Courage is Magic

Chapter 16

It was being a bit of a slow day at the radio station; mostly due to the fact that the radio equipment had no problems with it since the day that I fixed it. I didn't even know that I fixed it more than I thought, so I worked with Flash Record and Midnight Song in the electrical equipment room. Nothing really interesting happened, other than a bit of chatting about a few things like how our life was; mostly the basic stuff that you would normally chat about in the work room. That changed when a shiny pegasus flew into the room.

"Is there a John here? I've been directed here to give him a letter," The sparkly pegasus said.

"You're a long way from home, what brings you here?" Flash asked him.

"I need to give John a letter," He said flatly. I sighed and walked up to him after putting down the wires on the table.

"I'm John," I said in a bored tone. He simply held out a interesting letter for me to take. I took the envelope and opened it up with a knife. The sparkly pegasus walked out of the room, knowing that his job was done. I didn't pay him any mind as I took out the paper that was within the envelope.

"That's odd, I've never seen anypony use that kind of paper," Flash commented. I rolled my eyes and looked over the letter once. Then I read it over again in surprise.

"What is it?" Midnight asks me in worry.

"I think I should read this letter out loud to you," I told her and cleared my throat.

Dear John,

I would like to formally invite you to the Crystal empire tournament to participate in the event of combat, the reason you were chosen is because the contestant dropped out of the rankings due to personal reasons. You were chosen from a list to take his place in the tournament, and I would request that you head to the Crystal Empire to sign up officially in the tournament. Bring this letter to show proof that you were invited.

Steel Blade

As soon as I finished the letter, Flash Record was looking at me with his jaw on the floor.

"You got invited to the Crystal Empire by Steel blade?!" he said in shock.

"I guess so... why are you so shocked about it?" I asked him.

"Steel Blade is the best knife user in the Crystal Empire! Nopony can come close to his accuracy in throwing knives!" He said in a mix of being a fan Stallion, and being awed by the letter.

"Best knife user? I think I should try him then," I said with a smirk.

"Are you crazy?!" He near shouted in my face. I gave him a serious look that shows that I was not crazy at all. "Okay, your not crazy, but your not going to have an easy time with it though," He says to me.

"I also am a trained knife user, I think I can easily overcome him in it," I said with a cross between being arrogant, and being brave.

"I'm sure you can do that," Midnight said to me with a bit of pride. Flash looked at her, then at me.

"You really are both crazy..." He muttered to himself before returning to his work. I just put the letter back into the envelope and smiled at Midnight.

"Before you ask, we need to let Vinyl know of this," She said before I could say anything. I sighed, knowing that she was right about that. We cannot just skip out of work at any time without reasons, so I walked with Midnight to the radio room to talk with her.

"Sure, I'll allow it" Vinyl says with a smile on her face.

"Really? That's it? No begging, crying, screaming,shouting, or anything like that?" I asked in surprise.

"I won't do any of that stuff, but I'm sure Midnight would though," She said with a smirk.

"No I won't!" Midnight shot back at her boss.

"You will if John's going to leave without you," She says with a glint on her purple shades. I sighed, knowing that Vinyl was just teasing her.

"Vinyl, please, for the love of Celestia, don't tease my fiance in front of me," I said to her. She just gives me her grin in return.

"And why would I want to do that?" Vinyl asks me. I only gave her an angry glare in response and she threw her hooves up in mock surrender.

"Teasing aside, I give you my full permission to go to the tournament," She says with a tiny bit of authority in her voice. I know she's too relaxed to be very authoritative, but that's what Octavia is for.

"Okay, I'll return after I've won or lost the tournament," I said and turned to leave.

"Hold on a moment there," Vinyl said, stopping me from leaving.

"What?" I asked, being annoyed at the fact that I was wasting time.

"Make sure you bring back something for all of us from the Crystal empire," She told me, then went back to her turn tables to do her radio show. I chuckled to myself softly as I walked out with Midnight, knowing that Vinyl just asked me to get everypony a souvenir from the Crystal empire.

Normally, a normal Pegasus would just take the train, and that is exactly what Midnight did. I wasn't on the train with her however. I was flying towards the Crystal empire after stopping at the library to get a map from Twilight Sparkle. She was worried about what I was planning to do, but Dusk helped me to convince her otherwise. It would actually benefit me to fly there, since it would be a long time before the train actually got there. As the green grass gave way to the white snow, I decided to land because of the strong winds blowing the snow around. I was a bit dense for not dressing warmly, but I was able to ignore the chill for a while as I made my way through the snow. No wonder Twilight wanted me to dress warmly. I thought to myself as I trudged through the freezing snow. I was unsure about why I thought it was a good idea, but I remembered that I wanted to fly there myself. No wonder it takes the train a while to get there though, the snow was very heavy at this time of year. I did not want to stop however, or else I would be increasing the risk of dying to frostbite out in this winter area, so I kept moving. The winds were too strong for me to attempt flying, so I had to drag myself through the snow in order to keep moving. I need to prepare better... I thought to myself as I continued to walk through the white snowfield. I only got a few more steps further before I collapsed in the snow and my sight grew dark.

When my sight returned, I thought I was dead because of the sheer white color, but then I looked up and noticed a crystal pony wearing a doctor's outfit on her

"You're awake!" she called out in surprise. I tried to turn to face her, but failed badly as I turned too quickly and fell down. I groaned in pain as I was lifted back into the bed.

"I'm never... going to walk through a snowfield... again..." I swore to myself. I looked at who helped me back into the bed and saw that she was clear. I could see through her. I had a small pun surface in my head, but I forced it back down to the depths of my mind where it came from. I was not going to use it here out of respect.

"You need to rest a bit more, you're lucky that one of our guards found you there, you would have froze to death," She explained. I refrained from rolling my eyes because of how nice she was.

"Yeah, could you tell the guard that I say 'thank you' if you see him?" I said to her.

"I will, but why were you in the area anyways?" She asked me.

"I was on my way to the Crystal Empire to partake in a tournament," I said, motioning towards my bag. She looked at me in confusion and gave me the bag as I fished out that letter. I gave her the letter and she read it over before being surprised.

"Steel Blade invited you?! That's why Shining was so excited... you are from Ponyvile!" She exclaimed in surprise.

"Yep, this must be the Crystal Empire then," I said to myself out loud.

"It is," The nurse answered simply. I gave her a quick smile and set my bag down.

"Guess I'll get some rest then, I want to be in-" I started to say, but the nurse put a hoof on me. It was weird seeing something so shiny put a hoof on me, but I didn't mind.

"Perfect shape for the tournament," She finished for me. I chuckled as she knew what I was going to say.

"Pretty much," I said when I stopped chuckling. She gave me a warm smile and left to take care of the rest of the ponies in the hospital, then I learned that there wasn't any, since they only get patients who are actually ponies instead of looking like they were made of glass or crystal. They can get hurt though however, so those were the only other patients that were around. Some of them were in beds as well, but I assumed for different reasons. There was nothing else I could do, so I closed my eyes since I needed to rest and recover.

"John..." A voice calls out from the black darkness.

"Save the pity for a later time, it won't ever bring him back," A voice that I recognized as my past self answered.

"Why would I pity him? I was even fond of-" He started to say, but a crack loudly sounded in the darkness. The black turned the color of blood red.

"That was my friend, you son of a bi-" I shouted, but I held back saying the rest of it.

"Calm down John! Somebody get a doctor!" A different voice shouted out before all sound faded out.

I opened my eyes to the color of white. I groaned and stood up before blinking once in surprise. I rubbed my eyes and saw that I was indeed in that same room where I met Golden Shield. 'Why am I here now?' I wondered to myself as I looked around.

"John, can you hear me?" A voice calls from the vast whiteness. My first reaction was to try and pull out a knife. As I reached for where the knife should be, I quickly found out  that I didn't have any knives on me in this place.

"Who are you, and where are you?" I asked in a mix of fear and annoyance.

"I'm just a friend of yours, but you should know something," It said in a calm tone.

"What is it? Impending doom?" I asked in a mix of eagerness and confidence.

"No, it's someone you know," It said simply. I raised an eyebrow at that.

"Someone I know?" I asked in confusion.

"Yes, you will meet him at the tournament," it told me.

"Who is it then?" I asked it, but it never got the chance to answer back as the white faded back to black.

I opened my eyes to find that I've managed to roll to the side of the bed while I was asleep. I rolled the rest of the way off the bed and stood on my hooves. I was less sore than I was earlier, so I decided to make my way towards the exit of the building.

"Hold on a second John!" A voice called from behind me. I turned around and saw a crystal pony walk up to me and give me a map. "You'll need this," He said to me simply.

"Thanks, now how do you know my name?" I asked warily.

"The nurse told me," He said with a small smile. I sighed, knowing that he probably would be right either way.

"Alright, have a great day," I responded to him as I walked out the door.

"You too, have fun at the tournament!" He shouted in response. I turned around to ask him how he knew that, but he was gone. I shook my head and walked out of the hospital.

As soon as I got a step out of the hospital, I was nearly tackled by a dark blue blur. I was able to avoid it as it slowed down to give me a clearer view of who it actually was.

"John! Thank Celestia you're okay!" Midnight nearly shouted in relief.

"It's going to take more than just a single snow storm to kill me," I said, but I wasn't about to go testing my luck everywhere. I nearly died in that snow field back there, and that's never a pleasant experience.

"Maybe you should try and prepare yourself more next time," She said in a berating tone. I smiled and laughed, and she joined me in laughing as well.

"Since I'm up and walking, how about we head for that tournament before the sign ups close and I have to be forced to watch it," I said with a smile.

"Do you know the way there?" She asks me. I pulled out a map that the crystal pony gave me and showed it to her.

"Of course I do, we need to go that way," I said, pointing in the direction that I think we should go.

"Actually, it's that way," She said, pointing the other way. I frowned, knowing that I've got to get a better sense of directions sometime.

"Right, lets just go then," I told her flatly. She chuckled at it and we start walking our way towards the arena where the tournament is being held.

When we arrived at the arena, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't made from crystal. But at the same time, glad that it wasn't. Crystal isn't so great for walls, no matter what anyone says about the castle. I saw a few ponies gathered outside one of the gates. So I turned to my fiance and nodded. She understood what I was going to do, and went to try to get into the spectators seats. I turned back to the one gate and walked towards it. As soon as I got near, I heard a commotion.

"What do you mean that you're filled? You still have one spot left!" A crystal pony shouted at the guard.

"That spot was reserved for a pony from ponyvile," The guard stated plainly.

"And when is this pony going to be coming then? Face it, he won't be there," the pony said. I felt like now was the best time to intervene before it got out of hand, or hoof. Depends on what you are for that saying.

"I'm here," I said, walking up to the guard. The crystal pony looked at me in confusion, since I almost looked like as if I came out of nowhere.

"you have the letter?" the guard asked me. I nodded and pulled it out of my bag and gave it to the guard. He glanced it over for a bit.

"So you're John then, we were just waiting for you," He said, stepping aside for me to enter. The crystal pony who wanted to get in was shocked at them having that spot reserved for me. I kept a neutral face as I walked past the guard and into the arena.

"When is this event going to start? I'm getting sick of waiting!" I heard a voice call from a room. The guards helped me to get to the room and went to announce that the event is starting. I was about to enter when I heard them.

"It'll start when our 'mystery' pony arrives here," A female voice said in response.

"Yeah, but why is it taking him so long? I mean it's not like as if he's outside the door right now," He shot back at the female. I opened the door loudly to announce my arrival. Two crystal ponies turned to look at me in surprise. One was a male who was colored like a ruby, and his mane was short and messy and had the color of an emerald, his tail was medium length and matched his mane in color. The other pony was a female that was colored like a sapphire, and her mane was a bit longer. Her tail was short, but I could tell that she cut it that way to keep it from impairing the movement of her back legs. The way her mane and tail or colored was a different story. They were colored like a mix of a ruby and an aquamarine. I chuckled as the male pony hit his face with a hoof.

"You were just waiting for him to tempt fate, weren't you?" She asked with a small smile. I shrugged in response.

"Don't blame me, I ended up having perfect timing," I said to her as soon as he removed his hoof from his face.

"So now everyone is here, now all we have to do is wait for Steel Blade to come and give us a pep talk about how we should try our best, and then gloat a bit about how we can't hope to match him," He said with a mix of eagerness, disappointment, and annoyance.

"By the way, I never learned you're name," She said, completely ignoring what was said by the other crystal pony.

"John," I said simply. "And who are you two?"

"My name's Blooming Sapphire, and he's Bloody Vomit," She answered, I raised my eyebrows as the second name.

"Don't listen to her, I'm actually Red Savior," he said, earning a look from the mare.

"Why would she call you Bloody Vomit though?" I asked him.

"Because she thinks that I would be barfing as soon as I get out there," He answered with a look of annoyance. "That only happened once,"

"And I think it will happen again if you don't pay attention," A voice from behind me says. I turned around in surprise and saw not a crystal pony, but a grey colored pony with a brown mane that had a ponytail his tail was short, in fact, it only went down about half of his leg. The most predominant feature about him however, was the fact that he had a scar over his right eye. Oddly enough, it seemed as if I knew him from somewhere, but I couldn't place it.

"Steel Blade!" The stallion shouted in surprise.

"Good to see you too, now... since everyone who is going to participate in the knife challenges are here, I am going to go through a bit of rules." He stated. From the looks of him, it looked like as if he said the same thing over and over.

"Go ahead then," Sapphire said.

"Right, first of all: You are not allowed to attack your opponents this year, but you are able to hinder them in any way possible, but you cannot completely stop them from getting to their goal for more than two seconds," he explained. The mare looked a bit disappointed, but Steel Blade didn't show any signs of seeing it. "Second, the reward for winning is a spar with me in the arena after the event is over, and I want to give an actual show so there is no forfeiting," He said.

"Now why the hell would I want to do that?" I asked him.

"Because I am the best knife user in the crystal kingdom," He said.

"So? I'm going to make sure that I beat those two and get a match, then we will see who's the best!" I declared.

"What, you have a rivalry?" Red asked.

"Certainly sounds like one," Sapphire replied. I ignored them and glared at Steel blade. The only thing he did was laugh in response to my challenge.

"Looks like we've got someone with fire, then again, I'm glad I invited you here John," He said. My glare turned into a look of surprise. Before I could ask him about it, I heard the sound of a fugal horn.

"Looks like it's starting, I shouldn't keep you all waiting around now," Steel Blade said, and walked out. I was confused for a moment, but I turned and took a seat in the room. The only thing going through my head until the time where I stepped out into the arena grounds was a single question.

Why did Steel Blade invite me to this?