Courage is Magic

Chapter 15

I opened my eyes sleepily as the sun shone through the window. I turned my head to the other side, and quickly noticed that Midnight was not in the bed. I bolted upright in surprise, wondering how long I had slept in this time. I got up and hurriedly ran down the stairs in order to make a quick breakfast. When I got down to the first floor however, I smelled something coming from the kitchen. I sniffed at the sudden scent, and widened my eyes in surprise. It smelled like something that I have come to love since I've entered this world, and that was the smell of something cooking. I could tell from the scent that it wasn't eggs; instead it was the smell of Pancakes fresh off the griddle (a type of pan for those who don't know). I wondered who would be making pancakes at this time, so I let my curiosity get the better of me and went to investigate the kitchen. When I entered the kitchen however, I was shocked to see Midnight at the table with a pile of pancakes next to her. She turned her head to look at me when I entered.

"Ah, I thought you weren't going to get up, so I made breakfast," She said with a light smile.

"You made pancakes!" I exclaimed, not even trying to hide my excitement. She looked at me in confusion, probably wondering why I was excited to eat pancakes. I didn't answer that question yet, and I went to the table and took a pile of pancakes and put it on my plate. I can say for a fact that I love pancakes almost as much as I like muffins. I dove into my pile pretty quickly and ate the whole stack of pancakes in ten seconds flat. When I finished it, Midnight was staring at me in shock.

"I had no idea you liked pancakes that much!" She said, still recovering from my quick feast on the large pile. I grinned and turned orange in embarrassment. As she ate the rest of her stack, I waited for her to finish it before speaking again.

"I'm sure you're wondering why the hell I like pancakes so much," I said, guessing what she was most likely going to ask me. She nodded and I chuckled to myself, "That's actually something from the past, before I became a treasure hunter," I explained.

"I know, you ran away from home after your wife got murdered," She told me in a deadpanned tone.

"Yeah, but I never really did tell you what happened to make me a treasure hunter," I said with a grin. I knew Midnight would become curious about it and ask me, but I was surprised when she gave me a smile.

"Someone you knew made pancakes for you?" She asked me.

"Yeah, he was... a friend," I told her, closing my eyes to remember back to the time when I met my only great friend, my mentor.

"What was his name?" Midnight asked me with a look of wonder in her eyes. I didn't answer her right away, but when I opened my eyes again, I looked right at her.

"Jonathan Hanselwood," I said, and sighed of all the memories I have had with him.

"You must have really liked him as a friend to speak so fondly of him," Midnight says to me.

"I did, but I think I should start from the beginning," I said with a small smile.

"The beginning?" Midnight asked in confusion.

"Yeah, from when I first met him," I said to her as I flashed back to the past. "It all started in a forest,"

In the forest, a campsite was located with the ashes of a fire. A man sitting near the ashes groans with disappointment, his fire went out and he couldn't get it lit again. He sighed and stood up and stretched. The man was five foot two inches tall, and he has a well toned body from his job. He runs a hand through his orange hair, before grabbing the end of it to tie back into a pony tail. He sighed to himself and walked to the nearby lake, where he filled his canteen and washed his face. As he stared into the lake with his sea blue eyes, he could see that scar over his right eye from the time when he was a soldier. He was captured by the enemy after a failed operation and tortured for information, but they didn't break him. He survived long enough for his allies to free him again, but the scar lasted long after the war and into the rest of his life. He sighed and started to make his way back when he heard a cry. Thinking quickly, the man rushed in that direction, unsheathing one of his knives to help defend the person from the wild life.

He burst through the bushes to see a frightened teenager surrounded by hungry wolves. The teen had brown hair and had an average body for his age. The teenager was crouched down in fear as the wolves circled him, eager to feast upon him. But when the man suddenly burst through the bushes, they turned their heads to the new prey, or threat. They stopped circling the teen, and turned to the man holding the knife.

"You should know better than to try and pick a fight," He growled. He aimed it at both the teen, and the wolves. The teen was more frightened of the man that came through the bushes, but he hoped that the man wouldn't leave him either. The wolves decided that it wasn't worth it to try and get him, and one lunged towards the teen. His eyes clamped shut as the wolf lunged. He slowly opens his eyes to the sight of a dead wolf with a knife in the side of its head. The wolves looked at their fallen comrade, and decided that it was not worth trying to get either of them at all. They ran into the forest to hunt for something else to eat. The teen however, was frozen to the spot in fear. The man walked up to the teen and offered a hand, but the teen didn't move. The man sighs and picks up the frightened teen in his arms and carries him to the campsite.

"Wait, so he saved you from being eaten by a group of wolves?" Midnight asks, interrupting my story.

"Yes, he did... though now that I think about it, it's a bit ironic that I almost was killed by wolves recently," I said in a mix of wonder and confusion.

"So what happened next?" She asks, preventing me from getting too far off track.

"He brought me to his camp, Gave me food, water, a place to sleep, and basic survival skills in the wild. But only after I told him that I had no home," I said, continuing the story from where I left off.

"That was a lie, you did have a home but you ran away from it," She pointed out to me. I sighed in a mix of annoyance and sadness.

"Yeah, but I wasn't about to let the chance of adventure slip away from me. So on that night when he was about to leave, I stopped him."

"Wait!" The teen shouted to the man. Who stopped and stared in annoyance.

"I told you kid, I am done with training you," He says sternly, but it didn't deter the teen from getting in front of him.

"I don't want to get more training; I want to go with you!" He said with eagerness in his voice.

"You're still too young kid, you wouldn't want to go with me," The man said in a harsh tone.

"So you think that you're just going to leave me here to die? What if those wolves come back? I'll just follow you to where you're going then!" He said with a serious look in his eyes. The man looked annoyed; he didn't want to have to take care of this teenager.

"Look kid, my job is dangerous, deadly even. I don't want to have you die from being stupid," He said in a hard tone. He moved to go around the teen, but he only blocked his path again.

"So? I've seen death before; I'm not going to let you go until you let me come with!" The teen nearly shouted at him. The man growled and pulled a knife.

"Either you get out of my way, or I will have to make you," He growled.

"Then go ahead and try!" The teen shouted at him. The man took steps and moved to slash the kid, but the kid didn't move. He didn't even close his eyes in fear. The man stopped in mid-movement in surprise when he saw what was in the teen's eyes.

"You know what, I've changed my mind," He said as he put his knife away.

"Really?" The teen asked in confusion. He wasn't sure if he was kidding to try to distract him, or if he was serious.

"You have guts kid... I like that," he said with a chuckle. When he saw the fire in the teen's eyes, he could see himself in them as well. He decided to take the teen along to train him.

"So will you take me with you?" The teen asked in excitement.

"Only if you are willing to go further in training," The man said with a small smile. The teen almost jumped in joy, but restrained from doing it under the harsh gaze, "Before we start... what is your name?" He asked.

"John, my name's John," The teen now known as John replies, holding out his hand to shake.

"My name is Jonathan Hanselwood, but just call me Jonathan," the man replied, taking John's hand and shaking it once. Unknowing to either of them, they were about to enter in a friendship that neither of them would have ever expected to be possible.

I chuckled to myself. "After that, he trained me in everything I know today, mostly in knives though, but I learned the rest as I went with him," I said as I remembered the long, hard training that Jonathan put me through. I disliked it at first, but I eventually learned to adapt with it, "It was also during my travels with him that I've became friends with him, and he helped me out so many times. And even vise-versa"

"You must have really liked him as a friend to do all of that with him," Midnight said in wonder.

"We were, but I'll just jump forward in time to what really cemented out friendship," I told her.

"We're here," Jonathan says to his partner. He looks over the ruins that hold the treasure that they seek to protect from the treasure hunters that were trying to steal it for their gain.

"About time, I thought that walk was too slow," His partner John says with relief. Jonathan groans in response to his statement.

"You need to stop whining about-" He started to say, but then noticed the treasure hunter's trucks being there. "Fuck, you were right this time," He said.

"I saw them as we left the camp, but you wanted to WALK there," John said with a mix between annoyance, and boasting.

"Laugh it up all you want, pretty soon I'll leave you to be hit by a trap when you wander into it," He said in a serious tone. A usual threat he made on many of their adventures.

"Not if I don't let you go in one first," John shot back. They glared at each other before bursting out laughing and giving each other a pat on the shoulder.

"I knew you wouldn't fall for that!" He said while laughing.

"Yeah," He replied, chuckling himself, "you've used that too many times old man." The two stopped chuckling and got serious once again.

"Looks like we need to beat them there," He said.

"Provided that the traps didn't kill them all first," John replied in a joking tone. Oh I wish it were that easy... Jonathan thought to himself. He silently led John to a side door entrance and opened it with the amulet that they had to raid the camp for. The door opened softly and they entered in, with John closing the door behind them. The hallway was lit with torches, but Jonathan knew that it wouldn't be easy to get through.

"Floor traps," John said, pointing out the strange floor tiles that stuck out from the ground.

"Why do they insist on making those, it's almost like as if they want people to die," He started to say. John waited for him to finish his line first, "Oh wait, they do," He said with a light chuckle.

John was going in front of him and avoiding the floor traps. John was only going first because this was his final test to be a treasure hunter, so Jonathan was keeping an eye on him to be sure that he didn't make a mistake that could cost him his life.

"Can't we just skip to where you find the treasure?" Midnight asked, interrupting my story. I glared at her for a moment before sighing. She's got a point there... I thought to myself.

"Alright, I go through all the traps and the what-not on the way through and we arrive in this really big chamber..."

The two Treasure hunters emerged from the passage into a large chamber.

"Whoa..." John said in awe, looking impressed at the sheer size of the chamber. Jonathan however, was used to the size.

"Come on John, we need to get to the treasure before they do," He said, nudging John out of his amazement.

"Right," He said, and refocused on the task. "They always put the treasure in the middle of giant chambers like this..." He muttered to himself.

"That's the gist of it, looks like some of them survived though," Jonathan said, pointing out the men following a man with a business suit. The man was pretty pissed off because of the fact that he lost men to get to the treasure, but he knew that they were too incompetent to keep a hold of the amulet that would have made their lives easier. But they lost it to the two treasure hunters.

"Looks like we barely beat them here, but now we have to get to the treasure first," Jonathan said.

"Yeah, but we should probably try to slow them down... let's knock some of those pillars over in their path," he suggested.

"No, we can beat them there if we just hurry," Jonathan pointed out. John sighed because he knew that it would take too long to push one over anyways.

When they were halfway there, a sharp eyed goon of the business man spotted them.

"Fuck, one of them saw us!" John shouted, and started climbing down faster. Jonathan on the other hand, was already at the bottom.

"Get them you fools! We can't let them reach the treasure!" The business man shouted. The goons pulled out guns and shot at John, who managed to get off the wall just in time for a bullet to hit where his head was.

"Run!" John shouted, and Jonathan ran right next to him as they ran towards the steps to get up to the altar. The bullets sprayed around them and at their feet, and a few more grazed them. They ignored the light wounds and kept running, not stopping to look over their shoulders. Suddenly, Jonathan tripped over a solid piece of rubble and hit the floor. John paused for a moment and looked back.

"Keep going! You have to beat them!" He shouted towards his partner. John looked to the altar, then to his fallen partner, than back to the altar. He made a decision and ran towards his fallen partner and helped him up.

"You fool!" The business man shouted, and ran up the steps. He shot it towards John, knowing that he would no longer be able to beat him there. But he saved his friend from death as he pulled his friend towards a broken wall.

"Why the hell did you save me?" Jonathan asked in both surprise and anger.

"Friends don't leave each other behind," John replied.

"But that means that you've lost the treasure," he said with growing anger.

"No, I realized that the treasure is not worth losing a friend over," John replied.

"And that's what made up your mind?" Jonathan asked in anger.

"Well that, and the fact that the stairs were trapped anyways," He pointed out, and the business man got crushed by a boulder tumbling down the stairs. "Ugh..." He said in disgust as the boulder left a red puddle where the business man once stood. All Jonathan could do was laugh.

"And after we got past the trapped stairs, we found the  treasure wasn't actually real at all, so we were disappointed about it, but then he offered to make me something for us in celebration," I continued.

"What is it?" She asked in excitement. I grinned and looked at her.

"We are eating something similar to it right now," I said. She looked at me in surprise. Her eyes trailed to her plate, which had been full a second ago.

"So that's why you like them..." She said, finally having a question answered.

"Pretty much, but he was my last friend as a human anyways," I said, adopting a darker tone.

"Why? What happened?" She asked with concern.

"He disappeared from the world..." I said simply.

"So he just... ran away?" She asked me.

"No, he actually disappeared from the world entirely through a portal... I will never know if he's alive or dead now," I said, my eyes growing sad as I remembered the moment I last saw him.

"John! Stay back!"

"I'm not leaving you to be sucked into that portal!" I shouted at him.

He was barely holding onto the broken wall as he looked John in the eyes, they had the look of accepting his fate in them.

"You have to! It's too late for you to save me without being trapped in its clutch, please, just live for us both." He told me with sadness. Tears were in my eyes as his grip started to deteriorate.

He let go of the wall as I was pulled away by a member of my team, I reached out my hand towards him. Hoping that something would let me save him.

“JONATHAN!"

I shouted out his name as he got sucked into the portal

I sighed to myself, "Ever since his disappearance, I couldn't bear to make friends again because I was afraid that I would lose them too" I said with a heavy heart. I put down the fork and looked outside. "I think we should get to work, it's been hours already, and we're still sitting here," I said while standing up on all fours.

"I guess you're right..." Midnight responded as she stood up as well. We both decided to head out the door and go to the station for work. Though I felt a weight being lifted from me for telling her that story as I walked. It was the first time, that I could freely tell a pony a story like that, and now I feel closer with Midnight. I knew that our marriage would work, but the only question was when it was going to happen.

Who will be the one to marry us?

In the Crystal Empire, there was a tournament starting. It involved the best fighters from around the entire empire, but a single pony looked over the list with a bored look. He knew that they wouldn't fight him, so they all requested to drop if they were put up against him. He sighed and looked for a replacement on the list of ponies. His blue eyes gazed over the list in boredom, and he knew that no one would fight him. He suddenly stopped upon a name that stood out from the rest of the ponies: "John" He raised an eyebrow and turned to the guard who was looking over the list as well.

"Who is this John?" He asked him.

"He's a pony who recently appeared in this world, he lives in Ponyville." The guard said.

"Nightblade... are you serious?" He asked the Dark blue pegasus with a black and white mane and tail. His tail almost looked as if it were made from metal from how it looked. But, of course, it was made of hair.

"I'm not one to joke around with you. You're Steel Blade, the best guard that this kingdom will ever have," He responded to a grey earth pony, his mane was brown and had a ponytail in it. His tail however, looked straight and it only went down half of his leg.

"Then I want to invite John to this tournament," Steel Blade said.

"Very well, I'll get everything ready for it," He said and walked out of the room. Steel Blade sighed and looked at the name once more. He felt that the name was familiar, but he shook his head.

He used to be known as Jonathan, but now he is Steel Blade.