how well you can throw a knife." he said walking over to the fifty yard range, "Right, for an example, I shall throw first." A knife slid out from his hoof pocket and in one quick flowing motion sent it downrange. THUD, Bull's eye, Winter was even taken aback, he just made himself look a lot better than he acually was. "I've been training for about ten years now, let's see what you can do right now. And for fairness, you shall use the same knife." Winter said. He then used his magic to yank the knife free and handed it to Velvet, "No magic either."
"Hummm... You should step back. Marksman weapons aren't actually my kind of weapons..." She focused, and threw the knife. TCHLK. The knife's handle hit the target, then the knife falled. THUMB. But velvet kept her eyes closed. "Have i at least touched it...?"
Winter was rubbing his head from the knife butt's impact, "In a way, if you consider me the target and throwing the knife backwards a good thing."
"Oh, sorry! At least, you haven't been hitten by the blade. Let me show you a variant from throwing knives." Velvet took a small black pack from her belt's pouches, and opened it. "See? They're razor-sharp cards. A present from my dear Masquerade. He shown me how to throw them." Velvet took a card with her mouth, and threw it at a target. The card stuck right at the middle, without any sound. "Wanna try? It's light, quiet, and it has many usages!"
"Oh, i've got an Idea! See, my sister and i had a game when we were fillies: we would make magic duels. Turn by turn, one uses an offensive spell, and the other blocks. If, per exemple, it's my turn to play defensive, and that i raise my gard too soon, i lose a point. If you succeed to pierce my guard, you gain three points, and if i don't block, you gain a point. I thought that we could make a variant with wooden shields and throwing knives! I'll learn how to aim and throw, as well as sharpening my reflexes. What'd'y'a say?"
"Yes, but I am trying to train you in the art of evasion and stealth, not that of battle. If you wish to do this, there will be no sheild, you must dodge the knife."
Velvet smiled. "Seems like a challenge for me. And nopony challenges me. I propose a fair distance of fifteen feets, then we gain a feet per round. After ten rounds, we count the points." Velvet walked back a few steps. "Looks like fifteen feets... Ready?"
Heron checked her saddlebags for the book she had been told to deliver. When she found it resting at the bottom, she gave out a sigh of relief. "Put one scratch on this, I'll make sure you never see the light of day again." Her employer's words still rang through her head. Heron was used to getting threats like that; it happened all the time. The most recent one, however, was given by a stallion who meant business. She gulped as she remembered those dark red eyes piercing her body and sizing her up. Perhaps she should stop with the underworld trade business, it was causing too much stress. She looked down to the ground to see that the area had changed. She was now in the Solar Nation, her target was getting closer. Heron sped forward, wishing to get rid of this book as quickly as possible.
