Canadian Pacific 5-5

Chapter 12: The Unnatural

A week into April I was walking to school when I caught a glimpse of something running on the school’s soccer field. I had almost dismissed it as someone from one of the Outdoor-Ed classes when I did a double take. There were no footprints where whoever it was had run through. When I arrived at school I went looking for my friends and found them almost immediately. They must have seen the lingering look of confusion on my face because Andrew asked, “What’s up, Conner?” The question caught me off guard for how much concern it held. “Well,” I said hesitantly, “I saw something strange on my way to school today.” “Did it leave any foot prints?” Brent asked.

I was surprised at the question until I realized that I might not have been the only one to see something that morning. “No, it didn’t,” I replied, “Did you see something similar?” “We all did,” was the answer Brody gave. We agreed to keep our eyes open and report any other strange occurrences. The next day I was walking to school as usual when something caught my eye on the football field. I turned and made a beeline for it, always keeping visual contact with it. Before I could get close enough to identify it a tree slipped into my view between me and whatever the running thing was. In that split second it disappeared. The thing had vanished into thin air.

This time it had left footprints and I started to follow them hoping to find more clues. There was nothing outstanding about the footprints. They looked like whatever it was had been wearing snow boots. All I found was that the footprints just stopped where I had lost sight of the strange creature. I reported my findings and we came to the conclusion that, whatever it or they were, they must have the ability to teleport. These strange sightings continued for about a week before Conner spoke to us about it.

He brought us into the Void to speak to us in private. The Void seemed larger this time but I didn’t dwell on the feeling for too long. “Why did you bring us here?” I asked. “I’ll answer that with a question,” Conner replied, “Have you ever heard of Ghosts with respect to computers.” We all thought for a moment before John replied, “I think so. Isn’t that when random segments of code write themselves together to create tiny programs that don’t usually do much?” “Yes, that’s it exactly,” Conner replied, “That thing that has been following you guys around is one of them.

“Normally it wouldn’t pose much of a threat but I believe that this one managed to grab sections of the Evil-Andrew reference document as I deleted it.” “Why didn’t we encounter it earlier?” I asked. Conner thought for a moment before replying, “I think that’s because the program has only just recently acquired enough data to manifest itself in your world. I have no idea what it’ll be capable of but I can hopefully make you more prepared. In order to do so I will give you five the ability to transform into a mythical creature that relates to your element. Brody will become a Phoenix, John a Griffon, Conner will become a Golem, Brent a Hydra, and Andrew will get to be Cerberus.”

“That’s awesome,” Andrew exclaimed, “But why did you give me Cerberus? Why not jus let us turn into dragons of our own element?” “Are you complaining about the abilities I gave you?” Conner asked as he glared at Andrew. “No! No. Not at all!” Andrew said defensively as he cringed slightly. “Good,” Conner sighed, “Thing is, I haven’t been able to find many mythical creatures that relate to Light or Dark.” We all stood in silence for a moment before Conner suddenly turned his head and looked up. It looked as though he had heard something. A look of recognition swept across his face. “We need to go,” he said, “I’ll try and contact you later.”

We were thrown back into our own world and left to our own devices. As we turned to go to class Andrew stuck his hands into his pockets and he paused for a second looking puzzled. He pulled out a piece of paper that obviously wasn’t there moments before. Andrew read it aloud.

Dear E 5;

I advise you to carry your swords with you at all times from now until ‘The Wraith’ is defeated. Yes that’s what I’m calling it. Deal with it. Don’t worry about being found out. Your sheathes now have phase cloak abilities. This means that it will harmlessly pass through any object it touches when the cloak is active. The only things unaffected by the cloak are your swords’ hilt and the crest on the sheath. All you have to do is tap the crest once to activate the cloak and twice to deactivate. Best of luck to you all. I’ll try and figure out some way to defeat ‘The Wraith’.

Sincerely, The Writer

We stood for a moment ingesting what Conner had told us. “Would you mind grabbing our swords?” I asked Andrew. “Huh? Oh! Yeah, sure,” he replied as he stuck his hand into the shadow under the school’s trophy case. He handed each of us our swords as he pulled them from the shadow. After putting on our sheathes and adjusting them so that they fit comfortably we activated the cloaks. Sure enough the sheathes and swords completely disappeared save for the crests and hilts which were relatively inconspicuous. We told each other that we’d see them later and went to our separate classes.

While in my construction class I asked my friend Michael if he would write down one of the adventures we ‘Five’ had. He was one of the few that knew of our powers and he did well to keep it secret. He agreed to transcribe and I began to tell him the details of what had happened. Details I do not care to explain here. I told him that Andrew, Brody, Brent, John and I had all agreed to keep it secret and to not tell them about me commissioning him to put it on paper.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\E5/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“What sort of adventure?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“It’s a rather embarrassing story that the others wouldn’t want me telling,” I replied, “Besides, that was in an alternate universe a long time ago.”

“I understand,” Pinkie replied.

“That’s enough for tonight,” I said, “Time to head to the bunks. Goodnight!”

The Mane 6 chorused a ‘goodnight’ and we went our separate ways.