Courage is Magic

Chapter 17

As soon as I reached the gate with the other two competitors; I could hear the loud cheering on the other side. Shortly after, I heard a loud thunk coming from the door.

"Guess the free-for-all battle part is almost over," Sapphire commented.

"Do you have many events like that?" I asked her.

"Not really, we are under strict rules against killing, but there was nothing against knocking your opponents unconscious," she said with a small smile.

"Good to know that, I'll make sure to be gentle when I beat you," Red said in a mix between mocking, and arrogance.

"Well don't expect me to be gentle with you," Sapphire shot back.

"Yeah yeah, I bet you'll last for only two seconds out there," Red replied.

"I bet you won't even get the chance to beat me," I said, wanting to get in on the taunting action. Both of them looked at me with looks that didn't look amused. "I wasn't kidding, you won't even get close to beating me," I said with a cocky smirk.

"Bold words from a newbie who just got invited," Red told me.

"Bold words coming from someone who underestimates me," I shot back. Both of them raised an eyebrow, but there was no time to say anything else as the gate started to open. I was blinded a bit by the sudden sunlight, but my vision adjusted quickly.

"And now, the event you've all been waiting for, it's time for the battle of knives!" A voice shouted over the noise. The cheering escalated in volume until I cannot hear myself, and just as quickly as it started, it grew silent.

"Now, normally the rules will have the contenders fight as soon as they reach the center, but the rules have changed this year," The announcer explained. "This year, it will be a fight to win, but not in the way you all expect,"

"If you will allow me," Another voice said from the stands. I looked at where that voice came from, and it was from a box that was magically enhanced to carry out sound, but I saw a yellow-orange pony wearing a grey fez on his head. I raised my eyebrow at the fez, but he continued. "The rules are as follows, don't do anything to mortally wound one of your competitors, and don't ever stop moving," He explained simply.

"What do you mean by that?" the announcer asked him.

"Simply that, the competitors are required to remain in motion by the time the event starts, and if they stop moving for too long, they will end up finding themselves being hit by a moving wall," He explained to everyone with a small smile on their face. Wait, what? I thought in confusion, but I saw that the door was suddenly replaced by a brick wall. The other two competitors noticed the same detail as well.

"Where the hell did that wall come from?" I asked out loud in confusion. The answer I got was a chuckle from the fez wearing pony.

"Glad you asked, using a bit of unicorn magic by unicorns around here, I was able to make this wall look like brick, but it is pretty soft and sticky. So if you get touched by it, be it mane, tail, or even hooves, you'll become stuck to it and unable to move or fight, thus removing you safely from the competition. However, you will still be able to taunt your opponents as they run and distract them from the obstacles," He explained in detail.

"Taunting doesn't sound very fun..." Red said.

"You're absolutely right, which is why I changed it for if a pony gets knocked out of the competition, they will be able to fire random things from the wall, but nothing dangerous," he responded.

"Random things, like wh-" Sapphire was going to say, but she couldn't finish it when a rubber chicken hit her from nowhere, silencing everyone in the arena, including the announcer, in astonishment and confusion.

"So THAT'S where I left the lucky rubber chicken..." The fez pony said to himself seemingly unaware that we heard what he said.

"A... A rubber chicken?" I asked in a mix of utter confusion and shock.

"Yep! It's entirely random, so no one can get used to seeing the same thing being shot at them... just make sure you watch out for the rubber anvils," He replied. Before I could ask him anything else, I saw the course rise up in front of us.

"O.... Kay then, let's get this event started!" the announcer pony said. I shook off my confusion along with the other two ponies’ right next to me and focused on the obstacles that have appeared in front of us. "Ready?" the announcer called. I lowered myself down to sprint immediately, the other two did the same thing. "GO!" He called, a cannon firing into the air. I was quick on the draw and started running into the course. The first obstacle was a simple short wall, short enough to be able to jump over with ease. We all cleared it, but I didn't drop my guard because it suddenly reminded me of my past. I remember that course, but why would it be used here? I wondered to myself as I continued on. I knew that if it was that course, then the wall would be the only easy obstacle to deal with. If this course was exactly like the one that Johnathan put me through in training. Then the next should be- I thought to myself when I was interrupted by a spear shooting at me directly. I knew that it had a blunt tip, but I wasn't about to take a spear to the face. Instead of trying to swerve to the side to avoid it, I went into a slide. Everything slowed down for a moment as I went under the spear. The adrenalin in that moment wouldn't last, so I glanced ahead and gauged the spaces where I could possibly slip through without getting hit by any of them. By the time everything returned to normal speed, I was up on all four hooves and going forward quickly and going through some of the spaces that I mentally marked. A few of them had nearly hit me, but I swerved away from it at the last moment because of a split second swerve. My reactions were seemingly fast because of the familiar obstacle, but I've had a few very close calls with spears narrowly missing me. After clearing the obstacle, I couldn't make enough time to look behind me at my other competitors. Based on the sounds that were made, I would say they are doing well. Until I heard a chorus of "oohs".

"Looks like our 'under dog' passed by with ease, but Bloody Vomit was unlucky enough to take a spear to the face." The fez wearing pony said in a mix of excitement and pain. I reasoned that the only reason he had pain in his voice was because of how painful it looked. I could easily relate to it because I was hit in the face with those blunt spears as well.

"And because of that, we have our first competitor out!" The announcer announced. Wow, he didn't last long. I thought to myself in disappointment. He was all about talk after all, and not enough about speed, but that changed when I saw a bean bag hit me.

"I guess we are counting beans now!" The fez pony called out, resulting in most ponies groaning audibly. I almost felt like doing that as well, but I focused on the next obstacle ahead.

"Guess Bloody didn't last so long in this huh, serves him right," I heard Sapphire say next to me.

"Don't get too arrogant, because that's not the only thing you need to worry about," I responded and saw the next one. It was a few stepping rocks to get across, but I knew that not all of them were as sturdy as they looked. I decided to take a chance and rely on speed along to get across. Sapphire thought the same thing and leaps next to me over to a rock, as soon as we landed on a rock, it started to crumble and we would quickly leap to the next one, repeating the cycle until we got across the pit.

"Man, seeing that road makes me in the mood for ice cream..." The fez pony commented.

"How come?" The announcer asked him.

"Because that was a rocky road," he replied.

"Enough with the horrible puns already!" I shouted up to him.

"I agree!" Sapphire shouted as well. The fez pony remained silent for a moment, and I thought he was going to say another pun.

"I think I should be serious in this then," He said, surprising both of us for a moment.

"So, no more bad puns then?" the announcer asked him

"Can't promise that, but I'll keep a lid on saying more puns for the remainder of the event," He said, making both of us sigh in relief for that in our head and continuing to run, avoiding the random objects that Red shot or threw at us. The next obstacle that appeared in front of us is something that seemed so simple, but incredibly complex. A pit with an obvious rope in front of us. I knew that the easiest thing to do was leap for the rope, but I saw that the rope was too loose to be able to easily swing over. I thought about running on a wall, but there was no wall to run on. So we both slowed down to a stop next to the pit. Sapphire looked like she was going to leap for the rope, but I pulled her back.

"Unless you want to end up falling, I wouldn't recommend that," I said flatly.

"How come?" She asked me, looking very annoyed at it.

"If you didn't notice, the rope's knot is too loose and will probably untangle if you grabbed it," I told her, pointing at the rope. She looked at the knot and understood about why I stopped her.

"So how can we cross?" She asked me as the wall started getting closer.

"Simple, we run over," I said and backed up a short distance.

"What do you mean by-" She started to ask, but then I ran over the pit,literally. I was realizing that I wasn't falling down the pit halfway over, so I was about to ask about it when a bit of loud laughter came from the announcer's box.

"I love it when the art looks real, it makes you think that it's really there but it's actually a flat surface!" He said between breaths. I was annoyed at the trick, but at the same time impressed because it slowed us down to allow the wall some time to catch up to us. I ran faster to get further away from the wall and get some more time, but then I saw a wall rise up in front of me. I ended up crashing into it hard and making myself dizzy for a short period of time. I shook my head to clear it of the stars and saw Sapphire going into the wall. I followed her in and realized exactly what this obstacle was; a maze. It was designed to confuse the person, or in this case pony, from where to go to reach the exit. I sighed and looked for a narrow hall in the maze, knowing that despite its complex paths, it had the simple solution to simply go over the whole thing. I was mad at Jonathan when he did that to me when he ran his own course with me, but I realized that he was teaching me something. Sometimes, the best solution is the one that's so easy and simple that you would overlook it as a possiblity. When I saw a narrow hall that suited my needs, I used it to run up and climb on top of the walls, completely circumventing the maze.

"Hey! That's cheating!" The fez pony shouted at me.

"Actually, there's no rules against using the obstacle to your advantage..." The announcer pointed out.

"But still!" He said, being a bit annoyed at me.

"Steel Blade actually did the same thing when he ran this," The announcer pointed out. I widened my eyes in surprise, but shook my head. first clear this course, then ask questions later. I said to myself as I ran on top of the walls. Sapphire looked up at me in surprise and realized that she was too late to follow me out. When I jumped down at the exit, the cheers erupted.

"Our Underdog manages to beat his opponents, but the hardest obstacle is yet to come!" He announced, doing his job. The fez pony muttered something under his breath, being quiet enough to not be heard. I smirked and moved forward to the final one. The smirk would fade from my face when I saw exactly what it was. The one thing that Jonathan did to spite me, knowing that I would always fail it every time, but he could do. He never told me about how he did it, but I eventually figured it out. The obstacle was simple to pass, get the statue off the pedestal in order to get through. What he doesn't say is how heavy the statue was. I walked up to the statue and glanced at it for a moment before removing the head. The door to the other side of the room didn't open, so I knew exactly what to do. I didn't have forever since the wall was closing in behind me, so I had to be swift in removing the statue from the pedestal, bit by bit. First I removed the head of the small statue, then the arms, the body, and finally the legs. As soon as I removed the legs I heard a click and the door opened nearby. I wasted no time in running through it before the wall hit the frame of the door that I just went through.

"How did he do it? He figured out the last obstacle in such a short amount of time!" I heard the announcer say in shock.

"Hay if I know, but that means that we have a pony who managed to actually clear the second to last obstacle!" The pony wearing the fez said with anticipation. Last obstacle? What did...- I started to think, but then I saw the last part of it. I never really got that far, so I had no idea what to expect. But I saw a ramp sloping upwards, a ramp sloping downwards, and a path going forward.

"Now, from here on, the time limit is removed and he no longer has to worry about the wall, but he does have to worry about which of the three paths there is correct, two of them lead to a dead end, and only one of them leads to the finish area," The announcer explained.

"From here, we can see the paths and which one goes where, but not our so called 'Underdog'," The fez pony continued. I realized that this one was no more than a simple game of chance. I looked at the paths for anything to help my chances, but I couldn't really find anything upon them. All I could see was the darkness at the end of each path. Darkness... I thought to myself and closed my eyes bringing myself back to the past when I was training with Jonathan and before he disappeared into the portal.

"Why are we here in this stupid cave?" I asked Jonathan, being a bit annoyed about all the running around that he made me do.

"This 'stupid cave' contains a treasure that is unlike any other treasure that you'll ever find," He said in a stern voice.

"Come on... I did the course, somewhat... Now we are here in this damp and dark cave to search for a treasure?" I asked, being more annoyed than before. He didn't say anything in response to my question, all he did was silently lead me through a slowly growing darker cave. My annoyance gave way to nervousness as I got a bit more worried about where we were going. We kept going down, further into the dark cave and everything was slowly getting darker. I was scared and worried that Jonathan might have gotten us lost, but then we emerged into a lit part of the cave with a simple smooth rock in the center of the room.

"It's just a stupid rock..." I said, being let down for him leading me to it.

"Have some respect for the dead kid..." He said to me harshly. I was about to say something in response, but Jonathan moved to it and kneeled next to it. I wondered why he would do that, but then I saw the writing on the rock.

'The greatest treasure hunter'

I wondered about why it was there, but then I realized something important. Jonathan was respectful and somber because this wasn't just a cave to him. It was a tomb to one of his friends long ago. Once I realized that, I knew a bit of why Jonathan came here, but I didn't really understand why he brought me here. I opened my mouth to ask him, but I decided to close it and walk up to him instead.

"Sometimes, you have to descend into the darkness in order to see the truth of the matter," He softly said.

"What?" I asked him in confusion, but he got up from his kneeling.

"Let’s go," he said simply, his eyes full of a drive that I've never seen him have before. I was confused about what he said earlier, but I shook it off and followed him back out of the cave.

Descend into the darkness in order to see the truth... I thought as I opened my eyes. Everything was silent so suddenly, and I wondered why it became so silent. I figured that everyone was probably waiting for me to make the decision and is holding their breath, so I looked at the paths again. The path on my left sloped upwards into the darkness, the path on my right sloped downwards, and then the path in front of me continued forwards into the darkness. Sometimes, one needs to descend into the darkness in order to see the truth... I repeated in my head. I knew exactly which path I should take. I turned to the path on my right that sloped downwards and walked down the path into the darkness. At first, I couldn't see anything, but I moved forwards. I wasn't about to turn back now, I've come this far to try and get some answers about why I was invited here.

After what seemed like an hour of walking, I emerged into a sudden bright light and the sound of cheering all around me. I winced a bit at the cheering and the light, but then I saw Steel Blade ahead of me with a small smirk on his face.

"Of all the ponies that have ever got that far, you're the first one to have picked the right path the first time," He said in a voice that seemed like as if he was proud to see something. "I'm glad that I invited you... John"

"Now why is that?" I asked him, hoping that he'll give me some answers to my questions.

"Because I thought that I have overestimated you and would see you fail to do an obstacle of mine," he explained.

"You're letting on less then what you know," I said with a small frown.

"Really?" He asked me in fake shocked voice. "What makes you think that?"

"Because I know some of those obstacles in the past, and only one other person could have made it so brutally hard to first timers," I explained to him. Instead of a surprised face like I expected, he smiled like if he was about to reveal something to me.

"I'm glad you remember your training... John," he said, causing me to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"The hell do you mean?" I asked him, tired of beating around the bush.

"I thought you would have learned how to swear less in front of an old friend," He said with a smirk.

"Old friend? What do you mean by-" I started to say, but then I looked at his features. His eyes, his mane, the scar. I widened my eyes in surprise when I could connect those features to a certain someone I knew from the past.

"Jonathan?" I asked softly in a mixture of surprise, confusion, and happiness. He nodded slowly and waited for my reaction. I stood there in shock, my mind reeling in the surprise of finding that my mentor and best friend was alive all these years. My first reaction that I wanted to do was punch him for doing a self-sacrifice and making me worry for him all those years but I couldn't bring myself to do it, so I did the second best thing and walk up to him. We looked each other in the eye as the crowd let out a gasp. After holding eye contact for a while I hugged him, trying hard to not cry and failing to do so.

"You have... no idea how much I've missed you..." I told him as I hugged him.

"I... think I can tell, but... could you... let go of...me? you’re hugging me... a bit tightly..." he said breathlessly. I let him go and blushed a bit, moving to wipe a tear off my face to hide it. "Thank you... and I missed you too," He said.

"Did you see that one coming?" I heard the announcer ask in surprise.

"Nope, but that has got to be... one of the best heartfelt reunions that I'll ever see," The fez pony responded in a way that sounded like he was trying not to cry.

"I had no idea that our captain of the guards used to be a human, but it was to be expected from all the things he said and did actually," The announcer responded.

"What, you actually saw that coming?" Steel Blade asked the announcer.

"No, not really," he responded earning a chuckle from Steel Blade, or Jonathan as I knew him as. He turned to me again.

"Normally, I'd congratulate you for this, but I did personally train you myself back then, so it was expected of me to see you here," He said.

"Wait, so you’re not going to give me a trophy or anything shiny like that?" I asked him.

"Why would I do that? You can always find one in a ruin," He said, pointing out the fact that I was a treasure hunter.

"Come on! I had to pass through traps and a puzzle just to get here!" I said, being a bit annoyed at him for doing that.

"Wrong, you had to pass through traps and TWO puzzles to get here," he pointed out.

"That last one doesn't count," I said in response, growing in anger a bit.

"Really? Then why is it that most ponies go up or forward then?" he asked.

"Because it's habit for them to go either way; that last one was a game of chance!" I near shouted.

"And what's wrong about a game of chance?" He shot back at me.

"Chances are that if I didn't pick the right path, I could have fallen into a mud pit!" I replied with a glare. He glared back at me, and we held it for a few seconds before laughing.

"Glad to hear that you're still somewhat the same John that I know of," Jonathan said.

"Yeah, but you should meet my fiancé," I said with a small smile.

"Wait, fiancé? Didn't you already get married once?" he asked me. I shot him a glare that told him to drop it. He chuckled.

"So... can I at least have something to bring back? I need to have a few things to remember this moment, and I don't think Vinyl will ever let me live it down if I don't" I told him.

"And you work for your bits too? What else have I missed while I was busy doing my own job?" He asked in surprise.

"Probably nothing, unless your job was two years ago," I told him. His eyelids lowered and a frown formed on his face.

"I've been here longer than you have John, don't even think about it..." He told me flatly.

"What? So I can call you an old timer? I thought I already did that in the past," I said with a joking smile.

"I'm not old enough where I can't kick your flank across this arena," he said with a smirk, earning an ooh from the crowd.

"Want to bet?" I asked, taking on a fighting stance.

"No..." He said flatly.

"What's the matter, too old to fight?" I asked, trying to taunt him.

"No, I'm afraid that if I fight you, I'd beat you with ease," he responded with a smirk. I furrowed my eyebrows and charged at him. He moved so fast that I couldn't tell what happened until I've ended up on my back with his leg on me.

"You're not the only one who's been training," he said as he kept me pinned to the floor.

"Damn..." I softly whispered to myself in wonder and anger, thoroughly berating myself for underestimating him greatly. Even if I wanted to get up, Jonathan was able to keep me pinned with another move, so I decided to take the better route and offer the olive branch. "Could you help me back up? I know that I can't beat you at all if you can move like that," He smiled and lifted his leg off me and helped me back onto my hooves.

"At least you know when you’re beaten," he said with a bit of pride.

"Oh, you only had many years of training, I can't beat that... yet," I said, saying the last part with a small smirk

"Over my broken knives," he said with a smirk in return. We held that for a moment before laughing at each other. Things really don't change, even when we are different. I thought to myself while we laughed with everyone else, who joined in as well.

Perspective:???

I smiled as I watched the two old friend reunite together and laugh again. Both of them were too serious for their own good, so I was glad that I've made the decision to save John. He was worth saving, but there was still more to do. The only thing I have left to do is help his brother. Chris is a good detective, but he's too anti-social. Obviously he gets the job done, but he doesn't care how many ponies he hurts or angers to do it. I was glad that I fixed one thing, but now I had to fix another. I adjusted my grey fez on my head and turned to the announcer pony, who was a blue crystal pony that had the look of experience around him.

"I guess I'm done here then," I told him with my classical smile.

"Yes, thank you so much for filling in for my co-announcer; I don't know what happened there, but at least we didn't have to put the event off," He said shaking my hoof.

"You're welcome," I said and turned to walk out.

"If you're ever in the crystal kingdom again please let Shining know," he said as I left the room. I'll keep it in mind when I have time. I thought to myself as I walked out. As soon as I got out, I went into a nearby closet and gently pulled my fez off.

"Phew, that's one thing done... now I have another step to take before I can get them both ready for what is to come," I said to myself as I reached into my fez and pulled out a crystal. I set it on the ground and waited for it to float into the air and activate its magic. As soon as its magic activated, an orange face appeared.

"Orange Star?" I asked the crystal, knowing that he can hear me.

"You need something?" he asked me with an excited look.

"I did my part, now I need you to do yours," I told him simply.

"John's better now?" Orange asked me with an uncharacteristic frown on his face.

"Yeah, I told you I could get the two together... All I had to do was look back in John's history to find out what happened and connect the pieces, then making sure that his name would be noticed on the list of ponies," I explained, wondering about why he would have that frown.

"That's great!" Orange near shouted at me with glee. I chuckled, knowing that Orange is an uncle of Pinkie Pie. The Pie family used to be rock farmers, but Pinkie was the one exception.

"How are things on your end?" I asked him.

"Not good... I was unable to set up any fancy mystery that wouldn't end up leading back to me," Orange explained. I sighed, knowing that Chris was too good at his job to allow us to be able to set it up without him getting wind of it.

"Change of plans then... Orange, I need you to keep an eye on Chris, I'll have to send a pony over there to set one up for him to solve," I said to him.

"How are you going to make sure that he doesn't connect it back to you?" Orange asks me.

"I have my own connections..." I said in a very vague way. Before Orange could ask me anything else, I turned off the crystal. As soon as I put the crystal back in my grey fez, I reached in there and pulled out a cellphone. I thought about it for a bit before putting it back in the fez and shaking my head. Why do I even have that? I thought to myself as I pulled out another crystal, this one was black instead of clear. I sighed and activated it, and a voice came through the crystal.

"Yeah?" He asked me, getting to the point. I smiled, loving about how direct he was. It makes everyone's lives so much easier that way.

"Can I ask a favor of you?" I asked, knowing that the crystal would hide my voice tone and distort it a bit to keep my identity hidden.

"I'm listening..." He said, sounding very interested in it. I smiled, knowing that he will be the best pony to do exactly what I need to have happen.

"Yeah, I want you to set something up," I said, explaining my plan to that pony. I knew full well that Chris will have a hard time of solving this case alone.

And that's exactly what I need to teach him before it happened.