having to beat him, when Bramble neighed in a surrender.

He leapt back, and helped his friend stagger to his feet. "I'm sorry," he whispered, "I couldn't think of what to do!"

"It's alright, Spuro," Bramble smiled, "I'm going to let Ghost finish me off. At least he wont tear me apart like Van would."

"That's crazy-"

"I've got no other option."

Ghost was called into the arena again ans Spuro was sent off, but he held  back for a moment. "Remember how you fight strong horses, Bramble. Find his weak spot, attack it, but keep out of his way. And for goodness sake defend youself well, and never use the low stance again!"

Bramble entered the ring, trembling. Ghost was frothing and snarling at him all the time, so he stayed back. The champagne stallion charged at him, and he stepped aside, carefully watching his movements, searching for that weak spot. He had to have one, just just had to!

The enemy leapt at him and caught his neck, dragging him to the ground. Bramble wasn't completely hopeless; he bounced back up on his hind legs and attacked Ghost's belly. Spuro watched with horror on the side lines. He couldn't watch his best friend end like this, but it was what he had chosen, and looking away now would be like abandoning him. He carried on watching, heart pounding, hoping it would be over quickly.

Spuro was called up against Harris, who surrendered again. He looked at James for conformation of the decision. "You do realise, Harris, that if that is your final choice, you will face the test."

"Yes, and it's my choice. I'm not going to make my friend kill me, let the mangy wild cat eat!" he shouted back, almost proud. Spuro let go of him and whispered a quick goodbye. But there was a problem - it meant that he had to fight Ghost.

He had never trained against him, and didn't know what to expect. At least he couldn't cheat, but that didn't stop his strength. Harris had told him during Bramble's fight that he couldn't find a weak spot on him, even by looking closely. So Spuro was on the verge of collapsing when he met Ghost in the centre of the arena for the first time.

As soon as James gave the all clear, Ghost bolted at him. Spuro stepped aside just in time, and kept dodging his bursts of speed. His mind kept going over what Harris had told him. "He has no weak spot, Spuro." The dun went for him again. Spuro leapt out of the way, but the opponent managed to rip out some of his mane anyway.

He doesn't have a weak spot, he doesn't have a weak spot! he kept saying to himself. As he dodged once more something clicked inside of his head. "I know your weak spot," he said to Ghost, who was standing and panting on the other side of the circle.

"What?" he laughed, "I don't have one. I am the strongest of this year's stallions! There isn't a place in my body that would give in!"

Spuro shook his head and carried on moving. "You don't even know you have it," he said, giving a sneaky kick to Ghost's backside as he hurtled past. "But I do. I can tell it's there."

Ghost stopped for a moment. He was confused by his enemy's words. He snarled. "If this was a battle of words you would win, but it's not, and I am going to beat you to a pulp!"

"You mean if it was a battle of wits, good looks and intelligence," Spuro joked, jumping aside. "Look at yourself! You're pathetic! You left your home because you thought you were big and clever! You thought you could live as you pleased and do what you like to others without consequences!"

Ghost rammed into him and sent the chestnut sprawling on the floor. He rollod over and got up quickly as the dun slammed his front hooves into ground where he had been a second ago. "Somebody who acts like that stands alone, and they will surely fail!" he shouted, cantering around the endge of the circle continuously.

Ghost was starting to hesitate in his attacks. How could Spuro know so much about him? He hadn't told anyone about his past, and it was as if the cocky little chestnut had read his mind and broadcasted his personality. Ghost was turning things over in his head when something pushed him to the ground. Spuro had leapt onto him when he saw him let his guard down, and he was now biting and pounding him as much as he could to wear the beast down.

Ghost pushed him off and Spuro moved back to the other side of the circle. "Not so mighty now, are you?"

The dun glared at him. "How could you tell about my past?" he croaked.

"Easy," Spuro said, shrugging, "I used to be like that too. But when I arrived here I saw that I had no power over the rest of the world, I saw that if I had to do no work for others I wouldn't get any rewards. I realised that to have freedom, you need rules and responsability, and that's why I never felt free at home. The two go together, just like how you can't ahve good without evil. If you weren't here, I wouldn't be either, because I would have been fighting Jupiter, since he wouldn't have lost his mind and gambled his life away."

He walked over to the stunned horse and whispered. "Surrender, Ghost, you can't beat me. I may not have the best physical abilities like you, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to fight. I've found your only weakspot, and unless you give up now, I'll attack until it kills you."

Ghost shuddered. There was no way that he could fight Spuro without making a mockery of himself in the process. "I surrender," he said.

It was the beginning of a new a new year of training. The midsummer baked the empty plane for miles around, but the stallions of the Band had all the food and water they needed. Spuro was getting to know his class of twenty youngsters before they started training. "Good relations provide good understanding of team work," he said, "and if you've got an enemy, if there's someone here you don't like, let them know about it - good and personal."

He saw James approaching from the coner of his eye. He excused himself and went to see what the captain wanted. "I was just curious to see what sort of students you have for your first class," he said, "after all your best five will be coming to me."

"I am the first officer of offence," Spuro grinned.

"Keep up the good work, Spur," James smiled, and left to check on his own horses.

After a morning of training the class was given a break and Spuro went to the lake to drink. He looked at his reflection in the water and thought about how far he'd come in just a year, how much he'd acheived.

"Spuro?" a familiar voice said from behind him.

He turned to see a dapple grey quarter horse standing proudly infront of him. "Leon!"

"That's Officer Leon, to you," he laughed. "It's great to see you! I heard you completely whooped Ghost in the trials, huh?"

"Yeah, they'll be talking about it for generations to come," he joked.

"It would be great to get the whole band back together," Leon sighed, looking at the water. "I heard what happened with Jupiter, and I know that the boy who took my place was killed as well. And a few months ago we found a horse skeleton in a forest to the North. It could only be-"

"Denver?"

Leon nodded sadly. "So it looks like it's just us now."

"We'll remember them," Spuro replied, his confidence evident in his tone, "and with honour too."

The two friends grazed by the lake until it was time to return to their classes. On his way back, Spuro wondered what would happen next. Surely becoming an officer wasn't the highest he could get. James believed in him, he had said it himself. Now that he was here, things could only get easier. Officers only fought in challenges, weekly training and when a new captain was needed, but even that was much less than being a pupil. Just before he returned to the youngsters, he vowed to himself that he would find his freedom and reach the top. So long as he had anything to do with it, the Band would one day be a happier place for young stallions, not the twisted prison it was now.

"Right then, everyone up, we're going to have a little chat about mind battles."