Courage is Magic

Chapter 13

I opened my eyes while still feeling the effects from last night. My legs were still sore from how many times I have moved them to pleasure Midnight. Because of how long I have been adventuring in my life, I had a great amount of stamina due to all of the running that I've done. It was just barely enough to outlast Midnight Song in heat before she finally went to sleep right next to me. I looked over to my side and saw her sleeping peacefully on me; her head was lying on the base of my wings. I felt her soft breathing and it started to feel weird. I didn't want to interrupt her peaceful slumber, but I had to in order to move. I smiled as I replayed the events of last night in my head again, and how much we both enjoyed it. I had a nagging feeling of guilt for doing it, but I decided that we both probably needed it. I sighed and flapped my wings a bit.

"Mmm... give me five more minutes," She said sleepily.

"I would, but then I couldn't tell you of how much fun we had," I said in a joking way. She quickly lifted her head.

"I did not... I did," She said as she quickly remembered what she was doing last night.

"I still don't blame you, you were frustrated from holding in those moments for too long," I said in an effort to comfort her. It worked as she calmly got up.

"At... least we will get married anyways," She said in an attempt to find a silver lining from what she did.

"We will, count on that," I said and got up shakily on my legs like a newborn foal. She walked over to a nearby mirror and attempted to straighten her mane. I tossed her a brush that was lying on the nearby dresser.

"Thanks," She said as she used it to brush her mane.

"No problem, I'm going to make us some breakfast," I told her and walked out of the room.

I was probably going to need to get a massage or something to ease the soreness in my legs. I can't believe I'm thinking about it, but I wonder if they have a spa here... I thought as I entered the kitchen. I shook my head and focused on making food when I noticed that we had a bit of a surplus of eggs in the refrigerator. Scrambled eggs and cheese omelets it is. I thought as I took the eggs and the cheese out of the refrigerator and started to break eggs into the pan.

I was glad that I was experienced in cooking because of how often I travel. Only difference is, this time I actually got it without ‘stealing’ the ingredients. I had to nick a few ingredients as a treasure hunter because they were usually sold at too high of prices, but they usually didn't even notice that I took anything in the first place.

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A minute later, and the whole house was smelling like eggs. Midnight almost floated down the stairs to investigate, like those cartoons I watched when I was a child.

"John, I didn't know you could cook!" Midnight said in surprise.

"I didn't know that you forgot that I used to travel," I said in response as I put an omelet on a plate for her. She walked over and almost ate the whole omelet in one bite.

"Mm!" She said with her mouth closed.

"Good omelet with cheese, isn't it?" I asked. She nodded the way a bobble head would. I put my omelet on my plate and piled the scrambled eggs next to it. I took a bite out of the cheese omelet, and found that it was better than what I have expected. In fact, it was almost like I've tasted a cheesy omelet heaven. I was glad I was pulled out of my daze by Midnight slapping me in the face, despite the fact that it hurt.

"Ow… I needed that!" I said as I rubbed my cheek.

"You’re welcome, but when did you learn how to cook this greatly?" She asked, gesturing to the omelet that I recently took a bite out of.

"I guess from all of the times that I've cooked while I traveled on the road, only this time I've cooked with an actual stove," I told her. She looked at me in confusion at the fact that I had never used a stove before, but I know how to work with one.

"I've traveled quite a bit back then in the past, so I’ve cooked with open fires rather than stoves; I’ve cooked with stoves before, just in case you’re wondering," I explained.

"Were you an adventurer back then?" She asked me curiously. I shook my head.

"Yeah, I thought I already told you this?" I asked, “I was depressed because of the death of someone… very close to me.”

"So you were a depressed traveler?" She asks in a joking way.

"No, I only traveled to try to escape the pain and death that followed," I explained to her. I was starting to become depressed about thinking about the past. I looked at Midnight in a way that I hoped that would show her to change the subject before I started crying.

"I see; we should be headed for work before Flash gets angry at us," She said, and I internally sighed in relief for the subject change.

"Yeah, I'll go and get these plates ready to wash when we get back," I said as I started picking up the plates with my hooves and putting them into the sink with my wings. It was a trick that I've taught myself.

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It was still morning when we both arrived at work. I agreed with Midnight to never speak of last night to anyone as it would possibly cause panic, or Pinkie to throw a party of some kind. I was surprised to see Flash Record at the front entrance for once, and I started to worry at why he would be there in the first place.

"I'm so glad you're here, we have a bit of a major issue happening with the radio equipment, Vinyl wanted you to check it out immediately," He explained.

"What’s wrong?" I asked as I walked with him.

"Considering that something may have broken a part of it, the equipment isn’t working at all," He explained on the way there. Oh hell, sounds bad. I thought to myself in worry as I picked up the pace to the radio room.

When I got to the radio room, I saw Vinyl looking incredibly worried for, from what I have seen, to be the first time. She turned to me in relief at my arrival.

"Thank Celestia that you’re here, the Radio equipment has just stopped working, and I need to get the show started soon!" She explained to me in a panic.

I nodded and walked up to the radio equipment and opened up its circuit box. The wires inside were tangled. I had difficulty trying to find anything wrong with it. I started pulling the wires out of the box after making sure the equipment is shut off. After I pulled out all of the wires, I went through the grueling task of untangling them from the mess that they were.

It took me almost a minute to untangle all of the wires and get them straightened out on the floor to inspect. I saw that a few of the wires were cut in half, but I noticed that it wasn't a jagged cut that would happen if they were torn apart, it looked like a clean straight cut through the wires. I could easily guess that someone used a knife or scissors to cut the wires apart. I turned to Flash Record in order to speak to him clearly.

"I found the problem, turns out the major wires have been severed and need to be replaced," I explained. I knew that a simple wire tear could be fixed with electrical tape, but the problem was that this was obviously not a wire tear. I didn't trust electrical tape to hold it together without causing some problems with the system. I was wondering about who would deliberately cut the wires of an expensive piece of equipment, but I shook my head. I wasn't a detective; I was just as simple as I could be for a pony living in this world. First I need to fix this problem at hoof, before worrying about that.

"Here are the replacements," Flash said as he put down a bunch of wires next to me.

I nodded and removed the severed wires from the neat arrangements, glad that I memorized what wire goes where. I put the new wires down where the severed wires used to be. I nodded to myself and double checked all of the wires to make sure that the rest of them are fine. After checking the remaining wires, I started plugging the wires back in where they should be.

After I plugged all of the wires back into the circuitry, I turned to look at Vinyl and motioned for her to turn it on. I kept the circuit box open so I could notice any problems immediately when they occur so I could prevent a power failure. When the power was turned on, the wires held as I heard the hum of the electrical equipment. I let out the breath I didn't even realize that I was holding and closed the circuit box. I turned to look at the wires that I had removed from the circuitry.

"I can tell you that these wires must have been cut by something," I said, pointing out the obvious to confirm the fact that I noticed it right.

"Great work there John!" Vinyl said with a slap to my back.

"I agree, I think you might have just saved the equipment from turning into a piece of junk," Flash says simply. He got a glare from Vinyl and me.

"Never say that to a DJ unless you want to possibly get hurt," I warned Flash. He turned away from embarrassment.

"I'm glad that you've fixed it though John," Vinyl said to me again.

"It was nothing really," I said with a neutral face.

"It was not simply just nothing," she said as she prepared everything for the show to start.

"It would be if I don't ask for anything," I explained calmly.

"I think that you deserve a break from this work for today, don't try to argue since I'm giving this to you as a one-time thing," She said to me with a serious face. I sighed because I knew exactly how much Vinyl loves her equipment. It's almost a part of her, so if it didn't work properly it would be like tearing a piece of her soul out.

"Alright fine," I said while raising my hooves in mock surrender.

"I think you'll deserve it for today," Flash says simply to me. I sighed and lowered my hooves.

"Alright, but you really should have someone to be able to do things like this as I won't always be there to fix everything," I said as I started walking towards the door.

"Flash Record could probably handle the minor problems that may occur," Midnight said to me as she watched me walk out.

"Probably? I know I can," Flash boasted. I chuckled to myself as I left the room.

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As soon as I stepped through the door, I was staring straight in the face of a masked pony. My instincts triggered and I quickly dove to the floor as he swung a knife at me. It cut a few hairs off my mane as it whistled over my head. I got up as quickly as I did a fast uppercut to his head to buy myself a bit of time. I had thought about randomly screaming “Shoryuken” but I decided against it. As he stumbled back in a daze from the uppercut, I pulled out my knife and prepared to fight him. The masked pony recovers and gave me a glare that almost burnt with how angry he was. I could see in his eyes that the fire of rage burned brightly. I raised my knife with confidence and I saw him widen his eyes in fear. He then spoke to me in a voice that I could tell was male.

"You should die for your crimes," He says as he brandished his own knife.

"What crime would that be?" I asked while keeping my knife close.

"For killing our lord," he says, and pulls out a pistol to my surprise. Oh come on! I thought in anger as I glared at him.

"So you're just going to try to shoot me, good luck with that!" I said as I prepared to move as soon as he fires at me to avoid the shot and disarm him.

"I won't need luck," he says as he pulls the hammer back and keeping the pistol pointed at me. It wasn't at point blank  rang however, so I knew I could avoid it if I timed it right.

"You will when I get to you and beat you to hell and back," I said and loosened myself in order to move fast. He kept the weapon pointed at me while I saw him start to try to get something out of his bag. I decided to scrap my original plan and quickly threw dry dust from the ground at him to blind him. It worked and he stumbled back and shot the pistol at where he thought I was. I was very lucky that he missed, and as the bullet grazed my cheek and embedded itself on the wall behind me. I quickly put a knife to his throat before he could recover to try to shoot at me again. I heard the door open behind me and I resisted the urge to look behind me in order to keep an eye on the masked assailant.

"I heard a gunshot from out here, WHOAH!" The voice of Flash asked me in concern.

"I'm fine for now, he barely missed me," I responded to him as I put the blade closer to his neck.

"It won't be that easy to kill me," He said with a confidant smile. I wondered why he said that, but he managed to punch me right in the face with his hoof. I stumbled back, holding my face with my hoof in pain. I underestimated his willingness to use close combat moves on me. I was more surprised at his strength as I shook my head to clear it. When I could see straight again, I saw that he had the pistol out again, only he had it pointed directly at my forehead. I was frozen in place like a deer staring at the headlights of an incoming car.

"John!" Flash shouted in concern for my safety.

"Once again, I am staring death in the face," I muttered to myself in worry that I wouldn't survive.

"Not for long!" A voice said from nowhere. The masked pony looked confused for a moment, but he was suddenly drop-kicked by an orange pony.

"What the buck?" I asked at the same time as Flash Record. I then noticed that the orange pony was Orange Star, the pony I've met earlier in the library.

"How did you do that?" I asked him in confusion.

"I was on the roof," Orange says with pride.

"Why were you on the roof?" I asked with more confusion than before.

"Why not?" he asks me in return. I was not happy about his response, but he would soon get drop-kicked by Pinkie Pie.

"What is with you and drop kicking ponies?!" I asked in surprise as I backed up to avoid her tail.

"Hey John! I was just going around when I noticed this mean pony walk towards the radio station after shoving a pony down to the floor and threatening another pony, so I knew that he was trying to hurt a pony and I can't let that happen, so I followed him in a sneaky way and- mph!" She said as I shoved a hoof in her mouth.

"That explains enough, but why did you just drop-kick Orange?" I asked as I removed my hoof slowly.

"Wait... I didn't get the mean masked pony?" She asked. I pointed at the knocked out masked pony and then at Orange Star.

"OHMYGOSH I AM SO SORRY!" She exclaimed in surprise and sadness. I thought I saw her mane straighten as she shouted.

"I see cakes and oranges..." he said in a daze.

"I really do appreciate your concern for me though Pinkie," I said with a small smile. Her mane would return to it's regular form as she smiled again.

"What... the..." Flash said behind me, unable to comprehend the event that just happened in front of him.

"I don't know either," I told him simply.

"But... they... argh!" He shouted and stormed back into the building in a mix of rage and confusion. I chuckled at his reaction.

"So what are you doing now?" Pinkie asks me curiously.

"To say the truth, I am taking a day off of work after fixing a major piece of equipment," I said to her. I then realized that it may have been a bad idea to do as she gasped loudly and jumped a few inches into the air.

"That means you can help me to bake cupcakes!" She shouted excitedly as soon as she landed.

"That's nice, what about Orange?" I asked her.

"He should be fine, all he needs is an orange," She says and pulls an orange out from a nearby tree.

"Dare I ask why you had an orange in a tree?" I asked her with a confused look.

"For in case of orange emergency's like this silly," She explains.

"Okay, how do you happen to know Orange Star though?" I asked her, being more confused than before.

"Oh that's easy, ponies always assume that he's from the orange family, and they are related to the apple family, but he's actually from a different branch of my family, so he's my cousin," She explained. I was surprised at how much sense it made. I almost thought that someone replaced the original Pinkie Pie for a moment, before I realized that it is impossible to replace her.

"Orange Star is your cousin?" I asked her to clarify the fact.

"Yep, he moved into town only a few days ago because he heard so much about the town, and when we met for the first time he was surprised at me and asked me if I was Pinkie Pie, I told him that I was and he did a weird sound," She said and demonstrated what sound he made. It looked like a cross between a squeal of excitement and a squeal of joy. "So then he told me that he has been waiting forever to meet me since I was a family of his and I was like 'really?!' And he was like 'Yeah, I heard that the Pie family has one of their children move out somewhere and I never got to meet her, but now I am meeting her!' and I was shocked to hear that he never met me!" Before she could continue onwards in her rant, I saw Orange get back up and shake his head to clear his dazed head.

"Did someone get the plate of that cart?" He asked as he slowly started coming back to consciousness.

"No, because I'm sure you can't get a plate of a pony," I said with a joking smile.

"Oh yeah... Pinkie?!" He asked in surprise. He was less surprised when she offered him an orange.

"Long story short, Pinkie thought you were attacking me and decided to drop-kick you," I said before Pinkie could try to explain in her long rants. I made a mental note to ask them how they learned to do that move another time.

"Oh... Makes sense then!" He said cheerfully.

"Great, now do you want to come with us? We are going to go to Sugar cube corner and make cupcakes," She asked him.

"Sure," He said simply. I looked at him in confusion about why he would say something so simple. But I couldn't do it for long as I was quickly flung onto Pinkie's back. She started running off in her impossible speed to get to the building for baking the sweets.

This is going to be one hell of a day, I thought to myself. I managed to see Orange tie up the masked pony before he disappeared from my sight from Pinkie rounding a corner. I was more surprised at how she could go at such high speeds while carrying a pony on her back, but I decided to not question that feat.

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It wasn't even close to the afternoon yet when I noticed that Pinkie had just suddenly stopped to examine a random object on the floor, resulting in me flying through the air without my wings open, and landing with a hard thud in front of three very surprised ponies.

"Where did you come from?" One of them asked me in surprise and confusion. I turned to look at them and snapped back to reality in surprise.

"Oh hello Scootaloo!" I said as I quickly got up and brushed myself off.

"John? Why are you here?" She asks in confusion.

"Ah bet that he's been going around town," Apple bloom guessed.

"More or less, but how does Pinkie even move that fast?" I asked.

"We don't really ask, since every pony knows that she's pretty hard to explain," Scootaloo told me.

"So you’re saying that the town got used to the exciting pink pony?" I asked her.

"More or less, her parties will always make the town livelier," Sweetie Bell explains.

"I see... So where are you going?" I asked.

"I heard that the Wonderbolts were going to have practice for one of their shows here in honor of Morning's return," Scootaloo says to me.

"Wonderbolts?" I asked with confusion on my face.

"You don't know who they are?" She asks me in surprise.

"Umm... no?" I said in an unsure way. I immediately regretted saying that as I was getting dragged quickly by the three ponies as they ran towards a single random direction. So much for helping Pinkie... but I think this will be good though, since I get to meet what I assume are celebrities. I thought as I was dragged by the three ponies who were very good friends with each other, but not in a romantic way.

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We arrived at an open field a distance away from the town when the three finally stopped dragging me. I got up and checked my wings to see if I lost any feathers while being dragged. Since they were still in place, I turned to see why they stopped to a very surprising sight. There was a line a pegasai wearing blue suits and a single Pegasus was patrolling in front of them. I thought it looked more like a drill sergeant pacing in front of his or her recruits in order to train them in how to be a soldier. I chuckled at the comparison until I saw one of them take off when the patrolling pony pointed at him. He did some really nice tricks in the air, but I wasn't too impressed. The three fillies on the other hoof, they were really impressed at the trick.

"Really? Just loops and such? Those moves didn't even entertain me!" I shouted before the rational part could stop me from speaking. The blue suits suddenly looked at me in surprise, and some looked at me with disgust. The patrolling pony however looks at me with a small smile.

"Now there's a Pegasai that sounds like he knows what he's doing, could you come over here?" She asks me. I was shocked to realize that it was a mare that was patrolling, not a stallion. Shaking off the surprise, I made my way towards her.

"Before I let you prove how great of a flier you are, I want you to introduce yourself," She said.

"I'll introduce myself when you do so," I said in what I think was a gutsy move. The ponies in blue suits dropped their jaws  to the floor over how I was treating their commanding officer. She however smiled, to my surprise. I took a notice of her details to try to remember her by, and I think that she looked like a fireball because of her orange mane. Is she a relative of Pyro? Nah, probably not.

"I like you, my name is Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts," She said to me in a calm but commanding voice.

"Same goes to you, I’m John," I said, resisting the urge to salute her.

"Very well John, if you think you’re so great at flight that you can criticize my team, then prove that you can do some yourself," She dared me.

"If you are going to fly and do tricks, then at least make them somewhat entertaining, as so!" I said and took to the air. I did the exact same loop as the one who flew earlier did, but I looked more enthusiastic about doing it than he did. The result was me leaving a trail while completing the loop. The line of ponies wearing the blue suits looked at me in a mix of surprise, awe, shock, or embarrassment.

"You need feeling into your tricks, otherwise it's going to end out bland," I explained like I was teaching them.

"What if too much enthusiasm causes them to do something other than what they needed to do?" Spitfire asks me with a raised eyebrow.

"Then they did it wrong again, too much enthusiasm can result in doing a beautiful but very sloppy trick," I explained. She would give a bit of a laugh and pat me on the back once.

"You really know your stuff, just like Rainbow Dash does," She said to me.

"I'm honored that you compared me with her, but I think that if you can't get your little squad to put on a decent show, then I'll have to do some of it it for you," I said with a cocky grin.

"And you think that you can do my job?" She asked me in a serious tone.

"No, I can't," I said in a serious tone devoid of any emotion. She stared at me as I kept my face emotionless, and then started to laugh.

"So you’re a soldier, a trick flier, and a modest pony all in one," She complemented.

"I am no soldier, but I can fight like one," I explained with a grin.

"I could use help anyways, since Soarin isn't here," She said.

"And I'll be happy to help, now what will you have me do?" I asked. She walked up close to me and whispered her plans  in my ear, and I smiled. I liked the way she thinks, and I liked the way that she leads her squad like a commander should. I nodded and agreed to the plans and started to walk along the line of Pegasai. I only stopped when I saw one of them had pupils of a thunderbolt.

"I got my first volunteer to fly," I said to her. She nodded and I turned back to the Pegasus. "I want you to first do the flying routine once, make sure to impress me," I said in a voice that was commanding as I could make it without laughing. He opened his wings and flew up and went through the routine that Spitfire explained to me. As I watched, I could swear I heard a bit of thunder, and I was impressed at how well he was doing it. When he landed, I clapped my hooves together twice before walking up to him.

"Great work there," I said to him and he nodded to me silently.

"That's Thunder Cloud, he is one of our best fliers," Spitfire explained to me.

"One of them? I hope that you mean that your squad is great as well," I said in a joking way.

"Not all of them are what you think," she answered me seriously. I sighed.

"Alright, all of you who know the entire routine forwards and backwards please step forward," I said and waited. I saw only three of them step forward.

"Right, you three run the routine," I ordered and they obeyed quickly. I watched them carefully as they went through the routine. I noticed that one of them slack off a bit on a trick however.

"Hey, run that trick again!" I shouted at that pony. He looked at me in a bit of surprise before grumbling and repeating the trick with more focus. I nodded to show that he did it correctly, and he continued the rest of the routine. Suddenly, the second one just stops in the middle of a trick and just hovers there. I turned to him with a glare and he responded with a gesture with his hoof.

"Finish that last trick you were doing," I told him as calmly as I could. He grinned and flew right up to my face.

"Make me... chicken," He taunted. I simply gave him a glare and dared him to back it up.

"Last chance to try before I beat your sorry flank to the floor," I warned. He decided to try to force me away from him with a swift punch. I block it easily to the surprise of every pony watching. I warned him, I thought as I pushed his leg away.

"Congratulations, you're the first one who will be put into a headlock by me for not following orders," I said as I kept a steely gaze upon him.

"I'd like to see you try!" He taunted. I swiftly punched him in his unguarded face and then put one of my legs around his neck. I didn't put too much pressure to choke him, just enough to hold him in place. He struggled and hit me as much as he could, but he wouldn't even escape my grasp.

"I want you to promise that you will follow your commander's orders and not do something like this," I said with a low voice.

"Let go of me and I will!" He said.

"Not until I you say it first, I can do this all day if I have to," I said with a small grin. He sighed in semi defeat.

"Fine, I promise to follow Spitfire's orders," He said. I let him go and he went back to the line of ponies.

"Good, if any of you ponies mock him and I will have you personally answer to Spitfire!" I said and turned away from them and marched off. Spitfire stopped me from leaving though.

"Is that it?" She asks me.

"Yep, I don't want to take control over your entire team," I told her simply.

"I'm impressed that you got him to listen, he's always been a stubborn one to us all," She said, “He’s pretty good, but stubborn as an ass.”

"Yeah, I think you can do just fine without me around," I told her (I assumed she meant a donkey when she said ass).

"I'm sure I will, since I have to make sure that they stop slacking off," She said to me. As I turned to leave the field she stopped me one more time.

"If you ever want too, you could join the Wonderbolts," She offered.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'll decline that because I'm not one for following orders," I told her. She nodded and waved me off as she went back to patrolling the line. I chuckled at what I just did and turned back towards the town in order to enjoy the rest of my day.