Courage is Magic

Chapter 5

Parties are never complete without something fun to them.

When Pinkie returned again, she brought the whole entire town with her. At least, everyone who she could find anyways. Everyone was wondering why Pinkie would throw a party this time until one of the ponies noticed me. The brown pony gave me a weird look and I glared back in response.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" The brown pony asks me. It resulted in the rest of the ponies looking in my direction and wondering who I was.

"Probably not, my name is John," I said in an attempt to not lash out at them in anger.

"Do you happen to know what Changeling ooze tastes like?" I heard one of the ponies in the crowd ask. It confused me enough of the question to calm myself down pretty quickly. I knew that they may not know for a fact if it's me, so I decided to help them out on that.

"Last time I tried eating it, it tasted like some green Jell-o that was sitting out in the sun for around three days," I said with a small shiver. I am never trying that again because the taste was close to what I said, only a bit weirder.

"By Celestia! You're really back!" I heard a mint green pony shout.

"Did someone happen to call for me?" I heard a royal voice say. The ponies immediately bowed to a large white horse with wings and a colorful mane that flows like it was being blown by the wind. I remembered her easily and smiled.

"Celestia! Here have some cake!" I said, offering her one of the cakes that I baked.

"Thank you," She said in a polite tone; grabbing the plate with her magic. I managed to maintain a straight face as she took a bite and looked a bit surprised and confused.

"So why are we here... Oh John! Welcome back!" I heard a different royal voice say. I knew for a fact that it was probably Luna, she was a bit smaller than her sister but her coat was a dark blue along with her mane looking like the night sky. I think she does live up to her name.

"Thank you, have some cake," I said and offered the plate from the same cake. I then saw Celestia look at me in confusion.

"Could you tell me why the cake tastes more like pie?" she asks me. I grinned and tried to hold back from laughing.

"Did I mess up on the cake? I think I might have given you a slice of pie in the shape of a cake," I said while holding back laughter. Luna looked at me before even taking a bite of the pie/cake.

"I don't think I did..." I said and pretended that I was deep in thought. I saw Luna decide to taste it and see if I messed up.

"John, why does the cake taste like pie?" Luna asked me in confusion as if she hadn’t heard Celestia. I snorted and fell over laughing to the confusion of everyone. As I was laughing, I noticed a gold Pegasus with a grayscale mane wearing a pith hat enter in through the window. No one noticed her because they were focused on me laughing on the floor. As soon as I calmed down enough to breathe and speak normally I got up.

"Gotcha! I waited two years to do something like that to you!" I said between laughs.

"I don't get it," I heard a pony in the crowd say.

"You both dropped me down a hole! Now you get pie in the shape of cake," I said with a serious look but the grin never did leave my face. Celestia would also chuckle as well.

"I see you have managed to get us then," She said and did a warm smile.

"That is a really good joke John, perhaps I should try that next time my sister is stealing my cake," She said, directing the last part at Celestia.

"Two years? That's an interesting time to wait to prank royalty," I heard the golden Pegasus say. I turned to acknowledge her.

"Sort of, now who are you?" I asked.

"I am Daring Doo, and you must be John correct?" She said with a confidence that I recognized.

"Indeed, the one and only, now cue the fan girl squealing," I said. Daring looked at me in confusion for a moment until I heard a chorus of squealing. I decided to take to the air and avoid being trampled. Wait, how did I remember how to fly? I thought to myself in confusion as a crowd stormed over where I was. I shook my head, deciding to ask that another day.

"Make sure you leave some time for her to talk to me! I actually want to talk with her about her offer to me!" I shouted at the crowd. I think I also saw a cyan Pegasus with a rainbow mane in the crowd, and I knew it was Rainbow Dash. She was really that big of a fan of the Daring Doo books. I flew towards the stage where my brother was waiting.

"I can't believe that you’re not jealous of her yet," He said as soon as I landed.

"We both know that I don't care much for fame," I told him simply.

"I am sure that Daring would feel almost the same way," He said with a small smile.

"I'll just get on the stage, I want to tell one of my stories about a hunt before this party gets too cold," I said and made my way onto the stage.

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The crowd near Daring died away when I stomped loudly on the stage to get everyone's attention. Only Rainbow Dash wouldn’t pay any attention to me and asked Daring to Sign one of the books (that she probably got from the library). Daring did so and Rainbow squealed softly in delight.

"If you don't mind, I would like to tell you a story that I have while I was gone for two years, so if you would kindly quiet down I can get started," I said, and almost every pony there looked at me with interest and some sat down in front of the stage.

"Okay then, now which one should I tell..." I said to myself. I tapped my chin with my hoof twice before I came up with an idea.

"I know, how about the story about the story about the time when I found a mirror," I heard murmurs around the crowd and I figured that it would be the best story to tell.

"Okay, we start this tale in a bar, I was hanging around it as I usually do when this woman walked into the building, To everyone in the bar, she looked astoundingly beautiful, I wasn't really paying any attention because I did not really care for beauty because I had my eyes for someone else, She walks up to me and asks me if I would like to do a job for her, I would refuse at first, but then she started offering me rewards ranging from money to her body, I said no to every one of those offers; Especially when she offered her body," I paused to shake my head in disappointment.

"She really wanted me to take the job so she asks me what I really want, I told her that I was in search of a certain knife, turns out that she had the knife that I was looking for with her, so with that reward, I took the job of the treasure hunt, this woman points me to an island and gives me the knife, I took it but she actually followed me to make sure that I didn't try to walk out with the knife and not do the job in the first place," I paused again to take a drink of water and I was happy that the room was silent this time. I set down my glass and continued.

"Now I know you are wondering: Why do I need a certain knife? I will actually keep that to myself because I don't think you would want to know," I told them. They wouldn't want to know what I used it for either. I thought to myself.

"Anyways, I get to this temple and lo and behold, the door wasn't even open, the lady who followed me happens to walk up to the door and opens it for me, saving me time of attempting to open it in the first place. Now, when I entered in the temple, the door shut behind me and forces me to have to continue onwards, the first trap I encountered in the temple was a dart trap," I paused to stomp the floor in anger.

"Bloody dart traps always get on my nerves!" I shouted angrily at the crowd and startled a few ponies, “sorry,” I really did not want to stay on the topic of dart traps, so I continued my story.

"After getting through the dart traps, I avoided a few other typical temple traps such as: Fire shooting out of the floor, rooms where you have to step on certain tiles, running away from boulders, and some items that are not even real,” Daring gave a look of “I know how you feel” I smiled and continued, “now after passing all of those traps you would think that I have just obtained the treasure easily, right? Wrong! It is never that easy to obtain a treasure despite all of the traps you have gone through, So when I saw the mirror I saw something come out of the shadows, I pulled out a knife and prepared for a fight when I noticed a key thing about the figure when he walked into the light that was shining in the room," I paused again to finish the rest of the water in the glass and carefully put the glass near the middle of the stage where I wouldn't tip it over and break it.

"The figure was me, and I couldn't even think about trying to beat him, he knew me well and had his own knife drawn out to fight; I did the first thing that I could think of, and that was talk to it. Surprisingly, he had his own mind as well. I found out that I was right about the figure being me except the fact that he was my opposite self; as I talked to him, we both became less hostile and more friendly towards each other since we were not trying to actively fight each other, I really enjoyed the conversation but it is pretty boring for me to repeat again though," I looked around the room and smile when I saw Midnight Song also in the room to listen to my story.

"Either way, it turns out that the only reason that my reflection came to life was because it was cursed. With my reflection's help, I managed to remove the curse from the mirror that I was searching for. Then the lady that I saw earlier comes in and thanks me before disappearing, leaving me to wonder of who that lady was. I figured that she was a spirit of the mirror that has long since suffered because of the curse. I can't argue with what she did though, I did get the knife in the first place, now normally I would make my way out of the temple, but the mirror offered to teleport me out of there so I agreed to its offer and with a flash of light I found myself out of the temple, it wasn't really one of the best treasure hunts I did but it was a pretty interesting one," I said and paused long enough for them to know that I finished my story. They applauded (well, stomped on the floor) for me. I even saw Daring Doo join in as well.

"I think you told a great story," Daring said when the noise died down.

"Thanks, I won't ever tell you about the reason of why I needed the knife," I said with a dark smile.

"John, don't scare the audience," Chris deadpanned to me.

"Sorry, I think some dark memories may have taken a bit of my mind apart..." I admitted.

"Wait, what do you mean by dark memories?" Twilight asks. I was surprised of her being there in the first place, until I saw Dusk as well.

"I'll explain that for John, he managed to... do something to someone that I assumed that you called evil, at least based on what John did anyways; So he butchered that person so much that he would resemble what we call ground hamburger, the body was so torn apart that I had to stop John from doing it again; I think John may still carry a bit of scars from it," Chris explained in a sad way. The ponies would look at me in horror.

"I still don't like what I did," I told them to try to set them more at ease. It worked to a degree, but some were still a bit worried about my state of mind.

"Who was it that you managed to kill?" Pyro asks in curiosity, not even helping the situation at all. I figured that he came with Dusk into the party when I wasn't paying attention.

"He called himself Shadow Blade I think..." I said with uncertainly in my voice.

"I thought that we got rid of him," Sparx said. I figured that Dusk may have brought his whole entire living family to the party, so I shouldn't be surprised at their appearance.

"I thought so too... I think that he would probably be dead by now after what I did to him; His shadows really did a number on my mind and I really don't want to talk any more about it in fear of relapsing and repeating it on somepony else," I said with growing worry.

"Would you mind if I offer help?" I heard Luna say to the surprise of the crowd.

"If you can fix my mental state about that event, by all means go ahead," I said with a light tap to the side of my head.

"Very well, first I need to have us go somewhere where we won't be disturbed," Luna explained.

"Sounds good, Pinkie could you keep the party going without me?" I asked.

"Will do!" Pinkie responded with a salute.

"Great, now where-?" I started to ask, but I saw Luna's horn glow and I felt very tired for some strange reason. I was careful to lie down on the floor before closing my eyes. I don't have any idea of what happened, but I was pretty sure it was part of Luna's attempt to help me. I hoped that she succeeded in it too.

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I opened my eyes to find that I was in a creepy morgue, and that Luna was nowhere to be seen. The building looked very abandoned and in pretty bad shape. I looked up to see a dark blue sky, so I figured that it was probably something that Luna put me into while she went around in my memories. I was glad that she did this because I really don't like what I did to Shadow Blade. He was evil, but I don't think he deserved what I did to him. I sighed and looked around the general area. It looked exactly like what a morgue would look like except in a certain area of the floor. The floor looked more burnt like as if a lightning bolt struck the area. I was curious about the mark on the floor, so I decided to investigate it. In the center of the burnt area was a name, I did not recognize the name until I read it out loud.

"Morning Cloud..." I said to myself softly, and then a flash of light illuminated the area for a brief moment. When it faded, I noticed that a near invisible pony stood where the flash happened.

"Another day in this place..." It lamented.

"Who... are you?" I asked with uncertainly. He would turn to look at me.

"Wait, you can see me?" He asks.

"I guess so... I thought this was a dream?" I said in confusion.

"It probably is, but I guess you were the one who managed to kill Shadow Blade?" He asked me out of the blue.

"I guess? I don't know if that was him though," I said in confusion.

"I'll take that as a yes, so that means that you’re going to help me," He said in an excited tone.

"Don't I get a say in this?" I asked him.

"Not really, since you did read my name and I appeared here," He explained to me with an odd smile.

"Son of a-" I started to curse, but the rest of my curse was thrown away by a weird feeling. The spirit disappeared and I had a feeling that I remembered when Golden Shield did something like this two years ago.

"So much for that, now who-" I started to say but I got an image of Scootaloo in my head.

"Okay, I think I'll talk with Scootaloo and see if she can point me in the right direction of where Morning last was alive..." I said to myself. I looked around and the morgue was still there. I decided that while I wait for her to finish going through my past to look around this morgue. I searched through the drawers for the bodies in the morgue, two of them had a skeleton inside. They were creepy with their sightless eyes, but I got used to it quickly since I've seen things similar to that. I did see a few of them suddenly fill with blood, but when I blinked my eyes it vanished. It was creepy as hell to me, but I was hoping that it would not continue. I got my wish when I saw a glint of a flash appear next to the blackened area. I turned to investigate the glint and saw that a map had appeared in the floor. I looked over the map and committed it to memory before it disappeared with a soft glow.

"Well that was pointless, going to remember that area though..." I said to myself. There was no one around to hear me, so I figured that I could do something to pass the time. I thought about playing five finger filet, but I tossed that idea out because I had a hoof. It would be too easy to play that game anyways, so I decided to do the second best thing, Knife throwing. I walked to a wall and pulled out a knife to draw a target upon the stone. I took a few steps back from the target and used the same knife to mark the floor where I would stand for throwing. I put that knife away and pulled out four other knives for the little game.

I set them down on the floor and picked up one of them. I narrowed my eyes and concentrated on the target, and threw the knife. The knife sunk into the wall about eight centimeters off from the bull's-eye, I was disappointed. I picked up the second knife and threw it at the target without bothering to aim. The knife sank into the target at its lowest point.I think I may need practice at this... I thought to myself as I picked up the third knife. I carefully aimed at an area above the bull's eye and threw the knife. The third knife sunk itself directly dead center in the bull’s-eye. Okay maybe not. I thought in half surprise. I picked up the last knife and threw it at the wall without bothering to aim. That knife hit the area of the wall far below the target. I looked at it in surprise before becoming embarrassed. "Woops." I said to myself, glad that no one was able to see my embarrassing throw, or that no human males were standing there either. I walked to the wall and retrieved my knives. As I turned back to walk to the line the world started fading to black along with the sky. Finally... I thought as the world slowly became black.

________________________________________

I awoke to find myself lying on a bed in what looked to be a pretty fancy room. I blinked once and looked around the room to see Luna standing next to me looking pretty tired.

"You have really fought Shadow Blade..." She said in worry.

"I guess so... did it work?" I asked anxiously. She looked at me with a bit of surprise, but smiled.

"I have, but it was not easy for both of us to fix it," She told me as calmly as she could.

"Both of you?" I asked.

"Your mind was very broken from when you fought Shadow Blade, his shadows almost turned you insane but I am surprised to see that you have managed to beat them, but the lasting effects were hard to remove without someone who has experience in them," Luna explained to me, and gestured to her left. I looked and saw a dark purple earth pony that looked similar to Dusk. Out of Instinct, I reached towards my bag to pull out a knife when Luna used her magic to stop me.

"Shadow Blade..." I spat out in anger.

"Clam down John, this is not the Shadow Blade that you know," She said to me in a calm tone. I glared at the earth pony with suspicion before looking at Luna.

"Explain it then, I know I killed Shadow Blade myself!" I growled in a dangerous way.

"I was corrupted by him until six very brave fillies banished him from me," The dark purple pony says in a calm way. I turned my gaze back to him.

"Right, so what do you go by now then?" I asked him.

"I go by Dusk Relic now," He told me in a calm way.

"Alright Relic or whoever you are, give me just one reason that I shouldn't try to put a knife in your head," I threatened.

"Because I want to be the father that I have failed to be for Dusk, Because of Shadow Blade I have missed so much of his life," He says with sorrow in his voice. I looked at his eyes, and saw that he was telling the truth. I slowly got up and set my bag on the bed.

"Oh... I am very sorry for what I did then," I said to him, matching his sorrow.

"Don't be, I know that I have done evils that I-" He started to say, but I interrupted him.

"You didn't do them on purpose, but I want you to tell me the truth, are you really Dusk’s father?" I asked him.

"Yes, and of Morning as well, but because of Shadow Blade, he is no longer with us..." He told me sadly.

Wait, Shadow Blade is my father? I heard a voice ask in my head.

"Oh hell no... Not this again" I grumbled out loud.

"Is there something wrong?" Luna asks me.

"Yes, I have another spirit who manages to possess me," I said, not being amused at the prospect of another spirit deciding to use me as a home.

"This has happened before?" Dusk Relic asks me.

"Yep, Golden Shield was the first," I said to him.

"Who is it this time?" Luna asks me in curiosity.

"I think he called himself Morning or something like that..." I said; Luna and Dusk Relic looked at me in surprise.

"Morning? But he died," Relic said.

"I think he did, but now I have his spirit haunting my head," I said to him in annoyance, “it’s really annoying how often this happens to me.”

'You do know that I can hear that, right?' Morning said in my head.

"Yes... I know," I said out loud.

"This shouldn't normally be possible... Unless," Dusk Relic says in thought.

"Unless what?" I asked in confusion.

"Unless you happen to be one of the legendary elements that have been lost to this world," He finished. I looked at him like I thought that he was crazy.

"What are these elements?" I asked him.

"They are elements that have long since vanished from our world, if all of them were to be found, they could be used to dispel any evil," He explained to me.

"Woo... I have this power that I could use to possibly kill everyone if it is in the wrong hands," I said sarcastically.

"It is impossible for it to be used for evil, if it was going to be used for evil it would have killed you," He explained.

"Yeah, so how do you know so much of these so called elements?" I asked him.

"Because Shadow Blade talked about them, and how he worried about being killed before finding one of them while he controlled me," He said with a grave look.

"Great, so now everything evil is going to be hunting me if they know this," I lamented.

"Not unless you tell them," Luna says to me.

"Oh... never mind then," I said.

"I think I will leave you to rest, when you are ready to learn more about your abilities, meet me at the observatory," Dusk Relic says to me and walks out, “oh, and one last thing, I am sincerely sorry.”

"Alright... I suppose I could use it anyways," I said, confused as to why he was apologizing, and nodded to Luna. I got back into the bed and closed my eyes.

Do you think that you could be as awesome as me? Morning jokingly asks me in my head.

Shut up and let me sleep. I replied in my head and closed my eyes. I did not want to deal with anything more since I managed to have my mind pieced back together. It was going to be one heck of a day when I open my eyes again.

Can you tell me what happened to Dusk? Morning asks me in my head. I gave him no reply as I drifted off to sleep.