Pony Buster: A timeless journey

"Good Morning Children." Cheerilee addressed her class. "Today, I have a special new lesson for you!"

"Boring." Diamond sighed, as with most of the class, it truly has been a boring week for most of Equestria, even the CMC are tired of going to school and back home.

"What's with the faces everypony? This lesson will definitely be interesting as the dimensional cracks that have appeared last week!" Cheerilee continued, giving a feverish smile. During the last week, there has indeed been these small cracks that started appearing around Ponyville as well as Canterlot. But with some good old pony magic, the Princesses, with the help of Discord, managed to seal them up, causing minimal concern and maximum control over that situation. Even so, the children did return back to their normal lives again.

"Today, I have asked our local Royal Guardspony to help out. Can you say good morning to Mr Sentry?" Cheerilee introduced an Orange Pegasus fully clad in his armor, with a calm but fierce look, carrying a box of textbooks with him. Scootaloo looked up with interest and delight when she saw the orange pegasus.

"Good Morning Mr Sentry!" The children chorused unanimously and monotonically.

"Good Morning to you too Children." Flash bowed "under the orders of the Princess and Miss Cheerilee, I have been assigned to assist in your education for a few days regarding this topic. If you may be so kind..." Flash placed three columns of books on each of the student tables in the front. "Can you three pass each book to the back for your other class mates? Each of you will receive three books each." As the students hurriedly pass the books back. Applebloom was eager to see what they are.

"Today's period of instruction is all about Ancient History." Flash continued, receiving groans from all around.

"Silence!" Flash commanded with a roar before calmly continuing on. "It's not about the ancient history of Equestria however. If you look through these books, you'll see rather unfamiliar names and places. That's because all of you will be learning about the Ancient History of Foreign Countries." 'Ooh's and 'Aah's filled the room instead.

"The red book you received covers the history of Ancient Chineigh. The white book covers Ancient Neighpon and the brown book contains the historical figures of numerous western countries." The students were enlightened as they eagerly flipped through the books. Applebloom was interested in one such figure from Ancient Chineigh, a blonde-maned mare with part of her mane tied into a long swirly ponytail, while her tail was straight like any other pony. Her colour was a tad darker than her mane, but she was wearing all amazing sets of garments and accessories. From furry white cuff-links on her front legs, and stockings that had their own individual design and colour on their back of yellow and green. She wore a peculiar looking hat of yellow with green stripes with a gold medallion, and carries a rather interesting weapon. A spear, but with a curved blade instead of the normal spearhead that the Royal Guard has. Reading more about her, Applebloom learnt the mare's name to be Fan Lihua, a fearsome warrior that is able to win her battles without getting dirty, and has a killing smile. Applebloom kept on admiring this mare until Flash called the class to attention.

"Everypony, we shall begin learning about Ancient Chineigh." Flash spoked "a long time ago..." Applebloom took the job of listening and writing down what Flash had to say, while also thinking about the mare in history named Fan Lihua.

As school was finished and the class was dismissed, the CMC came together to talk about today.

"Man. Class is such a bummer today!" Scootaloo sighed "I thought it would get at least a bit interesting after that History lesson."

"I agree." Sweetie sighed, "you must admit though, for a soldier like Mr Sentry, he does know a lot about foreign history!"

"He must have been hitting the books with Twilight." Scootaloo joked, "what did you think Applebloom?"

"Ah didn't really like it." Applebloom replied,

"Why not?"

"Well, all he ever talked about were the stallion figures and heroes like Liu Bei and Xiang Yu. He never mentioned or talked about the mares, especially Fan Lihua."

"Who?"

"This girl." Applebloom showed her friends the picture of the mare warrior.

"She looks pretty." Sweetie noted,

"How did you get so infatuated towards her?" Scootaloo asked,

"Ah dunno, ah sorta admire her looks, her weapon, it's complicated."

"By the way, I've got to go." Sweetie remembered "Rarity needs me back straight away."

"Oh okay then, guess I split too." Scootaloo replied, "see ya Applebloom!" And the two fillies waved goodbye, leaving Applebloom all alone.

"Ah guess I'll visit the lake before gettin home." Applebloom sighed.

As Applebloom arrived at the lake, she sat on one of the picnic benches close to it and looked up at the cliff towering above it. Remembering the times of how Granny Smith once jumped down the cliff and into the lake, a courageous move.

"Heh, ah wonder how the heroes of the past would feel like, seein how peaceful the world is right now." Applebloom wondered. As she continued looking into the lake, an abnormal sound pricked up the ears of Applebloom.

"That's odd." Applebloom wondered as she heard the sloshing of water, "the current don't look so rough today." Deciding to investigate, she found the source, coming from a small part of the lake being covered by long reeds and grass. Applebloom marched on through as the sound got louder and louder, until Applebloom poked her head out into a small clearing surrounded by tall grass, seeing a pony pouring water all over herself. It didn't take a second for Applebloom to realise what this pony was doing, as she laid eyes on some nearby clothes. It took less than a second for the other pony to notice that somepony was looking and screamed in fright towards the filly's face.

"Oh mah Celestia!" Applebloom jumped as she pushed her head back in and ran out of the small area and called back "Ah'm awfully sorry about that miss! I didn't mean to peek into yer business!" Silence returned her call.

"Seriously, ah heard something was different in the lake, so ah went to investigate. Ah didn't know that ponies like you are able to take a bath in the lake! Ah mean, there are such things as public baths in Ponyville!" Silence was returned again.

"Listen, mah name's Applebloom, and Ah'm completely sorry about peeking at you, it was an accident. May ah know yer name?"

"... Fan Lihua." A stern but calm voice came from the bushes.

"Ah beg yer pardon... Wait... Whut!?" Applebloom gasped as if she thought she had misheard the name. The pony that was bathing stepped out of the area fully dressed, looking at Applebloom. She was an adult mare like Twilight and Cheerilee, but what was really shocking, was her appearance, filling the young filly with great surprise. The mare's mane was blonde in colour with part of her mane tied into a long swirly ponytail, as well a straight tail on her flank. Her body colour was a tad darker than her mane, and was wearing all amazing sets of garments and accessories. Applebloom saw white cuff-links on her front legs, and stockings that had their own individual design and colour on their back of yellow and green. She wore a peculiar looking hat of yellow with green stripes and a gold medallion. The biggest thing however, was that she was armed with a spear that has a curved blade instead of the normal spearhead that the Royal Guard has. It was impossible to believe for Applebloom, but she was standing right in front of her in the flesh, when she should have been deceased for a long time.

"Fan Lihua." The mare repeated her name, her green eyes staring straight into the filly's.