Courage is Magic

Chapter 12

I opened my eyes with a pained groan. The gurgle in my stomach told me that I would probably puke soon, which is why I was glad that someone left a bucket next to me. It was empty at the moment, but it was going to be filled with vomit very soon.

"Good morning ponies!" A cheerful voice said. I put my head into the bucket and puked in response. When I finished hurling the contents of my stomach into the bucket, I coughed a bit and put my head back where it was on the floor. I noticed a brown leg next to me setting down a glass of water.

"Urgh... thanks," I said.

"You're welcome, just don't puke over the floor if you can help it," He told me. I responded to him by puking into the bucket again.

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I was really not feeling that well as I lay on the floor, not moving. I managed to stop puking long enough to drink the entire glass of water that my brother left for me. I made a mental note to never challenge Pinkie Pie to a cake eating contest again.

"Hello... what is that smell?" I heard a male voice ask from the door.

"Probably the puke that’s in the bucket over there," I heard my brother say. I was comforted to know that he was going to make sure I recovered.

"Now who would fill a-" he started to say but I think he figured it out. "Oh..." He finished.

"Yeah, that's John, you’ve probably heard about him, he managed to keep up with Pinkie in a cake eating contest," My brother explained.

"Ahh... I see now; is he well enough to talk with me?" The voice would ask.

"Yeah... so long as it is not about cake," I responded. I heard hoof steps go closer to me until I saw an orange leg with a wrist watch on it. I blinked once and it disappeared to be replaced by a brighter orange leg.

"Are you okay to stand and talk?" He asks me.

"Hell no..." I responded to him with a frown that said: “I just got done puking into a frigging bucket, what do you think?”

"I'll meet your gaze then," He said and walked in front of me and lied in front of me. He was a very vibrant orange color with a yellow mane and emerald eyes. He looked very cheerful for talking to someone who is sick.

"There, now we can talk to each other," He said. I looked him over and saw that he didn't have any wings or horns, so I assumed that he was a normal pony.

"Right, who are you anyways?" I asked.

"I am Orange Star, but most of my friends call me Orange because I like the fruit. That and it’s my first name. You must be the John that I've heard so much about!" He said as cheerfully as if I were talking to Pinkie.

"Yeah," I told him simply.

"It is great to meet you after so long!" he would say with a smile.

"It's great to meet you too... I guess," I said in response. He was too cheerful, so I thought he was probably coming up with something.

"Oh that's right, you’re not feeling so good," He said, dropping his cheerful look for a moment.

"Gee, you think?" I said in annoyance at how dense he sounded. He stood up and went through his bag.

"I think I would also feel the same way," He said while rooting through his bag, “if I faced Pinkie on the cake-eating battlefield.”

"Too much cake can do that to you," I explained in a deadpanned way. I was surprised when I saw him pull out a glass filled with an orange liquid, "what that?"

"Something to help you feel better," He explained. I decided to take a chance and drink the mysterious orange liquid. It strangely tasted of mainly oranges with a hint of apples. When I finished the glass, I found that my stomach stopped hurting so much. I carefully started to stand and Orange Star stared at me in amazement.

"I said that would help you to feel better, not down outright heal you!" he said in shock.

"At least I can work with this," I said. Orange made a loud gasp that was oddly similar to the sound Pinkie would make.

"Oh buck! I forgot that I had work now! See you later John!" He shouts and runs out of the library. I looked at him in confusion as he ran out of the window of the library instead of the door; I shook my head and turned to Chris.

"Was that orange juice?" My brother asks.

"I think so," I said, being as confused as him. I decided to shake my head and make my way to the Radio station to work for once.

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As soon as I stepped outside of the door, I breathed in a breath of fresh air. I let it out with a sight and turned towards the radio station. I hoped that they were able to work without me for the time that I was gone. I smiled as I knew that I was finally going to work for the first time in two years, the first one was just a simple visit. Now that I finally had time to go there due to the events that have happened to me recently, I was excited to return. I decided to not waste time walking there, and opened my wings to fly to the radio station.

I got to the Radio station pretty quickly. I landed gently in front of the doors and walked into the station. Due to habit, I decided to make my way towards the room where the radio equipment was stored. As soon as I got there, I saw through the doorway two ponies. The first pony was trying to get past Vinyl to get to the radio equipment, but she was stubborn about not letting him near.

"Come on Vinyl! You really need to check the voltage rating on that if it doesn't work!" He says and tries to get past Vinyl again; she moved to stop him again.

"The voltage is just fine Flash!" She said to him sternly.

"Then why is your Dubstep music not working as well as it should?" He asks in anger. I sighed and decided to sneak by her and open the equipment to investigate.

"I can guarantee that it will work just fine this time!" She says and turns around to mash a button. The result was me being electrocuted for a bit until the failsafe cuts in and shuts off the equipment before it fried me. I hit the floor and had my hoof drop the wire that I was holding.

"I told you that it wouldn't work just fine," Flash said with a grin.

"It shouldn't do that... unless..." Vinyl said and walked over to me.

"Ow..." I said in pain.

"Dear Celestia, I am so sorry I didn’t see you there!" She said in surprise and apology.

"It's more of my fault since I snuck into here," I explained and got up. I used my hoof to brush the ashes off that formed on me; Flash stared at me in shock (No pun intended).

"So is there a problem with the voltage?" She asks me.

"Not really, all that's the problem is the way that the voltage was trying to flow through, most of the wires are in bad positions and would waste the charge before it could even reach its destination, I was in the middle of reconnecting those wires," I explained.

"Those wires can hold that much voltage?" Flash asks me in surprise.

"Yeah, they are high powered fiber optics, perfect for transferring voltage around at a constant rate, now don't turn it on while I fix the problem," I said and went back to where I was working before I was tazed again. It was an easy duty to go and plug the wires in the places where the circuit should be able to have the energy used before going to the next place without wasting energy on the travel. I finished it in under an hour and closed the equipment.

"There, it should work now," I said.

"Alright, here we go!" Vinyl said and pushed the button. I was blown to the wall with how loud the bass drop was, and Flash joined me. She quickly turned it off and turned the volume down to reasonable levels for us. I peeled off the wall and hit the floor after Flash slid down. I felt incredibly dizzy, so I didn't risk trying to get up.

"Vinyl! Why did you have it turned up so loud?!" Flash Record shouted over the ringing of our ears.

"I wasn't aware that it was up that high!" She shouted.

"Did you really need to turn it up that high?" I asked her.

"Of course I did!" She shouted back at me in glee. The ringing in my ears slowly stopped. While that was happening, I heard the door slam open.

"Uh oh," I barely heard Vinyl say in worry. I wondered why until I saw a grey mare storm into the room, and looking pretty pissed off.

"Vinyl Scratch! Did you need to have a bass drop happen now?" She asked in pure anger.

"Sorry Octy, I had the volume up a bit too high and John managed to fix the problem with the equipment," She explained. I was very surprised to see Octavia that mad. I have never once in my life seen a musician that mad except when they were beating up others with their musical instruments. Most of them were battle bards anyways.

"I see... and you didn't think to check the volume level before turning it on?" She asks Vinyl while calming down.

"I couldn't adjust it since the equipment was off," She said. I figured that I should probably get up and help to diffuse the situation.

"She is right, the power wasn't on so I could switch a few wires around to fix it," I explained. She turns to look at me, and her eyes looked less angry now.

"I see, thank you John," She said politely.

"You're welcome, now I need to brush this event off by fixing a few things in the electronics room," I said and walked out. I was glad that it wasn't too bad, but then I noticed someone walk next to me.

"How'd you know so much about radio equipment?" Flash asks me curiously.

"I used to be a DJ, got a few gigs at radio stations and had them give me a few lessons on electrical engineering," I said with a smirk.

"You are really full of surprises," He said with a grin.

"And don't you ever forget that," I said with a light punch to his leg. We chuckled and talked about bits of our lives as we walked to the electrical room.

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"And when I said, 'Hey, would you kindly put that down?' He literally put it down right where he picked it up, so I decided to mess with him again and say, 'Would you kindly dance the chicken dance?' and he danced like as if he were a chicken!" We both laughed at my story so hard that I was crying.

"Oh Celestia! I can't believe you did that!" He said while laughing.

"I know! Too bad that he left after that," I said with a few chuckles to end my laughter.

"Yeah, oh we're here," he pointed out and I noticed that time really flew by when I was talking with him.

"What took you two so long? We have a lot of speakers to fix!" Midnight said.

"You were waiting for me? I'm touched," I said with a grin.

"Save your flirting for after work," She said and jerked her head toward a speaker. I wasn’t surprised at how serious she was in her work, but I was going to walk home with her anyways.

"Wow, you really have picked a good mare to be your wife," Flash says as he moved towards a different speaker.

"Yep, now let’s get to work," I said, adopting the same amount of seriousness as Midnight did.

I worked in relative silence with Flash Record and Midnight song until Vinyl came into the room looking pretty annoyed.

"How are the speakers working now?" She asks me.

"They were simple fixes, I had to replace a few wires in some of the speakers," I explained as I closed a speaker shut.

"Great, now do you know of somepony named Chris?" She asks me, sounding even more annoyed.

"Of course, he's my brother," I said in confusion.

"Well your brother's at my door demanding that he search through the radio station," She says growing more angered and annoyed.

"Let him do it, he's smart enough to not tear the whole place apart and he knows what he's doing," I explained.

"I hope so," She says and walks out of the room to let Chris in. 'I hope so too...' I thought as I turned back to the next speaker. A minute later and I saw my brother walk into the room.

"Next time, how about you ask her first," I said without turning from my work.

"Sorry, but I had to do that in order to bust up another assassination attempt," He explained.

"Dusk again?" I asked in a bored tone.

"Yep, that is now the thirtieth time that I had to stop an assassination attempt towards Dusk this week," he said in annoyance.

"Wow, did you find out why they were all aimed at killing Dusk?" I asked as I closed another circuit box of a turntable.

"This attempt has confirmed it, someone has been convincing them to try to kill Dusk, it makes sense actually, because every time has their allies think otherwise about it," He explained to me.

"Can you figure out who it is?" I asked him as I turned to him with interest.

"Don't need too, this one broke on me and flat out told me the name of the pony that I need to investigate, but I cannot arrest him yet without solid evidence to do so," He said in a annoyed tone. Sometimes, the law tends to get in the way of justice.

"Who is this pony you're searching for?" I asked him in curiosity

"They have called him The Shadow but this pony told me that his real name is Shadow Edge," he said with a grin.

"Shadow Edge? I've actually been tracking him for a long time," An orange pony says out of nowhere from behind Chris. Both of us were shocked to see Orange Star standing at the entrance.

"How did you-" Chris started to ask in surprise.

"I have my ways and sources, I know almost every pony in this town and I know of a source that has told me that Shadow Edge has been experimenting with mind control magic," he explained.

"How did you get here without us knowing?" I asked him.

"Oh that? Trade secret," He said with a grin. I face hoofed at the fact that he was trying to be all mysterious.

"You seem to be well prepared Orange Star," I said to him.

"I am indeed, now shall we bust him?" Orange asks Chris in excitement.

"Not yet, I need to get solid evidence that he was practicing mind control magic in order to convict him," Chris explained.

"Oh, so we need to be able to prove it, can I help you find evidence?" He asks while hopping up and down.

"Sure," Chris says in an unsure way.

"Yay! That means I get an excuse to bash down somepony's door for once!" He shouted excitedly.

"No it does not... you have read way too many detective stories," He said while trying to hide his smile, “anyways, it gives me the excuse to knock some...pony’s door down.”

"Aw..." he said in disappointment. I thought that his vibrant color faded to dark a tiny bit.

"Wait... your brother is an actual detective?" Flash asks from his spot on the other side of the room.

"A very good one at that," I said as Chris walked out with Orange Star behind him. I chuckled and turned back to my work again.

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I worked the rest of the time in silence; I didn't even answer any questions that were directed at me from Flash. Most of them were yes and no questions, so I just shook my head or nodded to answer them. I did say a few words to answer questions from Midnight, but that was pretty much it.

"Alright, the work day is over now," Flash announced in relief. Does he always point out the obvious? I thought to myself. I shut the speaker that I finished working on. I saw Midnight do the same and walk towards me. I walked with her to the entrance of the building and I opened the door for her.

"So when will be officially married?" She asks me suddenly as soon as we were outside.

"I think sometime this week, provided that I don't have any more adventures," I told her. We would both chuckle at the fact that I actually have down time from my adventures for once.

"So, how about we go home?" She offers.

"A good idea, but I remembered that I never got the chance to decorate the house," I said in a sad tone.

"Don't worry, I did that for you already," She said. I looked at her in worry.

"Please don't tell me if you made the house pink," I said in a joking but worried way.

"It's mainly yellow and blue," She said while patting me on the back in comfort. I sighed in relief as she didn't make the whole house become one giant doll house.

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We arrived at our house and I saw that the house was actually painted a shade of blue, so I was naturally surprised that it was painted.

"By the way, they didn't have enough single beds for both of us, so I got us a double bed," She said in a sweet tone. I decided to quickly turn and kiss for before walking through the door into my our home.

The living room was a mix of yellow and blue furniture, so I was glad that she told the truth. I didn't really care for the placement as I went straight upstairs to the bedroom. When I got there, I noticed that the double bed was a shade of green instead of blue or yellow. I knew that green was a mix of both blue and yellow, so I was impressed at that. Before I could get into the bed, I was grabbed from behind by Midnight.

"Sorry John, but you really need a shower first," She said as she started dragging me to the bathroom. I opened my mouth to argue, but I couldn't really do anything as she dragged me into the bathroom and locked me into the bathroom.

"Was it really necessary to drag me into the bathroom to get me to shower?" I asked her from the other side of the door.

"Yes it was," She simply said. I sighed and turned towards the shower. I turned to look at myself in the mirror and I could see why she wanted me to shower, I was covered in dust and a bit of ooze. Why the heck did no one tell me about this? I thought as I stepped into the shower. I was impressed at how simple it looked, but I turned on the water and started to work on getting myself clean. I took a bar of soap with a hoof and scrubbed my fur all over to clean out all of the dust and the other things that I might not be aware of. It took me what I could guess was a minute because of how many times I dropped the bar of soap. When I put the soap on the rack I got it from, I noticed a bottle of shampoo above it. I picked it up and used it to lather up my mane first. When my mane was clean, I moved to my tail. My tail was clean soon after I washed the bubbles out of it. I smiled and turned the shower off. The smile faded away when I noticed a new smell that I didn't recognize before. It smelled like someone had been sweating too much. The smell worried me for a bit, until I realized that it was coming from outside of the shower. That is not a good sign, but what is that smell? I debated with myself. I decided to slowly open the shower door and prepare for whatever it was. Turns out the smell was coming from outside of the bathroom instead. I sighed in relief as I picked up a nearby towel and used it to dry myself off. I walked to the bathroom door and opened it. I found myself suddenly in the grasp of Midnight, who smelled exactly like what I smelled in the shower.

"I can't wait anymore!" Midnight near shouted and started to drag me towards the bedroom. I wondered why she would do that until I remembered something I read in a book. Oh... crap... I thought in worry as Midnight dragged me into the bedroom and locked the door. Based on what I remember reading, this smell means that she's probably in heat. But why is she in heat now? I read that it only happens during a certain time... I thought in confusion. It faded away when she looked at me like if she was going to have fun with me. I was worried at first, but it faded away when I saw that she moved to the bed and was looking at me expectantly.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into the bedroom, but I really need you to help me," She said in a seductive way.

"Considering that you dragged me in here, locked the door to the room, and smell like you have just been through a humidifier, I'm pretty sure you are asking me to have sex with you then?" I asked to make sure my thoughts were correct. She nodded and I sighed.

"How long did you hold off being in heat?" I asked her.

"About two years," She answered, waiting for me to come to her and waving her tail at me. I shook my head and smiled as I made my way towards the bed where I was expecting to have an interesting night with her.