Bat's Academy

by Meep the Changeling

Rating: teen
Tags: Bat Pony, Alternate Universe, Romance, Changelings, Science Fiction, Slice of Life, Drama, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 129558

A young mare learns martial arts in Neighpone to try and find a way to live up to her family’s heroic legacy.

[Third Person] Alternating Perspectives [Equisverse Era 2]
Forty Two years after the return of Princess Luna, and twenty five years after the Elements of Harmony were broken, Equestria has entered a new age. The Bearers were forced to adapt, to change, and discover new ways to continue to keep Equestria safe. Thanks to the tools, weapons, and spells the Bearers have come to use over the years, Equestria, once famous for rejecting the majority of the world’s technological advances in favor of magic, has come to embrace the mechanical and the arcane in equal measure.

These changes echoed across Equestria, and traditions began to change as the average pony sought to do their part. Many by taking up arms to protect Equestria themselves as adventurers, wandering heroes, or vigilantes. Being a hero is no longer something a lucky (or unfortunate) few have to do on occasion. It’s a job. One which pays well. One which is extremely dangerous. One which might mean you only have to work one day a month. Or that you only go to work once, if you lucky (or very unlucky).

It’s a job that Orange Sherbert wants. But not for the money. Her grandparents did it before the new age dawned, as did her parents, aunts, uncles, their friends, and even acquaintances. Being a hero is her family’s business, but Sherbert is no hero.

She’s young, inexperienced, unskilled, and immature. But she knows this. She knows it and wants to become someone she feels is worthy of her family’s legacy. Someone who can save any day which needs saving. Someone who can right wrongs, and to destroy that which should not be.

To accomplish her goal, Orange Sherbet has chosen to travel to the country of Neighpone and train in the art of ninjitsu. To acquire skills, discipline, and personal growth all at once. But just what will she have to endure to achieve her goals after entering the ancient doors of Kōmoriakademī, Bat’s Academy.

Featured on Sunday, August 13, 2017 at 5:47:42 AM :yay:
And again on Friday, August 25, 2017 at 9:29:01 AM :yay:
And again on Tuesday, September 12, 2017 at 9:03:22 AM :yay:
And yet again on Saturday, September 16, 2017 at 6:12:59 AM :yay:

This story begins Series 2 of the Equisverse. Prior cannon is unnecessary.

Published 2017-06-29 08:40:06 UTC
Last updated 2017-09-16 06:08:42 UTC

2 - Kōmoriakademī

Sherbert - 4th of Solar Dusk, 25 AE

Kazumi’s Clinic, Neighdo - Neighpone

I grew up in an ambulatory surgery center which was called a clinic because dad thought that sounded more friendly. But that still screwed with my perception of what a clinic was. I didn’t expect a clinic to be just like home, not after I learned the difference between types of healthcare facilities.

I expected clinics to be tiny, under funded places with not enough staff, held together by one badflank of a doctor who gave enough of a buck to make up for the lack of funds and personnel. The kind of pony who can reattach your severed leg with an overworked internal scream using only grit, determination, and the mountain of paperwork your injury created for him. At least, that’s what the average Equestrian clinic was like.

That’s what I had expected when Rojā said we were going to Kazumi’s Clinic. It wasn’t what we got.

The clinic was built inside a fairly large quonset hut. One easily large enough to use as the hanger for several small personal aircraft, though not big enough for a second floor. Despite being an old prefab military building, the exterior had been plastered and lacquered over to give it a smooth finish. Then the building had been painted a distinctive red and white with the international red cross on the flat side facing the street, the downstroke going right over the front door for convenience's sake.

You could easily see it through the trees thanks to the paint job, and it looked like the forest had been trimmed, warped, and grown to expose as much of the building as possible without making a true clearing. I suppose that was Uneigh groundskeeping at work.

The exterior exceptionally well cared for outside was matched by the inside. Short, white-painted vertical walls which were about one and a half ponies high had been built inside the half-a-cylinder shaped building to provide an area to hang things on the walls. Things like the dark hardwood panels which contrasted with the light softwood, possibly bamboo, floor. They also let the internal walls be built nice and square to one another.

There were lots of internal walls. The clinic had twenty five separate rooms for patients alone. Some equipped for overnight stays, some examination rooms, a chamber for arcane healing and data gathering, and even one freaking MRI room for tech based information gathering.

Kazumi’s Clinic was a mini-Ponyville General Hospital. Only with WAY more serious nurses. Some of whom had their own office, all of whom had a break room.

This clinic was easily the most efficiently used space I had ever been in. And I’d been in my Aunt Ayna’s laboratory. The laboratory of a highly functioning autistic changeling wizard who honestly has problems locating items if they were moved a mere half meter away from their ‘designated non-use resting position,’ was less optimized than this micro-hospital’s floorplan. Which somehow managed to squeeze in three full handicap accessible bathrooms without making any given room feel tiny.

It was enough for me to ask, “So, whose Kazumi?”

Rojā’s wings twitched slightly as I asked the question. I didn’t know him very well yet, but I could tell that I’d upset him.

“I’m sorry,” I said as quickly as I could while also stepping out of the way of a white uniformed pegasus mare carrying a stack of folders. “I don’t know a lot about Neighpone yet. I did try to learn everything I could but-”

Rojā nodded. “Yes, that’s true isn't it?” He said apologetically. “This is a legend everyone here knows, one of the ones which are foundational to modern Neighpone. It would be exceptionally rude to remain ignorant of this very real pony’s life and deeds. Kami-sama Kazumi Hattori is the Kami of Healing, Healers, Intimidation, and Tenacity.

“Five hundred years ago, the batpony mare, Kazumi-sama, was a ronin and a traveling healer who had been disowned by her family before finishing her training as a samauri, due to her being a dwarf. For a time, it was thought she was simply growing slowly, but when her family learned her growth had stopped entirely, she was exiled.

“She traveled all of Neighpone, using her talent as a healer to tend to any she could find, eventually becoming a monk and living off the kindness of the families she helped. As many traveling monks have done before, and still do to this day. Kazumi-sama’s apotheosis occurred when she saved the lives of three hundred ponies during the aftermath of a battle between two rival states. The losing Shogun ordered three hundred of her samurai to commit seppuku as their division had dishonored her by failing to hold a hill, leading to the army being routed.

“Like all good samurai, they complied. The Shogun refused to allow the samurai mercy, ordering their assistants not to behead them despite each one successfully disemboweling themselves without flinching. ‘Let those who ran like dogs die like dogs.’ Is a quote attributed to this particular Shogun.

“Kazumi-sama was present in the village the Shogun had rallied her army at, and was having none of that. She personally cleaned, stitched, and treated each of the slowly dying samurai's wounds as best she could. In the morning, the Shogun discovered her actions, and ordered Kazumi-sama to be executed. She killed twenty seven of the samurai sent to kill her with what was either an ironroot staff or a broken spear haft, history is hazy there.

“Meanwhile, the Shogun’s soldiers were ordered to reopen each of the three hundred’s wounds and ensure they bled out slowly as planned. They did. So Kazumi-sama treated each of them again, then marched her way up to the Shogun and cut out her left eye with a scalpel before the shogun could react and ordered her to ‘Stop putting holes in my patients!’

“Now, this may be hard for an Equestrian to believe, but the shogun took exception to being dishonored in such a manner, and let Kasumi-sama go, intending to kill her later personally. But first, she ordered her archers to shoot the three hundred samurai. They did.

“In retaliation, Kazumi-sama led the village’s peasants on a riot through the shogun’s camp, lighting it on fire. During which she left the raid in progress to treat the wounded samurai's puncture wounds. And did. Successfully, even though she had to rip her tail out hair by hair to replace her dwindling supply of thread.

“The smoke from the burning camp attracted the attention of the army which had defeated the Shogun a few days before, and they marched on the shogun’s position, charging in and slaughtering the force to the last. Their elite warriors happened upon the field Kazumi-sama was using as her hospice and attacked, intending to finish off the wounded.

“Once again, Kazumi-sama was having none of that. Despite being unarmed she successfully killed the Chūsa leading their platoon in hoof to hoof combat, despite the Chūsa being fully armed and armored. After which she stood atop his corpse and informed the rest of the attackers ‘I swear to the heavens, if you hurt my patients I will soul-punch you!’

“That didn’t go over with them very well, and so they attacked her and her patients. So she did. She soul-punched them. Hard. She killed another seven of them, each with single blows before the platoon’s moral disintegrated and they fled. Kazumi-sama then went back to the wounded she had initially been treating and started to tend to all of their new wounds. Impossibly, all three hundred were still alive at this point though many were minutes from death.

“They were told to ‘Wait patiently for your turn or I will slap you so hard it knocks your soul back into your bones, just so I can strangle you back into takamanohara!’ So they did. Because of the sheer butt-clenching terror this seventeen year old filly radiated from every little bit of her body-”

“Woah, wait, hold it!” I demanded stopping mid stride to hold up a hoof. “She was a little filly!?”

Rojā nodded. “Yes. In those days samurai began training from the age of six, and a mare was an adult at thirteen. Please do not interrupt again.

“Since Kazumi-sama had beaten the army’s elite warriors unarmed, seemingly was able to tell Dusk herself to back off, and had kept three hundred stallions alive through all of that, they refused to attack her, or even go near the field. The villagers meanwhile decided that Kazumi-sama was clearly a goddess for these same reasons, and began building a shrine. The soldiers, seeing this, agreed with the village’s conclusion and began to leave offerings of medical supplies.

“After this incident, which is very well documented with many eyewitness accounts, Kazumi-sama vanished in a flash of white light. Not one mage could tell what spell had transported her or even the kind of magic used. This solidified her divinity as far as all present were concerned.

“And from that day on, any clinic, hospital, or other house of healing which wishes for good luck has included her name in its name. That’s why we say the street along with the clinic’s name. There are thousands of Kazumi’s Clinics in this city alone.”

I paused for several long seconds. I honestly couldn’t believe that story. I understood that it was important to Neighponese culture, but… Really?

“When you say she was a dwarf-” I began, only for Rojā to cut me off.

“She stood no higher than your barrel. At her ear tips,” he insisted before nodding to a room on the righthoof side of the hallway. “This is the room. Come on.”

“May I make a messenger call first, please? It won't take long,” I asked, bowing low in the hopes that was the right thing to do.

Rojā raised an eyebrow, then nodded in realization. “Ah! Yes, I forgot, you’re under age in your homecontry. Yes, you should definitely inform your parents of the change in plans. I will wait to enter the room with you. Make your call back in the lobby. It would be rude of me to listen in on such a private affair,” he said with a polite bow.

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re a ninja,” I said flatly, giving Rojā my best deadpan stare.

“Shinobi,” Rojā corrected instantly. “Which is why you will never know if I listened in or not.”

I managed to only give him a fearful look for a single moment as I realized my privacy was completely gone for the rest of my training.

Rojā rolled his eyes. “Right, you’re a young mare. Forgot that means you’re still swimming in hormones. It’s been a while for me. The dojo works just like University. Just drape some piece of clothing over your door when you’re masturbaiting. That’s the signal. No one will spy on you when you need that kind of privacy,” Rojā informed, while giving me an odd ‘kind and honest’ look which seemed extremely sincere.

Well, that was mortifying. I gave Rojā a shaky, embarrassed, blushing bright red smile and stepped backwards. “I uh, I’m going to… Make that call now…” I mumbled as I turned and quickly trotted off to the cozy lobby.

Doing my best to forget that little offered slice of my life to cum- I mean come! I fished my messenger gem out of my saddelbag and gave it a light squeeze to activate it.

I would have used my watch to make the call, but some ponies just didn’t have one. Among them was a certain friend of dad’s, who could definitely shed some light on the Kazumi myth. And who could also let dad know about the change of plans and would totally seem like the person I normally called to get in touch with him.

I mean, she was my godmother. Literally.

Raising the now glowing gemstone to my lips I whispered, “Message Dusk: Hello, Dusk? It’s Sherbert. I know that dad’s probably busy, but can you let him know that he needs to call me when he can? It’s important. There’s been a minor change of plans, but it’s okay, I can still stay here and I’m still learning martial arts. I just had to find a different dojo. I’ll explain it in full later.

“Also, I have a question for you. Do you know a Kazumi Hattori?”

My gem blinked for ten seconds as I assumed Dusk was busy doing whatever she was doing and just not picking up her messenger. But then, the gem’s solid color returned, and Dusk’s slightly deep for a mare’s voice asked, “I-is she back?” With genuine fear.

I stared at the gem for a full six seconds.

Holy.

Bucking.

Crap!

“Seriously, if she’s like, around, and doing things, tell me. Now. Please,” Dusk begged worriedly.

“N-no. I just heard the legend and it didn't seem like something that really happ-”

“Oh, it happened! That filly scares the hell out of me,” Dusk said, definitely shuddering on the other end of the line. “She actually soul punched those stallions you know! She, a mere mortal, somehow punched a five dimensional construct and BROKE it off the lower three dimensional- Just, look, nevermind.

“If you see her, don’t get within five kilometers. That’s my policy, and it’s worked out pretty well so far.

“Uh, anyways. I’ll pass on your message and let you go. Sounds like you’re having an unexpectedly busy day today. Sorry about that. I uh… I’m going to go watch something fun. Like a comedy.”

My messenger's glow vanished as Dusk dismissed the call, leaving me standing and staring at the gemstone for several seconds.

I mean, sure I guess stranger stuff had happened. But, just seventeen? Really? And a dwarf on top of that?

I shook my head and turned back around to move back into the hallway, pushing the bamboo and string curtain out of the way as I returned to Rojā. As I rounded the corner and the black suited pony came into view, I narrowed my eyes, squinting at him to try and see if he had moved at all. I honestly couldn’t tell.

“Okay, sorry about that,” I said as I got back to within a few steps from him. “I didn’t want there to be any massive confusion later when I suddenly said I was going to another school.”

Rojā nodded. “I like how you’re honest. Will your father's secretary pass on the message?”

“So you did listen in,” I complained, giving him a hurt look.

“Trust is earned. Not granted automatically,” Rojā said while giving me a very sage look. “This is your first lesson, Sherbert. For the record, you have earned some of my trust. But tell me, I have heard that Lady Dusk chose to retire in Equestria. Is she really working as a secretary?”

I shook my head. “No. She doesn't work. She magics whatever she wants or needs into existence. But mostly just lives in an apartment in Ponyville enjoying old TV shows and games and having friends over for parties or whatever. Nopony complains though, I mean, she spent a stupidly huge number of years working without a vacation. What with being an immortal and all. Let her enjoy her retirement, right?

“Anyways, my dad was her first friend, which makes them besties forever, so she’ll tell him as soon as his workday’s done today.”

“I see,” Rojā hummed. “You mentioned your father owns a clinic on the walk over. I assume he has an actual secretary. Why not call them instead?”

“Dad used to have a secretary I trusted, but once Ember got over her agoraphobia, she left, and became my school’s principal. She’s great with foals and administration. I um, I don't trust dad’s current secretary… Her daughter hates me, and like, knew some stuff about me that she had to have gotten from her mom who has access to my medical records. So, yeah…”

Rojā nodded. “I understand. Have you told your father about this?” He asked curiously.

“I did. But she denied anything, so dad thinks that Ash must have seen me without my tail extensions a- Eep!” I squeaked, holding a hoof to my lips.

Rojā winked at me. “Tone of voice and facial expressions can be magic, can’t they? I’ll teach you how to make others open up like that later in your training. But for now, I need to know if you have any health problems other than tail-baldness.”

I shook my head rapidly. “No nono! I have a tail, it’s just… Kinda griffony. I’m otherwise totally healthy. But I know there’s no way that anypony’s ever seen me without the extensions on. I’m VERY careful about it… Please don’t tell anyone,” I begged, giving him a pleading look.

“Don’t worry. It’s not ply place to share personal secrets like that,” Rojā said with an understanding nod. “We have business to finish here. Come.”

Rojā stepped forward, opening the door with his left hoof. The moment the door started to swing inwards, a thunk of hoof-on-wood echoed through the hallway and the door stopped moving inwards.

“Password,” a soft spoken mare’s voice demanded.

“Open up or get punched,” Rojā said without pause, ears flicking back in annoyance.

I flinched, worrying some kind of disrespect founded kungfu battle would take off.

Nope. The door opened, and a pale ice blue colored unicorn mare gave Rojā the tiniest of friendly smiles. “Sorry,” she said with that same soft monotone. “She said they would be back for her.”

This had to be Master Cho. She scared the cap out of me. First off, she was dressed in a dark purple, near black gi, and had a pair of hoof blades attached to her forehooves. She wasn’t even hiding her weapons either. Her gi’s sleeves could have easily hid the compact weapons, but they were worn low enough to show. Similarly, her mane was cut short. If left long, it could have easily hid the spell-amp charm worn around the base of her horn.

On second glance, I noticed the retractable daggers she wore had two barrels mounted on either side of them too, and if I was remembering my gun calibers properly, they were chambered for Sixhundred Nitro cartridges.

Those bullets are big enough to use as a dildo, and yet the weapons looked a bit small on her legs.

She was a mono colored, ice blue ninja master with openly carried weapons, who spoke in an emotionally dead voice, and had an Amarezonian tribal mane and tail cut. She also had the extra tall, extra muscular, athletically lean build that came from being half horse.

I felt like it was not cowardly to be afraid of her.

“It’s alright,” Rojā dismissed, giving the mono-colored mare a nod in return. “Is that why you’re openly wearing your guns?”

“Yes. Who is the kid?” Cho asked, giving me a scary-hungry-predatory look.

“Knock it off, I took her on as a disciple. Xii burned her entry papers to piss me off and she has talent,” Rojā ordered, giving Cho a protective look. “She’s also an exchange student, who was supposed to be a live in student at his money pit.”

Cho’s look softened instantly. She reached up into her gi’s jacket, retrieving a small bag from an inner pocket.

I flinched, tail raising in alarm.

Cho opened the bag with her magic, surprisingly enough her aura was a hot pink color. More surprisingly she took a chocolate chip cookie out of the bag and held it out to me.

“That’s rough. Have a cookie,” Cho ordered.

Not offered. Not said. Ordered. With steely urgency and an implied ‘or else!’

“Thank you,” I squeaked, taking the cookie and quickly eating it in the hopes of not angering her any further.

“Is Nahrina awake?” Rojā asked casually as he trotted over to the room’s single bed.

“Kinda,” a mangled voice mumbled from the bed.

I blinked, the voice had the distinct buzzing tone of a changeling, but also had a wet sort of ‘sucking’ sound to-

“Oh my gosh they broke her thorax open!” I squeaked, recognising the symptoms thanks to my frequent visits to my Uncle’s house as a filly. “Do you have a lot of changelings here? Half my family lives in a Hive. I remember the first aid classes, we need to get something rigid to use as a patch for her exoskeleton and-”

“I know how to do my job!” An angry sounding mare snapped from the opposite side of the bed.

I blinked, ears swiveling as I searched the other side of the room for, well, whoever spoke. Because I couldn’t see anypony at all…

Cho laughed. Kinda. More like she exhaled the sound ‘heh’. “Rojā, you will like Nahrina’s doctor.”

Rojā reared up to peek over the other side of the bed, I took the moment to make sure that the poor bug was patched up right.

Yes. Yes she was. She had also had most of her exoskeleton cracked open. Everything but her rear left leg had splints, patches, and tightly wrapped bandages to hold everything together. I could even see what looked like plumbing calk being used to waterproof all of the cracks. The poor guy/girl had been hurt extremely bad!

But then again, hard things crack when hit with blunt force. And she was a changeling who had been jumped by martial artists. Sooo, yeah…

Upside, she was the first Sorcerer I’d ever seen. Of the two hives that lived in Equestria, Rubies never revealed their true forms due to a hive wide neuro-psychosis, and the Emeralds were not exactly genetically healthy and just couldn’t produce certain castes. Including Sorcerers.

She was tall, just a bit shorter than a Queen would be, and very thin, with a pronounced horn, and while her wings were mangled, they looked larger than normal. Thankfully, she didn’t have any holes in her legs. I always felt awful when I saw a changeling with them. Then again, everypony I knew did too.

Learning that Changelings digest their own body during the final stages of starvation, starting with the legs, will do that to you. So you know, despite being very badly hurt, Nahrina got to eat well.

I’d also never seen her hive before! A changeling’s colors weren't like a ponies, their eye and shell color told you what ‘family’ they were from. I always thought that was neat, besides, their ‘black’ exoskeletons have little patterns in them kinda like tattoos which are unique to each individual… Though um, apparently I was the only pony who could see them. I guess my eyes picked up a bit more of the UV spectrum than normal.

As I was trying to figure out what gemstone or mineral her ultra dark green red speckled shell and eyes resembled so I could try and guess her hive’s name, Rojā laughed.

“Yes. I know. Stop it,” the same angry voice demanded.

This time I heard where it came from. Slightly below the level of the bed.

I knelt down to look under it. A rather aggravated dwarf batpony mare, with a paint horse fur pattern consisting of a chocolate brown and a deep orange. She had long flowing purple hair, which matches her wing membranes, and a cutiemark which I thought was a satchel of herbs tied up with a needle and thread.

I’d seen a few dwarfs before, normally they were a bit oddly proportioned. Not her, she looked like she’d just stopped getting bigger at about thirteen or so, but developed an adult mare’s shape anyways. She was just itty bitty. Half my height.

My first instinct was to hug her and take her for a ponyback ride like a teadybear, but I was very certain that would be super rude.

“I mean no offense, Ma’am, the coincidence merely makes me smile,” Rojā apologised with a rather low bow. “Is there any chance your parents named you-”

“Kazumi. Yes. They did. I’m a brown, orange, and purple batpony dwarf with a healing talent. Can we drop this? Too much stress is bad for your friend. Especially given her species,” Kazumi snapped.

“It’s cool,” the changeling gurgled. “Your anger tastes okay. There’s love in it.”

“Quiet, you,” Kazumi grumbled, rustling her wings irritably.

Rojā chuckled and looked over at me. “It’s a good thing I explained the legend to you just now, otherwise this would all be lost on you. Isn't this just the best thing ever?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s kinda cool. But she’s not comfortable with being typecast from birth so… You know. Maybe not be a dick?” I suggested.

“Wait, that’s totally an Equestrian thing to say,” the changeling, I mean Nahrina said. “Is your new disciple an Equestrian, Master Rojā?”

“She is,” Rojā confirmed. “And Kazumi, I’m sorry for making you feel uncomfortable. But I’m certain you understand how amusing this is for someone who loves ancient history.”

“It’s cool just stop it,” Kazumi grumbled.

“Awesome!” Nahrina gurgled from her bed. “So, I’m sort of running dry here… And I’ve never fed enough to regenerate in my life. Equestrians are supposed to be just packed with love. Would it be okay if I actively drained just a bit from you? Please? Just enough to get my left heart beating again? I think it stopped.”

“It did. When it popped during your beating,” Kazumi informed casually.

“... Ow…” Everypony hissed in unison with a wince.

“You go ahead and take what you need,” I said, stepping closer to her bed. “Um, you do know how to stop before you hurt me right? I’ve had changelings feed on my ambient emotions before, but never actively…”

“Don’t worry, I’m a Bloodstone. We all learn active feeding safety right out of the chrysalis,” Nahrina said, attempting to smile, and instead splitting her jaw open along the existing crack.

Kazumi winced. “I knew I should have bound your mouth shut. Just kiss everyone so you can do your telepathy,” she grumbled, turning around to pick up a small bag of tools, and removing a stethoscope.

“That’s not how it works. For a non-changling to hear them they must have a close bond. Best friend, lovers, or siblings,” I corrected reflexively.

Nahrina nodded and gurgled something, unable to form words without a functioning lower lip.

I winced, barely managing to contain my breakfast. “Just do it before you die please!” I begged, ears laying flat.

“Wait,” Kazumi ordered just before I felt the stethoscope cold surface press into my barrel. “Okay go, and stop when I tell you to.”

Oh yeah, this could be deadly for ponies the first time they were fed on… And the second, and so on until they adapted to it… And I’d never- Crap!

Before I could think about backing out, Nahrina inhaled, my aura becoming faintly visible as she drained energy from me. I immediately grit my teeth at the ‘nails scraping skin’ feeling the active drain left across my entire body.

It wasn’t painful at the beginning, just really itchy and creepy, but with every second it grew worse and worse. Just before the sensation became painful, Kazumi snapped “STOP!”

To my surprise, Nahrina stopped instantly. “Sorry,” she croaked, her jaw having apparently healed with the influx of love and magic. “Everything hurts, I might not have been concentrating right. Is she okay?”

“Yeah,” Kazumi grunted gruffly. “Kid, don’t run for an hour or so, and eat an extra five hundred calories. Right, bug, I’m checking your hearts. Why did you fix your face with that energy instead of your heart, nerve damage, or any of the other vital organs, bakka?!”

“I’ve never regenerated before, cut me a break!” Nahrina grumbled before clearing her throat.

Not to speak, but to spit some green gunk out.

“Public schools should teach basic triage,” Kazumi grumbled as she flapped her wings to hover at the height of the bed and start performing a rather unusual looking physical.

I’d seen changebug physicals before. This one was… Different. Maybe a local version?

“Hey, so, thanks. A lot. Less things hurt now,” Nahrina said to me with a happy smile. “What’s your name?”

“Orange Sherbert, but you can call me Sherbert,” I introduced with a polite bow.

“Screw that, I’m calling you best friend. You’re tasty, super nutritious, and you’ve probably saved my life,” Nahrina snickered. “Call me Rina.”

I blinked in genuine shock.

I made a friend!? Oh, of course! I’d done something that I hadn’t tried before. I should have saved somepony’s life sooner!

“Nahrina,” Rojā said clearing his throat to interrupt politely. “While I am happy you are getting along well with my new disciple, I would like to know how you became injured in your native form. Did they force you to demorph?”

I tilted my head to the side. Morph? Huh, I mean, yeah that word worked too. I was used to it being referred to as ‘shift’.

“Cuz they beat me to a pulp as a earth pony stallion,” she groaned. “Okay, that piece is free floating, don’t push it inwards…”

“Yep. Already glueing it,” Kazumi acknowledged.

“I thought they were going to kill me,” Rina continued. “So I went to a form that could cast spells. I- I’m sorry. I know I promised not to fight with magic while learning but-”

“This was not sparring,” Master Cho interrupted. “You did not break your promise.”

“Cool. Oh, I lit six of them on fire before they did this to me… Check other hospitals. You’ll probably find them. Unless they can afford magical healing. Then they’d be out already. Except maybe the green pegasus stallion. He might be dead.”

“Orange Explosion?” Rojā asked with a wince.

“Yeah. Again, I thought I was going to die,” she said apologetically.

I looked between Rojā, CHo, and Rina for a few moments, a feeling of growing dread building in the back of my mind. “Um, shouldn’t this be a matter for the guard? Or the police? Whatever you call them here?”

Rojā shook his head. “No,” he said matter of factly.

“Honor duels between schools are tradition,” Cho added, still with the same tone.

“We look after our own, just like any other acadamy. In short, due to strong cultural backgrounds, the police turn a blind eye to conflicts between dojos so long as civilians are not getting involved. It’s good as it can give students real world training, but it’s bad because rather than use this for good, many Dojos like Master Xii’s bank fund, use them as an excuse to shake down others for protection money… Like Yakuza without the honor.”

I held up both my hooves, tail raised in alarm, eyes wide open. “Woah woah woah! I um, I don’t want any part of a street war! Is there any other-”

“All dojos in Neighpone work this way,” Cho said simply. “Our rivals are thugs, as are many others. You will be protected. Rina’s condition is my failure. This is rare.”

“H-how rare?” I asked, taking a step backwards.

“Rare enough,” Rojā grunted. “They normally go after us. But the real issue is that Xii knows I offered to train you. You’re a target for him. If you leave for another Dojo, they will follow you. Xii owns an academy in every major city in Neighpone, Sherbert.”

“Oh…” I said, ears falling. “So, no matter what…”

“Mhm. Congrats on making your first enemy simply through association. I’d apologize, but words will mean much less than my actual protection of you,” Rojā sighed. “Besides, once Rina is better, the two of you will have each other for immediate support. They are thugs, not warriors. I guarantee they only attacked her because she was out numbered twelve to one.”

“This is truth,” Cho agreed adamantly.

I blinked. “Wait, so she was attacked because she was alone? That’s it?” I asked incredulously.

“Yeah,” Rina groaned. “Also because I was carrying the week’s groceries in an ally. If I’d had a friend, they wouldn’t have attacked me. They never attack the older students when they are in pairs. It’s cowardly. Trust me, if you’d been there, they wouldn’t have done anything. Not without having way more guys.”

“And if they had, by the end of the third month with us, I expect between the two of you that escape would be easy,” Rojā said with a sly smile. “Or at least, you could make them retreat. Usually if the big one goes down the rest of them run.”

I took a deep breath to calm myself. It worked. A bit.

“Okay, so like, no matter where I train here, there’s basically legal street fights, I already have an enemy, and we’ll be safe in groups. Is that all completely correct?” I asked urgently, giving Rojā a pleading look.

He nodded. “Absolutely. And if you do get hurt like this, well… Cho?”

Cho didn’t smile. She simply nodded, her eyes seeming to harden in a literal sense as she narrowed them aggressively. “I will break them.”

I grit my teeth fearfully. “Okay… I’ll stay. But my parents can NOT know about this!” I said with a worried laugh.

“Very well. I’m glad you choose to stay,” Rojā agreed. “It shows great courage. But don’t worry, it sounds and looks much worse than it is due to her injuries. There is usually no more than one minor scuffle a week, and almost always with the three older students. You are first years. This is the fifteenth attack on students of your grade in fifty years. It’s… Underhooved. Even Xii has better standards.”

I let out my held breath. “Thank the sisters,” I sighed in relief.

“Hey, blondie,” Kazumi said as she turned around, still hovering mid air like an adorable angry doll. “Would you be willing to come in every day for the next six days to let her feed more?”

I frowned. “Well, yes. I would be. But is there a reason?”

“Yeah,” Kazumi said, giving me a deadpan stare that may as well have been a hundred foot high neon sign that read ‘You’re an idiot, aren’t you?’

I facehooved. “Is that how many more regenerations she’d need to be perfectly healthy?” I asked with a moan.

“Bingo, blondie,” Kazumi said with an extremely short lived almost loving smile. “It’s that or she sits here with a shattered exoskeleton for a month until she molts.”

“Oh… Oh yeah, if I don’t regenerate, I’ll miss the first month of school,” Nahrina squeaked. “I can’t do that! If I miss it, every clique will close off, and the social structure will become impenetrable!”

“That’s why you just hang out with outsiders like me,” Kazumi mumbled. “Cuz teenages and twenty somethings are abscessed assholes.”

I raised an eyebrow at the tiny mare. “You look like you’re in your thirties. What are you doing in a high school? Especially as a doctor. Like, you have a degree and… You have a degree right?”

Kasumi nodded. “I do, obviously. I work here, don’t I? But it’s honorary. I haven't gone to University or Medschool. Or uh, finished High School. I’m self taught to a point beyond the standard requirements of medical laws, so I got an honorary degree and a medical licence from the state.

“I’d like to get out of this profession though. Nevermind why! So I’m taking high school classes. Because that’s cheaper than getting a GED. Also less work.”

“And you also work full time as a doctor, so you have little free time,” I finished for her with an understanding nod.

Kasumi laughed, shaking her head back and forth for a bit longer than necessary. “I work part time. Look, blondie, you’re a foreigner. Did you look up how we do school here?” She asked.

I shook my head no.

She nodded. “Of course not. No exchange student I ever know of does. You won't have time for a full time job and school. Period. Be happy that training in martial arts will count as your club activity. All students are required to be in a club. Period,” she said matter of factly.

Rojā’s ears perked up. “Oh! Yes, don’t worry, you won't need to work. Infact, since you’re now a museum employee, you’ll be paid to train.”

Rina giggled in agreement. “That’s like, the main perk of training at Bat’s. You got super lucky. I had to ask every day for a year to be let in.”

Master Cho nodded. “I only agreed because she bribed me.”

Kazumi raised an eyebrow and turned around to look at the injured changeling. “Okay, I’ll bite How did you-”

“She gave me a cookie,” Cho answered in her scary-monotone.

“Yep! Master loves her cookies,” Rina giggled. “Ow… Okay, no more laughing today.”

Kasumi nodded, her purple mane flowing as she moved. “Yep. In fact, no more talking. I’m not going to even think about making you leave, Butch Deadlift,” she said to Master Cho with an ultra respectful smile and bow before turning towards Rojā and I with a harsh glare. “Everyone else, out. Now! It’s rest time.”

Cho smirked, the first facial expression I’d seen her make this entire time. “Wise choice,” she said, again without a hint of emotion.

Kazumi on the other hoof, was giving us a glare. A very very protective glare. The sort that should be coming from an Ursa Major after you nearly stepped between her and her cub.

Kazumi’s message was clear. We were interfering with her patient getting better. So she was going to kick our asses if we didn’t leave. More than that she COULD kick our asses. Easily.

Rojā and I quickly backed out of the room and closed the door.

“Whew,” Rojā exclaimed, shaking his head slowly. “For a pony who hated being typecast by society itself, she’s sure mastered the intimidating part of her roll!”

I nodded, my heart beating extra rapidly as I worked through the adrenal surge her glare had triggered. “You can say that again!” I gasped. “Think that’s why Master Cho didn’t punch her adorable face in for being called butch?”

Rojā shook his head. “No. Cho’s half Amarezonian. She grew up spending her summers with her mother there. To her, that was a complement bordering on flattery. And if she liked mares, I am certain she would have offered to take the little oni out to a dive bar for a fight. Not with her, but you know, with other people, after drinks. Standard romance for her mother’s culture and all that,” he answered with a nervous laugh. “I can’t believe she actually got to me… Let’s finish the day’s errands and then I can show you where you’ll be living for the next few years.”

I nodded eagerly. “Yeah, that sounds great! Let’s do it.”

Rojā gave me an odd look. “You’re still creeped out by her too, huh?”

“Yeah…” I admitted with a nod, blushing slightly.

“Don’t worry, there’s plenty of things to do to take your mind off it. We’ll start with going far far away from her,” Rojā decided as he began to fast-walk out of the clinic.

I had to admit, being told that students from other dojos jumping you randomly had me spooked. But as we walked around the district taking care of business, that feeling went away.

Sure, that happened. But there was crime in every city, right? Right. And this wasn’t some weird backwater town, this was a big city. With well lit streets, ponies everywhere, and of course, obvious places you shouldn’t go. Back alleys, short cuts between buildings. Small clearings in the tree-walls.

As we explored, I could see the places where an attack could happen, and where they couldn’t. Sure, I supposed that the area around the Flying Horse Gym was different since it was their ‘territory’, but I didn’t have to go near it. Safe places where everywhere, dangerous ones were not.

It really was safe as long as you knew what you were doing. I still wasn’t mentioning this to anyone though.

Fortunately, we made it through the rest of both of our errands quickly. Mostly because Rojā happened to use the bank I would be using and that saved us a lot of walking time. And train time.

Neighdo, being a metropolis, had a subway, and a monorail for helping you get around. Sure that was common in non-pony cities, but in a pony city? Nope! We can run for an hour at around forty kilometers an hour, or for pretty much as long as we like at fifteen. We don’t really need personal transport.

Unless you know, the city is HUGE and hard to navigate.

But that didn’t matter much right now, I was all set! I had my bank account set up, they issued me a credit stick on the spot and explained how to use it (Basically like a messenger gem, tap it to another one or a register and say how much to pay.). I even got a pink one!

I’d have to come back in a few weeks to get the direct deposit stuff set up but hey, whatever.

At least the stallion who set up my account was hot. I mean, I’d get to see him again!

But even better, I finally got to see just what Bat’s Academy was like.

“Here she is. She’s old, worn, but knows how to do her job better than anyone else,” Rojā said with a prideful smile as we rounded a street corner and the somewhat ‘remote’ dojo came into view.

Like Flying Horse, this dojo was a walled compound with the same sloped roof and pagoda-styled buildings. Unlike the Flying Horse, everything was old, worn, obviously maintained on a budget, but immaculately clean.

The lower parts of the walls were decorated with simple wooden paneling. The walls were painted an off white, or perhaps a bright white which had faded in the sun, and the roof tiles were made from blue painted clay.

We entered the grounds through a pair of huge, weathered iron bound oak gates. As in, the walls had a proper gatehouse, with an inner and an outer door. Like a fortress. I liked that, it made me feel at home.

The grounds themselves were minimal. Most of the space was filled up by the buildings, so rather than one big training yard made from concrete tiles, there were lots of smaller sand beds big enough for two to spar in, and one larger indoor arena visible through the open doorway of one of the dozen buildings.

Instead of an elaborate hedge garden, there were some trees, and some flower beds. Instead of fancy statues and decorations, there was nothing. I also liked that. It meant if I got thrown into a wall I wasn’t going to owe somepony a hundred thousand bits.

I had expected there to be more people than there were though. Rojā had immediately started up a tour. Showing me the five buildings which made up the museum (and spending an hour showing me the exhibits inside as well, which did include some pretty cool weapons, but he focused mostly on the history bits and even gave me homework…), taking me through the three training halls (one for people skills, one for stealth skills, and one for combat skills), then around the grounds, and finally to the living quarters.

I sort of developed this idea that I would be living in a tiny prison-like room, like you see in kung-fu movies when they show a monk’s bedroom.

Nope!

”And this is your room. Get settled, rest up. Dinner is at nine. Snacks are only available if you can sneak past the cook on duty that night, so eat your fill at dinner. I’ll wake you in the morning for your first day of training, it will be hard, and painful. We need to begin with flexibility and balance training.

“Many martial arts maneuvers require you to be able to transition between a bipedal and a quadrupedal stance fluidly. Your first few months will be basic fitness training and prep work. With simplistic martial maneuvers sprinkled in. I promise it will be fun as well as suck, and don’t worry, there will be time for you to keep your promise to help Nahrina.”

I shuddered. Ugh, yeah, the next few months would suck. But at least I had this awesome room!

It was a bit bigger than my room at home, and decorated in the same manner as the rest of the dojo. Super spartanly, but with those nice bamboo floors and the traditional architecture that had cool carved details everywhere.

Also I had a really big, super comfortable bed, with pink blankets and sheets (and matching pink curtains! Cuz Rojā called ahead and said I liked pink.), I also had a desk, a wardrobe (empty, but hey, I brought clothes for it), a chair for the desk, a little table with a little couch to go with it, a bookshelf, a pretty nice TV mounted to one wall, and while there wasn’t a computer on the desk, there WAS a data cable laying on the desk which plugged into the wall.

I’d asked about that. Apparently to get around the radio interference Neighponese technology uses wired communication to connect everything to powerful transceivers that can cut through the natural jamming. I’d have to buy a small wireless transceiver for my room to get a good signal for my watch, and I was totally buying a computer while I was here.

A pony culture with an internet! I’d only gotten to use the Emeralds net before. Would our memes be just as silly as changebug memes? If not I would have to start a silly-pointless-internet-thing war. Heh heh.

Also, I’d probably need to use it for school as well. I wonder how much they cost? Equestria had started importing computers for more tech based countries like, fifteen years ago, but since most people used delux mage gems instead, computers were expensive luxury items that-

My magegem flashed bright pink on my desk, then shone brightly, almost like a flashlight. An emergency call.

That would be mom and dad…

I ran over to my desk and picked up the gem. “Hey-”

“Why are you not answering calls on your watch!?” Mom demanded, her voice loud enough for the gem to spark slightly.

“Because wireless communications in this district don't work for more than like, a hundred yards. There’s some kind of natural interference thanks to a mineral deposit like, right below this part of the city. I’ll get short range a transceiver link thingie soon, then it will work here.

“But right now, my watch doesn't work for remote stuff. I had no idea you were calling because it has no service here. It can't ring, cuz it cant detect calls. Notice how I picked up the gem instantly?” I shot back, hoping to blunt her anger at presumably thinking I was ignoring her.

Mom was quiet for a second. “Alright. I believe you. I’m sorry. I’m just worried right now. Your father is too. He’s trying to get ahold of anypony at the dojo you were supposed to attend.

“What exactly happened. Don’t leave out a single detail,” Mom ordered in that scary angry mother voice.

I could tell she wasn’t angry at me, but still, that voice sends a shiver down any kid’s spine.

“I- I was going about the plan just as we had written it down,” I began, taking a deep breath as I knew this was going to be painful. “I’d gotten to the dojo and was heading inside when I ran into a middle aged stallion in a suit who offered to show me where the front desk was. He didn’t work there, but I said yes because he was polite and friendly, and also said that the front desk wasn’t in a logical place. And it’s good I did because it was NOT.

“Uh, so, his name is Rojā Sumisu. I thought he was an insurance agent, because he was in a suit and mumbled a few things about the student’s safety irritably. Turns out he was not. He’s actually a master at this Dojo. So I wound up showing up to my entrance interview with a master from a rival school, and while I don't think that would normally cause problems these two guys HATE each other. Like, I thought an actual fight was going to happen.

“Instead Master Xii just burned my application to make a statement to Master Rojā, and so, yeah. I can’t go there.”

Mom growled angrily, starting to say something but I cut her off as quickly as I could.

“BUT!” I shouted. “Rojā is a very nice stallion, and felt horrible that he drug me into their feud, and when he learned I’m an exchange student who was supposed to be living there, he offered to train me at his Dojo personally. I accepted.

“It’s called Kōmoriakademī, or bat’s Academy in Equish. It’s a nice place, but really old. It’s actually a living history museum too, so I get to train here in the actual traditional ways by people who know all of the history. Even better, I actually get PAID to train here! And there’s not many people who are allowed to do that so I kinda got lucky because Rojā’s family is actually descended from ancient Ninjas.

“And I get to live here too. It’s a bit far from school but hey, I like to run. The room I’ve been given is nice, big, I have my own TV, and while she is in the hospital at the moment because she got beat up, I met the other student in my class here, and she’s a really nice changeling. At least, I THINK she’s a she. Could be a he. Name’s feminine sounding but um, you know how Changelish is. So I even kind of have a friend! Isn’t that cool?”

Mom was quiet for several moments.

“How did she get beat up?” Mom asked worriedly.

I frowned, not wanting to lie, but also not wanting to be told to come back home… A half truth would do.

“She went down the wrong ally and was attacked by a bunch of thugs,” I answered with a sigh. “It’s okay mom, Rojā showed me the places to avoid on a map today.”

All true. Just no mention of the dojo wars…

“I feel like you’re leaving something out,” Mom admitted instantly. “But… You do sound like you’re in good hooves. Your father and I will be calling the Academy and checking it out. But… Good job. You handled a bad situation like an adult. I’m proud of you.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks mom… I um, I got to go. I have training in the morning, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Rojā meant ‘dawn’ by ‘early’.”

“I understand,” Mom said happily, well, happily-ish. “We’ll call you again in a few days and let you know if we want you to come home or not, okay?”

“Please… Let me do this. It’s not dangerous, and honestly I think I’m at a better school now,” I begged, my ears falling flat as I stared desperately at the gem, wishing I owned a deluxe one that also could send video.

The puppy-eyes always worked on mom.

“We probably will, sweetie. We just need to double check and be certain you're safe, know where you are, and change emergency plans. That’s all,” Mom promised. “Good luck with training, we love you. Dad will call later, okay?”

“Okay,” I agreed, smiling in relief. “Love you too. Bye!”

I tapped the gem to hang up, then trotted over to the bed and flopped down on it. I immediately let out a moan which sounded way too sexual for the simple act of laying on a bed. And yet, it was totally deserved. I’d NEVER felt a more comfy bed in my life!

When I left, I was buying this bed. Period.

This was nice. And I figured that the bed being super comfy, and probably enchanted to impart more comfort than physically possible, would offset sore muscles and other training strain when trying to sleep.

Yeah. Yeah I did find a better school! I’d made a friend too. There’d been a bump in the road, but I came out on the right side of it. Mom and dad would find nothing to object to here, I was getting PAYED to live here, they probably wouldn’t need to support me while I was here, and it was a legit museum, I’d had the tour interrupted by like six different groups of tourists looking around at things too. Everything here was on the up and up.

I stretched out, resting my hooves behind my head as I smiled.

The next few years we're going to be nice!

3 - The Nightmare Begins

Sherbert - 5th of Solar Dusk, 25 AE

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

Something lightly shook my shoulder.

“Come on, kid. The first ray’s of the sun are up. It’s time for training,” Rojā said, his voice shaking me from a rather nice dream.

A nice dream which I instantly forgot! Damnit, why does that always happen?

I sleepily blinked until shapes and colors began to appear in my vision, then reached up to the bedpost I’d set my watch on check the time.

“It’s four oh one,” Rojā informed for me. “We will hold you to a four thirty ‘on the floor’ time for training. This will give you three hours of training before school each day. You will have my assistance getting ready today, but never again. Understand?”

“Yeah…” I groaned, sliding out of bed, my hooves clunking on the oddly warm floorboards. “Wah? Toastywarm floor why-how?”

Rojā raised an eyebrow. “Hot water pipes running through sand beneath floor so it’s not cold. We’re not savages,” he informed with a shake of his head. “Are you always like this when you wake up?”

I nodded and strapped my watch onto my rear left leg. Upside down.

“Oh… oops,” I mumbled as I took it off and put it on my right foreleg right side up. “There.”

Rojā winced, one ear drooping. “Okay! We will work on giving you the ability to wake up instantly. Perhaps even get you started on a potion regimen to reduce your need to sleep.”

“You can do that?” I asked, eyes widening slightly. “Can we do that, like now?”

Rojā shook his head. “No. But we could, potentially. It’s an old ninja trick, but the alterations are permanent and can be dangerous. We’d need a doctor’s approval first or the state would have our heads. For now, eat one of these,” Rojā instructed as he reached into a suit pocket, took out a small silver pill box, opened it up, and offered me a small blue capsule.

I raised an eyebrow suspiciously. Rojā sighed.

“It’s just a mixture of caffeine and other herbal stimulants, Sherbert. Perfectly safe. The whole of Neighpone uses these instead of morning coffee to save time,” he soothed. “But, if you don’t want one, that’s fine.”

I may have been tired as hell, but I was awake enough to worry that I was having something really bad pushed on me…

“Uh, I don’t exactly want one no. I’m not exactly the drug fan type,” I informed, doing my best to try and wake up faster.

Rojā rolled his eyes. “I respect your choice, but this is just a coffee substitute. No one has time to make a cup of coffee in the morning. If you would like a warm up run, we could go to any nearby store, even corner shops, and buy you your own pack. If you’re a fan of coffee, you won't get any until the evenings. It's just not brewed in the morning.”

“Don’t really do coffee either,” I yawned, quickly stretching my legs. “Okay, I’m up. What do we do?”

Rojā nodded, seemingly satisfied that I was well enough awake and began to walk out of my room. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes one last time and began to follow him into the dimly lit hallway.

“We will go light today,” he informed.“We walk to the beginner’s training room nobasu mattoundoo kihontekini.”

“Wait, what? I um, I didn’t understand that last part,” I admitted, my ears drooping in embarrassment.”

Rojā smiled for a brief second. “Are you sure you’re awake? You used all of those words yesterday.”

Maybe it was them appearing in that order? I concentrated for a moment, then hesitantly asked, “We’re going to do some kind of workout, using mats, after stretching?”

“Yes. I told you we need to work on your flexibility. I expect we won't begin to be able to do serious martial training for at least two months. But in the meantime, we will have other skills to teach you. But non-combat/non-survival skills come after school. Since you don’t have school today you’ll have the school hours as a rest period. This will be true every time you don’t have school, understand?” Rojā asked as we rounded a corner and exited the dormitory.

I nodded as we entered into the already busy grounds.

The sun was barely poking its top bit above the sea and I could see EVERYONE working out, practicing some kind of weapon or hand to hand technique. There had to be at least forty people of every pony subtype, including a freaking sea pony whose tribe I couldn't’ quite make out at this distance, heck, there was even a pair of Earth Ponies playing tag, vertically, on the wall of the museum building.

“Uh, yeah. I get it,” I said as I looked around, getting a feel for things.

I tried to see if I could spot Master Cho, but nopony in sight was scary-big. I did notice that everypony was in gi of a specific color. Not in a way which suggested rank, but rather personal preference. There were reds, blues, greens, grays, whites, blacks, everything but yellow as far as I could see.

The only exception was Rojā himself. He was still in his suit.

As Rojā led me towards one of the smaller buildings on the east side of the dojo’s compound he paused, turning his head to the left.

“Ah! Hold on Sherbert, this is a good opportunity to introduce you to the other three masters,” he said before waving his right hoof at a pair of ponies where were seated, rear legs crossed, front legs in laps, and were simply watching the others train.

Three? But there were only two of them…

The two ponies noticed Rojā’s wave and stood up, walking over to us in but a few quick steps.

The one on the left was a batpony mare. She had dark purple fur, a brown mane and tail tied into a braid, and the typical pumpkin orange eyes. She was dressed not in a gi, but in a pink kimono, specifically a stallion’s kimono, which had some custom work done to the skirt which probably let her kick more easily. She also had a katana and wakizashi belted onto her waist of all places.

The one on the right was also a batpony, but a stallion. He had fur the color of wet dirt, and a brilliant neon green mane which poofed out around a green headband in a way which reminded me of a metal band member’s outfit. That was all he wore, letting me see his cutiemark, which was in the shape of a kama with a spiked ball attached to the end via a chain.

“Masters Tamiko, Mitsu, and Yoshi, this is my new disciple Sherbert,” Rojā introduced with a polite bow and the appropriate hoof gestures. “Sherbert, the mare is Master Tamiko our resident kenjitsu expert. On her left is Master Mitsu, he will assist me in your training in a year or so when it’s time for you to learn Ōra-jutsu as he has mastered that art far better than I have.

“And to your left is Master Yoshi, who is possibly the greatest practitioner of jujutsu in the city.”

I looked to my left, not in shock, I was in a ninja school. I expected to be snuck up on. I didn't’ expect to see absolutely nothing… Nothing at all. Just empty air.

“Ummm…” I said slowly, a look of genuine confusion spreading across my race.

“The spell is known as ‘Somepony Else’s Problem’,” a soft-spoken stallion’s voice said from the air in front of me. “I assure you, you can see me. It’s just that your subconscious has been informed that everything about me is somepony else's problem. And has therefore edited me out of your perceptions.

“When you can see me, or even be aware of my presence, it will be time for you to begin advanced training. It was good meeting you, Miss Sherbert. Rojā, I have business to attend to today. Goren needs assistance. Please give my condolences to Cho, I will miss our plans for this evening.”

Rojā nodded, “Of course, Yoshi. Good luck.”

I looked over at Rojā, noting where his eyes were looking and did my best to focus on that spot in the hopes of seeing anything. Nothing. Not one Luna damned thing!

“Please tell me I’ll learn to do that!” I begged as I realized he had to have vanished from sight by now.

“You will, if you can make it through basic training,” Master Tamiko said offering me a friendly though sympathetic smile. “I must apologize in advance. Elder Rojā has trained very few disciples over the years, but only two of those thirteen have finished training under him. The last one was… Perhaps thirty-five years ago?”

Elder eh? Did that mean he was the head teacher or simply in the top tier of teachers? Either way, good news for me.

I returned her smile. “Well, I um… I sort of have my family’s honor riding on this. I may not be very good at anything yet, but I do have plenty of my grandmother's stubbornness. So I’ll stay here until I make it through!”

“Brave words,” Master Mitsu chuckled. “You do understand that you are committing to four years minimum of grueling training, yes?”

“Four? I thought it was five,” I said as I turned to give Rojā a confused look.

Was he going easy on me because I was a foreigner?

Master Tamiko raised an eyebrow. “You think she can get to year five? After a day of watching her?” She asked, her tail lashing in a way I couldn’t read.

“Yes. I do,” Rojā said simply. “If I’m wrong, nothing of it. She makes it through year four and finishes everything she came to get. If I’m right, well-”

“Um, is this something I’m supposed to be hearing?” I asked quickly, taking a half step back. “Cuz um, this sounds like, you know, classified rewards for doing really well.”

He turned to face me and gave me a very serious steely gaze. “Sherbert, I want you to understand one thing with crystal clarity. Anything you overhear before your third year, we meant for you to hear.”

Master Mitsu nodded in agreement. “Fifth year is not a reward. It’s not a level everypony can reach. In four years, we can teach everything you need to know to serve as a ninja, or a shinobi. The fifth year is special. In that first year, we teach you how to find the beginning of your path to mastering one of the many disciplines within this art.

“Not everyone is cut out for that. You will know by your fourth year if you excel in any of the arts. If you do, know that you have a fifth year waiting for you. If you are merely average in all disciplines, then know that your fourth year is your last, for the gates do not open for all.”

“A true master is forged during their training,” Master Tamiko agreed. “If you can’t find your way to the path after walking that far, there is no Master’s Path for you. But fear not! Not everypony needs to be a master to buck a castle door clean off its hinges and slay an evil necromancer using an old shovel, then rescue the damsel and impress Sir Heartstrings at the same time with your daring do.”

My tail shot straight up as I turned a bright red. THAT’S WHAT I HAD BEEN DREAMING ABOUT! I could remember now! Oh, please tell me she didn’t see the sexy parts of-

“You talk in your sleep,” Tamiko teased. “Don’t worry, I have similar fantasies. Though I’d much rather impress Lady Octavia. If only to earn her autograph.”

I tried to reply but only squeaked awkwardly instead.

“What?” She asked with a playful shrug. “Who doesn't love her hit single, ‘I’m Too Sleepy to Name This, Please Go Away’? Such a wonderful song. I’m glad it became popular again!”

As awesome as it was that she’d heard of and also admired some of my personal heroes, I was still a bit freaked out.

“So um, what was the signal to keep people out of my room again?” I asked Rojā with a worried flick of my ears.

“Master Tamiko’s room is next to your own. You may wish to close the air vents,” Rojā chuckled before bowing slightly to his friends. “Tam, Miu, I’ll see you for lunch today.”

… Stupid air vents.

“Good luck with her first day,” Master Tamiko said with a polite nod before she and Misu walked back to their previous positions, which I just noticed had a good view of the majority of the training grounds.

“Come,” Rojā said as he resumed our walk. “We’re nearly there.”

“Quick question. Why did Master Tamiko call you ‘Elder’?” I asked with a curious tilt of my head.

“Hmm? Oh, I’m not the Dojo Elder or anything like that. Though I am the most accomplished of the practicing masters at the Academy. Tamiko and I are from the same Clan, and as my father passed away three years ago I am now the Clan Elder. It’s nothing you need concern yourself with, merely Thestrial Politics.”

Clan? Cool!

“So like, did your whole clan move here at some point or something?” I pressed, genuinely interested in why a batpony clan would be in Neighpone.

As far as I knew their tribe was only seven thousand years old and had started in Equestria, been chased out of the Kingdom because racists, then settled in modern day Estoneigha. Except for like, one clan which stuck around and became the core of the Lunar Guard.

“Yes, our ancestors left our homeland to settle across the mountains in Prance. As you may or may not know, the Prench colonized Neighpone a very long time ago. My clan descends from some of the Batponies who decided to go even further and joined the colony expedition,” Rojā said as he turned and walked up the stairs into a small building.

A small one room building. Maybe ten by eight meters, with a small closet labeled ‘equipment’ and floored with a big soft vinyl covered mat. A small patch of floor on the far wall from the entrance was elevated by about a decimeter, and not padded.

Rojā trotted inside and took a seat on the elevated section, sitting cross legged like his friends outside had been and gestured to the center of the room with one hoof. “As soon as you sit, we will begin.”

I nodded and walked towards the center of the room, sitting down and doing my best to clear every other thought out of my mind. I needed to focus on every last little thing, and get it PERFECT!

Rojā nodded as I sat, cleared his throat and began to lecture.

“There are many skills you will learn here, but we are both aware of the primary skills. Taijutsu, and Shinobi-iri. These two arts are brothers. Fighting with your hooves and remaining unseen are the two skills you must master before learning any other aspects of ninjitsu, they are the foundation you will build yourself upon.

“Today, we will clear the ground and prepare to lay that foundation.”

Rojā fluidly slid up onto all four of his hooves. The motion was artful, swift, and barely perceptible. If I’d blinked it would have looked like he’d teleported into a standing position.

“Stand up, please,” he ordered.

I stood up, taking about a second to do so. Which felt pretty embarrassing after watching him just well, jumpcut like that.

“Now, extend your leg like this,” Rojā instructed, slowly moving his rear left leg upwards so it pointed to his left.

He literally just pitched his leg upwards, ninety degrees, so it pointed straight left! Not one bend in the knee or ankle. That was purely hip movement.

I stared wide eyed at that feat of contortionism. “I uh, Yeah… I can’t do that,” I said, rubbing the back of my head with one hoof.

“Yes, you can,” Rojā corrected, lowering his leg back down. “All ponies can do that, nothing in our skeletal structure prevents it. Our hind legs are just as flexible and free to move as our forelegs,” Rojā said, extending his left rear leg again, and rotating it at the hip in a full circle, matching the movement with his right foreleg. “The problem is you've never used the muscles and tendons required to move like this.

“It’s not instinctive, only a hooffull of ponies know they can do it. We need to train you to do it, and build up your strength in these muscles until you can stand for as long as you wish on your rear legs.”

I hummed and closed my eyes in concentration. I could feel my leg muscles burn as I tried to mimic his movement, managing to raise my own rear leg up slightly before having to let it drop back down.

Ugh, this was going to suck! At least I could move like that in theory. Definitely would need lots of practice

“But why though?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “Plenty of martial arts are done on all fours.”

Rojā nodded twice. “Indeed they are, and plenty of maneuvers you will learn use a four hooved stance. But, we also use a two hooved stance in this discipline. Why? Because if you can move on just two legs, you have two free to block, attack, and grapple rather than the usual one. It’s more tactically advantageous.

“However, standing on all four legs also has advantages. You are far more stable, faster, and in many cases, more agile. As such, we switch between both stances as needed. We will begin with some simple exercises to allow you to begin learning to move properly. This should only take a few months.”

I blinked. “Months? Of just stretching and posting?”

Rojā nodded. “Yes. Don’t worry, a perk is as you build up the underused muscles, your flanks will gain a centimeter or two of bulk. Fuller flanks are considered attractive in Equestria, right?”

“Um, well yeah but- Is there any way to get it done faster?” I asked with a hopeful frown. “I sort of… It’s frustrating to know that I can't start real training until I work out a bunch. I’ll do it, but well, I’m eager to get to the training.”

Rojā smirked, his eyes focusing on me for the few seconds he held that smile.

“Yes, there is a faster way since you're young and still able to put on muscle quickly. But it’s very painful,” he warned. “Are you certain you want to do that? We could cut the time in half.”

In half? I tapped a hoof to my chin thoughtfully. “Yeah,” I decided. “I think I can handle a little pain to cut this down to a month.”

“It’s not a little pain, it’s actually quite a bit of pain, and you are likely to dislocate your hips fairly frequently. You may lose your ability to stand for the first few hours after the first week’s training. Are you absolutely certain?” Rojā asked his expression becoming unreadable.

I winced. “Um, well, isn’t learning how to handle pain part of being a ninja?” I asked as my answer.

“Then we will train your muscles using equipment rather than your own body weight,” Rojā said decisively.

Rojā nodded and walked over to the equipment closet, opened it, and begun to look through the shelves and boxes inside. After a moment’s search, he retrieved and odd steel framed device and walked over to me with it.

“Stand up normally,” Rojā instructed, waiting for me to comply before he started to attach the frame to me while talking. “This is a ratcheting bar. Once you move it up a ‘notch’ it can’t go back down. A series of powerful springs make moving the bar upwards increasingly difficult the more notches you raise your legs.

“This process works out your muscles, and stretches your tendons, getting them used to this direction of movement. I am going to lock the bars onto your legs now. Notice the cuffs close around your ankle, lower leg, and thighs. You will not be able to bend your legs with these on. You can only move your hips.

“Now, with the waist lock secured, you can only raise your legs upwards. Sort of like doing the splits, but rotated ninety degrees.”

I felt the cold metal against the skin on my ankles, pressing tightly enough into me for my fur to fail to insulate me. Rojā wasn’t joking either, no matter how hard I squirmed, the only thing I could do was move my legs up at the hip. Nothing else would budge.

It’s a good thing I liked playing around with bondage gear because this would really freak me out otherwise.

“Okay, so I have to raise my legs until they get to the top, because of the ratchets. I guess once they get to the top the system resets so I can do another lift?” I asked curiously, experimentally raising my right leg until I heard the bar click.

I tried to push my leg back down. It wouldn’t move that way. Not even a bit. At least nothing burned or felt painful yet.

“No. By the time you reach the full ninety degrees you’ll be too weak to stand, much less do another set. The effort required to raise your leg by a notch increases exponentially. When you reach the uppermost position in one leg, nothing happens. Reach it with the other and the bar unlocks,” Rojā elaborated, walking up to the raised section of the training room to sit back down.

“Oh, okay,” I said, extending my left leg to move it up one notch too. “This isn’t too bad… You have the keys, right? Just in case something happens?”

Rojā shook his head. “There are no keys. The only way you get out of that is by completing the exercise.”

“E-excuse me!?” I eeped, ears falling back in a mixture of fear and anger. “What if I NEED to get out? I promised Kazumi that I’d stop by to help Narina more today!”

“Then you’d better finish your workout. Don't worry, you only have a week of this, then we will move to a different yet similar device to train you for another direction of rotation,” Rojā said simply. “It normally takes a pony several hours to finish this the first time. I recommend you get started. If you want to do anything else today.”

Kazumi Koi - 5th of Solar Dusk, 25 AE

Kazumi’s Clinic, Neighdo - Neighpone

I hate late lunches. Whenever I had to eat lunch around three in the afternoon it meant I’d been so busy before lunch that I couldn’t stop at the designated lunch time. Which meant I really shouldn’t be eating lunch, because I had post-lunch work to do, and that meant I had to eat on the go.

Good thing Nahrina’s adoptive mother had gone out to beat the shit out of the stallion who put her buggy kid here. She’d probably mop the floor with me for this. But a mare’s gotta eat…

“Could you maybe not eat a sandwich while changing my bandages?” Narina asked with an irritated huff.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m cleaning everything out already,” I retorted. “A few breadcrumbs atop bandages that are about to be removed and burned, over chitin that's going to be washed and sterilized won't hurt you.”

“Okay, sure, but like, why didn’t you eat at lunch time? Why do you have to do that over me?” She pressed, giving me an irritated look.

“Because during lunch time I was sewing a colt’s rectum back into place after the idiot tried to take a sex toy that was too big for him. I know, I had to remove it…” I grumbled, taking another bite of my cucumber sandwich.

“Ow,” Narina flinched.

“Yeah, that’s right. I earned this sandwich and this table. Now hush,” I said as I finished the last bite and began to peel back the hemolymph soaked bandage.

Sheesh, how many times did this mare pull this one seam open? I’d staple it closed if she had skin. This had to be the fourth time she’d lost at least a hundred milliliters of hemolymph via this one crack. It wasn’t even near her hearts.

“Think that Sherbert will show up again today?” Nariana asked as I carefully unwound the dripping bandage.

I sighed and shook my head. In my experience, no. Promises were never kept. Not unless they stood to gain something from it. Which was a shame. Equestrian kindness definitely seemed to be a real thing and not a stereotype. And while a little ditzy, Sherbert had known how to treat an injured changeling, she was smart, just inexperienced. Kind, a budding intellect, nice sexy colors…

It’s a shame that Equestrian kindness had to be an act. No one was really that nice. But at least I wouldn’t have to ensure I didn’t let another pony get close enough to backstab me again.

On the other hoof, it would be bad bedside manner to be honest about my opinions on the matter to the poor mare I was treating.

Especially since they would be relying on one another for protection in the future to prevent this sort of thing. There had to be trust between them.

“Probably not today. It’s well into the afternoon, and her first day of training. Perhaps she’s too busy, or forgot,” I said as gently as I could. “I’ll call them when we’re done here and ask. I’m certain it’s something simple.”

“I hope so… I don’t want to be here till I molt,” she whimpered, giving me a really pathetic look.

“That look might work on your mom, but it won't work on me,” I informed dryly. “I’m doing all I can already.”

Nahrina sighed. “Oh fine… I was hoping you could, I don't know, duct tape me up and let me go over to ask her in person, or something.”

“There’s not a chance in the world of that happening,” I laughed, shaking my head. “I like not being sued, and your mom is scary.”

“Heh, no she’s not. She just blocks her emotions to manage anger issues,” Nahrina giggled. “She’s a big softie really.”

Yeah, maybe for you… Not for anypony else though.

I gently lifted her hind quarters to pull the soiled bandages off, and winced. I’d need to change the bedding too. She’d saturated the sheets under her with more. Why don't changelings clot!? Ugh, it’s like their species is designed to die if their armored skin is breached.

Before I could tell Nahrina I’d need to hoist her up for the third time today, somepony knocked on the door. I flapped my wings, harder, lifting myself further off the ground to easily see the door.

“Yes?” I called.

“Are you available? There’s a blond mare with broken hips who insists she has to see you and nopony else,” one of the new nurses whose name I hadn’t learned yet asked urgently.

“I’m changing bandages… But broken hips do take priority. Do you mind waiting for a minute while I make sure this new pony gets a room and a nurse?” I asked Narina. “Offense not intended. It’s just basic triage.”

“You keep saying that word, what does it mean?” Narinah asked indignantly, giving me a hurt glare.

“The assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties,” I answered, giving her the dictionary definition. “You’re stable, despite being badly injured. This mare could have shards of bone cutting up her insides right now which will make healing her harder, and sometimes impossible without expensive magic.

“I’ll finish your bandages, but for some reason she wants me specifically, and well, we need her on a bed and laying still stat. Then I’ll come back, finish your bandages, and then get back to her.”

Narahina signed and nodded, “Okay. But um… I’m a little dizzy so like, maybe when you get back we could do another transfusion?” She asked hopefully.

“Maybe. If we have any of your species ‘blood’ left. There’s not very many of you living in Neighdo you know,” I said as I landed to walk out to the lobby to accept Miss Picky as a patient.

As I landed, a slight scuffle broke out on the other side of the door. I could hear the sound of something dragging, a few surprised yelps and then finally the nurse demanded, “Stay still, miss! The doctor will see you in a minute. Don’t damage your hips further!”

“For the last time they aren't broken, I just can’t move them!” A familiar voice snapped irritably. “Let me in! I’m supposed to help heal Nahrina!”

Sherbert! She kept her promise without prompting! She really is that nice!

PANIC!

No! Don’t panic, bakka! Just don’t let yourself like her. You can do that. Just treat her like anypony else. She’s really dedicated to the Equestrian ideals. That’s all. Under that veneer is somepony who would hurt you. Just like the rest.

Wait, she was having problems with her legs?

I zipped to the door and pulled it open putting on my best angry scowl. The first thing I could see was the pegasi nurse trying to gently pick up Sherbert, who was dragging herself via her forelegs, her hind legs being totally limp. She was currently clinging to the doorframe.

“What do you think you’re doing!? Dragging yourself down the hallway with busted legs just to help somepony else?!” I demanded through clenched teeth. “Don’t hurt yourself more, kasu!”

Sherbert grunted as the nurse continued trying to get her away from the door. “I don’t know what that was. I mean like, that was an insult, right? Is it a good one? Should I remember it?” She asked before turning to the nurse. “ALSO, WILL YOU STOP?! I’m trying to help a dying changebug!”

“How are you even mobile?” I demanded. “You should be in paralyzing pain!”

“Rojā gave me some morphine,” Sherbert answered. “Seriously, just let me help her, I promised!”

“Not until your injuries have been tended to! What even happened to you?” I demanded, looking up at the nurse. “Let her go, I’ll tend to her on the spare bed in this room.”

After all, if she dragged herself down here for the hallway she was serious about helping. I should at least give her that much of a helping hoof.

“Really?” The nurse asked me, a look of surprise crossing her face.

I rolled my eyes. “Yes. Why wouldn’t I help Blondie, help me, help her, help one of my patients?”

She nodded and let go of Sherbert. “W-why did you say it like that?” She and Sherbert asked together.

Because I was flustered, obviously!

“Because that’s what’s happening here,” I said as I walked over to Sherbert’s limp rear half and gently lifted her up by the belly. “Come on, walk over to the bed against the side wall. I’ll help you up into it.”

“Thanks…” She said with an embarrassed sigh as we co-trotted over to the bed.

The moment Sherbert reached the bed, she reached up first with one hoof then the other and started to pull herself up into it. Doing my best to ignore the fact that I was touching her plot, I boosted her up the rest of the way, then snapped my wings open, flapping until I could hover at the right hight to begin checking her hips.

“I told you, there not broken! They just hurt like Tartarus and I can’t move them anymore,” Sherbert protested as I began to feel her flanks.

I mean hips. Because she’s not sexy. She’s just another patient. Also groping somepony on shift is a huge breach of professionalism and I wasn’t going to do that.

“You dragged yourself down the hall to help me even though you broke your hips?” Nahriana asked from her bed, her voice carrying a disbelieving tone. “What the heck did Rojā make you do!?”

“THEY. AREN'T. BROKEN!” Sherbert snapped. “We already checked. I spent the last eleven hours in that stupid leg flexibility bar thing.”

“HA!” Narina laughed. “You asked if there was a faster way, didn’t you?”

“Shut up…” Sherbert grumbled, her ears laying flat in anger.

My probing hooves traced over her tensed, exceptionally worked out muscles. I could feel which ones she’d been working out simply because they were locked up. She’d pushed herself too hard, but luckily not broken or ripped anything.

That was another point in her favor, she had a high pain tolerance. Most ponies I knew would be whimpering and screaming with this sort of ‘injury’, even on the low dose of painkillers you could get without a medical licence. She must have never used these particular muscles before, and given them an exceptionally hard workout. Good thing she was so young. Instead of giving herself permanent damage she’d build them up quickly… Though this had to hurt a lot.

She might be fine by morning without treatment, only incredibly sore. But she was definitely already in a lot of pain, and I imagine she’d like to walk again today… Eh, why not. I had something for this kind of thing.

I finished examining her hips, and nodded in satisfaction. “Yep, they aren’t broken. But you’ve pulled almost every muscle in your hips, Blondie. No wonder you can’t stand. Let me get you something for that.”

I turned around and flew over to one of the room’s potion cabinets and began to look for wherever the heck Doctor Li put the Soothing Draught. He NEVER put things back where they were supposed to go. Even though the shelves were labeled…

Finally locating the pink bottle, I picked it up and flew back over to Sherbert, holding it out to her. “Take one small sip. More than that and you’ll relax so much that I’ll have to change the sheets,” I warned.

Sherbert took the bottle with a forehoof and winced. “Ew… Uh, how small is a ‘small sip’?” She asked urgently.

“A few milliliters,” I said before pausing, taking the bottle back from her, fetching an oral syringe, and extracting an exact dosage for her. “Here.”

“Thanks!” Sherbert said, squirting the syringe into her mouth. “Okay, so while this kicks in can we get Rina some more noms? I’m feeling fine except for the billion needles in my legs.”

“Please tell me Rojā drove you down here,” Nahrina asked with a sympathetic hiss of pain.

“He has a car? Why?” Sherbert asked with a confused frown.

I rolled my eyes. “Because this city is too big to get around on hoof and sometimes public transport doesn't go where-”

I paused, turned around to look Sherbert in the eyes, and asked. “Did you drag yourself three kilometers to this Clinic just now?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I had to. That jerk didn’t offer a ride and I promised I’d help her out.”

AAAAAAAAAAA! IT’S NOT AN ACT! THE HOT MARE IS ACTUALLY THAT NAIVELY NICE! PANIC!

No, don’t panic. Do something! You’re not going to have a third pony stab your heart with an icepick after a few months after the last one did! NEVER AGAIN!

My ears flicked back and forth for a minute while I tried to process a response. “BAKKA! You should have seen the bus stops between here and there! There’s one just outside the clinic.”

Sherbert’s ears fall sadly. “I um, I thought, you know… That I’d have to pay for a ticket.”

“No! It’s free,” I corrected, doing my best to keep looking angry despite how deeply my words cut into the poor mare.

I’m sorry I just can’t let anypony get close again…

Sherbert's eyes seemed to get bigger as she gave me the same look as a puppy post-kick.

…

Ponyfeathers. I had to apologize for that. Her eyes… How did one pony even start to look super sad like that?

I sighed and flew a bit closer to her bed. “Sorry, just… I don’t like ponies hurting themselves. I have enough work thanks to accidents. I don’t need ponies out there intentionally getting hurt to add to my work day, you know?”

Sherbert nodded. “I understand… It’s alright. Everypony gets angry sometimes,” she said with a forgiving smile.

Poop… Now I had to push her away again.

“Um, let’s get Nahrina fed!” I said, turning around and zipping over to my stethoscope, quickly putting it on. “Are you ready for lunch?”

Nahrina hummed for a moment, looking up at me with a snarky grin. “Only if you hang out under the bed while I eat. Fair’s fair,” she joked.

I rolled my eyes and wheeled Sherbert’s bed over to Nahrina’s so she could get into range. “Stop being grump. I’ll clean you up in just a minute.”

“But what if I regenerate a crack and crumbs get stuck inside it?” Nahrina asked worriedly.

I froze, almost dropping out of the air before I remembered to flap. “Good point, bugbutt,” I agreed with a nod. “Let’s clean you up. Blondie, just lay here and hope I remembered what the safe dosage for somepony your size is.”

I had, but watching her fearfully clench up was more than a little amusing.

Heh heh heh. Muscle relaxants.

It only took a few minutes to get Nahrina cleaned up and rebandaged. During which time, Sherbert happily sank into the bed as the Soothing Draught kicked in. After that it was a simple matter of putting my stethoscope to her barrel and finding her slowed, but still healthy heartbeat.

“Okay, Nahrina. Go for it,” I said as soon as everything was ready.

She nodded, and inhaled, draining all the energy she could get her emotovoreick magic on.

The relaxant proved to be of more practical use than simply restoring the use of her legs. The calming effect the potion had bought Nahrina an extra ten seconds of feeding, which I could actually see matter. Last time, she had barely regenerated anything at all. This time, I could see that problematic extra leaky crack seal up, and based on her ECG monitor, her popped heart started working again.

Excellent! Less work for this bat. Less pain for the poor buggie.

“STOP!” I ordered as Sherbert’s heart rate began to exceed one-sixty-five beats per minute. “She’s at the safety threshold.”

“What even is that?” Sherbert asked wearily.

“It’s one-sixty-seven beats per minute,” I answered, turning around to Nahrina’s bed to start a physical and track her recovery.

“That’s it? I get up to around three-ten during a good run and I’m just fine,” Sherbert said sounding more than a little confused.

Three-ten!? That should be forty-five to fifty-six for a mare her age at rest, and one-sixty-three at the most when doing strenuous work! Sure, one-sixty-seven wasn’t a guaranteed heart attack, but it was the lower boundary of the danger zone. One-eighty was when she should start to have a good chance of a heart attack, and over two-hundred should lead to cardiac arrest!

Although, come to think of it, her resting rate had been around one-thirty, to begin with… While on a relaxant. I honestly didn’t think about checking this yesterday. I should have, that’s a major anomaly.

“What’s your resting heart rate normally?” I asked suspiciously.

“Um, I don’t normally track that. I only keep an eye on things while working out. Maybe one-sixty?” Sherbert answered with a shrug. “Why? Is that bad?”

“Interesting,” I mused. “That’s very abnormal, but not in a dangerous way. You might have a beneficial mutation relating to endurance. If you’re telling the truth at least. Because most ponies would have a heart attack if they reached one-eighty. That’s why one-sixty-seven is the cut off rate for stress.”

Sherbert hummed, clearly interested. “If I did, that would help a LOT with training. Oh! I could find a clear signal and download my health tracking data from SkyNet to my watch and show you tomorrow,” She offered.

I nodded eagerly. “I’d appreciate that. If you can handle more cardiac stress than the average pony then Nahrina can feed a bit more each time and heal up even faster. I’m sure you’d appreciate that, right Nahrina?”

She nodded. The first large scale movement of her head I’d seen her make in three days. “I’d love that. Thanks so much Sherbert. You have no idea how bad it hurt this morning,” she thanked, giving Sherbert an appreciative look.

NO! BAD BUG! MINE!

Wait, what am I saying? Good bug! Claim her so I can’t. Thank you!

Sherbert returned her look with a smile. “Hey, no problem! If you can help somepony you should.”

“Awww, you guys call us ponies?” Nahrina asked with a huge grin. “That’s so sweet! In the Bloodstone dialect of changelish, we don't have a word for ‘non-changeling’. We call you guys non-morphing changebugs. You know, because of culture and acceptance.”

Sherbert shook her head and slowly stood up, her hind legs slightly wobbly. “Well, no. We just use somepony more than anything else… Sorry, slip of the tongue. We do like changelings though! Certain specific ones excluded, naturally,” she said as she slipped out of bed to wobble some more. “Ooookay… I think I can walk like this. I should get going. I’ve got… history lessons.”

The way Sherbert sighed after saying ‘history lessons’ hit me right in the sympathy center. I hated that subject too. A lot. For obvious reasons.

“One sec,” I said, flying back up to the potions cabinet to retrieve the bottle of Soothing Draught and a fresh oral syringe.

I quickly put them into a brown paper bag and handed it to Sherbert. “Here. Take four milliliters if you lock up like that again. Don’t take more than six unless you are constipated or need to totally ruin an enemy's bed. More than ten will knock you out with a small chance you stop breathing. More than fifteen will kill you. Painlessly.”

Sherbert froze and stared at me in horror. “And you were going to have me just chug this down!?”

I bit my lip in embarrassment. “I… I take some myself because of joint pain. Daily. Because of my size. I have it down to an art, I forget that most people can't detect the right dosage by tongue. I’m sorry,” I said as sincerely as I could.

Stupid growth hormone deficiency… I wouldn’t care so much if not for the mild joint pain all the time. At least my talent was in potions.

Sherbert frowned. “That must suck! I’m sorry. Thank you… Um, do you have a pen so I can write the dosage on the bag?”

“It’s on the bottle label,” I said politely before intentionally switching to a more aggressive tone and expression. “Now don’t think I’m giving that to you just to be nice! It’s so you don't hurt yourself while walking down here over the next few days. I want the bottle back once our buggy friend is all better. Understood, Blondie?”

Sherbert nodded. “Yeah. I do. Thanks,” she said looking to Nahrina, and then me. “Bye, girls! See you tomorrow.”

Then she trotted out the door, just a little wobbly, and politely closed the door behind her.

“We’re still not even for the sandwich thing,” Nahrina said the moment the door closed.

I raised an eyebrow and turned to face her. “So?”

“Soooo,” Nahrina drew out teasingly. “Haha! You’ve got a crush on the gaijin!”

CRAP! OF COURSE SHE COULD TOTALLY JUST SEE THAT I DID!

Quick, do something to correct her accurate assessment!

“NO I DON’T!” I snapped, instantly, shooting daggers at Nahrina.

“Pfff, lying about love to a changeling. Come on, you’re a doctor!” Nahrina giggled playfully.

“I don’t have a crush on her!” I insisted, stamping one hoof.

“Yeah you do, you’re just afraid of it. Seriously, whoever stabbed you in the back before… Give her a chance. Sherbert’s different. Guarantee it,” Nahrina said as soothingly as she could.

“I SAID I DON’T LIKE HER!” I snapped again. “Don’t make me eat another sandwich!”

Nahrina snickered. “Okay, well if you really don’t I guess I’ll flirt with her a bit tomorr-”

“DON'T YOU DARE!” I exclaimed, zipping up to perch on her bedside-

I covered my mouth with my forehooves. “Eep!”

Nahrina snickered, then laughed, then winced and grabbed her side. “AHAHAHA- OW! OW! Oh bucking… OW!” She whimpered. “Worth it! Made you admit it. Heh heh.”

CRAP!

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to calm down. “Nahrina, I’m not ready for a relationship again. Maybe I won't be ever again. Don’t tell her. I’m going to keep trying to push her away. She’s better off with someone else anyways.”

Nahrina snorted. “That won’t work, she’s an Equestrian. They see people who are hostile as ‘challenges to befriend’,” she said with a smile.

“Yeah well, I have to try. Just… Just don't tell her and I’ll make sure you get better food while you stay here,” I offered.

“Changeling,” Nahrina reminded with an amused wink.

I facehooved. “I meant I’d get a couple to come make out near you. Or do whatever your preferred flavor of love is.”

“Oh!” Nahrina said, her ears perking happily. “In that case, get me a nerd stallion who likes fantasy novels, and have him geek out over his favorite setting for me and we have a deal.”

I blinked in honest surprise. “Your favorite ‘dish’ is non-sexual?” I asked curiously.

“Yep! There's lots of kinds of love,” she explained. “So, we have a deal?”

I nodded. “We have a deal,” I said, grabbing her still paralyzed forehoof and shaking it slightly.

Thank the Kami I knew a few mega geeks in the school book club! She must never know...

Author's Note

This story would not have been possible without the generious contributions from my Patrons.

Thank you very much for the meals and bits of rent. This story is literally here because of you. Your contributions are more appreciated than you can imagine.

If you would like to become a donor you can find my patreon page here.

Dedicated to Patron of the Week: djthomp

4 - Magicka

Sherbert - 12th of Solar Dusk, 25 AE

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

Of all the errors I had made in the last three months before I’d come to Neighpone, of all the stupid, painful, rash decisions I’d made since getting off the airship, failing to look into the school uniform was the worst.

I hadn’t gotten to see my school uniform before now because one had to be custom made. They absolutely had to be a perfect fit via school policy, and Neighponese ponies didn’t exactly come in Equestrian sizes. I knew I’d have one since I signed up for the exchange program. I NEVER thought to look up what they were like and find a school with something I could wear comfortably.

Something I could wear without losing everything before I could even gain anything.

I stared in horror at the uniform I’d just unpackaged, frantically searching through the big manila envelope for any sign of tights, or leggings, or any slip of paper which gave me a pants option.

There weren't any, and there was none.

Uniforms were MANDATORY and super important to the schools here. I’d had a few days to get used to seeing some of the Flying Horse thugs forcing random ponies to pay protection money. I’d even seen some of the fourth year students kick other thugs plots. I’d thought that was as serious as rivalries got.

What a naive little filly I’d been.

Failure to show up to school in uniform? Expulsion. Performing any activity on page one of the pre-attendance orientation packet while going to or from school (simple things like eating unhealthy foods, getting into fights, sitting on public transport instead of standing so others could use the seats, failing to have acceptable manners)? Expulsion.

No warning. Get caught, better find another school. There will be absolutely no tarnishing of the school’s reputation and public image! Glory to !

All of them. Literally all of them were like that. Everywhere.

Meh, no big. Master Rojā had similar expectations of me for here. I could deal with absolutely everything on that list except…

“I can’t wear a skirt!” I squeaked, doing my best not to panic and failing horribly.

Dark blue Blazer? Sure. Medium gray blouse? Looked horrible on me but sure. Skirt? NO!

If I wore a skirt, and nothing under it, then everypony could see my flanks if they stood behind me. Everypony could see that I still didn’t have a cutiemark.

Adults tend to forget what being a filly in school is really like. Everypony has nostalgia, they forget the bad stuff over time. Ponies naturally think about the good times most of all. They can’t help not remembering just how crucially important it is to be as normal as possible if you want to have ANY social life!

“I can’t wear this!” I repeated, louder, heart starting to race.

We’d finished training an hour ago. I had an hour before school started, not counting the travel time to get to school. Master Rojā had gone with Cho to pick up Nahrina from the Clinic. So we could walk to school together. She was fine now.

That meant he wasn’t here to help! I needed to make sure I wouldn’t be bullied again! There had to be something that could be done but an adult would have to do it, nopony listens to you until you’re thirty five!

“Why not?” A female voice asked through the vent above my bed.

Oh… Right… Master Tamiko could hear EVERYTHING that happened in my room. Kinda weird she was still in her room at six in the morning. I don’t think she ever actually slept. She seemed to be doing something for the dojo, all the time. No matter what.

“I um, I… I can’t wear anything that’s got an open plot-flank area…” I admitted as I tried to choke back fear sobs.

“Why not? Are you some kind of prude or something?” Tamiko asked, the grate on her side creaking for some reason.

“... You know I’m not,” I mumbled, my cheeks flushing bright red for a second.

She’d taken to writing down what I said in my sleep, making it into a short story, and pushing it through the vent in the morning. Most of those dreams involved hiring someone to kidnap my mates so I could rescue them because it was a mutual turn on for all involved… I didn’t need to know that about myself, thank you very much!

“I know you have sexy dreams,” Tamiko said as she pushed the air conditioning gate open and slid through it into my room, plopping down atop my bed as if she were some kind of snake. “You could easily be repressing your sexuality and having it leak out in your sleep.”

“DOORS! THEY EXIST!” I shouted in a mixture of frustration at the previous problem and the irritation at how Tamiko seemingly was afraid of entering a room by normal means!

She completely ignored my outburst...

“Look, just show off your plot. It’s normal! Everypony you grew up around does it and frankly, I’m one of the rare mares who covers up as part of her normal dress in this country. Besides, if you’re not a prude, you’ll want a special somepony. Give them something to want to try out!” Tamiko said using what I now recognised was that brain-hacking persuasion tone of voice psychology trick Rojā had used to get me to open up before.

HA! I could recognise that now. No dice this time, ninja master!

“That’s not the problem! I don’t care if ponies peak under my tail,” I snapped, ears laying back as I gave her a defensive glare.

She frowned for a moment, squinting at the lines of my face. “Are you not a biological mare?” She asked with a worried frown. “If so you tape better than-”

“I’m not transgender,” I groaned, slapping a hoof to my face.

Admittedly, I did have the occasional fantasy about being a stallion. Just to try out the parts. But as far as I could tell that’s normal. Everypony’s curious about the other half’s plumbing.

Tamiko raised one eyebrow, giving me a genuinely confused stare. “Okay so, you’re a bit ditzy because you just haven’t sharpened your wits. A thing I’m very glad Rojā is helping you with. But there’s no way you’re so dumb you don’t know how to attach a cloth cylinder to your waist.”

I groaned. “I know how to put it on… I… I can’t wear a skirt because then ponies would see my flanks,” I mumbled, pressing my muzzle into my frog. “I’m still a blankflank…”

Master Tamiko’s ears stood upright in genuine alarm.

“That’s a problem!” She said with a surprisingly appropriate amount of understanding and urgency. “I’ll get Rojā to work on a long term solution for you. Maybe we can convince the school to let you wear our dojo’s gi under your uniform. But that will take time, and you don’t get your own gi till your first month is over.

“Ummmm…. Ah! Yes, only way. Quick! What’s something you’re good at that you love?”

That was an easy answer, even though I was confused.

“Free running,” I answered. In Equish. Like a derp…

Tamiko snickered. “Good thing I know Equish. So, let’s see… You like acrobatic running,” she mused tapping a hoof to her chin for a moment. “Yeah, that will do. Hold still. I’m going to use some sorcery, I’m not a unicorn, I don't have much experience casting illusions on others. Don’t make this harder than it is.”

The batpony mare closed her eyes tightly, concentrating extremely hard for several seconds, eventually getting her left hoof to glow with a very faint pale blue aura.

I did usually just goof off in school, but I’d payed attention when we’d learned about sorcery. The primitive version of unicorn wizardry that almost any species could do if they trained for years and years. It wasn’t taught in Equestria anymore because it is a crude, clunky, primitive art.

AND IT WAS BEING USED ON ME!

Tamiko’s hoof vanished. My right flank stung. A flash of pale blue light shone through my pink and sexy-pink striped pajama bottoms.

“Okay, slip those pants off and let’s check your flanks,” Tamiko ordered.

As scared as I was that hedge magic just messed me up, I couldn’t help but snicker at the double entendre.

Tamiko rolled her eyes. “You may be of legal age here, but I’m not into you. This is important. We need to see if the illusion is working.”

I nodded and slowly pulled the waistband down with my magic to expose my right flank. I bit my lip, dreading the presence of some massive blister, or a big black splotch like somepony had tossed ink onto my flanks.

Instead a simple mark seemed to rest on my flanks. I said seemed because the mark glistened in the light slightly. Especially on the white blowing wind swirl, though the oak leaf which the wind was blowing looked much better.

“Oh wow!” I said with a shocked smile. “That’s almost real looking!”

“They’ll not be able to tell from a distance,” Tamiko said with a dismissive hoofwave. “This bit of Genjutsu is used for disguise purposes. Covering up your own mark and what not. I’ve used it hundreds of times. Just don't let them get a good look at it.

“The shade your skirt will provide will do just fine for helping hide the shimmer. If you’re willing to let the other masters know, Cho is far better at this because she’s a unicorn, and could teach you the spell.”

I frowned for a moment then nodded. “Yeah… I really need to start thinking and planning ahead… I’ll tell her,” I decided. “I’m crap at learning spells though.”

“More like you’re just crap at learning non-physical skills,” Tamiko corrected with a smirk.

I flinched slightly. “Um… That was a little mean,” I mumbled, looking down at the floor.

“Yes, it was. But I’ve got you figured out now. You’re the kind of pony who need the occasional dose of harsh reality to steer you to a better future. Put in the hard work and you can learn how to learn. The brain is a muscle just like any other,” she answered with a kind smile. “Show me the other side, please.”

I nodded, and slipped my pajama pants off entirely, turning my head to look at my other flank. A matching mark decorated it as well, but I was pretty sure that it’s angle didn’t quite match the other mark’s angle. Still, it looked real enough.

Tamiko quickly trotted around to my other side and nodded in satisfaction.

“Good! Problem solved,” Tamiko said with a relieved smile. “Just remember to not let them get close enough to see the shimmer. I’ll renew that for you every day if you decide to not tell anypony else.

“Side note; nice progress on building those muscles, Sherbert. Those tensors are rock solid, seem about done. You put on muscle freakishly quickly. In a good way.”

I cringed as her words forced me to remember the last week. Yeah, I’d made progress. I could rotate my rear leg upwards like Rojā could. But I’d still spent the entire week in pain, on not quite enough painkillers to not feel it, and that potion Kazumi gave me did loosen things up enough for me to stand and walk but it also gave me migraines and the runs… Side effects which were NOT listed on the bottle.

I should have gone with the longer training sessions...

“Yeah,” I agreed with a nod. “I’m moving on to the femoris tomorrow. I was able to stand on just my left hooves today so Master Rojā says I’m done with this exercise.”

“Really? Were you able to lift yourself up so your right hooves pointed up, as if laying spread-hawk on a wall?” Tamiko asked with a skeptical eyebrow raise.

I nodded slowly. ‘Yeah… But that REALLY hurt. My knees didn’t like carrying that much weight while extended like that.”

She nodded again, seemingly satisfied. “That should go away after you finish the next two sets of exercises,” she explained turning back to the vent and wiggling through it back into her room as as if she’d used a door.

“Um… There’s a perfectly good door over there,” I pointed out due to sheer bafflement.

“I didn’t spend fifteen years training as a ninja to not use those skills when I feel like it,” Tamiko called through the vent. “I’ve got a thing to pack for. Enjoy your first day of school, and don’t worry, I’ll be back by three tomorrow morning. I’ll still be able to help your with your mark.”

“Thanks,” I called through the vent before turning back to my uniform.

I still REALLY didn’t want to wear it but… Well, I had ‘cutiemarks’ now. So, everything should look fine.

Just think of the illusions like pants and it will be fine.

Wait a minute…

She was a ninja. And had a thing to pack for. But wouldn’t even be gone a full day.

Uh… Things to think about later! I know I just decided to start thinking about things more but that seems like it might be unhealthy to look into.

On second thought, didn’t she compete in kendo? Yeah, she did. She was likely going to a match across the city. This is a museum after all, not a mercenary outpost.

I quickly slipped into my school uniform, using my magic to float a mirror over to me and check to make sure everything was put on properly. If schools here were super anal about everyone being in uniform at all times, they would totaly be pissy if I didn’t tuck the blouse into the sirt, had my belt not on correctly, and so on.

I gave myself a full fifteen minutes to get ready. Uniform on. Everything done properly. Making the outit super uncomfortable physically as well as emotionally. Then mane. I had my uncle’s epic ‘always styled’ mane. It just stayed nice and neat. Tail, that’s a whole other story.

After all, my tail’s hair is all synthetic hair extensions. Which means it needs to be checked to make sure all of the microbeads are in place, and then brushed, maybe cleaned, and often restyled. Fortunately it wasn't too much of a mess today and a good combing had everything nice and neat in maybe five minutes.

Just as I set my comb down, and began to double check that I had everything in my uniform issued saddlebags (which were terribad in terms of not digging into my back due to the style of straps having been designed by a total assclown), someone knocked on the doorframe.

“Hey, are you ready to go?” A younger stallion’s voice asked curiously.

The stallion was somewhat tall, and built like a cat. A wild one, not the housepet kind. Sleek, graceful looking, but with obvious toned muscles that rippled under his fur. That sort of body is almost impossible for a unicorn to achieve. We don’t put on muscle in ways which look too obvious without steroids or a lifetime of hard work.

He had gray-white fur simmilar to Rarity’s but without the metallic shine of three hundred bit shampoo and daily spa visits. An improvement if you asked me. His eyes were a dull blue, like older glass bottles, and his mane...

He didn’t look familiar at all. I would have remembered that mane. And the tail too. Same style.

He had slightly curly hair which was left loose and grown out really long. A bit past his shoulders long. It was voluminous too, moving up a few centimeters before slowly arching back down. He looked like he’d stepped off the cover of one of those eighty year old metal band’s album covers.

His clothing did NOT fit him at all. He had on an identical uniform to mine, except with pants, making me regret not enrolling as a stallion and then just showing a picture of my dad when anypony asked why I looked like a mare. That meant he went to my school too.

He shouldn’t be wearing that. He should be in like, a leather vest made into a t-shirt by attaching short chainmail sleeves, with some leather leg bands, and some tight leather pants. Again, like those old metal bands.

I frowned as I tried to see if I remembered who the heck this was. One hundred and ten percent sure I had not seen him before.

“Um, sorry. I didn’t know a third pony went to school. We can go as soon as Nahrina’s ready,” I said as I stood up and set the stupidly uncomfortable bags onto my back.

He rolled his eyes while giving me a playful smile. “I’m a changeling,” he said.

It took me two seconds to put things together…

“Well… I’m pretty stupid,” I mumbled into my hoof. “And embarrassed. I uh, I thought you were a girl.”

“I was!” Rina answered with another grin. “Again, I’m a changeling. I like being a guy when I’m a pony, so when I go pony, I go guy. Unless it’s a special occasion.”

I reached back to scratch my head with a hooftip. “Huh, well… Okay. Most bugs I know just sort of stick to one sex.”

He nodded. “Yep. Most do. Not me though, I’ve got my preferences. Diamond dog, female. Dragon, none. Zebra, male. Griffon, female. I’d make my changeling form male if I could, but I never learned how to shapechange into changeling forms.”

I nodded slowly. Okay, so Rina liked to shapechange more than most changelings I’d met. Fair enough. I’d have fun with that power too.

“So um, will you be in a different form every day?” I asked curiously.

“Nah, I spend most of my time like this. I kinda feel like this is me, you know?” He said with an uncertain frown. “Um… You probably don’t… It’s a shapeshifter thing. Sometimes you just feel more like you as something you made up than how you hatched.

“Uh… I used to have this body as an earth pony though. But recent events have made me realize that I should keep a horn ready to go till I’ve finished more training.”

I nodded twice, doing my best to take things in, understand, and well, adapt. Rina was my first friend after all. I didn’t want to mess things up.

“Okay! Soooo do you consider yourself to be a stallion? I don’t want to call you the wrong thing, but I remember Master Rojā called you a girl so, you know,” I asked, blushing slightly.

He snickered. “They tease me with that whole thing. Because you know, changelings are a monosex species. We’re all biologically mares, at least without shapeshifting. Most of us alter our ‘natural forms’ to fit with however we feel we are over time. I just never learned how to do that, so they jokingly call me a girl.

“It’s harmless fun. But yeah, I’m a guy. Only mom gets to seriously call me a mare, and that’s because Amarezons don’t have stallions in their tribes, so she’s easily confused by the whole ‘multiple sexes and different pronouns’ thing.”

“Huh… Neat,” I said with one final nod. “Okay, I’m up to speed! Never thought my first friend would be a colt from the end of the Solar Era. Why did you choose that mane? Also why do you go by a feminine name?”

Rina raised an eyebrow at me. “My name is Changelish. It means ‘House of the Rivers’ in the Bloodstone dialect. I’m named after a volcano twice the size of the mountain were on right now, because the rivers in question are lava rivers. If that’s a feminine name in Equestria, I should move there. Your mares must be total badflanks!”

“Oh wait,” he said with a playful wink. “The most famous Equestrians beat the crap out of a demonic centaur who went kaiju singled hoofed and the other plays yo-yo with the sun. I guess you all are total badflanks after all.”

“Cool!” I said with a genuine smile. “And seriously, the mane? I mean, the look works for you but it’s just really out there, you don't see that anymore. And I know you had to pick it because you’re a changeling.”

“I like it,” he answered with a shy blush.

“That’s it?” I asked with a head tilt.

“Yep! Not everything about me can be as awesome as ‘named after the constantly lava spewing volcano he was hatched in’,” he said with a wink. “And before you ask, my birth mom thought my egg looked wimpy and could stand to be more metal so she incubated me using a volcano. That may seem cruel, but our hive is stupid overpopulated so if I cooked instead of incubated, no one would have cared. Also it worked, kinda. Metal is my favorite genre.

“Is it my turn to ask you things yet? Let’s see… What’s your butt stamp mean? Are you some kind of Equestrian Wind Mage?”

I shook my head slowly. “N-no. I’m just really good at freerunning,” I said slowly as I realized I shouldn’t lie to a friend. “A-also… Promise you won't tell anypony?”

Rina nodded. “Sure, and I already know it’s an illusion spell. Mom uses them all the time, her’s are better though. I just figured you picked something you liked. You know, like I did.”

I cringed. “Oh sisters! Is it very visible?” I asked turning my head to look again.

Rina shook his head. “No, Sherbert, I can tell because I see that illusion used all the time. It’s got more sharp detail than a real mark, it shimmers slightly in the light, and they aren't aligned correctly. Nopony else will notice. I swear. I just helped my mom practice putting fake marks on for years.”

“Ohhhh, that makes sense!” I said with a relieved yet nervous laugh. “So um… What’s your fake mark? You know what mine is. Only fair.”

“Heh, too bad I’m not a Scout. Then I could make a real one,” Rina said with just a hint of jealousy. “It’s a silver chalice with a series of three ancient runes written on it. They’re sort of a signature of my hive’s culture. We’re religious. I’m not, but most of us are. I just like the traditions.”

I nodded and then frowned. “Wait, runes? As in writing? That sort of breaks the rules for a cutie mark. They are all pictographs and symbols.”

“I know. I’m a changeling. I intentionally have a clearly not a pony mark so ponies know I’m not a pony. I do that for all my forms. It’s rude. Besides, the runes’ meaning is related to music as well as valor and awesomeness, and since we’re a warrior-poet culture, I learned music from an early age,” Rina explained as his horn burned the signature changeling green.

I expected him to slide his pants down to show me his mark. Instead he conjured a pale green energy field just behind himself, which grew to fill the doorway entirely. Then as if emerging from a shadow, a fully three dimensional image of a simple silver chalice slid into view. Completely bare save for three elaborate runes etched into the side and painted the bright red of hot iron.

The runes looked… Odd. Halfway between Equish’s rolling curves, and the letters used to write in the Emerald Hive’s Dialect. I felt like I should be able to read them, but I couldn’t. Especially because-

“That is the coolest illusion spell ever!” I shouted, grinning ear to ear as the almost perfectly real projection loomed over us.

Rina smiled back. “Thanks! It’s a bit theatric, but hey, I trained as a bard before I drew the short straw and had to live here,” he explained sounding oddly unhurt buy that fact.

I tilted my head, he didn’t give me a chance to ask the obvious question.

“I mentioned earlier that my hive’s overpopulated,” he explained with a ‘whatcha gonna do shrug’. “We don’t have a queen. We have four. Identical quadruplets. All soldiers, all wanting a very big army in case of attack. One wanting to be the biggest mom in the universe. Oh! And there’s no predators on the island, and plenty of ponies to farm for love.”

I flinched. “Oh, soooo since insects reproduce in the hundreds at a time, and all changelings can reproduce, not just queens…”

He nodded. “Yep. Counting drones, there’s two billion of us on that island, and only food for one point nine six. That includes food we can get from trading with Neighpone. There’s also just not enough space, even though we’ve dug megacities below the surface, it’s a volcanic island. There isn’t an unlimited amount of down to dig.

“So every so often, there’s a lottery. Losers have to leave. Everyone’s entered automatically. I lost, along with a few thousand from my hometown. So I moved here.”

“Where Master Cho took you in?” I asked just to be sure.

Rina nodded. “Yep!”

“Did they ever think to um, stop laying eggs?” I asked curiously.

“Pff, sure. But you tell an entire nation to stop having kids. See how that works for you,” he snickered. “Spoiler, it won’t. We’ve expanded till we hit the limits of the food supply, and things are stabilizing. Upside, back when Queen Chrysalis was mind slaving changelings to serve as her army, she left us the hell alone. Cuz you don’t piss off a universal warrior culture with massive numbers and an ethics complex preventing us from attacking anything that doesn't attack us first, leading to major battle blue balls.”

I hummed and thought about asking my next question for a moment, wondering if it would be rude. But, well, I had to get to know him, right?

“Shouldn’t you be upset about getting kicked out of your home?” I asked, wincing slightly. “Uh, sorry if that’s offensive.”

“Um, no. it’s not,” he said with a confused frown. “Why would it be? Besides, this is my home now. Has been for years. I’m fully invested in this life I’ve made here. I’m even honoring my new mother by learning her people’s legends, songs, and way of fighting.”

After saying that, Rina’s ears drooped and his eyes looked down as he sighed. “Though… I do wish she’d learn my people’s lore and arts. I may not know them as well as I could have if I’d gotten to stay but… You know.”

“Wait, so you already know how to fight?” I asked, lips pursing and tail swishing. “But… Then why learn ninjutsu if you already know something else?”

“I told you. I’m honoring my new mother by learning her people’s ways. I don’t plan to give up what I already know. I just want to show her I care. She’s an Amarezon, passing on your personal techniques is an important parent-child ritual. I need to learn so she can teach me her moves one day.

“What about you? Why are you learning this? As an Equestrian unicorn with a pretty big reserve you'd think you’d be waiting school out to go into Battlemage Training.”

I blushed and sighed. “Actually, I suck at spellcasting,” I muttered. “Everypony says I have a lot of magic, but when I try to use it I just can’t do anything that’s not simple. So I’m here learning how to fight with my hooves and weapons because being a hero is sort of the family business, and I’m a bit of a loser right now.

“I need to learn to fight, sneak, spy, counter traps, track things down, and also fix a few personal issues… I figured martial arts would work for that. And that Ninjitsu would be best for doing hero-stuff.”

Rina paused, face scrunching in thought for a moment. “You’re orange and yellow… OH! Oh holy crap are you one of the Element’s kids!?” He asked all super excitedly. “What’s her face, um, Applesnack?”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “It’s Applejack, and no I’m not her daughter.”

“Awww…” He said, kicking the floor with one hoof dejectedly. “Sadness! I wanted Rainbow Dash’s autograph.”

I felt my brow furrow in annoyance. Why didn’t anypony want AJ’s autograph? She was a hero too!

“I’m her granddaughter. Also Dash’s. And the rest of them see me as their niece,” I began deciding to just list off my family to help make my point. “My mom’s Scootaloo, and my dad’s Azur Lily, yes that one. Which makes my uncle Sky Trigger, yes, that one. And if you know who his sister is, then I’ve got The Great and Powerful Trixie as an aunt by marriage.

“Which because she’s the template for a clone army, makes me related to the entirety of Princess Twilight’s personal guard. Oh, and my godmother is Discord’s great great great granddaughter who was until recently Death herself. All in all, my family’s one huge ball of world shakers and legends.

“And here I am. A dorky post-teen mare whose only real skill is in running… So yeah. I need to fix that.”

Rina nodded once. “Yeah, that would make anyone have something to prove,” he said sympathetically. “Let me guess, you were born and raised in Ponyville, right?”

I nodded. “Good guess. It’s because I’m related to three of the Elements you worked that out, right?”

He shook his head. “Nope! It’s because a pony couldn’t possibly have a family that absurd if they weren't from that weirdness magnet of a town,” he answered with a laugh.

I wanted to be mad at him for using that logic, but I just couldn’t. After all, we were the town which didn’t even blink when living gingerbread ponies invaded the mall’s Hearth's Warming Decorations. Heck, Mayor Mare just drew up tiny housing permits for them under Twilight’s orders and begun to pass them out. Nopony even bothered attacking or dispelling them until they attacked Miss Mare over part of the municipal building code forbidding the use of frosting as cement.

A thing that’s illegal because of something called Pinkie’s Law.

“You know what? Fair enough,” I said with a half smile. “Though I’m kinda surprised you didn’t call ponyfeathers on me telling you about my family.”

Rina sighed. “Look, Sherbert, my mom’s a ninja. And her best friend is a shinobi. Who you’re training under. You don't think they talked about you while visiting me in the clinic? They did. They mentioned who you were, or well Rojā did when he filled mom in. You wouldn’t be able to fool them. So you’re who you claim to be.”

“Then… You were just playing along to be polite?” I asked, ears falling as I felt a little hurt.

Rina recoiled in disgust. “What? NO! I didn’t know where you grew up! I just knew you were related to a lot of important Equestrians and Phoenixians. And not before you saved my life, Rojā filled mom in on you days later.”

“Oh,” I said with an apologetic frown. “Sorry for the accusation I just-”

“You felt like I was being friendly just because of your status. Please don’t do that again, that tasted super gross!” Rina begged, giving me puppydog eyes which managed to out-sad Sweetie Belle’s own puppydog eyes.

That mare never lost that filly-like sadness projection face...

I blinked in shock as I realized that I was friends with an empath. “Wow… Um, I’m going to be the sole source of misunderstandings, aren't I?” I asked with an embarrassed blush and grin.

“Heh, probably,” he laughed. “Anyways… We should start walking to school now. Also, you’ve been asking all them questions! It’s my turn already. I want to get to know you too. Come on, let’s go! And to start us off… Assuming you’re bi like most mares, what kind of girls are you into?”

My blush deepened. What kind of a question is THAT of all things you could possibly ask somepony to get to-

OH! Changeling. Derp! He was asking because to them that was like asking about a favorite food.

“Um, well… Bit of an awkward topic. But sure, why not?” I said pausing for a moment to put my thoughts into words.

“Come on, we’ll talk as we walk,” Rina said as he began to walk down the hall.

I nodded and quickly caught up with him, following along since he had to know the way better than me.

“So, I’m not bi,” I started.

“Really? Neat! Strait or all in on mares?” He asked pleasantly, in the same tone you’d use for ‘Hay burger Fries or Oat Barn fries?’

“I think the right word for me is pansexual. Bisexual implies you like males and females. But my dad makes a lot of fantasy sexes real, like that’s one of his most popular body mods. And I have yet to see a combination I didn’t find sexy. I like everything, not just males or females. So you know, calling myself bi feels inaccurate,” I summarized.

I hope that made sense to him…

He nodded. “So you do like mares then. And Bi covers non-binaries, just FYI… Cuz everything you can make is a combination of male and female traits, all of which you like. But yeah. Cool! Me too. We should help each other get lunch. Uh, I mean dates. That’s the pony word for it, right?”

I nodded understandingly, and then sighed apprehensively. “Yep. Let me guess, you’re a virgin too?”

He nodded. “Yeah… Thank goodness I prefer non-sexual love flavors. Still, it’s instinct. I want to find a mate to love and nibble on. Never could. Dating is… Difficult in Neighponese schools. There’s lots of restrictions, you wind up with a very small social circle. Which sucks for me, as I’m into short mares. They’re just extra adorable.”

I smiled and nodded. “Yeah, they are! I’ve been thinking about asking dad to add a half decimeter to my height once it’s safe to use biomancy on me. That way everypony’s just a bit shorter compared to me.”

That wasn’t a lie either. I didn’t want to be a giant or anything, but I couldn’t make everypony shorter, so well, to achieve the same result, get taller.

“Heh, yeah that’s one way to solve it,” Rina agreed as we stepped outside into the oddly chilly morning. “Thanks for putting up with a slightly uncomfortable topic. I just learn what people are like best based off what they love, and anyling can tell you’re into physical love a lot.”

I tilted my head curiously. “Really? How?”

He paused and tapped a hoof to his chin thoughtfully or a moment. “Well, it’s like smell and taste… It’s hard to describe a sense to someone who doesn’t have it. Um, we just kind of know what things people we can feed from enjoy.

“Not specifically, just in general. I know you like physical activity best, and you’re into athletics, but there’s a few layers of the usual ‘I wanna bone someone and cuddle’ you get from everypony. I wanted to find out more so I can help my new best friend find someone she likes.”

I nodded again. “Right, cuz that’s also a changebug thing,” I said as we resumed walking.

“Yep! Gotta make you guys happy!” He said simply.

I hummed thoughtfully. “What else can you tell I like?” I asked.

“You’re a fan of storytelling, but that’s all I can get from you. You’re on the harder side to read,” he said nodding towards the street. “We have enough time to walk the whole way if you want. Or we could bus.”

Oh god, walking all the way to school… Yeah, no!

“Let’s take the bus. I want to let my legs rest as much as possible,” I admitted with an embarrassed blush.

“Oh yeah, you started on flexibility training last Moonsday,” Rina said before biting his lip to hold in a laugh. “And you took the faster way. Heh… Regretting that now, huh?”

I nodded and gave him a dirty look. “You could have warned me not to… Your mom lives here, which means you live here, which means you knew and could have said something when I met you in the hospital.”

“Pfff! Like heck I could! Do you have any idea how much morphine I was on?” Rina laughed. “I really couldn’t think about anything beyond, you know, the moment. And everything I could think was background tracked with the same Rock Opera because a shard of exo was pinching one of my memory nerve clusters making me hear the sounds again and again and again…”

I winced. “That sounds horrible!”

“It’s cool, I don’t memorize songs I hate. Also after hearing it enough, I’ve realized it’s incomplete as a story and I totally could write- Eh, never mind. Getting into the technical details of writing an opera would bore you. How about we keep getting to know each other? Do you have a favorite food? And I mean pony food, not just a thing you like that I could nibble the attached metaphysics,” he asked as we reached the bus stop.

Actually, that sounded pretty fascinating. But I could tell the reason he said it would bore me was he didn’t want to talk about that right now. I’d have to ask later.

“Of course I do,” I giggled. “Everyone does. Mine’s Shawarma. My cousin Chip makes the best Shawarma wraps ever.”

“You… Like a meat dish best? Odd choice for a pony,” Rina noted with a nod.

Before I could explain I personally prefered a more omnivorous diet, the bus pulled up to the stop and we climbed aboard. I’d ridden the bus to and from the clinic for the last week, and had expected the usual electrical steel cigar tube of a vehicle, but this bus was an arcanely powered one, with a neat theme that made it look like a mobile house.

I sort of forgot what I was going to say as we found a place to stand, so I just started talking about freerunning back home. I figured that Narina would get bored of me talking about runs and routes and my personal records, but he didn’t. While he didn’t run personally, he definitely appreciated physical skills and used to do cross country running before getting permission to train at Bat’s.

I’d gotten to the point in the story of my running career where I’d just learned cloud walking to try and do some vertical running in the Pegasi neighborhoods above Ponyville when the bus pulled into the first stop after Bat’s Acadamy.

Kazumi’s Clinic on Orchard Lane.

It was nice how that was the first stop on this bus route. What sucked was it took forty minutes for the bus to loop back around to the Academy on the return trip. But from my experience, the Bus only stopped at a stop if someone pulled the cord to signal the driver, or if someone had been waiting at the stop. So who-

The bus’s wooden doors creaked open. A tiny pony in a school uniform fluttered inside, long purple mane flowing behind- Oh holy cow, that was Kazumi! She looked completely different in clothing. Probably because it made her two color fur pattern harder to see.

Probably? I mean obviously… She’s right. I am an idiot. I should fix that.

“Oh yeah that’s right she said she was going back to Highschool,” Narina said observationally. “Hey! Zumi! Over here.”

The little batpony’s ears perked, swiveling in our direction before she turned to look at us, a brief moment of confusion flashing over her face before she nodded slightly.

As she flew towards us, I realized that her uniform matched ours. She was attending our school.

“Nice pony form, Narina. Didn’t expect to see you in a stallion’s shape. Hey, Blondie,” she greeted looking oddly worried. “I see we’re attending the same school… That’s a poetic little coincidence there.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, kinda funny how both the friends I made so far are going to the same school as me,” I giggled.

Kazumi looked up at me with a frown. “Since when are we friends?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Um, since you gave me a potion to help with pain and muscle lock?”

Narina smiled and gave Kazumi a wink. “Told you they take unfriendly ponies as a challenge!”

Huh… Well, I guess I was in a way. Though I wouldn’t call her unfriendly, she helped me out after all. Kazumi was just a little gruff.

Hehe! Little gruff.

Kazumi nodded. “Yeah I guess… Well, I’ll see you at school. I have paperwork to do on the way or my boss will get mad at me. Enjoy your conversation,” she said as she flew towards the back of the bus.

“You know,” Nahrina mused. “She was pretty polite there. Maybe she’s a lot nicer outside of work?”

“Looks like it,” I agreed. “We should hang out with her during lunch or something.”

“Sure, if she’s in our homeroom we should totally do that,” he agreed.

Oh! Right. Neighponese schools didn’t have cafeterias, you ate lunch in your homeroom.

Meh.

I was training to be a ninja, and that cutie seemed nice outside of work. Her work as a doctor. Which is stressful as all heck. Yeah that totally just had to be her ‘work sucks!’ attitude. Maybe she could be more than my friend!

I would totally sneak over to talk with her at lunch if I had to. After all, infiltration practice is infiltration practice.

5 - Renaissance

Sherbert - 12th of Solar Dusk, 25 AE

Horsiekoshi High School, Neighdo - Neighpone

I hadn’t expected Horsiekoshi High School to be, well, massive. Ponyville High was fairly large, sure. Big enough for a few thousand students, a Hoofball field, and a pool, but all of that fit into a block. Horsiekoshi High School had an actual campus!

There were five ultra-modern glass and steel office type buildings with large signs designating them as various Halls. Each one with its own name, each named after an animal. Lion, Tiger, Koi, Phoenix, and Snake.

There were other buildings too. Everything was built in a style which matched the office buildings. There was an apartment building, making me wonder if normally exchange students lived at school or if that was for teachers and other staff’s convenience. There was a large hanger, which I thought was for aircraft until Kazumi told me that A.L.I.C.O.R.N. Mechanics start training in Highschool. Meaning the hanger had a few retired mechs in it donated to the school for teaching purposes.

She also finally told me why they named their mechs in such a way as to make an Acronym out of Alicorn. Because all that tech is what’s needed to get an exceptional unicorn even close to the bottom tier of an Alicorn’s power. It’s a shame the acronym only worked in Neighponese. If you translated it, it would be something like ‘Magic and Physical Capacity Augmenting Piloted Golem’.

I had to sneak a peek inside there someday. I’d got to see Uncle Sky designing and testing some of the systems he sold the Neighponese military, but I’d heard that once Neighpone got them they made them look AWESOME with each pilot having a unique custom design, much like how Samurai decorated their armor back in the day.

But even the mech hanger wasn’t the end of the school’s buildings, and even those odd unlabeled buildings scattered here and there weren't the end of it. There were TWO hoofball fields, a tennis court, a pool, a firing range…

Horsiekoshi High School felt more like a college than a Highschool. Which is something I’d said aloud as we followed the guides and signs to the main building for orientation.

”Having gone to Highschool for three years before, and knowing what I know about Equestrian education, the only difference between this and your University is subject matters taught,” Kazumi said bitterly. “I am not looking forward to having to do those three years over again… Don’t drop out. They make you start over.”

That’s why I’d spent the entire orientation with my tail tucked between my legs, ears perked, and eyes unfocused, not really understanding a word as I just sort of sat there. Processing that.

I snapped out of my horror-trance just in time to leave the main school hall with everypony else. That’s when I could first take in the interior decor. It reminded me of the first time I’d been inside Canterlot Palace. Everything had that distinct air of trying too hard to impress everyone.

Nothing felt genuine, or homey. Everything was there to wow and inspire. Honestly, it made me a bit sick. Schools did not need big hall-length glass cases with crystal shelves to display endless trophies and awards. I mean, sure school pride is one thing, but this school made it look like the only way they avoided war was by puffing up like a peacock and screaming ‘BEHOLD MY POWER!’

I really, really wanted to go home… So I could get Rarity, and bring her here, and watch her redecorate everything out of sheer need for it to not look ‘trashy-fancy’.

“Hey, Blondie, are you still petrified?” Kazumi asked as we walked away from the main hall towards the rows on rows of tables set up for new students to get paperwork from.

“I-I’m better now…” I mumbled in response, kicking my hoof slightly against the floor. “I- I mean, I didn’t expect that school would be like college here.”

Kazumi flashed me an oddly sympathetic smile. Just the with the corners of her mouth, and only for a moment. Then her smile vanished back into her normal irritated frown.

“You should have read more about Neighponese education before coming here, bakka,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

I paused for a moment. What the heck was her deal?! Was she poison joked into acting rudely instead of friendly or something? Anypony could have seen that! She was actually sympathetic towards me but then poof, insult.

Wut?

“We should go check the tables over there for our Home Room assignments,” Rina said, one hoof extended towards a packed table covered in stacks of papers, and a pile of first-year students.

I nodded in agreement, shaking the hurt Kazumi had tossed my way out of my mind.

“Yeah, we should. We just look up our full names, right?” I asked hoping I understood the process here.

Nahrina nodded and zipped over towards the table. I moved to follow, but Kazumi grabbed my right foreleg gently.

“Hey… Sherbert,” she said looking up at me with a sad look. “The odds of the three of us being in a homeroom are incredibly low. You don’t move from class to class here. Teachers move between classes. You will always be with the same people.

“By always, I mean your homeroom is the same for your whole stay in school. Your homeroom teacher will progress through all five years of basic material with you. School activities are done in a way which keep you with your homeroom at all times while at school.

“You’ll only be able to socialize with the people in your homeroom for those reasons. Unless you can hang out with Nahrina at Bat’s Academy, you won't have time to be friends. I’m sorry…”

I frowned. That definitely threw a wrench in my plans. “So… I guess we won't be able to be friends then?” I asked her with a sad drop of my ears.

That threw a huge wrench in my plans… I mean, I hadn’t ever gotten on friendly terms with anypony else before. Frankly, even though Kazumi had her dickish impulses, she was nicer than most had been to me, and then there were moments like this…

She cared about me. But hid it for some reason. Unless it was important.

Why?

Wait! If friendship is magic, then it follows that magic is friendship. Which means since I suck at magic, maybe I just suck at friendship so much that other ponies have a hard time being my friend?

But then that would mean she liked me a lot, but some magic bullshit was making her less able to be friendly to me.

Ah HA! Well, I could fix that! Rina was a changeling sorcerer. Instinctive knowledge of basic magic. He could teach me how to magic better, which would teach me how to friendship better, and remove the weird barrier thingie. Yes! Another win for logic.

I felt my heart fall as I realized we wouldn’t be in the same homeroom… Only for it to rise back up as I decided that I would sneak into her homeroom when possible. Just like I’d planned earlier, and-

Rina trotted up to the two of us, grinning ear to ear. “Hey guys, why didn’t you come with me?” He asked, holding a piece of paper out to us in his telekinetic grip. “Check it out! We're all in the same homeroom, what a lucky break, huh?”

“YAY!” I cheered, my mood soaring.

Before I could say anything else about this momentous occasion where I got to keep my first friends for the next five years, Kazumi hopped into the air, wings buzzing as she hovered at Rina’s eye level to glare at him.

“What did you do!?” She demanded angrily but also urgently.

Rina frowned innocently. “Me? I didn’t do a thing,” he protested defensively. “All I did was tell my mom that I was sad and I probably wouldn’t get to keep the friends I’d made over the summer.”

I got a quarter of the way through a head tilt before it clicked.

Master Cho. She snuck in and changed paperwork! Ha!

Kazumi glared at Nahrina for a full minute before shaking her head slowly. “Right… Well, fine. If I’m stuck with you two. We’ll hang out. We’d be grouped up anyways. The dwarf, the changeling, and the gaijin. We’re going to be the least popular people here.”

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

“Stop,” the obscured mare ordered from her seat deep within the room’s omnipresent shadows. “Why are you making me watch a Shounen anime? I understand you want to let me see what happened through her eyes, but this is tedious. Make your point and move on.”

Master Rojā raised a hoof to his mouth and cleared his throat, immediately paying the Messenger gem’s diary playback. “My apologies. I felt it was critical to show you who she is.”

“By showing me embellished recordings she made with her messenger gem?” The mare asked with a sigh. “I understand you want to protect her, but your talent at editing is… Well, if you quit this profession I am certain any studio making entertainment for teenage fillies will have a place for you.”

Rojā smiled faintly and dipped his head in a low respectful bow. “I edited nothing save for removing redundant moments and irrelevant moments for the sake of making this segment last a mere two hours. I wished to show you her first month at my dojo so you could learn who she was as I did.

“Would you like to examine the enchantment for yourself? Or the raw footage? All I did is activate her gem’s diary function and make it record her surface level stream of consciousness, and edit it into this abridged film.”

The six candles lighting the worn down room were placed in such a way as to hide any facial expression the mare may have had to her agent’s eyes. But the way her shoulders turned slightly, and the way her head tipped forward slightly caught Rojā’s full attention.

She was intrigued.

“I trust you at your word, Captain,” the mare said, her voice holding nothing but trust in her subordinate’s word. “However, if you didn’t edit this surveillance footage, and we are in fact seeing this mare’s thought laid bare for us… Then she’s genuinely seeing her own life in this manner.”

“Yes, she was,” Rojā agreed. “Wretched, isn’t it? She constantly thought of herself as scum, simply because she couldn’t see what was special about her. Sherbert is not yet an adult in her home country, but she already formed a plan to get what she wanted out of life, and managed to execute that plan.”

The mare nodded once. “But she spent her first week feeling like a loser still. That’s not the typical twenties slump. She has real mental issues… But at the same time, I can see why you accepted her. If I ignored everything I knew before, I would say she has the makings of a hero.

“I would also say that she needs a kick in the pants because she’s literally living her life by all of the Shounen tropes, except her story isn’t exactly… Well, entertaining. It’s like Kenichi, but without the action.”

Rojā metaphorically bit his tongue, not wanting to comment on his superior’s more nerdy tendencies. Instead, he chose to view her remark as a professional’s critique. After all, the mare did write manga in her spare time.

“Yes well, that’s all changed now. Hasn’t it?” He pressed with a sad sigh.

Sherbert had grown up a lot over the last few years. But the event which had gotten her to recognize her own usefulness and skill was why he was here...

The mare nodded. “It has. Let us continue after one last question. I want to know when you began recording her activities, and why,” she requested, stepping her hooves.

Rojā snorted. “I put surveillance on all of the dojo’s newcomers. Save for Nahrina. He grew up there after all, he knows. It’s standard counter espionage procedure, Ma’am. In this case, I had even greater reason to follow protocol because she is after all a foreign national.

“This is despite a former Disciple of mine requesting I take Sherbert as my next disciple. Well, begged really. She recommended Master Xii’s Flying Horse Gym to Sherbert during a drunken conversation about learning martial arts.

“I agreed to see if she was someone I felt I could teach, and had my former Disciple steal Sherbert’s mage gem, enchant it for me, and mail me the pared gem. I tested everything to ensure there was no third party listeners or speakers, and when it checked out I began recording.

“I have footage from as far back as eighteen hundred hours on the tenth of Plantation, of twenty-five. The first bit of intel I have is her writing a history report.”

The mare hummed. “I see. And the reason you kept recording for four years?” She asked.

“I’m a Shinobi. This is a part of training. The first six months were to ensure she could be fully trusted,” Rojā explained. “Again, standard procedure. The rest was simply a combination of acquiring information to properly instruct her, and waiting for her to discover she was being watched as a test.

“The idea being she either looks through her gem’s settings and discovers the tap by accident and learns to start checking to be sure locations are secure or after I taught her information gathering skills she would think to check her own room since she knew we were listening in, just not how. The first way she learns a valuable skill, the second way she comes to understand the importance of bug sweeps and security checks. Either way, she learns something valuable, and I get the information I need to best teach her till she learns that lesson.”

The mare hummed thoughtfully. “I see your point. I would object to that sort of invasion of privacy, but Sherbert was being trained in clandestine activities. Not only that, but she was being trained traditionally, and traditionally all aspects of a ninja disciple's life become part of their training.

“But did you really need intelligence on her to teach her? She doesn't seem to be that complicated of a young mare. Quite normal, really.”

Rojā snorted dismissively. “Need? No. Please, Ma’am. Don’t insult my art. You know full well I can learn what I need to learn without any toys.”

“Then the gem tap was nothing but a time saver,” the mare said to herself.

“Correct. After all, as one of Bat’s senior instructors I had many other duties to perform,” Rojā said with a nod, despite the mare’s statement having been rhetorical. “Conduct museum tours, maintain some of the exhibits, a few live shows a week. That takes a significant chunk of time.

“Once you add in train a disciple and managing the cell attached to the Academy for you, well… There’s not much time left. Some shortcuts are required. Besides, it’s not like I recorded this maliciously. I deleted everything obscene and without having intelligence, she would have been difficult to teach.

“Sherbert acts like any other mare on the surface, but she has several emotional and psychological issues which make things… Tricky. She would fail to learn a lesson one day, and I would wait for her to be upset about it and recall her failings. Then I would learn in what ways I had failed her, and use that information to better teach her on the next day so she could learn the skill I was passing on.

“I did this with all of my previous Disciples. Save for the one who helped me enchant Sherbert’s messenger gem.”

“Why not her?” the mare asked skeptically.

“Heh! She found the enchantment within three hours. She had a talent in the School of Illusion, I didn’t have a prayer of hiding the enchantment from her for long,” Rojā explained, smiling at the old memory.

“Ah yes, that would make tapping a messenger quite difficult,” the mare agreed. “Let’s move on. I want to know two more things before we get into the real meat of this problem. First, Sherbert is not a unicorn. Not a normal one at least.

“Her tail, her heart rate, her odd inability to cast complex spells despite seemingly perfect horn construction, a vast arcane reserve, and adept skill at controlling her aura and augmenting her own physical prowess… Show me what she is.

“This information is naturally extremely important. After all, if she’s fundamentally different from a normal unicorn, that will need to be taken into account before all else.

“Then, after that, show me what she can do. If I grant you this favor, I need to know what possible consequences could arise, and that includes anything she may choose to do.”

Rojā raised an eyebrow. “I did prepare a film of the major techniques I taught her leading up to this unpleasantness. It’s a little long… And I included some parts in there which popped up as the years went on, mostly to show you how she developed as a proper adult through the years. Do you have time or should I skip around?”

The mare paused, tapping the arm of her chair with her left hoof in thought, then sighed. “You are one of my best agents, Rojā. I can’t dismiss your thoughts on the matter or tell you that they are unimportant. But at the same time, I can’t grant your request without due cause and a solid reason. There are consequences for everything, you know this.”

Rojā nodded once. “I fully understand, Ma’am. Thank you for your time,” he said as he began to manipulate his messenger gem to resume playback.

“You have my time, but I don’t have much time to give you,” the mare warned. “There are other matters I must attend to today. You must contain this to four more hours. Show all you can, but if you do know what she is, tell me now. Skip to her talking about her oddities with her doctor friend, if that ever happened.”

“Oh, it did!” Rojā confirmed with a firm nod. “We’ll skip to that part because right after going over the information, Sherbert called her father to ask some… Questions. That phone call will answer everything you need to know. This happened about three months after Sherbert arrived at the Academy.”

Sherbert - 18th of Harvestide, 25 AoE

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

I’ve always liked the color pink. It’s not quite my favorite color, but it’s definitely my go-to color for accents and highlights. But, seeing my whole room illuminated by pink light made me wish I’d picked kelly green instead. My actual favorite color would have made everything look a lot less... Wierd.

I focused on the light ball at the tip of my horn, doing my best to keep the color exact, no change, no shifting. Better than my normal light spell so far. I’d intentionally picked the color, and no random hue changes.

Progress!

“Good!” Rina said with a smile as he tapped a button on his stopwatch. “That was five minutes. Now go ahead and shift it back to that green you like.”

“Okay,” I acknowledged, my forehead aching in concentration simply from holding the current color for so long.

I pulled at my magic, directing the flow through my horn to just ever so slightly change, slowly tinting the light a bright green.

Progress had been super slow, Rina rarely had time to help tutor me at magic, but he could do something that no pony could. Unicorns can see magical energy even if it’s not shining visible light. Any unicorn could see how my magic was moving. Changeling Sourcers can make that stuff dance like pegasi playing with clouds.

Rina shook his head quickly. “No, no, not like that,” he said with a frown, reaching out and brushing my horn slightly with one hoof. “Like this.”

I felt my magic’s pattern and flow change as he nudged the thaumaturgic current. The difference was slight but noticeable. I held the energy there, focusing for a few more seconds, then smiled happily as the ball of light transitioned to the green I’d intended in a pleasant gradient.

“Alright! I’ve never gotten it to work like that before!” I said with a grin, my concentration lapsing, making the light ball vanish. “Awww! Ponyfeathers.”

Rina gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s just like getting into shape to do basic hoof to hoof training; only we don't have tech to speed things up. In a month or so you’ll have this just fine,” he said with a proud smile.

I nodded. His ability to show me HOW to channel the energy was key here. He could make it into physical exercise, which I understood. I’d never really gotten better at stuff I’d already learned before.

“I know, I’m making good progress here. Real change comes slowly,” I said with a bit of a snicker at my older self.

All that pain and what did it do? Not much. Still had to go through a whole ordeal afterward to learn how to get all of my new flexibility to work together. There wasn’t any equipment to help with that. But hey, at least I was FINALLY starting to learn how to punch!

I turned my head to look at the broken pine board I’d hung over my desk. Sure there was a trick to breaking boards, but that was the point. Learning how to hit the same way every single time. I wonder if there was any spell equivalent to how awesome it felt to punch a plank of wood in half for the first time?

Rina followed my gaze, and hummed. “Thinking about using a telekinesis drill next? We could do that.”

Three gentle knocks from the doorway made my ears swivel.

“Not if you want me to look at your file, you can’t,” Kazumi said from the doorway, her tiny wings flapping extra furiously to keep her aloft thanks to a pair of overfilled saddlebags at her sides. “How’s things here, Bugbutt? Blondie finally at primary school spells?”

“I like how you put all of your attribute points into snark instead of height,” I shot back with a playful grin.

I was trying out my theory that Kazumi was just a big fan of sarcastic catty humor.

She blinked, ears drooping flat against her head. “Okay, that one was good!” She said, seemingly proud of me. “But fair warning, insult my height again and I’ll force feed you a random potion in your sleep.”

“That could be really cool, or really bad,” I mused as I recalled the one time she’d shown me her brewing recipes.

I would basically have a fifty fifty shot of winding up with some cool temporary ‘just for show’ wings, or losing all motor control for several hours.

Rina shook his head. “Girls, seriously, learn to get along will you?” He teased as he stood up and trotted out the door. “I’ll be back later, Sherb.”

“Bye!” I called, waving a hoof as he vanished out into the hall.

Deciding to be nice I gently unbuckled Kazumi’s saddlebags and set them gently on the floor beside the door. To my shock they had be weigh at least twenty kilos!

“Huh, what are you-” Kazumi exclaimed as I set her bags aside. “Oh. Thanks. I have to cart equipment to club meetings and then back home.”

“Alchemy club makes you take your own stuff!?” I exclaimed in shock. “So that’s full of potions, glass, and Bunsen burners? No wonder it’s so heavy!”

Kazumi shook her head. “No, they’re full of crushed Kalasandrite crystal. We were brewing mane dye potions and I wanted to show off a bit and teach everyone how to make glowing hair. So I brought enough for all fifty of us to make a few bottles worth of glowing dye pots each. The fun part is I'm not telling them the dye is permanent. Heh heh.

“I have to be at the club meeting in an hour and fifteen minutes. We have thirty minutes to look at your medical file. If we find anything super weird, we’ll put a pin in it and come back to it on another of my days off work, okay?” Kazumi asked, giving me a professional look as she trotted up to my desk and jump-flew up into the tall stool I’d bought for her so she could reach my desktop easily.

I nodded. “That's perfectly fine. I super appreciate you doing medical work on a day off,” I thanked as I sat down next to her and removed the file I’d had mailed from home.

I knew how much she hated working at that clinic…

She sighed a regretful sigh and turned to give me a small smile that said ‘it’s okay’. “Hey, well, someone’s gotta do it,” she said as she plucked the file from my telekinetic grip and opened it, setting the papers down on the desk. “Okay, let me take a look…”

I waited patiently as she flipped through the pages, scanning everything rapidly once, then coming back to small sections seemingly at random, eyes flicking around much more rapidly than in her initial pass. She read through the whole folder’s worth of content three or four times, her flipping back and forth made it a little hard to tell just how much she reread each time.

Then, finally, she turned to look at me with a confused frown. “You make no, gods, damned, sense,” Kazumi exclaimed in exasperation.

I nodded slowly. “Right… That’s why I had mom email this over so you could read it,” I said slowly, raising one eyebrow.

“No, no, no,” Kazumi said, shaking her head rapidly. “According to this, your normal heart rate is the same as the average pony’s strenuously active heart rate. We know that already, but there’s more. According to this, you also have Karnazies’ Syndrome. Which is not just benign, it’s highly beneficial.

“Normally while under physical exertion your body breaks down glucose for energy, resulting in lactate as a byproduct. This lactate can also be converted back to energy, slowly. Very slowly. After a person reaches a certain threshold of the lactate clearance capacity, their muscles start to tense up. That’s where muscle fatigue comes in.

“Karnazies’ lets you convert lactate into energy just as fast as glucose is converted into lactate. Which means you don't get muscle fatigue. Not without doing some of the most intense work your body can do before physically breaking.”

I raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I was basically paralyzed for a week while working out my hind legs.”

“That’s muscle tearing. It’s caused by a completely different mechanism, physical damage,” Kazumi corrected. “This doesn't protect your muscles from becoming physically damaged, which is what lets you bulk up and develop muscles, by the way. This just prevents them from seizing up. You can keep doing physical activities for well, until you get bored, or sleepy.

“Which actually means you’re more likely to rip and tear muscles than other people. Because you can just keep going.”

“Huh,” I mused while sitting back in my chair. “So that’s why I never get tired while free running.”

“Yeah, most pegasi would get exhausted after your normal run. What is it, fifteen kilometers?” Kazumi asked.

“Sure, if you just count the horizontal distance. It’s more like twenty or so all told,” I said with a proud smile.

I was so happy there were skyscrapers here. And more happy that I’d found a way to climb up the side of one on the edge of the district.

“Yeeeeahhh… A unicorn simply should NOT be capable of that sort of sustained physical activity,” Kazumi said with a thoughtful pursing of her lips. “And really… There’s more stuff like this. Sherbert, while you have a good amount of magical potential, from what I can see here, your magic is… Not a unicorns. I mean it is, but at the same time, It’s not.

“The way you can just channel it to boost your speed, or your grip, and do that instinctively? That’s not normal either. Looking at this file is like looking at the pieces of a puzzle where you can’t see the picture they are supposed to make. Something about you is very, very abnormal… But in a good way. As in, we can make a medical discovery and get it named after you. If I can figure out exactly why everything about you and your magic seems optimized for well, running.”

“Maybe it’s because I’m related to Rainbow Dash?” I asked curiously, turning back to the files stored on my desk shelf.

“No, because your magic would be more… Well, maybe? Your magic is sort of like Pegasus flight field magic but, also not. I don’t know what to make of this,” she sighed closing her eyes for a moment.

I grabbed the file I was holding and handed it to her. “Here, this is my genome. Dad had it sequenced every four months. This is the most recent. I got my godmother to send me a copy… I um, dad’s never let me see it. I think he’s paranoid that I’ll wind up with a common Germane genetic defect. He had to fix himself every few months while growing up.”

Kazumi flinched. “That sounds like he’s a Germane native, is he-”

I nodded once.

She flinched more. “That… That must be one of the worst experiences imaginable… So little genetic diversity that everyone has something horrible… It’s a shame nopony stopped those idiots before they ruined the next dozen generation’s lives before they were born…” Kazumi mumbled in that shellshocked way every doctor I’d ever known and when discussing the Germane ‘I will force everyone to become an Alicorn’ plan that had failed so long ago.

“Anyways, this could be the key to this whole thing,” Kazumi said, flipping the folder open and taking a look. “Let me just check for any of the genetic markers I’m aware of which indicate trans-tribal magic or tribal magic fusion. I’m no geneticist, but I do read DNA tests for basic conditions and- What?”

I frowned and glanced over the page at the list of medical jargon and number sequences. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. Just a really uncommon set of genes expressions… I think I’m onto something. But where's the- Ah! Next page. Has to be,” Kazumi said as she flipped the page, reading it quickly.

Then the next. And the next. Her face growing more and more incredulously with each passing page.

“What is it?” I asked again, a worried frown starting to completely take over my face.

“Y-you don’t have ANY non-unicorn DNA,” Kazumi babbled in genuine shock. “That’s impossible! Every pony is some kind of mix. The tribes have lived together for twelve thousand years! There CAN’T be any purebloods anymore. Not for actual Eons! It’s not biologically possible!”

I blinked. “E-excuse me?”

“You’re JUST unicorn. Nothing else,” Kazumi said, her eyes still wide in genuine shock. “I… I guess that without other tribes blood unicorns were more… Physical. Because that’s the only explanation. Because you’re JUST unicorn. Which you can’t be because even the most ‘pure’ bloodlines are ninety-seven point six percent at best-”

I took a deep breath and held it for several long seconds. “Kazumi… My dad. He’s a biomancer.”

Her incredulous look melted into a confused look. Then and understanding sympathy filled her eyes. “Ah… Yes. I see. You, um, you should call him. Because there’s no natural way you could be what you are. Not that there's a problem with you being a... Uh… Unicorn Classic?” Kazumi said, obviously too shaken to put on her usual snarky, rude attitude. “I hope that’s not offensive, because frankly, it’s really badflank that- Uh I mean, you’re cool! I mean- I’m making this worse…

“Just, call your dad. You guys need to have a conversation. Like, now.”

Unfortunately, I was too hurt and upset to take any sort of advantage of that.

“Yeah. I’m going to call him now. You should go to your club meeting. I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” I said as I flipped open my watch’s cover and switched on its communicator.

Kazumi nodded and flew out of her chair, moving towards the door, pausing for just long enough to say “Don't be too hard on him. You had to have expected him to well, tweak some things. Make sure you’d be healthy. He probably just went overboard,” before quickly scooting out the door and down the hall with her bags, moving fast enough to leave a slightly purple blur in her wake.

I closed the door behind her with a burst of telekinesis.

I had expected dad to have done some things for me. How could he not have? But… To do something like this?! WHY?!

I flicked through my watches light pink holographic menu, pressing the button for an emergency call, and then the contact for Uncle Sky. Why not dad directly? Because it was work hours for him. I needed a breaching tool…

I waited for two minutes while my watch buzzed, indicating the other party has yet to pick up. Then, finally, the watch clicked and my uncle’s voice came through.

“Hey, Sherbert. Sorry about the delay there. I’m repairing a reactor part, got really in the zone, didn’t notice the incoming call right away. What’s the emergency?” He asked, getting right to the point.

“I need you to patch me into dad’s watch right now. No ringing, no option to hang up, I need to talk to him right now!” I shouted angrily, my tail lashing behind me.

“Woah!” Uncle Sky exclaimed. “What happened? Do you need help from me since I’m already on the line?”

“No! Dad messed with my DNA. I want to know why,” I explained after taking a deep breath to try and calm down.

“Because he’s your father and he didn’t want you to experience liver failure at age four like he did?” Sky suggested. “Sherb, come on. You had to have realized your BIOMANCER dad would make sure you’d be perfectly healthy-”

“It’s more than that,” I interrupted.

“What? Did he make sure you’d grow up to look good?” Sky teased. “This isn’t you being mad about getting ‘help’ from a family member, like how you didn’t ask anypony for help in learning kung-fu or whatever on your own. Is it?”

“Apparently I’m an actual one hundred percent pureblood unicorn!” I shouted into my watch.

Sky was quiet for a few long seconds. “Um… Okay. Hold on one sec. Sai, turn on Azur’s commlink right now and pass Sherbert’s connection to it. Override everything, let her just talk.”

My watch buzzed slightly as the audio changed. I could hear the sound of water from a faucet, the clink of glass and metal, and my dad’s feminine voice humming happily.

“Dad,” I said as calmly as I could.

“Whas?” Dad asked, sounding exceptionally confused. “Sherbert? Did you flunk out of- Oh! Watch. Hallo, schätzchen! I must not have noticed your call and bumped answer by accident. Sorry! How is Neighpone?”

I took one deep breath to try and calm myself as much as I could. Which wasn’t much. Everything wrong with my life boiled down to this. This is why I had NEVER fit in. I wasn’t like them...

“Why did you make me a pureblood?” I demanded angrily.

Dad dropped something, a muffled curse coming over the mic, but lost in the sound of breaking glass. “I… Well, das ist a long story. How did you-”

“I have a friend. She’s a Doctor. She noticed my heart rate is normally in the range that would give a pony a heart attack. But I was still okay,” I explained angrily. “So I got her my medical information, and I thought to have Dusk send me a copy of my genome too.

“Why? Because she’s cute, and was curious, and we’d get to spend time together if I let her look at my records, and I also wanted to know why I was apparently so abnormal myself! Now you explain why you made me somepony who will never fit in anywhere!

“This is the reason I never made any friends, and you know it! Friendship is Magic, and Magic is therefore friendship, and my magic isn’t normal because I’m not normal which means I can’t have a normal friendship!”

“What!?” An extremely confused Twilight asked from somewhere else in the room. “T-that’s not how that works! That’s not even CLOSE to how that works! Wait, Lily, you genetically engineered your own filly!? Get to explaining! Now!”

It wasn’t? CRAP! Well, I’m an idiot… I should keep practicing magic though.

“A-aunt Twilight?” I eeped, eyes widening in alarm. “What are you of all ponies in Dad’s office for!?”

“Twilight chipped her tooth. I fixed it,” Dad explained quickly, making that sound like that was a total cover up.

“No lies today,” Twilight ordered, her voice taking on an iron clad air of command. “I got a teat reduction. I went to a costume party last night and someone spiked the punch with a gag potion. Now, Lily, explain.”

Ah. He was trying to save Aunt Twilight embarrassment. Got it.

“W-well,” dad stammered. “I- I didn’t intend to tell you without us being face to face, Sherbert but… I didn’t mean to be- Sherbert, I’ve told you the story about what happened in the lab below the clinic, right?”

I nodded. “Yes. An evil cult originally owned the place and tried to make the perfect unicorn, but failed… Oh… I-I’m-”

Dad sighed, pausing for a moment before beginning a lecture. “Do you remember how I was beyond enraged at the waste of life? How I wanted something good to come from their data? Well… Something did. You.

“See, your mother can’t have foals anymore. Not with what she is now. Sort of hard for an energy lifeform to breed with a silly flesh and blood pony like me. But we wanted a foal, which wasn’t a problem. I had her old DNA on file from when I fixed her wings. So, no matter what, Sherbert, you would always have had to be created via in vitro fertilization using a surrogate.

“And well, you must have realized by now that I would never have allowed you to grow up with any genetic illnesses, or birth defects. I couldn’t allow that, not since it’s within my power to prevent suffering. Well… While I was going over your genome while you were just that one lone starting cell and making the edits to correct what my Germane heritage would have done to you… I realized I could also make you stronger, faster, and just well, better.

“Not super-equine or anything, but I could easily ensure that you had the greatest capacity for everything which your genome allowed for. I could make sure that you were always at your full potential in every physical aspect from the day of your birth onwards.

“It occurred to me that if I didn’t do that, in a way, I’d be harming you. I could ensure that you were not merely healthy, but were the absolute best you could be. I stasised your developing embryo for months as I debated this. Eventually, I talked it over with Scootaloo, and we decided that I should do it. Not just for you, but for medical science as a whole.

“See, if I could ensure that you developed exceptional musculature, using only your DNA, that would provide a base for creating spells to fix muscular dystrophy as we could observe what needs to be done to make sure muscles work not just correctly, but perfectly as they developed through a pony’s entire life.

"That way not only would my child have a better life, but so would others across the world.”

“Oh… Well, that explains why I’m really good at running,” I said with a nod to myself.

Okay. I was this way because dad wanted to learn how to help other ponies better. Okay, fair enough. I can see that. It’s a noble thing to do, and something he did every day too.

“That’s… Maybe a little unethical. But I can see why you’d do it,” Twilight decided.

“Nein, it’s perfectly ethical,” dad disagreed. “It would have been unethical if it were anypony else’s child. But you are mine, Sherbert, and if something bad happened as a result of my experiment, I would have fixed it immediately and ended the entire experiment. Because you are my child, I forced nopony else to take the risk of having to raise a special needs foal, and I could have prevented any such accidents from occurring to ensure that despite this experiment you ended up perfectly healthy.”

But then I remembered something. That didn’t explain why I was a pureblood…

My eyes hardened again. “But then, why did you make me a pureblood!”

Dad coughed once. “Accident…”

“ACCIDENT!?” I bellowed. “How the flying BUCK do you do this accidentally!?”

“I uh, I used your mother’s pre-wing fix DNA by accident. When I did the initial cell creation,” dad said sounding extremely embarrassed. “I caught this at about your twenty fifth week of development. Fairly early in terms of fetal development, but an embarrassingly long time to be a total idiot…

“Now, see, the question of ‘when does life begin’ is a very hot button issue. I refuse to get into that. Suffice to say that at the time, you were exhibiting regular neural activity, and in my book, that makes you a proper living person. I could not kill you and start again. That would be wrong. Because I am I biomancer. I can prevent suffering without extinguishing your life.

“Your mother’s old DNA was created by that cult. As I think you know. It’s not standard pony genetics at all. I wound up having to do the same thing to you in development as I did to her as an adult. Replace your DNA with a different set.

“However, unlike Scootaloo, your Genome contained my own. For some reason, the combination rejected the majority of genetic grafts. Not as in, some worked some didn’t, but your developing body refused to accept the majority of any strands I gave it while happily accepting parts of those strands.

“I examined the segments which took, and determined they were segments which were unique to unicorn genomes. In short, your body would reject any DNA which was not exclusively unicorn in nature.

“That made me panic because there’s about three percent of the unicorn genome which was just well, gone. Completely gone. I thought I wouldn’t be able to heal you and that there’d be some horrible problem you’d suffer through until I could find a cure.

“Luckily, that wasn’t the case because-”

“Because the tiny bit of unicorn DNA Scootaloo originally had was the missing piece!” Twilight exclaimed, sounding like she was grinning ear to ear.

“Ja! Exactly,” Dad confirmed. “Turns out those evil experiments were a success, not a failure. Since that missing three percent was technically your mother’s, well… It gave me an idea. I went to everypony in our extended family, and got a DNA sample from them. I… I didn’t tell them exactly what it was for, only that I wanted it to help shore up your DNA because I made a mistake.

“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you to grow up knowing you weren't normal. Because well… My parents were supremacists und they were only eighty-five percent unicorn. I- I didn’t know what actually being pure blooded would do to somepony. So I would conceal that information. Make sure it wasn’t important.

“Un that’s why you are the way you are. I kept patching every part of your genome with unicorn DNA taken from everypony in our family, regardless of their tribe. Stitching it all together until you had accepted all the grafts, were stable, healthy, and were no longer using a genome which would have well… Your life would have been short and painful.”

I took a long breath. “So let me get this straight,” I insisted, closing my eyes tightly. “I am the way I am because you wanted to perform a medical experiment, messed up, and had to fix me. And the only way you could fix the problem was by making me some kind of living fossil?”

“Yes,” Lily sighed. “I’m sorry but-”

“And you never told me because you were afraid that I would become a tribal supremacist,” I added bitterly.

“That is also correct. But I also didn’t want you to think you were a freak. Because you're not. You’re a pony. Just an older kind of pony than most others… Well, all others,” dad rambled. “I… You have every right to be mad at me. I should have told you sooner. I planned to but then you had this trip planned and I didn’t want you emotionally distressed while trying to live in a new country.

“I did that too, you know. Moved to a foreign country as a young pony. It’s hard… I had emotional damage on top of that. I wanted to spare you that pain…”

“I understand… But I’m still upset,“ I said after giving his apology a few moments to process.

“It’s ironic,” Twilight mused. “Lily didn’t tell you to prevent you from developing a superiority complex, and you developed an inferiority complex.”

“Ja. Heh, what’s more ironic is that instead of being a magical powerhouse, a pureblood unicorn seems to be more physically powerful. It’s a mixed heritage that makes powerful magic possible. I found that funny.”

First off, that's not ironic. That's coincidental. But it was funny, pretty hilarious actually. But at the same time… I was sort of the butt of that joke.

“Dad… I forgive you,” I said sincerely after a while. “But I think I’ll be upset for a long time.”

“Ja. I knew you would be,” he confirmed apologetically. “Just know that I loved you, und that I’m sorry too… Please don’t let this get in the way of your training. I know it’s important to you.”

I nodded. “Actually, I think my training will help. Breaking boards is a good way to get aggression out… Bye dad. I’ll call you later when I’m not mad anymore,” I said as I hung up and picked up my messenger gem.

I gave it a squeeze, activating it. “Master Rojā:” I instructed to direct the call. “Master, I’m very upset right now. I would like to break some boards. Can we do more practice with those pastern strikes?”

I waited for a few moments before Rojā’s voice came from the gem. “I can make time for another half hour of drills. I’ll meet you in the beginner’s hall in five minutes.”

Good. That half hour would probably be enough to calm down. But I still wasn’t going to talk to dad for at least a week. He should have told me.

But at least now I knew something important.

I wasn’t a nobody. I had something special about me. Being a blankflank didn’t matter anymore. My ‘talent’ was inside. I had access to magic unseen for Eons. Sure, it wasn’t anything spectacular. Nothing flashy. But that was fine.

I was a really good athlete whose magic empowered their athleticism. Just like the ancient unicorns of prehistory.

I had to say, that was pretty darn cool! I could live with this.

Author's Note

This story would not have been possible without the generious contributions from my Patrons.

Thank you very much for the meals and bits of rent. This story is literally here because of you. Your contributions are more appreciated than you can imagine.

If you would like to become a donor you can find my patreon page here.

Dedicated to Patron of the Week: djthomp

6 - Baptism of Fire

Sherbert - 3rd of Chillfrost, 25 AoE

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

I never thought it would take six months to get to basic hoof to hoof training. But it did, and now I could actually see why it did. Because with how little of it I got to do every day we were only just now at seven hundred and fifty hours of training!

I’d only got one month and one week of combat training this whole time because how how my schedule broke down.

Ignoring the basic survival, stealth, and disguise training, as well as Rojā’s crash courses in history, I had maybe five hours a day to do actual combat training. I’d have more if school didn’t take up too gods damned much time!

Seriously, eight and a half hours for the actual school, about three more hours required for homework (Thank Luna Rina helped me with that!), and that’s a full third of the day gone right there. Factor in the hour long commute and that’s twelve and a half hours a day just for school.

A massive timesink which frankly I didn’t care about. It’s not like school taught you how to find a job, do taxes, maintain your home, or other actually useful real world things. Just mathematics, history, science, basic magic… Okay sure basic magic is useful assuming you can cast it. But seriously I would rather learn something of value to everyone like, oh, I don’t know WHAT LAWS THERE ARE!

Ugh. The less I thought about that hell the better.

With the amount of time School ate up, and the six hours consumed by non-combat ninjutsu training, I had ONE hour left to myself if I didn’t want to skip sleep. And holy crap did I not want to skip sleep.

“Sherbert? Are you paying attention?” Master Rojā asked calmly, ripping me from my thoughts.

Ugh… I was wasting very limited time!

I sighed, ears drooping shamefully. “I’m sorry, Master. I’m just… I’m stressed out about how little time I have for this. School in Equestria was only six hours a day, and there was far less homework to do. I was hoping we would have more time for well, this.”

Rojā nodded and left his position on the raised section of the floor to trot over to me. “Well, we can see about getting you on a potion regimen to reduce your need for sleep. That’s still an avenue of possibility,” he offered with an understanding nod.

I bit my lip. “Um, well… Do you have to keep taking the potions? I mean, you can stop drinking them and go back to normal, right?”

He shook his head slowly. “No. Once you finish the regimine the reduction is permanent. Nor can I tell you how much it will reduce your need for sleep. I only gained an extra two hours, while Tamiko no longer sleeps at all.”

Wait, she DIDN’T sleep? That explained everything! And also made me more than a little jealous.

“I- I’ll think about it,” I decided, nodding slowly.

I didn’t like using drugs… But at this point, I could see how my schedule was holding me back, and I couldn’t cut anything else.

“You know what… It’s not like I can skip school, and I’m not giving up what little free time I have, and I can’t just NOT sleep. Or even just make myself wake up a few hours earlier without potions.”

Rojā laughed. I glared at him angrily. “You said you’d forget about that!”

“I’m sorry,” Rojā laughed, grinning ear to ear. “But I can not. Though I agree with your assessment that you shouldn’t get less than eight hours sleep as you are right now.”

The dojo’s living quarters shared a common bathroom. Sometimes, when sleepy, I forget how to read Neighponese. And most Neighponese hygiene gels, creams, and pastes are sold in plain white tubes with black text only due to plain packaging laws.

You wake up and brush your teeth with Preparation H one time…

“Look… I need more time. Let’s do the potions,” I decided not wanting to be a laughing stock for a week again.

“Good,” Rojā said giving me an understanding smile. “We’ll schedule an appointment with a doctor next week. Would you like to see Kazumi? I imagine with your schedules it’s hard to see your marefriend often.”

I blushed and flicked my tail slightly as he made that little mistake. “Um, we’re not marefriends, but I do like her. I just have no idea how the hay to get close to her!” I explained with a confused shrug.

Rojā nodded. “I know, I was making a joke. It seems to have misfired,” he said shaking his head slowly. “I’ll set up the appointment. You should probably think of a good way to break through that RX-Seventy-eight-oh-two she calls emotional armor.”

I frowned for a moment, unsure what he was talking about until the name finally clicked as an outmoded mech type I’d learned about in history class.

“Heh, yeah. Maybe I should call up my Uncle and ask if he can make me a conversational glaive beam,” I joked back with a grin.

Rojā beamed me a huge grin, clearly happy I’d gotten his joke. “I’m pretty sure he actually could… At any rate, are you too stressed out to finish our warm up? I could push the match back to tomorrow.”

Push back my first freeform sparring match!? BUCK THE HAY NO!

I opened my mouth to say that I was not going to push that back even five minutes, but Rojā cut me off with a nod. “I like that look in your eye. Tell you what, if you pull off the kick flawlessly, I’ll give you the ten minutes till the match to relax.”

I nodded and took a deep breath to focus myself. “Okay! I can do that,” I said as I squared myself back up with the training dummy.

This was a Yottsu no hidzume (Four Hooves) stance kick. You start from a crouching position, as if you got halfway up from sitting on your plot, and launch into a roundhouse kick. The Rising Roundhouse. The kick was generally used to start fights from a sitting position. Most famously by an unnamed ninja during the assassination of Shogun Nakamura.

I slid myself into position, locking eyes on the wooden training dummy. I was aiming for the head, or neck. I didn’t want to miss and clip an ear again, that hurt like tartarus. The neck would do.

I launched myself upwards onto my left forehoof, keeping everything else in the air until I felt my body twist perpendicular to the ground. I smashed my left hind leg into the ground, using it as a support while I snapped my right hind leg out to strike as I twisted, using my left hooves as the pivot points.

My right pastern smashed into the dummy with a solid crack, the slight tingle of pain in my hoof letting me know I’d hit it correctly. I kept spinning, drawing my right hooves back down, landing on all fours, ready to run.

I’d managed to knock the weighted training dummy over! I just kicked over three hundred kilos! SWEET!

Rojā’s impressed clapping drew my attention away from the toppled dummy.

“Excellent! You have the form down, now it’s just a matter of practicing until you can break the dummy instead of merely throwing it,” he praised, walking over to the dummy and pushing it back upright with a grunt of effort.

I raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I um, I don’t think I can snap a solid six centimeters of hardwood.”

“Not now, no,” Rojā agreed with a nod before dropping down and launching himself into the same kick I’d performed.

His hoof smashed into the dummy right at the joint between the head and neck, the sound of splintering wood. The second his first hoof hit, he twisted, landing a second kick beneath the dummy’s chin with his rear left leg, and rolling underneath the dummy’s head to smash his right hoof into it a second time, this time on the opposite side of the first strike.

Continuing the fluid motion, he sparing up onto his rear hooves, and mashed his left rear hoof down on the back of the dummy’s head with a savage axe kick. The dummy splintered again, then cracked, the head falling off, trailing a mess of splintered wood.

Four strikes, one and a half seconds, one decapitated ironwood dummy.

“HOLY CRAP!” I yelped, ears perked in awe and fear.

“I never said you had to break it with just that kick. Or even one kick,” Rojā finished as I stared open mouthed.

There was a steel rod that had held the head in place along with the wood… And he’d just snapped it.

“Go ahead and rest up until the match starts. I’m sure that Nahrina is eager to have his first sparring match too,” Rojā said as he walked out of the training hall. “Remember! The match is a museum event, so we’ll be having it in the arena. But no showboating. This is still training, and they paid to see real fighting. Not movie magic.”

I nodded and gave the broken dummy one last look before leaving the small training hall myself.

I was looking forward to this match. The way Bat’s did their training is that for combat every disciple trained under one master one on one for the first year. I hadn’t gotten to see any of Rina’s progress at all, and it would be super fun to see what he’d learned!

I mean, he’d learned how to fight before getting here, so he had to be better than me at this style. I’d like to see roughly where I’d be one day soonish.

The Academy was rather packed with guests today, but that made sense. It wasn’t just Rina and I fighting. We were sort of a warm up act for a proper tournament between all second year students. The third and fourth years had a tournament for them tomorrow, and after that was another one for the masters.

The Academy made about six percent of its income from this three day event, and well… Yeah! It certainly looked like that.

Every single place I wanted to go was totally packed! Ponies everywhere! The dojo had transformed into pickpocket’s wet dream. The training halls had to have some kind of silence spell cast on them because the chattering crowd became a total roar!

I did my best to make my way to the central arena, but it just wasn't happening. Even with my gi on ponies refused to move if asked, and trying to move through the crowd resulted in little more than smacking my barrel into others flanks and plots followed shortly by an insult.

“Oh to hay with this!” I grumbled before jumping up, using a random bench as a springboard to jump up onto the armory’s wall.

A quick focusing of my aura to strengthen my grip and I was able to scramble up the wall onto the roof and-

Run face first into a batpony’s plot.

“Uuf! HEY! Watch your land-” The mare snapped before blinking in surprise. “Oh! Uh, hey. Pretty cool that a unicorn managed to get up here.”

Right… Same instincts as pegasi. Sitting higher up is better.

“Sorry, I got to get to the ring before the tournaments start,” I explained as I shouldered past her and across the roof.

I only had one more roof to clear, but the jump was just a little bit further than I knew I could reach. Unless… Maybe… I was in much better control of my body now. Maybe I could direct my magic to my legs in general and get some more strength?

Why not? Worst comes to worst I hit arena’s wall halfway up and climb up it.

“Hey!” Somepony yelled at me.

“I live here! I’m allowed to run across the roof. Encouraged even,” I replied as I turned to look at the speaker.

And paused.

A yellow furred pegasi mare with a bright red mane and tail. Sort of thickly built. Not fat, not buff, just, well, large skeletal frame. Probably from some earth pony or distant horse ancestry. Why did she look so familiar?

“Yeah,” she growled glaring at me angrily. “I know. You live here because my grandfather kicked you out. But that’s still no excuse not to call me! I gave you my number, abazure!”

Abazure? I raised an eyebrow as I quickly checked my list of insults and-

Wait, she called me a bitch for not calling her? I would have called ANYONE who gave me their number back the same damn day! Why the heck would I ever turn down sex!?

I couldn’t possibly have ever gotten anypony’s numb-

Oh! Holy crap! She was the mare who was handing out hotel pamphlets. But she never gave me her numb-

“Oh! Yeah, come to think of it the numbers in those directions do make a comm number,” I said allowed in sudden realization.

If she’d given me that note now I’d have totally recognised that after realizing the numbers were useless, but fresh off the airship-

She stamped a hoof angrily, shattering one of the roof tiles. “You will NOT get out of this by playing stupid!” She growled. “I am going to kick your teeth in the SECOND I’m done scoping out the students here who are worth a damn. Hmm, who's that again, oh yeah! Everypony except you, first year!”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure you are,” I said mockingly. “You’ll never catch me even if you aren't talking out your plot right now. Later!”

I spun on my rear legs, did my best to push my magic into my legs, and then raced across the rooftop. I reached the edge in a heartbeat, gathered my legs, and jumped! The packed garden below me soared by and for a moment I felt like I was flying. Then my hooves thunked down against the arena roof.

YES! I’d just pulled off a twenty meter jump! New record! Old one was fifteen. Training is so paying off!

The mare I’d pissed off yelled something after me but I didn't catch it as I was too busy lowering myself down the other side of the wall and dropping onto the top row of the bleachers.

Or whatever you call the seats around an arena. I mean are bleachers when it’s just strait row, or does a circle count too?

Because the arena had a full five levels of seats around the central circular granite slab arena. Between the actual arena and the stands you had a normally dry dirt trench, but for the ocasion it had been flooded to make a moat, and two bamboo slat bridges had been set up to allow entrance from the hallways beneath the bleachers on both sides.

I had no idea which one I was supposed to be in… And running across the arena would make me look like a jackass.

Time for a little practical application of stealth!

Contrary to what I’d thought until four months ago, there are two kinds of stealth. Combat Stealth, for when you’re in a hostile area and are unobserved, and Public Stealth for when you’re in a crowded area and being observed by dozens from all sides.

Public Stealth is cake. You literally just act like you belong and project an aura of confidence. Master Rojā demonstrated just how powerful that simple tip is by walking right into a bank vault and just starting to look around. Security guard didn’t even blink after Rojā had simply said “Morning,” and walked in with a folder held under one wing.

I had to do the same thing here-

No. No I didn’t. Because I was actually supposed to be here. No need to go full derp.

Twilight’s Logic by Mail classes were actually working. Huh. Who knew! I should have said something absurd with sincerity within earshot of her years ago.

She could have just been a bit more polite about making me take them though…

“Sherbert,” Twilight had said with a distressed sigh. “Your ideas on the relationship of friendship and magic were very very bad. So bad that I was forced to invent a new word to describe them. Idiostupirific. Your idea that low magical ability equates low ability to have friends was idiostupirific.

“But that’s okay. I looked into your school records. Mathematics, History, and social studies, all Cs and Ds. But Woodshop, PE, Alchemy, and Geography? All As and Bs! You’re not dumb, you just value practical skills and dismiss any skill you cant see the practicality of as useless and then dont pay attention to it.

“The problem is we use mathematics to help teach things like logic and problem solving. Because that’s what math really is. Using logic within a system of rules to solve problems. Because you never payed attention in math class, and your parents evidently didn’t help with your education outside of school, you never learned proper logic.

“Since you’re Rainbow’s grandfilly, and she and I are in negotiations to form a herd with her, AJ, and Megan, you are also my grandfilly, pending legalwork. As such, it’s my responsibility to help you learn how to think. It’s called Twilight Time. I did it for your mom too, so don’t feel bad.

“I’ve mailed you a work packet to go through. When you’re finished mail it back to me. If you fail, I’ll mail it back again and again until you get every answer right. When you finish, we will move onto more advanced logic problems. Within a year, we’ll make sure you no longer come to idiostupirific conclusions.”

I’d be more mad about that… But well, can’t argue with results.

Sticking to the back of the bleachers I walked around the arena to my left, able to slip through the crowd here thanks to them finding seats rather than just sort of standing in a line. After a minute I reached the area above the left side entryway and made my way down to the top of the entryway, where I hopped up onto the railings, hooked my rear legs under them, and quickly leaned down by bending backwards to check inside.

Sure enough, Master Cho was there, in her full gi, and fully armed again. I recalled she was going to do a weapons demonstration after the day’s matches. Despite how I met her it was weird seeing her armed. Especially after watching her crush stones bare hooved after casting a transformation spell and hulking out.

“Momie! Look what she’s doing!” Some young filly called, probably pointing at me.

Not wanting to get yelled at by a mom, and since I had the wrong entrance anyways, I popped back up, turned and smiled at the earth pony filly.

“Sorry, kid. It’s a ninjas only window,” I informed playfully before pulling myself back up and doing my best to vanish into the crowd.

I wasn’t sure how well I did. After all I was in my gi.

”You’ve made it through a full month, Sherbert. You’ve won the right to wear our gi if you like,” Master Rojā said informatively as he looked at me from across the table.”We have four styles available.

“You may choose from: Traditional ninja attire namly older Neighponese peasant clothing, more modern karate gi with hidden pockets, plain business wear with internal pockets and hidden gussets for greater flexibility, and by Tamiko’s request, Samurai patterned kimonos.

“All of them will feature the Academy's crest embroidered on the collar, and all but the business suit have it embroidered on the back as well. The embroidery is done in the same color making it a texture only symbol.”

I raised an eyebrow suspiciously. His tone was off… My master was concealing information from me.

“What’s the catch?” I asked.

“Well, you’re my disciple and will be wearing my gi. For as long as that’s true, there’s one rule you must follow. Even I adhere to it,” Rojā said, steepeling his hooves and leaning forwards seriously.

“What's that?” I asked, a bit annoyed that he was making me play the guessing game.

“Whatever you choose to wear, it only comes in black,” he answered.

Black was a common color for clothing in Neighpone, so the color wasn’t a problem. But most ponies were in casual clothing. Hats, vests, simple shirts, skirts…

Very few of them were in a silk-kevlar weave karate uniform with tightly wrapped legs. It’s sort of hard to crowd blend when you’re not dressed like the others.

Fortunately no angry mom screamed after me as I zipped across the other side of the bleachers and over to the other entrance. Unsure if I could get into the ready-room-thingie from the other side thanks to the crowds, I decided to enter through the arena side.

I made my way to the railing, pulled myself down into the same reverse curl I did last time, channeled my magic into my forehooves to grip the ceiling as hard as I could, and let go with my rear legs, almost gracefully flipping through the entrance. I say almost because I didn’t know where to go from dangling from the ceiling other than to drop.

Especially since I could feel my grip diminishing with every millisecond. I never really thought to practice sustained hanging with an enhanced grip before. I should try that someday during free training.

“What took you so long?” Rojā asked, the batpony materializing from the cluttered ready room the second my rear hooves touched down.

“The crowds are NUTS!” I answered with a wince. “I had to take a rooftop route to get here.”

He nodded once. “I understand. Unfortunately, you’ve missed the three minutes of briefing I was supposed to give you. The match starts in twenty seconds. All I can say is you should go for a quick takedown. Cho trains her disciples to outlast others in one on one combat.

“If it becomes a war of attrition, you will lose. Especially if anyone told Nahrina that using your natural magic isn’t cheating so long as it’s not actual wizardry. Meaning he can shape change to work around injuries.

“But don’t worry! He’s never fed enough to properly regenerate, and he never learned how to use shapeshifting to heal either. Wounds persist on a form he takes if he changes out of it and then back into it in the same day.

“Remember: no lethal moves, no full strength hits, and no weapons. If you win, you get an extra snack tonight. Good luck!”

I had time to bow, but not say the traditional pre-match ‘Yes, master!’ before the PA system outside crackled to life.

“Ladies and Gentlecolts, welcome to the Twenty Seventh bi-annual Academy Tournament Week! Today’s pre-event show will be a sparring match between the academy's current first year students, Orange Sherbert and Nahrina Uchinuku!”

Uchinuku!? My eyes widened in alarm. Rina had never mentioned his family name to me before. It literally translated as ‘punch out’! That meant his name was something like ‘The Lava River that Punches You’ in Equish.

This did not bode we-

AAAAA! Cho means Butterfly. He was being trained by a huge mare named ‘Knock Out the Butterfly’! Her name basically means no mercy for the weak!

I took a deep breath to calm myself. I wouldn’t loose. That’s all this meant. I simply would not loose.

On second thought, I suppose Master Chos’ name could also translate as ‘The Butterfly that Strikes’. Hummm… That’s still really painful sounding.

“Um, Master?” I asked looking over my shoulder at Rojā. “Does Cho have a middle name? I’m trying to figure out how her name translates-”

“She goes by a literal translation of her name in the native Amarezonian,” he answered. “You’d have to look at other meanings of the kanji to get her name’s proper meaning from the Neighponese. In Equish it would be ‘Graceful Devastation’. Why do you ask?”

I felt my ass clench hard enough to make diamonds.

“No reason,” I squeaked.

“Guests,” The PA announced. “You have ten minutes to make it to the stands to see the main event. But for those of you already seated, it’s time for the pre-show entertainment. Disciple Nahrina, take your position in the arena.”

I watched as Rina trotted out of his ready room. He’d chosen the traditional peasant clothing for his gi. Once again, the clothing did not suit him. The stallion belonged in a metal band’s get up, not a rice-picker hat and a ice blue loose long sleeved tunic-shirt-thing, and a darker blue sash.

The crowd didn’t seem very interested as he walked out. A few ponies clapped, but that’s it. He trotted out to the black line on the arena and waited. But hey, we were the warm up. What did you expect?

The PA crackled again. “Orange Sherbert, take your position in the arena.”

I took another deep breath and walked out into the arena. My hooves clicked against the bamboo bridge as I walked forwards, matching the rapid beat of my heart. I was used to being watched while training, but even still, this was a LOT of eyes.

And I stood a good chance of getting my plot kicked.

I reached the white line, and stopped. I stood maybe three meters from Rina. That’s two extended steps, or one quick-step. I needed to go for a fast takedown. I should use the kick I just learned! Go for the head-

No! That was a killing blow. Can’t use it. Against the rules. What if I-

“Opponents! Show respect for your peer,” the PA announced overly dramatic.

Shit, no more time to plan!

RIna bowed. I bowed.

“Disciples… FIGHT!” The PA barked.

Rina jumped the second the round began. For a split second I thought he’d been spooked, then his jump turned into a quickstep, pushing him up against my left side where he immediately spun around and hit me in the left temple with an elbow strike.

The world flashed red. I dropped like a sack of bricks. Rojā said that strike was like getting hit with a carpenter’s hammer. Now I had a reference for that pain.

I rolled out of the way in time to avoid Rina’s downwards jab. His hoof cracked against the granite arena, sending a small chip of stone flying past me.

He was in a four hoof stance, I couldn’t knock him off balance. I had to directly attack!

Keeping my back on the ground, I pivoted on my shoulders, bringing my rear hooves into line to kick. Rina saw it coming and back stepped to avoid the strike. Advantage, me! Arching my back I flipped up onto my rear hooves, spreading them out slightly to keep my balance, and pulled my forelegs inwards, hooves pointing up to use my cannons as shields.

Two steps forwards-

Rina sidestepped and threw a low jab with his left leg. I sidestepped, nearly walking into the kick his jab had hid from me. A chance! I reached out with both forelegs and grabbed his hind leg!

CRAP! That was total instinct, what do I do now!?

Rina pulled his leg in, throwing me off balance. I fell forwards, he threw a punch that connected with my chin. I fell backwards, slamming into the arena floor with a crunch.

I grit my teeth and growled. Enough! Enough being thrown around like a ragdoll!

I rolled over, getting up onto all four legs and spread my weight out as broadly as I could. I needed to take whatever hit he gave me next and roll with it!

Rina frowned, seeing me brace for impact, but rushed in anyways, hitting me in the left shoulder with a flurry of jabs. I leaned into the blows, bracing myself so I wouldn’t budge an inch. My shoulder screamed under the abuse. I needed the perfect sho-

NOW!

I smashed my forehead into Rina’s temple. He staggered back, stunned. I reared up, then snapped my right hind leg up to land an axe kick, hitting Rina under the chin. He stumbled backwards as my kick snapped back down, missing his muzzle by a hair.

I stepped forwards and threw a strait karate punch, connecting with his left cheek. He took that hit, stepped into it, grabbed my shoulders, then pulled me downwards while slamming his rear left knee into my chest.

Stars exploded in my eyes as I fell over. That hurt. I could feel my ribs flex back into place. Nothing felt broken, but every nerve in my chest and barrel screamed at me to not do that again.

I couldn’t hit him. Not hard enough. Rina was just way tougher than me…

I couldn’t forfeit the match. Not yet. I could still fight. This was to knock out or surrender. I wouldn’t lose by surr-

No! Buck that! I wasn’t going to be eaten! I had a way to deal with this predator.

I stood back up, eyes narrowing. Maybe I was concussed, but I knew exactly what to do. Just like how a newborn filly knows how to walk, breath, and cry for her mother.

I reached for my magic as if to use my telekinesis, but pushed the energy downwards through my core to my forehooves. I felt my aura flicker slightly around them, casting an inconsistent blue light. Irrelevant. ATTACK!

The predator blinked, frowning. “Wait-”

I lunged forward, slamming bouth hooves squarely into the predator's chest and roared, “DIE!”

The telekinetic charge exploded in a flash of blue light, throwing him backwards plot over head to the edge of the arena.

I blinked, jaw dropping as I realized what I just did. And that I couldn’t remember exactly how I did it! How the buck did I channel magic like that!? HELP ME BRAIN! THAT WAS AWESOME!

Oh shit! Is Rina okay?

I looked over at his crumpled body as he stirred, standing shakily upright.

“I thought advanced techniques were banned,” he moaned. “But hey, if they arn’t...”

Rina inhaled, shifting his body into a stance I didn’t recognise at all. It looked alot more seasoned and practiced than his previous form had been. Oh… He was changing from Ninjitsu to the battlemage arts he’d learned as a nymph.

BUCK!

Rina’s horn glowed a bright green as he charged a spell. My eyes widened in fear. I couldn’t take a battlemage. I couldn’t block an attack spell. I had to dodge!

Rina’s horn flashed brightly, his spell cabout to go off-

“AAAAAAGH!” He screamed as his entire body erupted in orange flames.

He slumped over, smoking, fur singged, crashing limply to the arena floor.

“Oooo! Thats gotta hurt!” The PA announcer winced. “Ladies and gentleman, don’t worry we have first aid personnel on standby-”

I ran forwards. “Oh my gosh!” I yelped, bending down to check and see if he was breathing. “Are you okay!? I can’t believe you flopped a spell like that!”

Rina lept upwards, grabbing my shoulder with one hoof, the smoke and singe marks vanishing in a few sparks of magic.

ILLUSION! SHIT!

“Not quite!” He roared, eyes narrowed in focus. “FIRE!”

I was thrown backwards by a thunderclap and a flash of orange. My shoulder burned with a dull spiky pain that stabbed upwards through my skin. Was I lying on my back? I think I was laying on my back...

“Match over!” I heard Rojā shout loudly.

“You heard the Elder, everyone, the fight is being called here. Don’t worry, she’ll have that burn fixed up in no time,” the PA announcer informed everypony as I shifted my weight to try and stand back up. “Don’t feel too sorry for her, folks. Use of wizardry is against this match’s rules. Your winner by disqualification is Orange Sherbert.”

Wait, then should I be disqualified for what I did? That was a spell right?

Rina was suddenly in my field of view. “I’m so sorry! I was really mad, that punch like, really really hurt! I wasn’t thinking straight, are you okay? I’m so happy I didn’t fully charge that!” He babbled.

“It’s fine,” I said with a shaky smile. “I kinda weren't crazy too… Why wasn’t I disqualified? That was magic.”

Master Rojā gently pushed Rina aside and extended a hoof to help me to my hooves.

“That was Sorcery, not Wizardry. Roughly formed mostly instinctual, zero-finesse magic. It’s a part of ninjutsu, and thus does not disqualify you,” he said soothingly. “Can you stand?”

I nodded and stood up, rocking slightly before finding my balance.

“Rojā,” Master Cho’s voice barked angrily. “Why did you teach a first year aurajitsu?!”

“I did not,” Rojā replied simply.

She glared at him with a wrath that cut deep into my heart.

“I just sort of did that! Can't remember how,” I squeaked fearfully.

“Is this true?” She asked, looking at me with that same accusatory, enraged glare.

I nodded rapidly. “Y-yes! I sort of just pushed my magic into helping me punch. I’ve been doing that for years, um, but with my legs and my grip. I use it while free running.”

Cho’s wrathful gaze softened. “I see… Do not use that in your sparring again. You could have killed Nahrina. Easily.”

“Definitely felt like she nearly did,” Rina agreed with an apologetic frown. “Uh, not to make you feel worse or anything…”

I slumped slightly. “I’m sorry… I um, I thought you were going to beat me to death. I wasn’t thinking. I just did it. I’ll learn to control myself better in the future.”

Rojā nodded once. “Good. That was the main goal of this match. Getting you to refine yourselves. We’ve set up an emergency clinic in the lecture room attached to the cafeteria. Can you two make it on your own? Cho and I have duties here. I’ll walk you if you need me too, because you need to get that burn treated, and you’ll probably want a potation to regrow the fur.”

I looked down at my still prickling shoulder. I could see that the fur had been scorched off, leaving a light red burn on my light orange skin. I flinched and nodded.

“I’m a bit wobbly, but that’s not far. I can walk there,” I decided.

I didn’t feel too hurt. Definitely like I could use some basic care and some aspirin but not like, wounded.

Rojā nodded in relief. “Good. I was worried with the beating you took you’d be concussed. But you dont show any signs of it… Have the medic check anyways. We have volunteers from local care centers. Make sure we get our rental fee’s worth.”

I nodded and turned to trot out of the arena, Rina walking by my side. To my amazement the audience didn’t really react much as we left. I guess we really were just a pregame show to ignore…

We limped our way out of the arena into the now ghost-town like Academy grounds. It was really weird to see them so empty when just a few minutes ago they had been so full. I guess everypony packed themselves into the arena during our match. That or went into the main museum building for the special exhibit Tamiko was putting on.

I should see if I could catch any of her weapon demos after getting patched up. Those sounded cool.

“Hey, want to watch Tamiko’s demos after this?” I asked, as we rounded a corner of the building we were headed towards, the entrance coming into view.

Rina smiled. “Yeah! That sounds-”

Rina’s statement ended in a “URHK!” as a flash of red and gold slammed into his back from above.

I had just enough time to make out the shape of a yellow pegasi dressed in the Flying Horse’s silken gi before she lept off Rina’s back and tackled me full force into the ground.

For the third time today, my vision exploded into stars. As I moaned i noticed Rina laying limp, breathing, but not moving. The mare jammed her rear knee into my spine, pressing down on me in an expert hold.

“Told you I was going to punch your teeth in!” She snapped angrily. “Nopony stands up Mai Xii!”

Fuck… I should have reported her! AHHHHHHRRRGH! THOSE LOGIC CLASSES ARE FOR NOTHING!

“Just get this over with,” I grumbled. Far too used to being bullied to really care that I was going to get hurt.

Hay, I was already physically hurt. And realizing I failed to do the smart thing hurt worse than this was going to.

Mai snickered. “You’re lucky this is your home turf. I’d prefer to drag this out, but well, I’d rather not get caught. So your wish is my command.”

She drew back one hoof, angling it so she’d strike with the point. A bone breaking strike.

She was going to LITERALLY punch my teeth out. Dad was going to be so mad at me...

“OYE!” Somepony shouted angrily. “Cut that bullshit out, before I MAKE you!”

Mai turned her head to look at who yelled, and laughed. Which made me look, see a pissed of Kazumi standing a few meters away, and lose all hope of someone stopping this.

What was she going to do against a trained martial artist? She was tiny and took daily medicine for joint problems...

“HA! And what exactly are you going to do to stop me? I’ve taken shits that were bigger than you,” Mai mocked, giving Kaz a dismissive smirk. “Unless you can learn a decade of martial arts in two seconds, you don’t even have a prayer of standing up to me. Tell you what, if you’re gone by the time I’m done with this manko, I won’t stomp your skull flat.”

I felt my heart fall. There was no way Kazumi could get away from her. She was just too damn fast!

“Just run! I’ll be fine!” I pleaded, giving Kazumi a worried look, begging her to go with my eyes.

Kazumi nodded at Mai matter of factly. Completely ignoring me

“Yeah. You’re right. It would take me decades to catch up to you at martial arts,” she agreed, seemingly completely uninsulted by my attacker’s remark.

“Damn strait, yariman. Now get lost!” The yellow mare ordered.

Okay, that insult didn’t even work. I’d never even seen Kazumi do anything remotely slutty. Outside of that one dream… Wait, had she seen my dream somehow? No, no that’s just the concussion talking.

Cuz if I wasn’t before, I was now… Luna’s tits my head was killing me…

“You know what, here’s an extra for getting me spotted,” Mai said decisively.

She grabbed my right foreleg and twisted it sharply. I heard something crack and screamed.

“I thought we agreed you couldn’t beat me in a fight, bakka,” Mai said to Kazumi as she let me now broken leg drop.

“Yes. We did,” Kazumi agreed with another nod.

Mai rolled her eyes and turned back to me, razing her hoof for that bone breaker punch again. “Guess you want to die the-”

“That’s why I bought this gun,” Kazumi added as she reached for her saddelbag’s left side and pulled a large hoofcannon from a concealed holster.

Mai’s head snapped around to face Kazumi once more. “Wait wha-”

The twin barreled weapon rumbled. Less boom, more punch to the gut. My whole body twisted as Mai was thrown off me, slamming into the concrete walkway with a crunch lost to the sound of Kazumi’s second shot, which sent her sliding down the walkway a few centimeters.

Kazumi trotted towards me, keeping her gun leveled on Mai, the hoof engulfing gauntlet attached to the weapon ensuring it wouldn’t slip from her grip. Or ever. And also definitely prevented the recoil from blowing her leg clean off....

“Technology outmodes biology, dumbass! I don’t need to be big and strong to kick your ass. Or kill you,” Kazumi laughed. “This is a M-Six Carnifax. From Ayna Co’s Functional Replicas series. It’s set to fire concussion rounds. No, not stun. Concuss. You’ll want to go to a hospital when you can stand again.”

Kazumi’s recommendation was delivered in the same tone of voice she used to diagnose patients who had obviously injured themselves through sheer stupidity.

Condescending superiority.

“And you’d better not choose mine. If I see you in my clinic, I’m going to ensure you have a month of constant pain, indigestion, and nightmares so bad you’d have to have nightmares about having them to even come close to what you'll be having,” Kazumi growled, glaring down her sights at Mai with a look that made it clear she wished she had used letal ordinance with her first shot. “You stand up before I leave, I’ll flip the switch to lethal rounds and never think of you again after winning the self defense case. Disabled people never lose those.”

Mai didn’t make a sound. Or even twitch. She was definitely out cold.

“Is Rina okay?” I asked, too dizzy to stand up.

Kazumi trotted over to him and placed a wing tip on his neck for a few moments, refusing to lower her weapon. She waited for a count of three then nodded. “He’s okay. Out cold, but okay. I can’t move him, we’ll go inside and get somepony to help bring him in… Actually, you will. I’ll keep this bitch at gunpoint till an authority arrives.”

I raised an eyebrow, deciding to be a bit condescending myself. “Oh yeah, I’ll just hobble in there on a broken leg and ask for a stretcher so I can carry him in myself,” I said as sarcastic as I could.

Kazumi paused, her lips pursing in a ‘oh yeah,’ expression before she trotted over to me and placed her free forehoof on my broken arm, ending shooting pain all throughout my side.

“AHH!” I hissed.

“Fun fact,” Kazumi said in a kind voice. “Batponies can work stone like pegasi work clouds.”

“How is that relevant?” I whimpered.

“Bone’s just a bunch of collagen held together by a calcium phosphate and calcium carbonate matrix. And those are minerals. You know, stone,” she replied, giving my leg a gentle tug right over the broken section.

I felt the bone stick back together.

I FELT THE BONES STICK BACK TOGETHER!

My leg still hurt like all tartarus but I could move it again!

“How did you do that!?” I yelped.

Kazumi rolled her eyes. “I already told you, Bakka. It’s not totally fixed. You’ll need a healing potion for the muscle and the collagen, but you’ll be able to walk on that… It will hurt a lot though.”

“C-can any bat pony do that?” I asked with a curious but confused frown.

“Yeah, if they realize that bone is a mineral deposit just like any other. But only a doctor would be able to put the bone back together right… Any one of us could buck up a skeleton like silly putty if we wanted to. Can you stand? I think I set that right. I normally use two hooves, but I want to keep that bitch at gunpoint,” Kaz said grimly.

“Would you really have never thought of her again?” I asked Kazumi with a concerned frown.

The tiny mare sighed. “I would have sometimes. Rarely. But it wouldn’t impact me much. I’m completely numb to death. You never really forget people you see die, but after a while, it’s just a thing that happens. You don’t care anymore. Same goes for remembering them. It happens, and over time, you just don't care about it. I’d probably only remember her as ‘Oh yeah, that one was my fault but I didn’t fail I succeeded. A rare turn of normal circumstances. Neat.’”

“That’s pretty grim,” I said standing up and hissing in pain as my injured leg took some of my body’s weight.

Ahhhh, buck… I could walk on that but seriously, OW!

“I’ve had at least twenty patients die under my care,” Kazumi sighed. “After the little colt who’d had his lungs shredded by a feral dog bled out in my hooves, well… I guess that was the last straw. I needed to become jaded about the whole thing. Ever since that, death’s just been a thing that happens like anything else. Gore too. Doesn't bother me at all now.”

I flinched. “Sooo you would really have had no problems blowing her brains out?” I asked.

“To save you? Not remotely,” Kazumi said with genuine sincerity. “Now get in there! Rin needs help.”

“Rin?” I asked with a head tilt.

“You want to know why I call you Bakka?” Kazumi asked redundantly. “You’re Sky Trigger’s niece, and you want to be a hero. Instead of just asking him for power armor, you’re here learning to be a ninja. He’d have made you a full suit, you know. You didn’t go for the solution given to you on a golden platter. Hence, you’re a bakka in general.

“But you also totally spaced our friend Nahrina asking you to call him Rin instead of Rina, about nineteen different times that I’m aware of, because he finds Rina to be feminine. That’s honestly the kind of friendly teasing I like, but I know you’re not doing it intentionally. Likewise you probably won't get the subtext of my entire spiel here. Which weirdly enough is adorable, and why you’re my Bakka."

I nodded. "Yeah... I can be a bit of a bakka," I agreed. "I'm working on that. Thanks for the head up, I'll start calling him Rin now."

I can't believe it took her telling me that to notice! Ugh... Changing who you are is hard.

Kazumi's left eye twitched oddly. “JUST ATTEND TO THE MEDICAL EMERGENCY!”

ACK! That’s right!

I nodded and rushed off into the cafeteria, ignoring the pain in my leg.

Rin would be fine. And I had a feeling that Mai was going to wish that Kaz had killed her.

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

“So that’s their side of that little fiasco,” the mare said with a smirk, her teeth glinting in the dim room’s light. “Maybe I should have let you assassinate Xii… He was definitely training his students as goons. Well, water under the bridge.”

Master Rojā paused the recording, and nodded once. “Yes… I would have greatly appreciated that chance. As it is, the arrangement we came to was likely for the best.”

“Nahrina was fine, I presume?” the shadowed mare asked Rojā casually.

The shinobi nodded. “Yes. He was perfectly alright. Just knocked unconscious. Nothing a quality potion, some rest, and a little love couldn’t fix.”

“Good. Now, onto Sherbert. You showed me this to show me her use of sorcery in the match. Correct?” The mare asked, seeking confirmation.

Rojā nodded. “Yes. But more than that… Her mentality while she did it.”

“She stopped thinking of her friend as a friend, and thought of him as a predator,” the mare said, letting the other pony know she understood.

“Then you realize that Sherbert’s unusual bloodline includes instinctive behaviors relating to self defense,” Rojā stated firmly. “That her instincts can overwhelm her conscious mind under stress, and that her reactions are no that of a typical unicorn.”

“I do. And this does have a large impact on my thoughts. But I need to see more. She’s naturally talented with sorcery… Is that one reason why you took her on as a disciple?”

Rojā nodded once more. “Yes, Ma’am. It was obvious she had a talent for aura channeling when I saw her scale that wall.”

“I see… I need to see more. Keep going… Oh! Um, did she and Kazumi start going out after that little admission of love Kazumi gave her?” The mare asked curiously, the hint of a smile barely penetrating the darkness which hid her face.

Rojā sighed and shook his head. “Like Kazumi said… Sherbert was sort of a bakka back then,” he laughed.

“Damnit!” The mare swore. “I see why you used surveillance footage to help teach her! She’s dense enough to use as A.L.I.C.O.R.N. armoring!”

“I thought they would get together around then too, but they didn’t,” Rojā chuckled. “She got a lot smarter over the years. Those lessons Twilight sent her helped a lot. Let’s not get too distracted with unimportant parts of the story. I have an idea of what you’ll want to see next.”

7 - Choices

Sherbert - 1st of Solarus, 26 AoE

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

Today was a big day! The last day of school! For a few months... I could hardly believe it!

Back in Equestria, school was well, less rigid. Less time consuming. Two weeks on, one week off. All year every year. Except during the month of Harvestide, then it was two on two off so young ponies could help clear farms. After all, we still depended on farms for food.

Heck, why would we go full industrial on our farms? Earth pony grown produce is superior in every way to natural food.

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

“Hold it!” The obscured mare demanded.

Rojā jumped at the loud barking command, his hooves fumbling for the button to pause the recording.

“Is something wrong, Ma’am?” He asked with a nervous frown.

That order, that single barked command… The force and urgency behind it suggested the worst. It was the same way any pony with power would gain their command’s attention when there were kaiju inbound.

“Yes!” She insisted. “You skipped ahead eight months. Clean to the end of her first year of training. Are you absolutely certain that nothing of importance to her case occurred during that time period?”

Rojā nodded to himself, both relieved and a bit saddened that a Class Five wasn’t storming up the beach. All of this would have been forgotten in the wake of a great tragedy.

“Completely. I trained her to basic proficiency in hoof to hoof combat, stealth, and survival skills,” Rojā summarized. “I taught her nothing special, nor did I do anything outside of typical basic training. Had we also drilled her in small unit tactics she would have been equivalent to the standard Defence Force Trooper and nothing more.”

“I see… I had assumed with her talents you would have advanced her training schedule,” the mare said, leaning forwards just enough for Rojā to see the pink fur on her brow arch in suspicion before she leaned back into the full cover of the arch.

Rojā shook his head firmly. “No, Ma’am. That’s how you get problem students. Individuals who are exceptional must not be allowed to know it until they have mastered the foundational skills upon which their talents lay.

“Respect. Discipline. The fundamentals of the art. These things are more important for the gifted than they are the average person. You don’t want to fan the flames of arrogance and ruin your sculpture before it’s even time to put it into the kiln.”

The mare chuckled. “You quoted me at me. That so rarely happens,” she said with an amused hoof wave. “Very well, continue. After you indulge my curiosity. Did those two hook up yet?”

Rojā frowned “Who? Sherbert and Kazumi?” He asked.

The mare nodded almost sarcastically. “Who else?”

“Oh well, you see,” Rojā began, doing his best to drag half remembered events to the forefront of his mind without losing track of the more important information. “At the time Sherbert and Nahrina had become friends with benefits.”

“Pardon? I’ve never heard of that sort of arrangement,” the mare asked in an extremely exaggerated, feminine, innocent voice.

Rojā rolled his eyes and ignored his superior’s joke. “You know how it is with changelings. Eventually, no matter what your relationship, they want to have dinner with you. Their kind of dinner.

“I’m sure you noticed how Sherbert is constantly aroused? Kazumi went over her medical files and noticed that her genetic structure caused an error in her thyroid gland during puberty and- In short, Sherbert will never lose the teenage libido, and refused to take suppressants when they were offered.

“I didn’t force her, she’s perfectly functional and in control of herself. She’s just in the mood at the literal drop of a hat. However that did mean when Nahrina inevitably asked if she wouldn’t mind giving him a fresh meal, she didn’t even say yes. She just jumped him. I uh… His room is beside mine. I heard everything.

“After that, there was some anger from their dwarf friend, which went away after both Sherbert and Nahrina explained it was just the standard changeling friendship, not romance. Kazumi then apologized for being jealous, asked if it was true that Equestrians are typically monogamous, learned that they usually are but Sherbert’s always wanted at least two partners anyway, yadda yadda yadda!

“Oh, and Sherbert STILL didn’t understand that her other friend was actually a tiny tsundere.”

“All of that sounds pretty important,” the mare accused.

“In terms of her life? Sure. In terms of this case I’m presenting? No,” Rojā said bluntly.

“Alright, then show me what you find important, Captain,” the mare ordered.

Sherbert - 1st of Solarus, 26 AoE

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

The last day of school for months! I would have time! I would have so much time!

Rin and I could go into town and check out the shops like we had wanted to. And Rin had totally proven that we liked exactly the same sort of mares, and he was still up for his quest to find me a special somepony.

Frankly, I was happy enough with Kaz and him as my friends. But I wasn’t going to say no to someone I could be intimate with. Sure I could be sexual with Rin, but meh. That’s just a fun game to play with other people. I wanted something real. Like what mom and dad, or Dash and AJ had.

I’d say that I wanted what Uncle Sky and Pinkie had, but I did NOT want the kind of relationship where my mates would leave a paintball gun and a note at the door to inform me that the loser makes dinner tonight. Only for that paint war to engulf the whole town, getting every vet in the whole darn place to quickly bodge together paint guns, grenades, and even a Luna damned tank cannon, rally around dad’s friend David, and proceed to enter as a third faction.

Only for that to get my mates and I to team up, resulting in a three hour firefight, um, I mean paint fight, which locks down the court house, and gets Twilight involved because of all the panicked ponies screaming about the town being under attack, and then Twilight orders the Eventide Guard in to form a fourth faction in that fight because she just shampooed her fur and doesn't want to break it up personally.

And then THEY lose because of course they do, but all the vets decide to help out anyway, and the whole thing turns into a block party since about a hundred ponies and one diamond dog have to cook dinner so there’s like a billion dishes that get made which have to be eaten.

Ponyville could only handle one of those kinds of relationships. No more, no less. And only twice a year at that.

Nah, all I needed was someone I could bear my soul to. One who was also interested in sexytimes! Rin was close to that, but well, not quite there. Meh, whatever. His favorite sexual flavor turned out to be cunnilingus and after being hospitalized twice he wanted to be fully topped up with love every morning. Victory for me!

I smiled and opened my blinds to look out the window at the rising sun. We could spend the whole summer working on finding me a nice mare, and finishing up that Rock Opera sequel he’d been trying to make for months.

If Kazumi was willing to hang out with us on her days off now that she was going to be working full time again, she could help too. Primarily by just hanging out with us. She was a great muse! So cute.

Heh… It helps to have a muse in the room when you’re doing art. Too bad she had no interest in romance. Or did she? I mean it was really clear she wanted to just be friends. She’d pushed me away when we first met. And kept insulting me ever since.

Not that I minded much. She simply didn’t want to be a couple or hook up, and she was a snarky mare. Which made her not wanting me that way sting all the more.

Maybe I should call her… Not to pester her in any way. Asking her out would only cause… Problems. I didn’t want to lose a friend. I only had two, and while I called Rin my best friend, that was really only because we lived together.

Kazumi and I had been friends a whole school year, soon to be a whole sixteen months, a real year. She’d started hanging out with me almost free day she had way back in the beginning of well, my new life.

We should officially become best friends. She deserved it and nothing said you couldn’t have multiple best friends. Best isn’t an exclusive term. You can say ‘these wines are the best the world has to offer’ and there are no logical or grammatical problems.

And then Kazumi could probably help me find a nice stallion. Rin wasn’t interested in getting me one of those, so someone had to help!

I sat down in my desk chair and flipped open my watch, quickly tapping the speed dial button for Kazumi. The watch buzzed five times before the call went through with a click.

“Hey, Bakka!” Kax greeted cheerfully, but with some stress in her voice.

It was so weird how she called me an idiot affectionately.

“Hey, Chibi,” I greeted back.

Heh heh. It was the perfect counter friendly-insult! Directly translated as ‘tiny’, culturally used to mean ‘a character drawn in a small sized, simplified, nubby pre portioned art style’.

Kazumi laughed. “Okay, you found one. Good job. I’ll stop by to make you eat your own spleen in three days,” she teased.

“A few days?” I asked with a frown. “I figured you’d be storming over her to punch me for that nickname right away.”

“No can do, Bakka,” Kazumi sighed. “I’ve got to go into surgery in a few hours. I forgot to call you because it’s really routine for me.”

My eyes widened in terror. “Oh no! What’s wrong? I can call my dad immediately and-”

“Nothing life threatening,” Kazumi interrupted with an irritated huff. “Look… This is embarrassing but, you know how I have an adult mare’s proportions and shape?”

I nodded. “Uh, yeah! Your flanks are perkier than mine,” I confirmed with a happy blush.

“Yeah, well, you see… That’s all silicone implants,” Kaz admitted with an embarrassed grumble. “I’m like, about fifteen percent silicone. I never developed the right curves on my own. Brain grew up, body just stopped… I got tired of being called a child so I saved up and got implants.

“I should have saved more because they are shitty, and leak. SO I need to get them replaced once a year before the leaking starts. I basically get just enough cash to afford the replacements by the time I need them and-”

Kazumi stopped talking as I facehooved hard enough for it to echo through my watch's speaker.

“-And your uncle owns a megacorp which does medical work in addition to basically everything,” Kazumi finished for me.

“I was going to say my dad is a biomancer,” I corrected with a laugh.

“Um, well yes. Also that,” Kazumi agreed, clearly embarrassed.

“Now who's the bakka?” I asked, grinning ear to ear. “Stay on the line, I’ll call dad on my Mage Gem and see if he’ll get you an appointment. Personally, I think you look great at your current height, but he could fix that too if you like! It would take multiple sessions though.”

“I like being partially artificial,” Kazumi said quietly, her voice softening slightly, as if she were opening up. “It’s… It’s a hard thing to explain. But I enjoy the feeling of my subdermal padding.

“Flesh is… Weak. At least, mine is. I’m not like you, Sherbert. I can’t just transform myself into a living weapon or an athlete through force of will and exercise. I’d tear myself to pieces. That’s why I like technology so much. It does for us what we can’t do for ourselves. It’s the ultimate equalizer.”

I blinked twice. “Uh, and you see implanted body shaping pads as a… Beauty equalizing technology?” I asked, wanting to make sure I understood things right.

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “My only complaint is that they are of terrible quality and too hard. I’d prefer leak free so I never get silicone poisoning ever again. And also softer, more jiggly, with full body coverage so I’m extra soft and snuggly, to the point where I can feel like I’m snuggling myself and-”

She paused mid sentence, her voice resuming her usual sarcastic snarky quality, with a hint of fear and anger thrown in for good measure.

“And I let my emotional shields down! Hahahaha! You heard NOTHING!” Kaz barked.

I rolled my eyes. “Kaz! My aunt Rarity is a cyborg. I have no problem with understanding some ponies just like that sort of thing. Heck, I’ll admit that she’s prettier now than before she got the chrome. Besides, we’re best friends! You can share stuff like that with me. I won’t judge,” I promised.

I would not judge. But I would remember, and take note for later… Just incase I got to lucid dream again.

Kazumi stayed quiet long enough for me to glance down at my wrist to see if she hung up. Noticing the display indicated she was still on the line, I decided to do what a real friend should.

“Now that you’ve told me you have Flim Flam Co level terribad implants in you, guess what?” I asked.

“What…” Kazumi asked worriedly.

I reached down and tapped a few commands on my watch, starting a three way call.

“I, your best friend, refuse to let you continue to have those,” I informed as my watch chimed, the other call connecting.

“Hey, Sherb! How’s my favorite slash only niece? What’s up? Laptop bricked again?” Uncle Sky asked casually.

“EEEP!” Kazumi squeaked.

“Hey, Uncle Sky! Laptop’s fine. It’s actually my friend Kazumi who's got broken hardware this time,” I explained. “You know how she’s a dwarf? Well, it turns out she uses implants to achieve adult proportions and she just told me that she’s going into get her yearly replacements before the current ones get too old and leaky and-”

“Right, penciling in one surgical operation,” Sky said immediately. “Was that her eeping on the line just now? Is this a three-way? Hey, Tiny Neighponese Mare? What day works for you? I’ll have a shuttle fly down, no need to come here. Free home delivery is a family friend perk, we'll just do everything in your backyard.”

“It’s-an-honor-to-meet-the-stallion-responsible-for-the-current-era-of-safety-my-people-enjoy!” Kazumi blurted out.

“Hey, it’s really no problem. I’m a nice guy, and you have a giant monster problem, I like improving robots, I had some plans for giant robots laying around when your Empress put out that call for foreign scientific and arcane aid… And I really, really wanted to see a giant robot punching giant monsters.

“But seriously, what is a day that works for you? We can fabricate what you want on site, get that garbage out of you and get the new stuff in no problem. I’ve got great doctors on the payroll, and you’ll already have the flesh pockets done so it’s really just opening those up and changing out the stuff then sewing you shut. Nothing hard… I mean I assume so. I’m not a doctor. Well… Not a medical doctor anyway...

“Speaking of docs, you could also go see my little bro and get real curves if you wanted. I’ll pay for it. Nopony should have to deal with yearly replacements of what I can only assume are polyethylene bags full of plumbing grade silicone.”

I nodded in agreement. You'd think there would be some law against medical devices of substandard quality… Oh wait, there are. But when has something being illegal stopped someone who doesn't care about the law? That’s right, never.

“Ummm… Well… As a doctor myself… They are slightly better than that,” Kazumi admitted, voice still squeaking nervously. “Elastomer silicone filled with a fifty fifty mixture of saline and silicone. The filling is… Basically lethal and the shells are very thin. I have to pay my parents rent, so despite the doctor’s salary, I don't really have much spending money and-”

“Your friend babbles a lot,” Uncle Sky said to me with an amused ‘heh’. “Did she tell you what she wants?”

“Mhm,” I answered. “She wants the implants. Likes having ‘hardware’. I think her exact words were ‘softer, more jiggly, with full body coverage so I’m extra soft and snuggly’.”

“DON'T TELL HIM THAT!” Kazumi exploded. “WHAT IF I RAN UP TO PRINCESS LUNA AND TOLD HER YOU LIKE YOUR FROGS LICKED!?”

Sky laughed. “Luna would probably agree that licks there feel nice, and then question why you’d assume anypony didn’t like that. Then, she’d likely go back to her apartment and ask if her marefriend would like to have a bit of fun, because you reminded her that the most common fetish in Equestria exists.”

“Oh…” She said, the wind falling out of her sails.

I blinked once. “Wait, does this mean that Uncle Sky is Neighpone’s Luna?”

“K-kinda!” Kazumi admitted.

“Yeah, if she was popular with the general civilian population and not a politician,” Uncle Sky agreed then pasued. “So um, actually, no, not really. Okay, you’re looking for basically a full body prosthesis, that’s interesting. Never built something like that before. Let’s make this less awkward. Kazumi, was it? Call your doctor and abort your surgery.

“Then call me at this contact, I’m sending it through Sherbert’s watch to your own… There you are! As soon as it’s canceled, call me and we’ll talk one on one professionally. Figure out what you want.”

“I- Um, I can’t afford what I want…” Kazumi mumbled.

I pursed my lips. “Kazumi, Uncle Sky is… Well, himself. I know for a fact that he made himself a set of power armor out of a business suit just because he thought it would be cool. He’s not going to judge you for weird seeming tech you want.

“And I’m me! I’m not going to judge you or ruin your rep over a personal dream you share with me. You’re my best friend! Heck, I’ll share something embarrassing with you- Oh wait, you already know that my cutiemark is an illusion spell and that I’m a blank flank. Come on, you can tell us what you want. It’s okay!”

“What she said! Well spoken, kid,” Sky agreed, sounding especially caring and empathetic. “Go ahead and just rattle off all the dream cybernetics you want.”

“Well… Okay. But this NEVER gets quoted to anyone. At all. Ever again,” Kazumi demanded. “I want smart implants. Ones which make me look the same size, I’m happy with my height, but give me proper adult proportions and about four centimeters of soft padding. And that padding has built in climate controls, not just for me but stuff I’m in contact with so I can choose how warm or cool I am, and how I feel to anyone or anything touching me independently of each other.

“I want all of my joints replaced entirely because they are junk. I’m tired of drinking potions every few hours to be able to simply tolerate moving. Anything I brew up strong enough to get rid of the pain entirely puts me to sleep. They have to go, they are garbage.

“I want a built in mage-amp to fix my magic being well, filly level. Something to step that thaumaturgic current up to a normal thestrial range so I can carry the same weight as a normal adult, fly as long as I want to, and maybe also gives me telekinesis because I like being short, but I hate not being able to reach things.

“I also want a full medical sensor package, so I can just wave a hoof over a computer and see if any of my bits are going bad. Oh! And basic muscle enhancements to get me up to the adult average. That’s it really.”

I blinked. I’m pretty sure Sky blinked.

That’s all she wanted? To be normal? I already saw her as normal… But well, Tartarus! If there’s one thing I understood, it was the need to be normal. For me, how others saw me didn’t matter. I needed to see myself as normal, and I was getting there. It felt good.

Kazumi deserved that good feeling too.

“Hey, Sherbert, I want to fix your friend up with something that is not just medically necessary but also bucking awesome. Is that worth a birthday present to you?” Uncle Sky asked me seriously.

I didn’t even have to think about that.

“Yeah, easily,” I agreed.

Heck, he only spent like, maybe seven hundred bits on any given present he’d ever given me.

“Cool. See, Tiny Neighponese Mare? It's just been paid for. The budget is set for the six million bit mare,” Sky announced casually.

“Six million bits!?” Kazumi and I asked together, my ears and tail raising in shock.

“Yep! Six mill,” he confirmed. “Let’s gadget up your meatbag! Heck, we could replace it with carbon fiber and titanium for days! We can go full brain bucket if you like. I have android designs we could adapt. Unless you aren't looking for semi-solid robotics and subdermal implants.”

“No, I just want fixes. Not replacements,” Kazumi said firmly. “I haven’t lived in a normally functioning body. I don't know if I would prefer going android over being normal. All I know is that I want a normal functioning body and a built in air conditioner.”

“Can do!” Sky applied casualty. “Cancel your hack doctor’s appointment and call me back!”

“Six million bits!?” I asked, still quite hung up on that.

“Yeah,” Sky said with a dismissive snort, as if that weren't a lot of money. “You’re not a filly anymore Sherb. You’re learning real skills to become an actual ninja. I’m your tech guy who is also your rich uncle, and Pinkie’s husband. She’d pester me to do the trope if I didn’t already want to.

“I can’t NOT offer you cool gadgets and things once you're done with training there. And while you’re training there. I was going to engineer you an armored training gi to reduce sparring injuries, but I’ll dump the funds for that into this instead. Sound fair?”

“More than,” I agreed, the shock wearing off. “Kaz, you’re important to me, okay? Please accept this.”

Kazumi remained quiet for a long time. When she at last spoke, her voice was calm, even, and sincere. “I absolutely relish the opportunity to finally have a properly working body, Trigger-sama. I cannot thank you enough for the opportunity to get real permanent fixes for many of my problems, which do not rely on my already bad biology.

“Thank you, Sherbert. Thank you, Trigger-sama. But you never heard me say this! Because I’m a tough mare with a reputation for being a hardflank and I LIKE that. Trigger-sama, I will call you back shortly to discuss the possibility of-”

“Built in shield generators?” Sky asked hopefully.

“I- um… Y-you’re just a big colt, aren't you?” Kazumi asked unbelievingly.

“Pretty much, yeah,” Sky laughed.

“Cool. And um, yes. If there’s room in the budget. That would be cool,” Kazumi said eagerly. “Bye!”

Her comm clicked as she shut it off.

“The budget is infinite, isn’t it?” I asked Sky with a smirk.

“Mmmmmhm,” he chuckled. “I read your letters home. I know you have a crush on her. I’d help anypony get a proper prosthesis, heck, why wouldn’t I? It’s the right thing to do AND a tax write off. But her? A mare you’ve been into for a year and who I have money on you getting together with? I’ll trick her out, do my niece a solid, and make her remember your family as the best thing ever, and remember you as the pony who gave up millions for her.

“Should help you reel in that fish. Anywho, I’m going to hang up and lurk by the business line. Talk to you later, Sherbert. Oh hey! I’ll get lunch with you after her surgery. Later!”

I had just enough time to hang up and sit back in my chair, smiling happily at making a marked improvement in the life of a pony I loved, when the familiar tap of Rojā’s hoof on my door frame drew my attention.

“That was very compassionate of you, Sherbert,” he said with a proud smile. “Do you have a few minutes? There are some important decisions for you to make now that you’ve finished your first year.”

Rojā reached behind the doorway with his rear left hoof and slid a large plastic crate about the size you’d expect the box for a motorcycle helmet to be into view.

“Additionally,” he continued, “Your potions have arrived. We need to make sure you know exactly how to take them. Right sequence, right doses, right times of day, all that fun stuff.”

My ears parked eagerly at the thought of finally doing something about sleep consuming so much time. When the school year began I’d only hesitantly agreed to take these. But after the last year?

Sweet Luna’s tits, if I had to sleep I would have NO time to do any gods damned thing other than train and learn!

In just two weeks I would at minimum only need seven hours of sleep. That extra hour alone was more precious than gold. That was enough time to go on a date, get properly invested in a book, take care of personal issues… I’d say do Twilight’s logic classes but I’d finished them. Yay?

Kinda missed those. Maybe she had an advanced version? I could put the extra hour into that!

“Awesome! Here’s hoping I take to it like Tamiko,” I said with a happy smile which turned into a suspicious frown as I remembered what Rojā had said first. “What do we need to talk about? Is this another ‘pop quiz type challenge thing’?”

Rojā sighed. “I need to make up a better name for those,” he decided with a shallow nod. “No. It’s not. We need to decide how you will be spending your summer.”

I blinked in surprise, and then cringed, my eyes dilating in fear. “Wait! I um, I can’t stay here for the summer?” I asked in horror.

Rojā shook his head. “No! Of course you keep living here! Sort of. For most of the summer. You may wind up spending a week or so away with one of us doing things,” he poorly explained as he walked into my room to stand at a more comfortable distance, pushing the potions crate into my room as he moved.

“Oh, then… There’s summer training?” I asked, relieved that I wouldn’t have to spend summers at home.

Rojā nodded. “Of course there is. But it’s not daily training like during the school year. Mid-year training is when you work on your specialization, as opposed to the rest of the year when you learn the standard skills appropriate to your level of training.

“Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time to do things you want. A personal life is something everyone needs for proper mental health, and I do think students are overworked in our schools and require time to unwind and then brace for the next year before it hits them.

“However, you need to learn the skills unique to whichever of the two paths you choose. This will be achieved in many small two day sessions where you learn a particular specific skill from one of the Academy's masters. The summer is when you learn your ‘special techniques’.”

My eyes lit up in pure unadulterated joy. THIS is what I had been hoping for the entire year! The chance to learn a skill that would shape my future as a hero of Equestria, and also the obvious choice I had to make today… I was ready to choose.

“That means I have to choose the route of Ninja, or Shinobi today,” I stated, just to let Rojā know I was on the same page.

“Yes. Have you given it thought, or do you need time?” He asked calmly. “Neither choice is wrong.”

I had. And I understood the difference much better now. The lessons about the history of ninjutsu, the lore behind the ancient clans, all of it had been to allow me to make this choice and know exactly what each option would give me, so I could find my way.

The Ninja, the path which became the name both kinds of Shadow Warrior were named for. Of course they were, Ninja were the most socially visible of the two. The Assassins. Or rather, the skilled duelists trained to expert levels so as to be able to take on any single elite warrior, but also trained how to kill them without direct confrontation, which was preferable. Able to kill a single target quietly and leave no trace behind, or stand up to them in single combat and win through cunning, and rigging the game.

The Shinobi, the ones no one really talked about. The Agents. The skilled spy who could enter any stronghold, obtain any information, acquire any item, and escape unscathed. Warriors trained to avoid battle, but proficient enough in combat to handle a squad of soldiers if needed.

However… Through all of the lessons Rojā had taught me, both martial, and historical, I had found holes. That was to be expected, I was living with ninjas. But the information that was left out formed a pattern.

“What’s the third option?” I asked with a curious expression.

Rojā smiled for a moment, giving me a proud look. “The Enforcer. Also known as a Samurai. We do not teach that here.”

“Is that the truth?” I asked skeptical, raising one eyebrow.

“Yes,” Rojā answered with an honest look in his eyes. “And congratulations, the last pony to realize my lessons concealed a third branch of our clan’s members was Anoobus, my third disciple. The two of you are the only living people who solved that puzzle.

“The ancient clans relied on the Spy, the Assassin, and the Enforcer as the three prongs of a sai. The spies found the way to achieve a goal, the assassins did the delicate work, and the enforcers would protect the other two as they worked and any covert operations the clan required.

“Samurai training is far different from what we teach here. It’s all about weapons, armor, tactics, and learning to work with a squad. It’s not learning to think, to blend in, and how to fight with anything at hoof when in a pinch. We don’t train soldiers, we train operatives. I’m afraid Samurai is not a choice.”

I nodded, satisfied I had figured bought the mystery and the reason for the mystery. They didn’t want me getting off track. I was here to become an operative, not a soldier.

“I choose Shinobi,” I said decisively.

“You don’t need to choose that simplify to make your master proud,” Rojā said immediately, but kindly.

I flashed him a smile. “Master, I am here so I can learn to be a hero. While being able to break into an evil overlord’s bedroom without tripping any wards and driving a magic-nullifying tano through his heart would definitely keep the world safe… Well, I’d have to find that bedroom first, now wouldn’t I?”

Rojā gave me a pleased nod. “Twilight’s logic lessons have paid off, Sherbert. You have made a very wise decision. Your first training block will begin the day after tomorrow at noon. Master Yoshi will find you, your first lesson will be with him. The other Masters and I sort of made plans based on your decision. He won the draw to teach you first.”

“But I still can’t see through his concealment spell,” I pointed out. “He said I can’t learn from him till I can see through it.”

“He’s making an exception for you as he has a skill to teach you which will be of value to you and reduce strain on the Academy's operations,” Rojā said vaguely. “It’s just the one, and after the next two days, if you ever want to learn another thing from him, you’ll have to find him.

“I am confident the utility of his gift will convince you to try harder at piercing his camouflage. Now that that has been settled, let’s go over your potions. Pay EXTREMELY close attention-”

“I will!” I interrupted eagerly. “It took a whole year and six doctor's appointments to get approval for this. I know it’s dangerous. I’m not going to mess this up!”

“Good,” Rojā said as he opened the white plastic crate and began to arrange the two bottles inside on my desk. “Now, you start with the blue bottle…”

Sherbert - 3rd of Solarus, 26 AoE

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

I had a bone to pick with Cherry’s Meals when I got back to Equestria. I’d gone my entire life thinking of Ramen as a bland tasting ‘nutrient brick’ which was cheaper than the basic survival ration packages the Crown gave out for free. Because it tasted worse and somehow offered you even less nutrition than if you’d decided to just starve.

Now I knew better.

I knew that ramen was a tasty soup that came with a side of fish, chicken, or rabbit strips, a boiled egg, and was flavored with all kinds of different things! It had a billion variations, and each of them would keep you full all day. Not only a good food for an athlete like me, but also one that appealed to my dietary preferences.

So few Neighponeses dishes used meat. I had to shop in the foreign foods sections to find it. Which sucked because no meal ever felt right without it. Not in a ‘it tasted weird’ way, more like ‘I didn’t eat real food, body, go find real food! We lack nutrients!’

Naturally, I’d had a bowl of ramen for lunch almost every day for the last year and I STILL hadn’t tried each flavor! Sure I had miso ramen a lot, but not every day. I’d probably gone through about three hundred and eighty types.

My ears drooped sadly as I finished off the last bit of broth in my bowl. My bowl. Now there was a cool Neighponese custom I was taking home with me was the concept of personal dishes. I had my dishes, you had your dishes. I take care of my dishes, you take care of yours. Nice and simple.

I stretched my shoulders and slipped out of my chair, picking up my bowl and chopsticks to go and wash them when something suddenly rammed into my side at high speed!

I instinctively slid the two legs opposite the strike outwards, using them to absorb the shock as I twisted to analyze the situation. This had to be another of Master Rojā’s tactical pop quiz things!

No sooner than I had reacted, then I realized whatever hit me was absurdly soft, clinging to my side, and also was Kazumi.

I hadn’t heard from her since she and I had talked to Uncle Sky two days ago. That conversation had definitely paid off.

The difference was subtle, Kaz was still the tiny adorable patchwork colored mare from before. The only real difference I could say was now she looked like somepony had used illusion magic to give her perfect proportions for her body type, but I couldn’t sense any spells on her. No, magic here. She just had a truly perfect figure now, and by Celestia it made me want to pick her up and hold her for DAYS!

So I did!

Picking her up with my forelegs I hugged her to my chest. Instantly regretting it as her absurdly soft huggableness was more than a little arousing. Rin had just left. We’d had lunch together. Now I wanted to cook up thirds… And Kazumi could DEFINITELY smell that!

I bit my lip nervously, not wanting to offend my best friend. Fortunately, she let go of me, which let me let go of her. As the little mare plopped to the floor she looked up at me happily

“Thank you!” She said in the most heartfelt voice I’d ever heard her use. “I woke up this morning, and I didn’t hurt! I don’t hurt anymore! I can run as long as I want! I can carry heavy things without my spine wanting to strangle me. I don't feel these implants slipping and sliding slightly as I move. You have changed my entire life. Thank you!”

I continued biting my lip. “You’re welcome. I only did what anypony else would if they could.”

Kazumi laughed and hugged my left foreleg for a short wonderful second. She squished slightly, the implanted padding under her silky soft fur making her feel something like a memory foam mattress, or like a plushie with a firm core.

That was so awesome! No wonder she wanted this!

“Bakka, you're a silly mare,” she laughed. “Equestria is… Different. Good different. Ponies here wouldn’t help me like you did, not for free.”

Good different? I blinked. Did that mean she was hinting at an exception to her weird no special someponies policy? Did she like me now since I changed her life for the better like this!?

Should I ask her out? Would that sound like I was demanding payment for helping her? Yeah… Yeah, it totally would. No. Don’t do that. Leave it for a few days, maybe a week, then ask. She’ll still be really happy about this but it won't feel like a bank slapping you with a hidden fee.

“Well, they're just jerks then,” I said with a blush. “Uhhh… Sorry about, well, you know. Rin had lunch with me and well, you’re super soft and it’s awesome.”

Kazumi waved a hoof dismissively. “Yeah, I know. I could smell that from out in the hall. No big deal. I’m glad you like the padding. N-not that I like you or anything! It just means my plans worked, that’s all!” She insisted oddly urgently.

I blinked, frowning suspiciously. Kazumi’s eyes flicked around the room for a moment before she raised an eyebrow. “Wait, was he here with Rin? That would be weird…”

“He?” I asked in confusion, turning to look where Kazumi was.

Nothing. Not a single thing. The space in front of my wardrobe was totally empty.

“No, I waited for them to finish. I was just about to tell your friend it’s time for her first advanced training session,” Master Yoshi’s voice said from the ‘empty’ spot. “How did you spot me?”

AAAA! Bucking- He needs a bell or something!

Kazumi raised her other eyebrow, a perplexed look crossing her face. “Uhhh, because you’re standing right out there in the open. I think you forgot to cast an invisibility spell this morning, sir,” Kazumi said with a measure of politeness appropriate for telling a master ninja they had forgotten how to sneak.

“No, he’s invisible,” I countered. “To me at least.”

“It’s not actually an invisibility spell,” Master Yoshi corrected. “It’s a perception filter. Congratulations on having a very strong mind, young mare. If you ever care to apply that mind to the ancient arts, please return and speak to me. But for now, I must ask you to leave. Sherbert is due for a training session in genjutsu.”

Genjitsu? Something art… Painting art? Nonono! Vision art. With jitsu also meaning skill, as in physical-

Ah ha! He was going to teach me an illusion spell!

“Oh, crap, this is going to take us forever!” I exclaimed in annoyed realization. “I apologize in advance, Yoshi-sensei. I am very bad at magic.”

Kazumi offered Master Yoshi a polite bow. “I won't interrupt her training. Thank you for the compliment,” she said before turning to me and giving me a happy smile.

A happy smile which became a look of genuine love for a split second, only to instantly snap to a look of panic, and then fake nonchalance. “I’ll see you around, Bakka,” Kazumi said before leaving the room just a bit too fast.

YES! I did the thing! I just had to wait for her to be more comfortable and-

Wait, she already had feelings! Buck waiting!

I raised my left forehoof in preparation to run out the door after Kazumi. “Wai-”

I felt a larger stallion’s hoof gently grip my shoulder as Master Yoshi guided me to my chair. “I am aware of your difficulties in magic. Don’t worry, this will be easier than you think,” he said soothingly.

Oh… right… training…

I sighed and took a seat, instinctively trying to look around for the spot Master Yoshi’s voice was coming from.

“We are totally going to need more than two days of work to teach me a spell… I REALLY suck at learning them. I’m not saying I don’t want to learn, I just… I don’t want you to get mad at me,” I explained nervously, and a bit irritably.

I had been THIS CLOSE to getting to cuddle little miss super softs!

“Bah!” Master Yoshi dismissed. “It’s fine. You’ll get it.”

“It took me a whole month to learn cloudwalking,” I informed with a worried frown.

I felt a slight rush of air, as if someone had waved a hoof a few times in a loose, dismissive gesture. “It’s fine, it’s fine,” Yoshi insisted. “I know exactly what I am doing, and besides, sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at something.”

I blinked twice. “Uhhhh…”

“I can watch anime if I want,” Yoshi said defensively as a very large needle syringe appeared on my desk.

“UHHHHH!” I exclaimed ears flattening in primal fear.

“Relax,” Yoshi commanded. “If I wanted to kill you or hurt you, you would already be dead or wounded. Obviously. Besides, it’s just saline solution and an injectable implant.”

I raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “Okay? What is it?”

“A Matrix Crystal,” Master Yoshi answered slipping into a lecturing voice. “In the distant past, very few unicorn ever became members of ninja clans. They were valuable and could work openly, earning far more wealth, fame, and power. Unfortunately, one can not fight wizards without a little help and in the days before hi-tech gadgets, magic was the only solution to counter magic.

“The few unicorns a clan had would create these crystals. They are grown by a unicorn who very carefully guides the growing crystal so its shape forms the spell matrix required for casting a particular spell. The crystal would then be implanted beneath a non-unicorn Ninja’s skin, and after some training, they would learn how to feed their own natural magic into the crystal, which would allow them to cast the spell it was created for.”

“WAIT!” I exclaimed. “You mean to say that a technology exists that will just let me INSTANTLY learn a spell!?”

“No, these are entirely mythical and do not exist,” Yoshi said contradictorily.

I raised an eyebrow. “But it’s right here! On the desk! In front of me!” I pointed out.

“No, it’s not. There is no such technology. It’s just a historical myth,” Yoshi pressed further. “You can encode a matrix into a crystal but implanting it into a pony is useless. That’s why technoarcane devices have to be built to make a machine that can use a magical principal.”

I turned to (hopefully) look at him with an annoyed glare. “Then why are you wasting my ti- OH! I get it now.” I said, cheeks flushing red as I realized he meant that the thing I was looking at was still a ninja secret.

“Good. Now, ordinarily, we wouldn’t even joke about giving such a hypothetical tool to a pony of your training level,” Yoshi said as he resumed his lecture. “However, there are certain circumstances which make your case different. Such as, the need for you to maintain your illusory cutiemark, and the soon to be much busier schedule of Master Tamiko, and the preference the other masters have to teach you how to do it yourself rather than do it for you.

“As such, here I am, with this crystal that doesn't exist, to teach you a skill that doesn't exist, which you will never tell others about, because again, it doesn't exist. Understood?”

I frowned suspiciously. “This is a loyalty test, isn’t it?” I asked.

He nodded. “It is. But it’s also a sign of our faith in you. Normally you’d be in your third year before gaining such mythical, and permanent, equipment.”

My eyes widened in joy. They thought I was doing a great job! Awesome! I’d keep it up.

Whatever it was they saw in me, I was clearly already doing it well. No need to change. Just probe a little and find out what it is.

“Thank you! Sooo this crystal will let me cast the fake-mark spell Tamiko knows?” I asked curiously.

“No,” Yoshi said rather harshly. “A pony has a limit to how many crystals their body will tolerate before… Before there are problems. Everyone can have three, most can handle five. If we gave you one with such a single use simplistic spell, it would be a waste.

“Once applied, a Matrix Crystal can not be extracted. So we had to choose a more versatile illusion spell. This crystal will grant you the ability to create magical disguises, similar to a changeling, though nowhere near as versatile, and it’s illusion, not transformation, so any ‘added’ parts are non-functional.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Umm… Could you explain that better?” I asked hopefully.

“This particular crystal has been made to allow you to cast Bodysuit Illusion spells,” Yoshi elaborated. “You will have the power to make yourself look like any pony you can imagine. But it’s only appearance. You could disguise yourself as a pegasus, and while you could touch your wings, flap them, spread them, and others can touch them too… Nothing inorganic can touch them.

“The illusion only affects living organisms with the capacity for sapient thought. Your wing would clip clean through a tree, a passing dog could jump and pass clear through it as well, but a friend could grab you by that wing and drag you some place.”

“That's… Really weird,” I said with pursed lips. “There's probably a reason it works like that… Is it complicated?”

“Extremely,” Yoshi answered. “This is a very hard spell to learn, even though it’s only Third Tier. The Crystal will skip learning the spell for you, but we will have to teach you how to use the crystal, and what you can do with your new ‘spell’. And you will be calling it a spell you learned. Understood?”

I nodded once. “I understand. Before we stick that in me… What exactly can I do with it? You said I could look like any pony, and have wings… Could I look like, say, a male alicorn?”

“Yes,” Yoshi answered. “Though no one would believe that disguise. You can also hide body parts with it, though those parts are just concealed, your horn could still be felt if you hid it.”

A few gears turned in my head as I realized what Yoshi had left unspecified.

“Waaaaaiiit a minute!” I exclaimed curiously. “So I could look like a male if I wanted to, and if the illusory parts work enough for me to flap wings or move them like a pegasus could… Then I could-”

Yoshi laughed. “Yes, you could have something like sex disguised as a stallion. From what I’m told, as Bodysuit Illusions provide you with a crude sense of touch it’s somewhat nice, though not a sexual feeling. Which will be useful to you in the future.

“As you’ve chosen the path of the Shinobi you’ll be learning seduction techniques for all sexes and orientations in a few years. That’s a traditional tool for information gathering. Stallions are at a disadvantage for using this particular spell in that fashion, naturally, but there are other ways for us to do the same job.”

I blinked twice. “I will?”

“Mmmhm. It’s a valuable tool for espionage, and there have always been potions that swap one’s sex for a while. Many a battle was lost because a shinobi found out what sort of mates a Shogun liked, transformed or disguised themselves, seduced them, and copied their tactical plans,” Yoshi elaborated. “It’s a basic tool which will be in your arsenal one day.”

“Huh… Yeah, I never thought about that,” I mused, tapping a hoof to my chin. “There totally is always a ‘seduce the enemy spy’ scene in every spy story, isn’t there?”

“Quite true,” Yoshi agreed as the needle vanished from my desk. “I take it you consent to the injection?”

I nodded once. “Yes! I never thought I’d get to play around with magic more complex than cloud w-”

”OW!” I yelped as the needle pierced the back of my neck.

I hissed in pain as I felt something small, about the size of a grain of rice, push against the top of my spine, only to start radiating a dull burning pain. A heartbeat later a second much less painful prick in the same spot barely registered in my mind, and the pain started to go away.

“There we are, a mild painkiller. We can’t have you in too much pain to focus as I teach you how to use your newfound power,” Yoshi said in a more instructorly voice. “You’re a unicorn. You already know how to actively direct power to your horn, yes?”

I nodded. “Obviously. I can use telekinesis.” I answered with a wince, rubbing the back of my neck gently.

“Good. This is similar. Imagine the crystal as a second horn. That will help you find it as I take you through a series of guided meditations. Now, close your eyes, and let’s begin,” Master Yoshi instructed calmly.

I closed my eyes. I was more than ready for this!

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

“Rojā,” the mysterious mare sighed. “I told you I don't have too much time for this today… Why did you show me her helping her somehow-not-yet-marefriend out with some medical problems?”

“Because you expressed interest in their relationship and I thought you would enjoy seeing the first step in breaching Kazumi’s emotional armor,” Rojā answered simply.

The mare paused, then sighed. “Touche.”

“Besides, it was right before she gained her first real ability as a Shinobi,” Rojā continued. “Now, for the last three years, Sherbert has been able to convincingly disguise herself as absolutely anypony, at least enough to pass a visual inspection. This should say something to you about her right now.”

The mare sat silently in thought before her lips parted in a thin smile. “She could easily leave custody if she wanted to. She’s letting the law do its thing,” the mare noted out loud.

“Exactly, Ma’am. She’s not a criminal,” Rojā said adamantly. “She has honor.”

“This does give me some reason to see things your way, Captain,” the mare agreed. “But, there’s still more I need to know. One point in your argument’s favor could be easily countered by two points in their favor.”

Rojā nodded once. “I am aware, Ma’am… Do you want me to skip over everything but Sherbert’s skills? This summer was nothing else major, just special hoof to hoof maneuvers, and a few free running tricks she hadn’t figured out on her own.”

The mare paused. “Ye- No. No… I do want to see how she and Kazumi finally got together. Assuming they did. If only because it’s bound to be hilarious and I could use a laugh today. Also if I do that you won't feel compelled to waste time showing me every last one of their dates.”

Rojā laughed, the mare’s joke hiding his amusement that his plan to ensure his employer liked his Disciple had worked. “Yes, Ma’am. Coming right up.”

8 - Treasure

Sherbert - 4th of Solar Dusk, 26 AE

Uneigh Ward, Neighdo - Neighpone

I’d been in Neighpone for a whole year as of today.

This time last year, I’d been so eager to be here that I never thought about how I might miss home. I realized I would start missing Equestria a few weeks into summer. Oddly enough, I wasn’t missing home as much as I thought I would, though I did a little bit.

But not enough to be sad. Not enough to regret coming here. Just enough to really miss walking into Sugarcube Corner and getting a Superduper Ultra Cherry-Choco Shake.

I heard that a zebra died from eating one of those once. Poor non-ponies. Unable to process a kilogram of sugar easily.

No, I didn’t miss home too much. Because I could see what I had gained. I understood the purpose simple training I’d been given this whole time. My body was rock solid! I never knew that a unicorn could have muscles this toned. You could see some of my muscles outlines even with my extra thick fur.

I still looked feminine, but I could probably win the ponyville bodybuilding competition for the unicorn bracket if I cared to enter. The stallion’s, not the mares. I guess we ancient unicorns are just built different.

But more than that, I had the proof I needed that I had been right to come here. I was stronger, yeah. I had some okay self defense skills. Nothing big. But my mind was way sharper than it was before. I’d only spent one year here and I already noticed I was more perceptive. I was also more willing to learn things I had once found useless.

Because it wasn’t about learning that thing. It was about learning everything around that thing, and finding out how you could use the information. Rojā’s history lessons had shown me that.

Of course, the most AWESOME thing, hooves down, was Master Yoshi’s gift! Right now I was walking down the street disguised as an unassuming looking peach and yellow pegasus stallion. I LOVED playing around with my new ‘spell’. Turns out I was more adept at this particular spell than most, the ‘vague sense of touch’ most ponies got? Not me.

I got full feeling in any illusory body parts I added, or extended away from my own natural body. I could make myself decimeter taller by standing atop the illusion’s projection like stilts, and still be able to feel with my hooves just as well as if they were my own.

I could also do a very obvious thing which Rin liked. Though occasionally eating meals with me as a stallion was messing with his head a bit… I never thought a Changeling would be weirded out by shapeshifting. Heh!

Irony.

Of course it was super practical too. Mai had it out for me and was out of the hospital now.

Apparently Kazumi’s ‘non-lethal’ shots did major internal damage to that psycho, and her family was… Weirdly anti-magic. She’d spent the whole time since the duel in a hospital getting mundane treatment. Then the whole summer recuperating from two organ transplants, then getting back into shape, and then practicing countermeasures for ranged attacks.

So, yeah. Yikes!

According to a tip I’d gotten from Master Mitsu, her grandfather was angry. And Mai was sort of using her position as a teacher’s assistant at Flying Horse to get people looking for me.

Double yikes!

I was tempted to ask my family for help, but as Master Rojā had put it…

”This is a good opportunity to hone your stealth skills. You now have a reason to be unseen outside of these walls. We will watch out for you, of course, but you should take a few days to gain real world practice at avoiding the enemy,” Rojā said with a sage nod. “Yes, that’s the best silver lining you can take form this. Don’t worry. Before things get violent, we will protect you. But for now, learn from this.”

Offense not meant to my Masters, but I was still going to call my family in on this one. If only because if I didn’t, and they found out later, I’d be in deep trouble.

For the moment, I was safe. I’d left the dojo disguised as a little filly following closely behind a family, then changed into an old mare behind some trash cans, and then I’d become this stallion while in a dense crowd. Nopony could know who I was under this disguise even if they had followed me the whole way through each change.

They wouldn’t dare jump one of the Masters, and they definitely wouldn’t know I had this ‘spell’ at my disposal. They would assume I was a fourth year student or a master. I was safe.

I could plan while walking across town to visit the primary reason I was happy to still be in Neighpone. Kazumi!

She invited me over to her house today. It’s where I was headed now. I’d never been inside her place before. But I’d been to it a few times while walking her home.

No, Sherb! Focus. You need to work out who to call for help with getting Mai to leave you alone. You can work out a way to check out Kaz’s cute little plot later.

Let’s see… Mom and dad are right out. They would freak out and probably demand I come home. No! Nothing doing. I’ve made real progress.

I could call Uncle Sky. Then again, he’d probably use a mech to do it. Or deploy a bunch of robots. Or something else really cool but also WAAAAY out of proportion so as to ensure victory. There’d be collateral. And this was a heritage site and cultural district. Sooo um, no. Even though it would be totally badflank to watch

Aunt Trixie? She was the one who sent me here. She was definitely a ninja on top of being a supersoldier. She could protect me easily… But would probably just straight up kill Mai in the inevitable fight. Mai may be a psychopath but she didn’t deserve that.

I cant use Aunt Twilight, or well, any of the Elements for that matter. Their last letter from two days ago said they were busy with a thing… Something about a fallen star in the north.

I guess that left Ayna? Yeah that’s it basically. What did she do besides design the magical components for Sky’s tech? Write books. And also Trixie. Heh!

No but seriously, she was a Library Wizard. She helped during the Tartarian Invasion. She had to have some moves. Besides, martial artist vs wizard doesn't end well without a LOT of prep time for the martial artist.

Yeah, I’d give her a call tomorrow. She was the best option.

Now then, that settles that! Onwards to Kaz’s place. It wasn’t much further I’d just passed the old shrine surrounded by laundromats. All I had to do was look for the hedge fence with the little iron gate and buzz the number.

I loved her little community. The way Uneigh did their residential zones was to give them foliage fences, and then make the homes in the trees like every other building, but in a more organic park-like pattern instead of the grid-like pattern the city itself was in.

As I reached the gate I always dropped Kazumi off at, I could see into the park-suburb a good ways. Her’s had a fairly nice grove of cherry trees right behind the gate, one dense enough to block the view inside even during winter. Right now, at the tail end of summer they had lost their flowers, but the leaves had turned a super dark green color which I could have sworn should only exist on plasma screens and magical projections.

The Academy was a beautiful place to live, I had no complaints, but I wouldn’t mind living here. Not if this was the privacy wall. After all, you make that the least nice part of your home. At least, you know, the outwards facing side.

Trotting up to the gate I inspected the lefthoof brick pillar for the blue glowing list of names and pressed the Kanji for Kazumi’s name. I always wondered why there were only seventy names on the list. A housing district this size should have fit maybe five hundred ponies. Still, nothing said every district has to be full. Could just be a lot of homes for sale here.

Yeah, that had to be it. Not everypony wants to live in the historical district. Heck, if I were moving here I’d live in one of the more modern sections instead.

I waited a few seconds for the glowing kanji to shift from blue to purple, signifying that the intercom was working.

“Hello?” Kaz’s voice asked curiously.

I quickly adjusted my disguise spell to stop distorting my voice. “Hey! I’m here. Can you buzz me in?”

“Nope! I’ll be walking down to let you in. Because, you’d get lost, Bakka,” Kazumi said happily

“What?” I asked. “Are there that many empty houses?”

“Um, no,” Kaz replied with a sigh. “I’ll be there in a minute, okay?”

“Okay,” I replied as her name faded back to blue.

Around a minute later I heard the quite little tak of her tiny hooves landing on cobblestone. Within a few seconds the tiny mare trotted out from the cherry trees and to the gate, immediately pushing it open.

“Thanks,” I said as I walked inside.

Kazumi shook her head incredulously. “You’re WAY too good with that disguise spell.”

“What do you mean?” I asked looking down at her with a frown.

“Well, for starters, I’m at dick height to most stallions,” she explained. “So I’ve seen a LOT of them. And even though I know that’s all illusion magic, it looks too real for me to care. Which is why I’m saying you're way too good. Normally when I know something’s an illusion I see through it.”

“Well maybe you want me to be a guy,” I teased as she walked up ahead of me to lead me down the path.

“Why would I care about that?” Kazumi asked, looking over her shoulder to give me a weird look.

“Some mares prefer stallions over mares outside of estrus season,” I said raising an eyebrow. “You’re a doctor. How do you not know stuff like that?”

“Um, I do,” Kaz countered. “I’m just wondering why I should care about your sex organs.”

“Well you’re the one who brought them up!” I said waving a hoof in irritation. “You don’t just go ‘you have a nice dick’ and then NOT follow up with ‘Can I ride it?’ or something!”

Kazumi facehooved and groaned. “Bakka, it’s illusion. I can’t touch it. Why would I-”

“It’s a tactile illusion,” I said, leaning to my left side to give her a light swat on her side with my left wing. “See? And I feel it too, so like, I basically AM a stallion right now.”

Kazumi blinked once, then blushed a bright red, and then winced and laughed. “Okay! Uh, I actually didn’t know illusion spells could be solid like that. That actually felt like feathers… Point made. I could ride that.

“I shouldn’t have talked about it in terms of a ‘wow you’re skilled at that art’ way, because it’s effectively real and you clearly have that same weird stallion pride thing going on. I’m sorry.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not that I have ‘stallion pride’. I just- Um, well… I like you,” I admitted shyly.

Kazumi stumbled, almost driving her face into a very low branch. “Yeah, you’re a great friend. I like you too,” she said very unconvincingly, her wings twitching nervously.

I summoned my courage and trotted around to her front, dropping my illusion spell and laying down at the same time so we’d be on eye level.

“No, Kaz. I mean I like you, as in ‘I want to be your special somepony’,” I clarified. “I think you are very pretty, and while you insult me all the time, I think you care for me a lot. You got me that potion, and you helped correct my dosage for the sleep therapy potions. You come over all the time, you got jelly when you thought Rin and I were a couple instead of just FWBs, and we chat so much in homeroom that none of us even know the other people in it as anything other than names and faces… I mean come on! You love me too, right?”

Kazumi’s face flashed between fear and delight. Rapidly. Like somepony was flipping a switch back and forth.

“I- I, um!” She stammered her four hooves shuffling against the ground nervously. “I- I- I can’t be your marefriend!”

I frowned in surprise, then sadness.

“But… Why?” I asked, blinking the first few tears out of my eyes.

“Because I’ll get hurt,” Kazumi whimpered sadly, her ears laying back in fear. “My first coltfriend had me for three days. One weekend. He only dated me on a dare. He showed up to take me to dinner with another mare, spat on me, and left.

“My second mate was a mare. She openly admitted to only dating me so she would look prettier by comparison and seem to be nicer to disabled people. She was shocked I didn’t assume that was why she asked me out from the get go.

“After that was another mare. She was a pedophile. This was pre-implants, so I still looked like a little filly. It’s why she wanted me… Someone who fit her definition of attractive who she couldn’t be arrested for bucking.

“If that had been it I wouldn’t have cared much. Everyone has a reason for liking a certain person initially. But I’m not into being tortured, and she was also a sadist. She didn’t care that I disliked it and ignored the safe word.

“I left her after she notched my ear to mark me as property. Th- then I woke up chained to some playground equipment in the park… Weeks later... And not like, just chained up. I’d been used. By at least a few ponies…

“I don't remember any of it. I don’t want to. Had memory erasure therapy. She’s in prison still. Not gonna get out.

“Then I dated a stallion again. I was really really nervous about it. Almost didn’t. But still felt the need for somepony in my life… Because-”

Nothing about the situation I had just been informed of was okay! Deep down in my heart, something primal snapped. My brain detected this, agreed with my heart’s reasoning, and also snaped.

I grabbed Kazumi and pulled her against my barrel in a tight hug. “She’s dead. Name her prison and cell,” I said as seriously as I could.

I needed her to know that I wasn't joking. That bitch was going to die. Painfully! I’d use a spoon, so it would hurt more.

“She’s in prison. A psychiatric prison. That’s enough,” Kaz whimpered, making me regret confronting her like this.

The poor thing…

“I don’t want to know what that stallion did to hurt you,” I said still holding her close. “I… I can’t imagine what that sort of love life has done to you but I can promise you that I’ll never do anything to hurt you.”

“He said that,” Kazumi mumbled. “The last one. The next day he stabbed me in the back.”

“He cheated on you?” I asked with an upset glare. “What a jerk!”

“No. He stabbed me. In the back. Move your left hoof down a bit,” she corrected with a sob.

I recoiled slightly in horror as my hoof traced across a long, rough, poorly healed scar. “Discord’s blood!” I yelped. “What the buck was wrong with that psycho!?”

“He was a junkie… Got high, thought I had cocaine in me, he wanted it. Tried to cut me open like a bag,” she sniffled. “S-so I can’t date you. B-because if I do. I’ll get hurt. And-”

“If you get hurt and we’re together, I will kill whatever hurt you. This includes myself. If I ever do anything like those last two monsters did to you, I will personally take your gun, put it to my head and pull the trigger because I am no longer someone who should be alive!” I swore, giving the poor girl a tight squeeze.

Kazumi nodded. “I- I believe you. You would do that, wouldn’t you?” She asked, her face buried into my chest.

“I would. And if I didn’t, my entire family would likely hunt me down if I didn’t turn myself in. You’re safe with me, Kazumi. Even from me,” I whispered to her.

Kazumi sniffed and sat still for a few moments. “I… I’ve known you for longer than I knew any of them. I know you wouldn’t hurt me. But there’s that little voice in the back of my mind, and it’s screaming at me. I… I need this. I need the hug, and someone to listen, but it’s screaming at me to run before you break my neck!”

“But you’re still here,” I pointed out with a hopefully flick of my tail.

She nodded once. “I am… I’m tired of being afraid. By some miracle, I- I don’t… I still need love in my life. I’ve wanted to sleep with you since I first saw you. You’re pretty, and you showed genuine concern for the health of a stranger.

“I’ve spent the whole year trying to make me hate you, but I just can’t do it! No matter how much I emphasise your negative traits, or insult you to make dislike a force of habit, I can’t do it!”

“So that’s why you only call me Bakka,” I sighed sadly, my ears falling.

“At first, yeah… But now I have gods damned dreams where I’m cuddled up with you doing that stupid cutsy couples talk and it's all insults, but I’m genuinely expressing love so hard that we’re totally surrounded by changelings. You changed the meaning of a word for me,” Kaz laughed almost manically.

I smirked, “I kinda already knew that. You call me an idiot the same way my mom called my dad a derp.”

Kazumi nodded. “Yeah… Heh… I um, yesterday my dad called me a bakka, and was weirded out when I smiled back happily and said ‘I love you too’.”

I blushed and held back a laugh. “Wait, you mean the ENTIRE word changed meaning for you?” I asked with a giggle.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up…” Kazumi muttered into my chest fluff.

“I notice you still haven’t let go,” I pointed out, gently stroking her mane with my left hoof.

“I’m seeing if holding you will drown the voice,” Kaz replied quietly.

“Is it?” I asked hopefully.

Kazumi shook her head no and sighed. I gently picked her up and looked her dead in the eyes. “I will never hurt her,” I said as firmly and lovingly as I could to her subconscious. “You have every right to be worried. But I will never hurt her. I will help you keep her safe, and hold down anything that does and punch it while you beat it to death. I promise.”

Kazumi blinked and gave me a concerned look. “Um, Bakka? I don’t have dissociative identity disorder,” she pointed out, her cheeks burning red with embarrassment.

“I know. I just wanted your brain to get the memo. Because I love you, and you love me, and it needs to calm it's teats and understand that an Equestrian, who grew up playing with Princess Twilight, surrounded by ponies who have saved the world multiple times each, and who comes from a family so full of Paragons she felt she was drowning under their expectations because it felt like there was no room for normal ponies in it, would never, under any circumstance, EVER hurt you,” I said as clearly as I could.

Kazumi giggled and shook her head in amusement. “How did you do that in one breath?”

“I’m related to Pinkie Pie,” I pointed out with a smile. “Long babbling rants are a bloodline superpower.”

Kazumi laughed, a genuine happy laugh, which cut out halfway through as a confused, but happy look filled her face. “Huh…” She mused.

“What?” I asked as I pulled her back down to cradle her against me again.

“Does the Pinkie Promise actually work?” Kaz asked seriously.

“Yes,” I answered instantly and honestly. “As long as you mean it, the promises does make it nigh impossible to break that promise, baring it being physically impossible. Like promising to bring the moon to earth, or making a square circle. Twilight studied it. It’s a thing. And if you somehow DO break it, Pinkie knows...”

Kazumi nodded and let go of me, wiping a foreleg across her tearstained, red eyes. “Wait, here, I’ll be right back,” she instructed, her wings snapping open as she took to the air, vanishing into the trees almost instantly.

I sat and waited, doing my best not to think about the hell that Kaz had been through with her previous ‘lovers’. What kind of bullshit luck did she have? This really explained everything about her. Her aggression. Her attitude towards me… She needed help healing the rest of the way. She’d get it. She’d get it, and more.

Kazumi dropped from the sky a moment later, landing in front of me. Her implants rippled slightly under the impact, sending a very small visible wave up through her ultra soft body. I had loved her before she got those improvements, and now.. Well, I still did, but she had a huge dose of sexy dropped atop that heap of love.

I blushed and pushed the image out of my mind. She needed love right now, not lust.

She trotted up to me and held out a small test tube filled with a silvery, prismatic liquid. I reached out with my telekinesis and took it. “What’s this?” I asked.

“Truth potion. A real one,” Kazumi answered. “It’s as effective as a police grade anti-deception spell. Once you drink that, for the next half hour, you won't be able to say anything that isn’t absolutely true, and can only answer questions directly. I want you to drink it, and then Pinkie Promise you won't ever hurt me.”

“Done,” I agreed in a heartbeat, popping the top off the tube and sending it down my throat like a shot. “How long till it kicks in?”

“Say the sky is red,” Kazumi instructed after a few seconds.

“Okay. The sky is blue,” I said then blinked in concern.

I had fully intended to say it was red.

“Wow, okay, fast acting.” I mumbled.

“The active ingredients are absorbed by the tongue and get right into the bloodstream,” Kazumi admitted. “I um… I don't like long activation times.”

I nodded twice. “Okay. Now,” I said before clearing my throat and getting ready to do the motions to accompany the promise. “I promise that I will never do anything to hurt you, and will always do my best to protect you, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Ow.”

Kazumi flinched. “Um, I don’t think you’re supposed to poke your own eye…”

“You are,” I said as I blinked the pain out of my left eye. “Did it work? Because if not-”

Kazumi gently put a hoof to my lips, then stood up on her rear legs to give me a loving kiss. She pulled a way, paused for a few moments then hugged me tightly.

“It did. For whatever reason, that did it. The voice stopped,” Kazumi said, squeezing me tightly.

“That’s because it’s a Pinkie Promise,” I said completely seriously. “She knows, you know… Frankly Pinkie’s a bit creepy.”

Kazumi raised an eyebrow skeptical. “There’s no way she really knows…”

“I can’t lie right now,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but if you believe something to be completely true that does foil all truth telling methods,” Kazumi said with a worried frown.

I rolled my eyes, flipped the cover off my watch with my magic, and hit the button sequence to call Pinkie. She picked up immediately.

“You made the promise, you can’t back out of it!” Pinkie said the instant the connection clicked open.

“AAA! She actually knows! How does she know!?” Kazumi yelped.

“I told you she did,” I laughed. “It’s basically a spell.”

“How can you know!?” Kazumi pleaded, staring fearfully at my watch.

“Because breaking a promise is the best way to lose a friend… Forever!” Pinkie answered with her usual non-answer. “Sorry for only doing it over the watch. Next time you’re in Ponyville bring it up again and I’ll do the usual twice to make up for this. Gotta go! Chip and I are in a bake off! Bye!”

The watch clicked as Pinkie hung up connection.

“See? It’s magic. That promise is super hard to break, and if I somehow do I’ll have a very scary angry Pinkie after me.”

“I believe you,” Kazumi agreed with a nod.

I cleared my throat and stood up, gently setting Kazumi on all fours with a quick telekinetic flip.

“Soooo, we’re together now, right?” I asked hopefully.

She nodded once. “Yeah… At least, for a bit. Few weeks. Trial run, see if I can handle it,” she said with a nervous grimace. “S-sooo uh, what do you want to do today? I um, I had a plan but we can do something else first.”

“I want to put you on my back and carry you around like a teddy bear,” I said honestly before blushing deeply. “AHH! BUCK YOU AND YOUR TRUTH POTION!”

Kaz laughed, shaking her head slowly. “I have an antidote in my house,” she giggled.

Kaz wiggled her hips shyly, then opened her wings, flapping them just enough to hop up onto my back. “There you go,” she said as her rear legs tightened around my waist.

YAY! It’s exactly as nice as I imagined like, almost literally a full year ago!

“Um, let’s go get you an antidote before you like, tell me your favorite sex position. You know, before you’re ready,” Kaz said apologetically.

“Pfff! I’d casually talk about that kind of thing with friends. Honestly the only stuff I’d be afraid to talk about are like, personal feelings about myself… DAMNIT!” I moaned, sliding a hoof down my face. “Lets get that antidote before I stop thinking drinking that was worth it.”

Kazumi nodded and pointed to a spot in the treeline. “Go that way… And why do I really feel like I should have a lance?”

My eyes widened in delight as I began to move through the trees. “Oh my Luna! We should TOTALLY go to Equestria next summer and enter a jousting tournament! You’re so small that they won't be able to easily get you off my back, and if we get a saddle that straps you in you won't fall off if I free run!” I said excitedly.

“Woah, woah, wait!” Kazumi asked in honest shock. “You guys use saddles for things other than bondage!?”

“Yeah! It’s sport equipment. Also old military equipment. The Guard used to have mounted archers back before vehicles were cheap. That way ranged fighters could be more maneuverable and still use a weapon that took two hooves,” I explained. “There’s also jousting, but that’s just a sport. Nopony would ever use that for real combat. We played it in gym a few times. Gotta say, I’d be up for it professionally if I didn’t have a full sized teammate. I could carry you all day, easily!”

Then we stepped through the treeline. Onto a perfectly manicured lawn. Surrounded by a dozen small houses. Byond which lay a massive swimming pool appropriate for a god damn palace. Said goddamn palace was built just past the pool atop a pony-made hill. And roofed with what looked like silver tiles.

“Uhhhh…” I said unintelligently.

HOW COULD A WEALTHY MARE NOT AFFORD GOOD IMPLANTS!? OR LUNCH THAT CONSISTED OF MORE THAN RICE!?

“I’m not loaded,” Kazumi said with a sigh. “I just live on the grounds. Third house from our left, in the servant's lot.”

“Oh! So your family works here?” I asked.

“No they own it,” she corrected.

“But you said you’re not wealthy!” I protested, ears flicking back. “Maybe YOU should have drunk the truth potion.”

“I’m not wealthy,” Kaz sighed, slipping into an impression of an older stallion’s voice. “Kazumi, you are not worthy of my fortune if you can’t make your own fortune. If you can make your own fortune, you do not need mine.”

I frowned slowly. “I… Oh… So, they don’t care for you at all?”

How much more sad could Kaz’s life get? None. None more sad! Cuz now I was a part of it. And BUCK her life being this depressingly sad!

“Nope,” Kaz sighed. “Not since I turned thirty. I told you I pay my parents rent. Why would you assume they gave me money?”

I shook my head slowly and trotted up to her smallish house. “So what did you want to do with me today?” I asked to change the topic to a happier one.

“Oh, um… I need to find an apartment. They’re kicking me out. Hired a new buttler, need the house for him,” Kazumi mutered bitterly.

What. The. Actual. Buck!?

I need mom to make these assholes a Parents of the Year award! Just so it’s extra sarcastic coming from her.

“Buck that, you’re living with me!” I insisted firmly.

“That’s not a good idea,” Kazumi said with a wince.

“Why not?” I asked with a skeptical snort. “We’re a couple now, you and I both know you’ll still like me after the next few weeks. We’ve had feelings for each other for an entire year! Come on, be honest with yourself, Kaz. Besides, non-members can live at the dojo. Rin lived there before he was a student at it.

“And I meant like, there’s probably a spare room you can have there. But if there isn’t you can use my bed, I don’t anymore, I haven't actually slept in a month and a half now.”

Kazumi hummed. “W-well, I’m being thrown out tomorrow. So I’ll take that offer. But only until I can find my own place. So I have time to find something that isn’t a rathole.”

“Good!” I said with a happy smile as I pushed her house's door open, ears instantly falling back as I noticed there was NO decoration at all. Everything was simplistic, function only, bare minimum, more spartain than a military barracks, flatpacked furniture and repurposed junk.

That table was totally an old water damaged wood shipping crate with a sheet over it….

Oh. My. Bucking. LUNA!

ENOUGH! WITH! THE! SAD!

“What the buck, Kazumi!?” I snapped angrily. “Why didn’t you tell me you were living like this? I would have bought you curtains and some paintings, and other things.”

“Cuz dad’s right. If I can’t make my own fortune, I’m not really much of a mare, now am I?” She sighed dejectedly.

I winced, understanding those feelings very well. But now I could also see why they were stupid!

“Well… Pack your stuff. If you don't have stuff, meh. Part of having a special somepony is getting gifts from them. We’re moving you over right now,” I said decisively as I lowered her off my back with my magic. “I just have to call my aunt Ayna really quick to take care of some business, then I’ll help!”

Bucking tartarus! Even if she DIDN’T love me I’d still have to help her out of this crap hole...

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

“Ancestors…” The mysterious mare sighed, staring out into the abyss. “Poor mare was Life’s toilet.”

Rojā nodded. “I thought the same thing when I saw this footage the first time. It’s little wonder she’s so aggressive. That dangerous front she puts up may be all that’s keeping her from a horrible death,” he sighed. “Still! She’s very happy with Sherbert. You may have noticed she’s filed notice for a possible travel visa. A long term one.”

“She’s thinking about going back with Sherbert once this is all over,” the mare said slowly, nodding once. “If that’s not love, what is?”

“Knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticle, and together, achieving a singular purpose against statistically long odds,” Rojā said with a jovial wink.

“How did a psycho like you get married?” The mare asked incredulously.

“He likes my dark humor,” Rojā replied with a playful grin. “And ninja jokes.”

“Whatever…” The mare muttered. “Ah, yes. You did remind me. That mare who had Kaz gang raped. Do we know her name?”

Rojā nodded. “Yes, Ma’am. Kirai Yakunan.”

“Is the crime on record? Did this really happen?” The mare asked again with a grim scowl.

Rojā nodded. “Yes. It did. I don’t want to discuss the details. They are… Well, the most apt description is that chapter of her life was taken right out of a goro hentai.”

“How much of that is exaggeration?” The mare asked, sounding a bit ill.

“Absolutely none. Look at Kazumi’s medical record some time. It’s a horror show,” Rojā sighed, knowing his superior was about to become just a little bit, absolutely livid. “For example, when she said chained she really meant dismembered and chained to things via threaded eye bolts attached to her exposed bo-”

“Stop!” The mare demanded with a guttural growl that would have sent lions running in terror. “And they put this monster into an asylum!? What judge decided that execution wasn’t warranted?”

Rojā frowned. “I’m sorry, Ma’am. I can’t recall at the moment.”

“Find out and have him removed from his position. He’s forfeit it,” the mare ordered. “Kill him, disbar him, dump him a thousand kilometers out to sea in a barrel. I don’t care! Vanish him or disbar him. Pick one. Where is the monster being held?”

“I don’t think that’s wise, Ma’am. You’re speaking from a place of extreme anger. I will speak to you about this matter after you have calmed down. A talk with the judge is all this will take,” Rojā advised.

The mare closed her eyes for a long moment, let out a deep breath, and then nodded. “Yes, of course. You’re right. I just can’t believe that happened… It’s honestly the worst crime I’ve heard of in the last five years.”

Rojā nodded. “I agree with you there, Ma’am. As for Kirai, she’s being held within the Trotkyo Public Asylum.”

Rojā hadn’t just ignored the monster imprisoned there. He had kept tabs, not just on her but on Kazumi’s subsequent ex as well. After all, everyone who slept under his roof was under his protection. Though without authorization from a superior, there was little Rojā could do to preempt future emergencies.

Despite that hinderance, it would have been very unwise for a certain escapee to seek out her old victim, if she ever had escaped.

The mare nodded and leaned away from her chair to her left, her head and shoulder vanishing as it went over the edge of the seat. “Yukiko? There’s a mare held in the Trotkyo Public Asylum by the name of Kirai Yakunan. She’s there for a brutal rape of a disabled mare. … No. Her victim is a rather small mare, small enough to require foal sized restraints, as bondage was used.

“I want you to make Kirai vanish. Take her to Site Thirty Nine and make her talk. No torture, just rip the information directly from her mind. Use any spell necessary to prevent her from being able to deceive you in any way shape or form. Find out who supplied her with the equipment. Find out who else hurt that mare with her that night.

“Make them vanish, and find out who they knew. Continue with this until you know everyone involved in the manufacture, distribution, and usage of foal sized bondage gear. Gather the entire web of monsters, and slay them. No mercy is to be shown to them. If you or anyone on your team feels the need to inflict justice upon them before execution, I will look the other way. They deserve to reap what they sow. Understood?

“Good! … Tonight, if possible. ... No, I’m still busy. I wanted to issue the hit so it’s done before some idiot says she’s cured and lets her walk free. Dismissed.”

The mare leaned back into the projection’s area, her head and shoulders reappearing. “‘It’s little wonder she’s so aggressive,’ you say! What the actual BUCK Rojā? More like it’s a miracle the girl can even function in society and isn’t a traumatized piece of jelly unable to leave a single secure room!”

“Oh! Well, not really. I’ve read her medical history, Ma’am. She’s had extensive psychological and arcane therapy to help her get over it. This is her post hypnotherapy and memory erasure, which she consented to. Her parents were able to afford an excellent mage. She’s basically completely cured, aside from that phobia for relationships and the need to be dominant and aggressive…

“And also that medically issued concealed carry permit she’s been issued certainly helps her,” Rojā explained with a sympathetic shrug. “What I am saying is, she’s been repaired as best as science and magic allow.”

“We need to finish this hearing, Rojā,” the mare said, disgust and rage still clinging to every syllable. “Continue. Though I am starting to get the picture you wanted me to see. ‘I’d use a spoon, so it would hurt more.’ Her self preservation instincts extend to her family. It may not have been official, but she thought of Kazumi as her mate then.

“It’s fairly clear that her breed of unicorns are naturally, extremely protective of themselves and others, far more so than modern ponies. To the point of feeling a need to kill any true threat to themselves or their herd. Is that what you wanted me to see?”

Rojā nodded. “Yes, Ma’am. It was. Do you need to know more about her, or-”

“No. Show me the incident in question, and the events directly leading up to it to it. It’s time I decided. The way she saw everything is what matters most now,” the mare said adamantly.

Engineering deck - USS Phoenix

4th of Solar Dusk, 26 AE

Ayna Trigger stepped through the sliding blast doors into the buzzing and bustling engineering deck, a silver sphere the size of a foal held in the changeling’s arcane grip. The second she crossed the threshold, the buzzing stopped. Everyone in the room froze.

Naturally, an entire deck of engineers suddenly going quiet is cause for genuine alarm. Looking up from his workbench to try and see who had just bucked up, Sky Trigger’s eyes found his adoptive sister, and then widened in pure terror as he noticed what she was carrying.

Ayna’s compound eyes scanned the room, found her brother, and then with a quick buzz of her wings the changeling wizard flew across the room, hovering over his workbench.

“Hey, Sky? Can you help me modify a torpedo to take this warhead and also get a torpedo tube ready?” She asked casually. “I just need to link a satellite to relay targeting information based on a biosig-”

“YOU ARE NOT FIRING A GOD DAMNED BLUE RINSE! PUT THAT DOWN, CAREFULLY!” Sky shouted.

“It’s fine, the detonator isn’t even attached yet,” Ayna said, frowning in confusion.

“I don’t care! You never finished testing those! And it’s a magical WMD! I have no idea what could set that thing off! And if that goes off by freak accident, everything organic in god knows how many kilometers just falls over dead! Put it back in stasis, NOW!” Sky insisted.

“It’s set to only have a meter radius and to only detonate if no biosignature other than the target is within the blast range,” Ayna muttered. “It’s also still stasised, I’m maintaining the Time Stop spell on it myself. I’m not an idiot you know!”

“You could have fooled me!” Sky hissed, his ears still lying straight back. “What the hell do you even need to shoot that at!?”

Ayna’s teeth clenched in anger. “Well, you see, that bucking psychopath who was going to punch Sherbert’s teeth out is better now and has apparently decided to kill her in revenge. So I located her via a divination spell, used a scrying mirror to get visual confirmation I had the right pony by showing Sherbert the mirror through my watch, and now I’m going to ensure she’s dead with no possibility of reviv-”

“YOU ARE NOT FIRING A WMD INTO A FRIENDLY CITY!” Sky roared angrily before taking a deep breath. “Wait, Sherb’s in actual lethal danger?”

“Yes. She’s currently under a truth potion, presumably for sexy games with her marefriend. She at the very least fully believes she’s being hunted down to be killed. I will not allow that,” Ayna said with a dangerous glare.

“I’m kinda hurt she didn’t ask me to help…” Sky muttered. “But you are NOT firing an ICBM to stop ONE psychopathic ninja!”

“It’s not a WMD!” Ayna groaned. “I reconfigured it into a mini-bomb.”

“It’s a warhead that is designed to just turn life off like an EMP fucking up electronics!” Sky snapped. “You’re NOT firing that!”

Ayna sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine… I’ll just go wait for nightfall and then launch a R.E.G.I.S. Five into the assassin's bedroom,” she muttered decisively.

“NO NANODRONES!” Sky groaned, rubbing his face with a hoof in distress. “This is why Captain Skritt rarely asks you to do things, Ay! You always go so far over the appropriate level of force...”

“Yes. To ensure victory. If you can make absolutely sure you win, you should! But if you want me to take care of this in a more safe way, I’ll go over there myself,” Ayna sighed, landing on the deck. “I’ll put the PERFECTLY SAFE MINI BOMB WARHEAD away.”

“Good! It would have been less disastrous if I went over there in Big Sai and leveled the whole district! If she specifically wants your help, fine. But do things in person, and small scale so no one else can possibly get hurt!” Sky insisted.

“I was!” Ayna grumbled angrily as she walked out the door. “I just wanted a plan that didn’t involve teleporting halfway across the world so I’m not exhausted tonight. Sheesh!”

Sky nodded once, mentally exhausted. Only for his ears to perk in alarm. “WAIT! What’s your new plan!?” he demanded urgently.

“I’ll go over there, borrow one of her jumpsuits, shapechange my exoskeleton into battle armor, holo disguise as Sherbert, and let the Psycho find me, then take care of it. This is going to take all day. I was going to make Trixie strawberry and white chocolate cookies… Supposed to be our date night, but noooo! Some asshole young mare has to try to kill my niece and my brother wont let me take her out the quick and PERFECTLY SAFE way,” the changeling muttered grumpily as the laboratory's doors hissed shut behind her.

“I think you need to tell Sherbert why Ayna mostly just writes books and manages the Hive’s Arcane division, sir,” a rookie technician said wiping sweat off his forehead.

“Yeah… I’m going to do that,” Sky moaned, rubbing his temples. “After some aspirin.”

9 - I am Become Error! (Showdown Part 1)

Sherbert - 4th of Solar Dusk, 26 AE

Uneigh Ward, Neighdo - Neighpone

Kazumi often bought potions and equipment over to the Academy to show me new things she’d developed for work, or for fun. Like when she developed a potion that made everything taste like cream soda. I had therefore seen her with a lot of different pieces of equipment, ingredients, and so on. But it never sunk in just how much stuff an alchemist needed to have laying around until I started to help her pack her things.

Half an hour into packing up her belongings, Kaz had flown out to rent a cart. We were five pony sized boxes in at that point. Now we were at twelve total boxes, with about seven ponies worth of volume. And I was pretty damn sure that we would need to make two trips or rent a second cart.

“The bungee cables aren't going to hold, Kaz,” I warned as the tiny mare flew over the cart to add another cable to the growing bungee net.

“It will be fine. There’s nothing volatile on bits that could fall off. Just my blankets and stuff,” she replied, hooking the cord on the cart’s top rail.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Fine… But since I’m pulling this, you’re picking up things that fall.”

“Fair enough,” Kaz laughed. “But it’s not going to fall. I’ve pulled carts this loaded up before.”

I was about to reply with a snarky ‘wanna put money on that?’ but the urgent triple beep of an incoming call diverted my attention to my watch.

Flipping the cover off I looked at the projected interface. Uncle Sky was calling me for a change. Cool!

“Hold on, my Uncle’s calling,” I said as I tapped the screen to accept the call and smiled. “Hey, Unc-”

“YOU FOOL! YOU’VE DOOMED US ALL!” Sky shouted in equal measures of panic and horror.

My eyes widened as I was struck with a sort of confused terror. “I- bu- What!? What did I do?!” I asked, ears falling flat.

Kazumi frowned, flapping her wings to get closer to me. “Um, Trigger-sama?” She asked hesitantly. “Did you call the right po-”

“You asked my sister to deal with a threat,” Sky hissed. “That’s what you did!”

I raised an eyebrow, my worry starting to evaporate. “What’s the big deal?” I asked. “I thought things through and she was the best option to get things done with the least collateral-”

“HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW HER NICKNAME!?” Sky exploded. “You’re twenty six! You spend half your summers here!”

“What is her nickname?” I asked, the eardroop returning again.

“Kyr'amur'kotir,” Sky replied letting out a nervous breath. “Ayna ‘Kyr'amur'kotir’ Trigger.”

I frowned as I tried to dissect the changelish. I wasn’t quite fluent in that language, but I recognized that as a compound word, so maybe I knew it’s components and could-

“And for those of us who don’t speak Changelish?” Kazumi asked with a worried expression on her face.

“OVERKILL!” Sky snapped.

“Ohhhh….” I hissed, wincing at the realization that changeling names were earned by their most notable deeds…

“Yeah, so… WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU ASK HER TO HELP YOU WITH A BULLY PROBLEM!?” Sky demanded not angrily, but worriedly.

“It’s not a bully problem, she wants me DEAD. Literally!” I snapped angrily. “Stop screaming and just tell me what you want me to do.”

“I just stopped Ay from launching an ICBM tipped with a fucking anti-life warhead right into Neighpone!” Sky shouted. “I have every fucking right to be scared!”

“A what?” Kazumi and I squeaked breathlessly.

“You heard me!” Sky exclaimed.

“W-why would you even make that?” Kazumi wondered, shrinking in on herself.

“I didn’t. She did. Because the idea was to open a hole into Tartarus and obliterate the entire realm because it’s evil,” Sky explained slowly. “Ayna isn’t normal. She happens to be a person who is a bit off her rocker, to put it politely. She honestly can’t understand morality in terms of shades of gray.

“It took our parents sixteen years to show her that sometimes good people do evil things, but that doesn't make them evil. Her sense of morality CAN’T get more complicated than that. Trust me, we’ve been trying for over sixty years. Nothing. No progress. Ay can only operate under the sort of simplified morality you find in Oubliettes and Ogres’ Alignment System.

“She defines herself as good, and therefore sees it as her moral imperative to permanently eliminate evil. Because that’s what good does. Which is why the Captain and I made sure that Ay DOESN'T DO ANYTHING! She’s an excellent Wizard because she overfocused and is autisticly interested in several schools of magic. Ay’s also great at managing other mages, and is pretty good at working out magitek, though she’s not that interested in it.

“She’s a valuable resource. But if you let her off the chain, she- Ugh! Okay, look. I asked her to develop a saddle bag enchantment to make it pickpocket proof. She created a spell which caused anyone who hadn’t received verbal and sincere permission from the bag’s designated owner to open the bag to be atomized if they opened it!”

I flinched. “Ahhh! And she can’t understand why that’s wrong?”

“No! She genuinely couldn’t understand what the problem was. Because stealing is wrong, it’s what bad people do. And bad people are evil, and evil MUST DIE,” Sky explained. “I can’t talk her out of not going to help you. It just WON’T happen. Ay’s been made aware of an evil, and so she has to go destroy it. Because if she doesn't, she’ll see herself as evil for knowing about an evil and letting it continue to exist.”

“Oh…. Buck…” I groaned finally understanding what I just did. “I killed her. I killed her so hard… I didn’t want to kill her! That was the entire reason I called her!

“AJ and Dash are busy, and I thought Trixie would just straight up murder her, and I thought you would show up in a mech and take out half the street to stop her, and-”

“HEY!” Sky exclaimed, sounding genuinely hurt. “I can be discrete! I’d have gone in some light power armor and tossed her around. And honestly, Trixie is the best choice here. She dislikes killing because it bores her! She would have just roughed whoever this is up a little.

“Look, it's not too late. There's nothing I can do, but Ay is en route to you to borrow a jumpsuit of yours for part of her plan. Explain to her that you want to kill Mai yourself as a test of your own power, that she’s your measuring stick, and you just need to be kept safe from her for now until you become strong enough.

“That will get Ay to not kill her. It’s all I can think of that has a chance to work, and you are the only pony who will be able to convince her of that. Understand?”

I nodded rapidly, relief flooding my entire body. Thank the fates there was something I could do to stop this!

“Yes! I understand. Where did she say she was going to meet me at? I’m not at the Academy right now,” I asked as I stretched my legs in preparation to run.

“She’s a Diviner and specializes in portals. Ay will go to you, wherever you are,” Sky said in a way that was rather unintentional ominous.

“Wait, in that case, why didn’t she just find Mai, teleport to her, and then send her into the sun?” Kazumi asked skeptically. “She called Sherbert a while ago to confirm that she’d found Mai via her divination.”

“Because she doesn't teleport, she portals. It takes a lot of energy to portal long distances, and Ay is currently pissed off that she’s going to be exhausted for her date night tonight because I refused to let her take out one person with a tactical strike via ICBM so she wouldn’t have to leave home. Mai is currently alive exclusively because my sister wanted to not be too sleepy to get laid. She lucked the fuck out!” Sky elaborated.

“C-could she actually just drop her into the sun?” I asked worriedly.

“Maybe if she were given a few dozen ultracapacitors of extra energy to draw on,” Sky sighed. “That’s not remotely what she’d do though. Ay’s about efficiency.

“I need to go. I can’t be talking to you when she shows up and the status board shows the warhead she took is just starting to be put back into temporal stasis. You’ve got like, five minutes. Just remember to tell her that you want her alive so you can use her as a ‘boss battle’ later. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said, closing my eyes to try and take everything in and get focused. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“You do now. So NEVER ask Ay to do anything like this again. There’s no telling if whatever she did to that warhead to limit the blast radius to one meter would have actually worked…” Sky muttered as my watch clicked off.

Kazumi closed her eyes for a second then sighed. “Okay, we need to deal with this. She’s coming to you, and soon. The Academy isn’t too far away, but you won't make it there on hoof-”

I raised an eyebrow. “I could easily make it there on hoof.”

“Not while pulling the cart,” Kaz pointed out.

“D-do you really want to keep moving your stuff before we resolve this?” I asked incredulously.

“Yes, because if it’s not gone by tonight it gets thrown out,” Kazumi mumbled as she looked down dejectedly. “And I don't know what kind of consequences will eat up time after your psycho aunt shows up.”

I bit my lip, trying to think of any comeback, but I couldn’t.

“Good point. So, what's your plan? Have her walk back with us to get one?” I asked worriedly.

She shook her head twice. “No. You pull the cart to the Academy, I fly over, grab one of your spare suits, and fly back to you. If you take Peach Street, I’ll find you easily.”

I knew Peach Street. It wasn’t the shortest route home but it was an easy place to get to.

“Okay, good plan. Hopefully, I make it there before she arrives. It would be best to explain things in private…” I sighed, knowing full well that I wouldn’t get to make it a private conversation.

Kazumi nodded and gave her wings a quick stretch. “I'm sorry. I’ll be as quick as I can, okay?”

I nodded and picked up the cart’s harness with my magic, slipping into it so I could pull everything. As the harness settled on my shoulders I winced. Even just the weight of the cart resting on me was heavy. Good thing I’d spent the past year basically just working out.

“No problem, I’ll do my best to move quickly,” I promised as I took a few experimental steps.

The cart was heavy, and the harness dug into my shoulders a bit painfully, but I could move this. It was gonna suck, but sometimes you just need to do crappy things for the sake of people you love.

“The gate can be opened by anyone from the inside, just give it a push,” Kazumi said as she hopped into the air, wings flapping hard as she took off.

I sighed and began following the trail back to the gate. Hopefully, the cart would fit through the cherry trees without too much trouble.

I made it to the treeline and was able to pull things through, only having to unhitch myself twice to push a few branches out of the way twice before I was able to get the creaky cart to the gate. The rather narrow gate…

“Dammit,” I grumbled as I unhitched myself AGAIN so I could make sure the cart would fit through the gateway.

After giving everything a visual inspection, I realized that if it was going to fit, it would be a super tight squeeze. Some of the boxes held on by the bungees were going to be a problem if that happened, so best push the cart through from the back to catch anything before it shattered.

I mean, I know Kaz said everything dangerous was at the bottom of the cart and wouldn’t fall but people make mistakes, and perfectly safe things like glass alchemical equipment are expensive.

I trotted over t the gate and pushed it open, turning back to return to the cart, making it two steps before someone laughed.

“Wow, you didn’t bother to disguise yourself leaving here, even though you did to come here,” a mare’s voice mocked. “You really ARE stupid.”

Oh, SHIT! I’d completely forgotten I was trying to AVOID Mai because I was worried about getting her killed.

I spun around quickly, eyes locking on to Mai’s annoyingly yellow face. She stood at the center of a semicircle of five ponies, each dressed in Flying Horse uniforms. Shit… She brought back up.

Oh, double shit! I wasn’t a first year anymore. I was free game for the street fights. Which were back on… Because Rojā could only buy one year of time with whatever threat he issued…

BUCK!

“M-Mai, listen-” I stammered nervously.

Mai rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to listen to you. Well, except for your screams as I crush your throat!” She laughed, cracking her neck.

The green and gray earth pony stallion next to her raised an eyebrow. “Um… And you’ll do that while crushing her throat, how, exactly?” He asked sarcastically.

“Shut up!” Mai strapped, glaring at him.

“Mai, you don’t get it,” I warned, doing my best to look serious and urgent. “I told my family you wanted me dead. My aunt is a psychopath and she’s on her way here right now to kill you!”

Mai rolled her eyes. “Please, like I’d believe that.”

“Wait…” One of her possy, a salt and pepper colored speckled unicorn mare, said with a steep frown. “Mai, uh, you handed out information on her. That means either Trixie Lulamoon, Lady Pie, or Ayna Trigger is after you.”

Mai sighed. “She’s just saying things to avoid a beat down. Everyone lies when they are afraid.”

“I’m not lying,” I insisted. “She’s going to be teleporting to me any second now. If you’re here she might atomize the entire street just to get rid of you. I was going to talk her out of it but I can’t do that if you’re right here! You can attack me anytime. Just don’t do it now!”

The salt-and-pepper mare’s ears lay flat in terror. “Ohhhhh, shit! Mai, I did a book report on Ayna’s Manual of Effective Combat Maneuvers. Sherbert is UNDERSTATING that. You’re BUCKED, run now, I’m gonna! Also, I thought we were just having a normal fight and you actually want to kill her. I thought that was just jock talk. BYE!"”

Without another word the mare spun on her rear hooves and bolted down the street, vanishing into an ally at top speed.

“The rest of you agree that this bitch is spewing bullshit, right?” Mai asked her gang.

“It’s what I would do,” the stallion agreed with a nod.

The remaining two looked at each other then nodded, and took a step towards me.

“You want us to soften her up for you, Mai?” One of them asked while giving me a sadistic grin. “Or should we hang back to break that midget's neck when she shows up?”

“You two hang back,” Mai ordered as she began to walk towards me. “Zao, make sure she doesn't run away.”

I grimace as the green earth pony nodded and shifted his hooves into a combat stance. I may have been tougher than the average unicorn, but that guy looked like Big Mac, only compressed into about sixty percent the size, and after a few years of doing nothing but punching things.

He’d definitely punch my skull clean in if he hit me. I had to get away… But if I just ran they would probably trash Kaz’s stuff. So I needed to get them to chase me. But how?

“Why are you even mad at me?” I asked Mai, hoping to buy enough time to come up with an escape plan. “Kazumi’s the one who shot you.”

“Oh she dies too,” Mai smirked. “But it’s your fault she shot me. After all, if she didn’t like you, she wouldn’t have protected you. So you’re ultimately to blame for everything I just went through.

“Now, why don’t you hold still so this goes over quickly? You won't beat a fifth-year student. Not possible.”

Crap. That wasn’t buying me anything… And I didn’t have an idea of how to get them to chase-

Ah ha! I break her leg, she gets mad, orders them after me, and then I run. I just need the one good hit.

“Maybe,” I agreed as I reared up onto my hind legs, shifting into a biped combat stance. “But that just makes kicking your ass a part of the family business.”

Mai rolled her eyes. “Please, spare me your bravado.”

“My aunt Pinkie does at least four impossible things before breakfast,” I mocked right back. “You should have read that stuff you passed out about me.”

Mai rolled her eyes one more time and then lunged forward, delivering a lightning fast punch squarely into my chin.

I fell down like a sack of bricks, stars exploding in my eyes.

“That’s why you don’t start a fight standing up!” Mai laughed as she kicked me in the ribs.

I clenched my teeth to avoid crying out in pain.

Okay. She’s super quick. You’ll need to do something fa-

I felt her kneel down on top of me. “Wow, I brought friends for this… You seriously went down with one punch. Heh, second years, am I right?” Mai laughed to her friends.

Wait, she thought I was unconscious? Well well...

“I thought we were here because her friend packs heat,” the stallion reminded.

“Yeah well, guess she isn’t here,” Mai said casually. “Humm… Do I break her legs one by one first, or just smash skull into the road until it pops?”

Oh-buck-do-something-now! Um, that telekinetic punch thing I did in my first sparring match! That! Do that! How did I do it?

“Pop it and let’s get out of here,” Zao grunted, clearly bored.

“Alright,” Mai said as her hooves gripped the back of my head firmly.

Oh-shit-too-late-I-was-going-to-die!

I couldn’t die! I just made a marefriend! And she liked pony back rides! And-

And that’s how I did that.

I grit my teeth, focusing my magic, pushing it down away from my horn. Mai lifted my head up, getting ready to slam it down. I felt the arcane charge reach my left knee. Mai began to push down. I slammed my foreleg back in a reverse elbow strike.

The telekinetic charge detonated with a flash of blue. Mai flew off me, my head twisting painfully as her grip drug me back slightly. I heard a crunch as she smashed into the wall around Kazumi's family estate.

I gathered my legs under me and rolled, springing back up onto all fours and turning around in time to see Mai push herself up too, blood dripping from her forehead.

“I’m telling you, get out of here before my aunt shows up!” I growled. “You may be a psychopath, but I don't want you dead.”

Mai wiped the blood off her forehead with a hoof and glared at it. “I don’t know how you did that, but you’re going to regret it!” She vowed before charging me with an angry roar.

I saw her butterfly kick coming. Didn’t matter. She was just too damn fast. Her kick caught me on the left side, sending me staggering back a few steps.

Crap! I couldn’t dodge anything she threw at me. Even if I saw her start the move. I could only attack. Defense was impossible.

Embracing my new found skill, I reached for my magic again, charging up another punch. My forehooves blue glow returned to them just in time for me to get hit in the side of her head by Mai’s follow up punch.

My left eye went black as the pain burned all throughout my left side. I hit the ground ears ringing. Unsure of what she’d even hit me with. Moaning.

I saw Mai move out of the corner of my good eye. In a desperate attempt to shield myself I slapped out with my hoof, hoping to intercept her attack.

I felt my hoof brush against something. The charge stored in it detonated. Mai screeched in pain.

“AHHH! You little SHIT! You almost broke my leg. Where did you even bucking learn to do that?” She growled.

“Need me to hold her down, Mai?” The stallion asked.

I rolled slightly, managing to push myself up with one leg. My head was still spinning…

“No! I just gotta kick that bucking horn off before she does that again,” Mai said, looking at me with a cruel sneer.

SHIT! I had to dodge this. Horns contain part of the brain, that’s why getting it hit hurts like Tartarus. That’s why you DON'T want them broken open!

“Thanks for holding your head up. Go ahead and tip it back a bit, will you?” She asked me as she turned, her hips twisting as she readied a roundhouse kick.

Gods dammit, body! Stop freaking out! DOEGE! JUST DODGE!

I managed to droop slightly to the left.

Mai stepped forwards, her rear right leg snapping forward in the kick.

WHY WON'T YOU DODGE!?

Mai’s hoof stopped mid air in a shower of deep emerald green sparks, a loud crack like a bat hitting a hoofball echoed off the street.

What?

“What?” Mai said with a puzzled look. “But your horn isn’t glow-”

Her confused question was cut off as the sparks around her leg grew into a burning aura, and her leg crumpled up like a sheet of parchment, creating a sound akin to the world's loudest, wettest bubble wrap.

Mai couldn’t scream. Her jaw opened, her eyes shut, but no sound came out. She’d reached the point past pain.

I recoiled in horror as best my stunned body would allow, shuffling back a few centimeters. As I slid back she came into view.

I didn’t recognize her by sight. I only understood that she was my aunt via context.

Ayna stood a short distance away, clad horn to hoof in a thin form fitting set of dull silvery-gray armor covered in green glowing arcane etchings. A long black cloak covered most of her body, the hood drawn up over her head, her horn spiked through the cloth. The hood hid her face almost completely in shadows, so only the burning green light of her eyes could be seen through the definitely magical darkness.

Beyond her I could see the pale shimmering green curve of a shield which looked like it covered the space for about ten meters around me in every direction. And prevented Mai’s friends from leaving…

One of the runes etched into Ayna’s breastplate brightened, filling the air with the sound of a single tolling bell, followed immediately choir singing in Old Equish accompanied by an orchestra’s haunting and angry melody.

A second rune on her armor brightened. The light beneath the dome dimmed noticeably as if darkness were slowly leaking out from under her cloak, bringing with it an icy cold normally found only in the depths of winter. The cold and darkness brought with it an unseen wind that made her cloak billow ominously, as if it were a creature waiting to strike anything that got near its master.

A third rune blazed to life. Small bouts of emerald green flame flickered to life, forming an elaborate arcane circle around Ayna’s hooves which rolled and shifted, sliding unnaturally between several different patterns which resembled both ward and hex magic notations.

PANTS TO BE DARKENED!

Ayna let go of Mai’s leg, and picked her up by the barrel, levitating her off the ground, allowing her to thrash as she turned her hooded head to look Mai’s eyes.

“You will beg for mercy in vain,” Ayna said calmly. “The debris of your home will litter the city. I shall sup on your very atoms.”

OH SWEET BUCKING LUNA! WHY DIDN’T SKY SAY SHE WAS LITERALLY ONE BUCKING MILLIMETER AWAY FROM BEING KING SOMBRA!

I tried to speak, but my throat was full of something. I coughed, squirming on the ground. Mai squirmed in the air, somehow still conscious. Several loud cracks made my ears flick with sympathy pain as Ayna’s grip began to simply crush her.

Her friends screamed and ran to the edge of the shield, immediately trying to claw their way through it. Mai thrashed more, trying to break free of the arcane grip.

“Foolish daemon,” Ayna laughed. “Your attempts at resistance are futile. You will be returned to the cosmic dust from whence you came.”

I spat whatever had been in my throat out. I didn’t bother looking to see what it was. I had no time!

“Wait!” I gurgled, looking desperately into Ayna’s eyes.

To my complete and total shock, Ayna turned to look at me, dispelled the shadows around her face, and smiled happily like a normal gods damned person.

“Yes?” She asked with a happy inflection to her voice. Like she was talking to me in any other circumstance.

Though she didn’t stop slowly crushing her captive.

“Please don’t kill her,” I begged.

Ayna frowned, giving me a genuinely confused look. “Given how it was about to execute you via decornutation, I can’t comprehend you requesting I show mercy to this evil.”

What had Sky said to say? Come on, remember it. Remember it fas- Right!

“I need her… Measuring stick,” I groaned.

Ayna’s frown deepened. “It put out one of your eyes. Are you thinking straight, or are you just saying whatever words your concussed mind is conjuring up?” She asked in concern.

“I’m missing an eye?” I asked in horror.

That explained why half my vision was still black... And why my cheek felt wet and sticky.

“Yes,” came the matter of fact reply. “It’s okay. We’ll fix it. Allow me a moment to exterminate this mortal demon, and I’ll take you home for healing.”

She didn’t even see Mai as a person… Keeping her busy with non-combat stuff is now COMPLETELY understood, Uncle Sky. I am so sorry.

“Don’t! I need her,” I begged again, my head clearing up enough for me to speak strait. “She can destroy me now. So I’ll know I can fight evil myself if I can ever defeat her!”

Ayna nodded. “I see that Sky talked to you… But, if you really do agree with his logic of using this thing as a test, I won't kill it.”

I could see Mai's friends had grouped up in a terrified huddled mass on one side of the shield. Their cocky nature had just disintegrated. I mean, yeah. No shit! I was panicked beyond reason too! There was a psychopathic battlmage slowly crushing somepony to death less than three meters away!

“I do!” I said instantly. “I completely do. It makes perfect sense. Lifting more weight and running longer isn’t a good indicator of how well you do in real combat! I need a real test.”

Ayna nodded again. “Alright. But if you later change your mind, tell me. I won’t allow evil I can destroy to exist. Though I will happily pass the sword to another,” she replied, giving extra emphasis to ‘tell me’ showing me that was NOT optional.

“I promise I’ll tell you if I do,” I agreed.

Ayna yanked Mai towards her, leaving the mare’s face just a single centimeter away from her own.

“I will divine my niece’s location and health every, single, day,” Ayna vowed. “If I ever can not locate her, or detect she has been injured, I will contact her dojo. If she is not practicing scrying defenses, and has not been hurt while sparring, I will find you.”

“A-a-and… K-kill… Me…” Mai whispered, her voice mangled by a punctured lung.

“No, I won't kill you,” Ayna said simply. “That is Sherbert’s duty, and I promise you that she can be restored to life through many different means at my family’s disposal. Her father has resurrected ponies before, and my brother and I are friends with a stallion who has repeatedly returned the souls of the dead to android bodies, restoring them to full life.

“No, I won't kill you. I will sever your hooves just below the ankles. Front and back. Then you will lose your nose, and then your left eye flowed by the right. But I’ll leave you your ears. So that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness, every babe that weeps at your approach, everyone who cries out, 'Dear Gods! What is that thing?' will echo in your perfect ears. Until Sherbert decides to fulfill her duty.”

With that, Ayna simply dropped Mai to the street, the runes on her armor dimming, taking the effects they created with them. The shield fell as well, and Mai's alliys ran for it, leaving her on the ground in a crumpled heap. Wow... Assholes!

Ayna trotted over to me and gingerly picked me up with her Telekinesis.

“Come along, Sherbert. You need to be in a hospital,” Ayna said with the genuine compassion and empathy I'd expect from any Equestrian.

“I didn’t know you were an evil overlord,” I whimpered dizzily, my head pounding even from the gentle motion.

“I’m not evil. I’m good. I only kill evil things. I even follow the Golden Rule while I do it. Treat others as you wish to be treated,” Ayna said with a simplistic smile. “Everyone knows that rule, but they forget that it’s a two-way street.

“Obviously, it wanted me to cripple it, and then kill it painfully. That’s what it was doing to others. See? I’m doing the right thing. Besides, if you don't destroy evil, it just keeps being evil. That’s not okay. As for the theatrics, I like to make sure evil’s last realization is to understand what it’s like to be its victims.”

I had to admit, that line of thinking did make a sort of weird sense…

“Yeah, I guess,” I moaned, my vision starting to swim.

Then everything went black.

Sherbert - 6th of Solar Dusk, 26 AE

Deck 13 Medical Bay, USS Phoenix - Phoenix

I moaned, rolling over slowly. Something tugged on my neck. It kinda hurt. I couldn’t see what It was, everything was black.

“Uun?” I asked with a moan, reaching up with one hoof to gently feel for the thing.

It was a tube. Why tube?

“Don’t pull at your IV,” a changeling’s voice ordered as someone gently pulled my hoof away from my neck. “Are you awake or just moving again, Sherbert?”

“Awake…” I murmured. “Where am I?”

“You’re in my med bay in Phoenix. Do you remember me? I’m Doctor Tilk. I’m your uncle’s preferred doctor,” Tilk asked politely.

“Oh yeah,” I said slowly. “I remember you.”

“Good. Then you know you’re safe,” Tilk said with a relieved sigh.

Everything was still black...

“Why can’t I see?” I asked worriedly.

“Your eyes are bandaged. I will take the bandage off shortly. I was just about to remove them when you started to pull at your IV,” Tilk answered kindly. “Ayna brought you in with severe bleeding in your brain. We fixed it, there’s no brain damage, but you could have mild post-traumatic amnesia.

“Don’t worry! That just means you may have lost things leading up to your injury. What’s the last thing you remember?”

I winced and thought back. “I remember asking Ayna not to kill the mare who hurt me,” I admitted.

Tilk laughed bitterly. “Yes… Don’t ask for your aunt’s help with combat in the future unless, well, you know now. Don’t worry, I yelled at your uncle for not explaining that danger to you, for you.”

Yeah… I’d made the WORST decision…

“Were you able to fix my eye?” I asked remembering that, well, I’d lost one. “D-did she find it and bring it back?”

“No. Sky made you a replacement, I installed it. The surgery scars were treated with a healing potion and should be completely healed now. The new eye is an exact color match to your old one, you won't notice the difference,” Tilk promised as I felt her lift my head and begin to unwrap the bandages from it.

“Wait… He grew an eye for me?” I asked, slightly confused.

“Um, no. It’s b-eye-onic. Hehe,” Tilk joked a little too happily.

I groaned at the pun.

“Do you need some painkillers?” Tilk asked professionally.

“Why didn’t dad make me a new eye?” I asked.

“Your parents don’t know about this,” Tilk answered bluntly. “We decided they would take you out of the program and bring you home over something like this. So, Sky made you a bionic eye. Your parents do not, and will not know. We understand how important this is for you, and family will support you.”

I blinked as the bandages came off, and the world became white as my eyes got used to-

No… No that should have happened, but it didn’t everything was clear. Perfectly clear.

I could see everything in the bay. Every last polished steel wall and ceiling panel. Every high tech healing bed. Every single medical readout monitor embedded flush with the wall. Every foal’s drawing taped above the bed with privacy curtains drawn around it.

Yep. This was the Emerald Hive. The unmistakable alien architecture was… Uh, unmistakable.

And also in perfect crystalline focus, contrast, and brightness… That wasn’t suspicious at all. I mean only HALF my vision should have been like that, right?

“Huh… I thought my eyes would need to dilate and get used to the light,” I said mostly to myself.

Tilk coughed once.

I turned my head back, giving the smallish pale green eyed mare a glare. “Both my eyes are mechanical, aren't they?”

“... Yes,” she admitted ears drooping in embarrassment.

“Why didn’t you just say so!?” I snapped, ears folding with irritation.

“Because um… I felt that if you thought you were less damaged it would be better. See, we had to remove your uninjured eye because having one organic and one inorganic eye was confusing your visual cortex and well, the conflict just made you blind… I was only trying to spare you from a common psychological-”

“I’m not broken! I have two eyes,” I laughed.

“Oh! You genuinely see them as body parts?” Tilk asked, giving me a surprised look.

I nodded once. “Um, yeah. It’s attached to me in a way that makes taking it off hurt me. That’s a body part.”

“Oh good!” She said, breathing a sigh of relief. “You have no idea how many ponies panic after augmentation. Even those who want cyberware often end up trying to pull the implants out because they don't feel like a part of them.

“I- I wanted to make sure you’d keep at least one working eye if you felt that way.”

I winced at several mental images that bit of info gave me.

“Well, I’m not going to do that. That would be dumb,” I pointed out.

“Every dumb,” Tilk agreed with a nod. “Do you forgive me?”

“Yeah,” I answered giving her an understanding smile. “You’re a doctor. Medical concerns. I get it.”

Suddenly, something else Tilk said hit me like a slap across the face.

“Wait, did you say family? As in, you’re a part of my family!?” I asked, ears perking up in alarm.

Did I have ANOTHER accomplished person to live up to!? WHEN DOES THIS TREE END!?

Tilk flashed me an amused smile. “That was a joke,” she said as she turned to check some medical equipment.

“How!?” I demanded just a little bit angrily.

“... You… Don’t know?” Tilk asked, looking back at me and raising an eyebrow.

I shook my head. “Obviously not!”

“Oh. Well, do you recall how several people came to our world from other dimensions during the Tartarian Invasion?” Tilk asked curiously. “I’m certain they cover that in Equestrian Schools.”

I nodded. “Yeah…”

“Well, one of those people is another universe's version of your mother. And I’m her wife! So I’m married to your mother from another ‘verse. Which makes me your pseudo-mom by fifth-dimensional inter-reality fuckery. Sorta. Heh,” Tilk giggled. “Don’t worry I don't take that seriously, that would be absurd.”

I shook my head slowly. “The world is weird.”

“Yes. Good weird though,” Tilk agreed.

“Heh, yeah,” I said with a brief smile.

A smile that turned into a frown pretty quickly. “Um… How am I going to get back to Neighpone?”

“I’ll let Sky know to fly you over after I give you a full check up. Now that you’ve regained consciousness ,we can make sure you are fine mentally and physically. Just let me make sure you’ve got enough of that IV drip to safely disconnect you, remove the shunt, and we will get you home as soon as we can, okay?” Tilk said as she took a few notes from the screen she was looking at.

I nodded once. “That sounds great… And um, my parents won't ever find out about this, right?” I asked worriedly.

“Ever? No. Sky isn’t a liar. He’s just going to delay talking about it till after you graduate,” Tilk said with a wink. “Now, hold still while I take that tube out of your neck, okay?”

Sometimes, it pays to have an uncle who understands you. Thanks, Uncle Sky. I owe you one.

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

“Shit…” The mare swore to herself.

“What is it? Did something come up?” Rojā asked with a heastent frown.

“No,” his superior said with a shake of her head. “I just realized that Ayna’s diplomatic immunity would have covered her murdering those thugs. But she would have been barred from entering the country again if she killed them. That would have been rather bad for diplomacy and trade.”

“Is that why she was at those meetings after the incident?” Rojā asked.

“I never heard she assaulted anyone,” the mare shrugged. “So whichever judge handled it, they decided she was fine. There may be some mental instability clause… If not, there needs to be. She’s definitely not sane. In a rather beneficial way. I may ask Captain Skritt about contracting her in the future.

“Carry on, please.”

“Of course, Ma’am,” Rojā said, resuming the recording. “Though I am curious, why are you not upset that a foreigner threatened civilians under your protection?”

“Civilians? What civilians? That was a group of organized criminals who conspired to commit a crime, assembled with the intent of committing a crime, and then committed assault, attempted murder, and so on. They will experience ‘death by cop’ eventually. It’s hard to be upset that people like them were endangered. Carry on, Rojā.”

“Already am,” Rojā reminded, cueing the footage of the next event he wished to show her.

The mare frowned for a moment, then nodded once to herself. "One more thing, don't think I didn't notice what you wanted me to see here."

Roja blinked, genuinely confused. "Ma'am? I was merely showing you some of Sherbert's early combat capabilities. How they developed is just as important as what they became."

"That is true, but if you don't see it, then you missed something rather obvious, Captain," the mare chuckled smugly.

Rojā frowned, thinking for a moment. "She's merciful," he said after some thought. "She had been blinded, beaten, and was going to be killed but she still insisted her would be murderer be spared."

"Exactly. I'm surprised you didn't mean for me to see that side of her, Rojā," the mare laughed. "It would seemingly be a valuable piece of evidence supporting your argument. You're fortunate this segment included it. Let's move on shall we?

"On second thought, how about you show me Kazumi's reaction to her new marefriend being gone, then go ahead? I can make time for a few more minutes."

Rojā smiled for a moment. "You're barrowing from their story for your hobbies, arn't you?" He asked teasingly.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that accusation, Captain," the mare informed casually. "Carry on."

10 - Forgotten Family Ties (Showdown Part 2)

Nahrina - 4th of Solar Dusk, 26 AE

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

I liked how Neighponese Schools kept your homeroom consistent across the years. While I spent a lot of time with Sherbert, I wasn’t her. I’d made a few other friends outside our little trio.

Specifically, Akira, Eiji, and Seiichi. They were, amusingly enough, a unicorn, a pegasus, and an earth pony respectively, which made me being the final member of the band and also a changeling a bit funny. At least to me.

I met them in homeroom after they complained about losing their lead guitarist for their band, and since I play keytar, I offered to take the position. We had a lot of fun together, and we all felt like we could do folk metal pretty well, so we’d entered the talent show at the Fall Festival last year.

But well, turns out we actualy sucked…

More precisely, we’d chosen a Neighponese song that just didn’t suit our band’s style well and thus lost points. Many points. All of them, in fact.

This year would be different!

Akira asked me to pick a song from my Hive’s traditions to perform since the genre would be right for us. I’d spent the whole summer working on translating some of my Hive’s songs into Neighpoense and adapting them for a smaller four musician band. That’s harder than most people think it is.

But I’d managed to get a few of them to sound right. None of them were really suitable for our band though. I’d performed what I could of each song to show my bandmates, and on each one, some combination of Akira, Eiji, and Seiichi objected. Too complex, apparently.

This song was far simpler than any other, but still metal as buck, and we could definitely perform it! I just had to make sure it sounded okay in Neighponese.

Okay, Rin, you can do this. It’s a sacred hymn, but you translated it flawlessly. Though… That doesn't mean it sounds right in Neighponese. But there’s only one way to find out, and there are no Lore Keepers here to hear you mess it up. Let’s do it!

I took a deep breath, flicked my amp on with a quick magic pulse, picked up my silver plated keytar, switched it from the electric guitar sample set to synth, and began the ancient song’s warm up.

My hoof gently brushed against the keys, calling forth slow, calm, overlapping notes which flowed like a creek. They slowly built upon each other, forming a more intense pounding rhythm as I slowly turned up the volume. Harsh, rolling, dramatic notes, flowing like a raging sea!

Switch on repeat mode! Adjust back to sampled guitar notes. Instrument change complete, add the lead guitar to the synth track.

Short, rolling, bursts. Intermittent bursts of chaotic noise. Slowly build up to the primary guitar melody. Pause for the bass line… Resume the lead guitar… Yes!

Everything sounded good. I could hear the other instruments in my head But how would the words go?

Keep the melodies going a bit longer… NOW! Stop the guitar on one last warbling note. Switch to synth. Fade the melody slowly into a calm rolling tune. Hold for twenty seconds…. There!

Slow building up on the synth like something out of a horror movie as the monster finally appears! Switch to guitar, punctuate build with one long discordant note! Back to the lead guitar melody, but faster, more orderly. Ready… Lyrics in three, two, one!

“Warriors of planet Earth, hear my raging cry! // For mighty Terra, the demons will die!” I proclaimed in verse, punctuating each syllable with the “guitar’s” melody.

“Across the skies of Mars, the demon wars begin. // Trust in your sword, this battle we'll win! // The space knights of Crail are first to the fight, // clashing with lasers and power of light!

“Fly high through apocalypse skies, // fight for the world we must save. // Like tears of a unicorn lost in the rain, // Chaos will triumph this day!”

Annnnd shift voice box to allow for electronic warble.

“Apocalypse: Twenty-five-thirty-two,” I intoned with my newly distorted voi-

My keytar fell from my hooves as I double facehoofed. “SON OF A BITCH!” I swore angrily

I’d sung everything in the original language...

“Uhhhh, hi,” Kazumi said from my doorway.

I turned my head to look at her. The tiny mare was standing, staring at me in shock. I don’t think she’d ever seen me play anything seriously before.

“Not sure what you messed up, but that was amazing,” she said with a hint of a smile.

I cleared my throat to hide my embarrassment. “I uh, I meant to sing that in Neighponese,” I explained, voice still distorted.

I switched my voice box back with a flash of arcane fire.

“Okay, that’s cool! I need auto-autotune capabilities,” Kazumi muttered to herself before facehoofing herself.

“I’M A BAKKA!” She shouted angrily through clenched teeth. “Quick! You need to show me which jumpsuit Sherbert normally wears around! I don’t know because when I visit her here she’s always in her gi, and at school she’s always in uniform!”

I raised an eyebrow, flicking a few strands of my mane out of the way with a pulse from my horn.

“Um, why?” I asked curiously, trying to figure out what the emergency could be if it involved clothing. I mean, Sherb can shapechange on her own now so it couldn’t be her blank flanks were showing.“Are you going to surprise her with new clothes or-”

“Sherbert’s psychotic aunt is on her way to turn Mai into a thin red paste on the sidewalk, and Sherbert doesn't want that to happen, so we need to talk her down, and since her aunt asked Sherbert to give her one of her jumpsuits, the only time we may have to talk to her is while handing it over!” Kazumi shouted. “That’s how bucking good your music was, I forgot about that for a minute! NOW HELP BEFORE SOMEPONY WHO DESERVES IT, DIES!”

Ah yes. Mai… I had a bone to pick with that thug. All this ninja training had put me off my game. If I hadn't been focusing on not using my battle magic thanks to using it on Sherbert in the ring, Mai would never have knocked me out.

Wait, deserved it?

“Um, if you think Mai should die, why are you helping?” I asked skeptically.

“Because Sherbert doesn't want her dead because of her and we just started dating so I need to put her opinions first,” Kazumi said, flapping her wings to get to my eye level. “NOW HELP!”

I grinned ear to ear. “YES! I’ve been trying to hook you up all year. Oh! It’s the electric blue one, she keeps it in her wardrobe,” I answered for her, then stopped to pick up my keytar.

And froze.

“Wait, psychotic aunt. Trixie or Ayna?” I asked, my head whipping up to look at Kazumi as she started to leave my room.

“The wizard one!” She called as she rushed out into the hallway.

Ohhhh, not good! Ayna Trigger had been among the few who helped push through to destroy the portal during Equestria's Tartarian invasion. Anyone who had the power to fry a demon with lightning…

Yeah, Sherbert was going to need help. Lots of help. Especially because if I were Mai, I’d be camping out near Kazumi’s place waiting for her. So Sherb and Mai could be fighting right now since Miss Gunslinger wasn’t there anymore. And if her aunt teleported in, like wizards do, she’d find her niece mid combat and-

“Ohhhhh, shit,” I cursed to myself.

If Sherbert wanted Mai alive, as her friend I had to help. And that meant I needed to get over there and protect Mai. I stood next to no chance at doing more than stopping a single blast from a world infamous mage. Most likely because it would kill me.

But I owed Sherbert my life. Kazumi’s Clinic had run out of hemolymph. My exoskeleton kept fragmenting. Nothing could have stopped my bleeding. Without that rich Equestrian love, I would have died in that bed.

Fair is fair. A life for a life.

I took a single hesitant breath to steel myself, and then set my Keytar down and chased Kazumi out of the room.

“Hey! Wait! Where is she?” I yelled at the rapidly disappearing dot in at the end of the hallway.

“She’ll be on the direct route from my house to here via Peach Street,” Kazumi yelled back.

That was a short route. I was faster than Kaz by a lot. I would make it there in a third the time she would. That gave me time to get ready.

I ran back into my room and picked my commlink up from my nightstand and entered mom’s number. She picked up instantly.

“I’m on a job,” mom whispered.

Translation: If you are not calling me for something important, I’ll beat your plot black and blue when I get home.

“Sherbert is in mortal danger. I am honor bound to help her. My skill in your people’s ways will not be enough to save her. I am sorry, but I need permission to use my full arsenal,” I inform/requested.

“Granted,” mom whispered, the sound of cloth shuffling along wood much louder than her own voice. “Passphrase: This is the last thing she’ll expect to be the passphrase.”

The link clicked as she hung up. I almost didn’t register that at all because, well, yeah! That was the last thing I expected the armory passphrase to be.

Heh. I love you, mom. You're way better than bio-mom.

Shaking the confusion from my head I ran out the door and down the hall to mom’s room, quickly disarming the six hidden locks (and attached alarms) before heading inside, and immediately shape changing back into my natural changeling body.

The flash of emerald fire reflected off the massive steel wardrobe’s polished surface as I skidded to a halt in front of it and immediately pressed a hoof against the glowing black arcane rune on the front.

“This is the last thing she’ll expect to be the passphrase,” I said, the rune immediately turned white, and the door swung open.

The inside of the locked wardrobe was mostly occupied by mom’s weapons.

Most were poisonous, or made from toxic materials. Which is why she kept them locked up or on her person. When I’d finally gotten permission to train in her arts, we had locked my own stuff up, as the tournaments allow you to bring your personal equipment and that would be massively unfair.

I quickly suited up. A once routine task. Daily training requirements and what not.

Myomer fiber jumpsuit, then power cell harness, next unfold the exoskeleton and put on the coat of ceramite plates. Done. Buckle all the things, starting at the back, moving up the the front, toss the white hooded tabard over everything, buckle the tabard belt, slide helmet on, hood up. Done.

I never liked how I looked in uniform. The thick plates added too much bulk for my tastes, and olive green, black, and white didn’t go together in my mind. I also never liked the flying dagger insignia on my tabard, but the armor was magic resistant. It would help. The real question was should I bring my spear?

I took a quick look at the spear. It would be more accurately called a glaive, really. Or perhaps a naginata, if you wanted to name it in Neighponese. A single edged cleaver-like blade incorporating a seventy-five millimeter auto-cannon, attached to a long haft containing the triggers and the blade’s disruptor field emitter. Basically a naginata with a gun stuck to it.

Guardian Spears made great sidearms for battle mages like me. Cuz micro rockets are great for conserving mana while letting you still be useful while waiting for the right moment to cast your spells.

Yes. Absolutely. The blade can be used to deflect ray attacks. And I MIGHT finally be able to actually do that. Let’s take it.

I levitated my Guardian Spear from the wardrobe, took two spare magazines of microrockets for the underslung cannon, tucked them into my belt, and then slid the spear into the extra dimensional pocket attached to my right vambrace.

No sense running around with a weapon out in public. Not till I needed it. The armor would be cause for more than enough alarm as it was. Thank goodness I wasn’t a soldier. Ponies would think that this relatively sleek armor was wargear, we didn’t. This was just proper casual clothing for my hive.

Soldiers are the ones dressed in war gear.

I flexed my wings, making sure I didn’t do something dumb like trap them under my armor. I had not. Good! You do that once and noling lets you live it down.

I shut the wardrobe door and immediately took to the air, flying down the hall to Sherbert’s room. Kazumi had probably moved on, but I wanted to be sure.

I swooped down to fly through Sherbert’s open doorway a few seconds later, and nearly ran into Kazumi as she flew out the door with one of Sherbert’s jumpsuits held in her forehooves.

Her eyes widened in panic, wings stopping and sending her dropping to the floor in fright at my sudden lightly armored appearance.

“OH SWEET, KAMI, NO! I- UH- I’LL BITE YOUR LEGS OFF!” She shrieked in blind panic at the site of my armored breathmask/combat helmet combination.

I rolled my eyes behind my helmet’s black tinted t-visor. “Kaz, it’s me. I didn’t want to get near an angry wizard without any armor,” I said as kindly as I could.

Kaz blinked once, shock rolling across her face. “Soooo uh, why is Bloodstone Armor so bucking terrifying looking?” She asked hesitantly.

“This is how it’s always rolled off the assembly line. I’m faster than you, is it okay if I carry you?” I asked.

“Y-yeah…” Kaz mumbled, picking the jumpsuit back up. “You should have told us you have scary wargear! I almost had a heart attack. Thought you were Ayna,” she grumbled uneasily.

“From what I hear the armor the Emerald Hive produces is more sleek, form fitting, and less… Industrial. Less Changeling in nature,” I said as I scooped her up with my forelegs. “Our equipment is traditional Imperial stuff. Eons old designs. Now, let’s go prevent the death of someone we both want dead.”

I wanted to take a direct route over the canopy to Kazumi’s house, but she insisted we take a route above the street in case Sherbert was faster with that cart than we thought she’d be. While that was a wise precaution, it turns out it wasn’t needed.

We hadn't seen hide nor hair of her on Peach Street, which meant Sherbert had to still be on the little road leading up to Kazumi’s family estate. Since eight minutes had passed by Kazumi’s count, that meant either Sherbert was having the worst time pulling that cart possible, or we were too late…

I rounded the corner and instantly regretted it. We were indeed too late.

The center of the street was occupied by a very solid looking emerald green shield. While the street was mostly deserted, a few uniformed police officers were standing watch, or busily evacuating civilians out of the way. Because inside that bubble was pure terror.

I was first and foremost a battlemage. I could recognize the subtle brush of Empathic Magic reaching into my brain and pushing down on every last cell to squeeze as much fear out as possible. An effective tactic, but one my training could surmount.

I quickly cast a simple mental ward, throwing aside the magically induced fear. Frankly, that only helped a little bit. Seeing four ponies in the grips of total mouth frothing panic as they scrabble against the side of a shield in a futile attempt to escape an evil overlord who stepped off the cover of a sci-fi movie… That was terrifying enough without the magical boost.

And of course, there was the music. The unnatural wind. The frost slowly building up on the cobblestones within the shield. And the mangled soon-to-be-corpse I barely recognized as Mai slowly being crushed like a soda can underhoof.

Yeah… My ward wasn’t really helping all that much...

Those officers were not going to get close anytime soon. You could see that through the look in their eyes. That distinct look of ‘NOOOOOOOPE! So far above my pay grade!’ filled their eyes, even if their bodies retained a professional mask for the sake of civilians. Admirable.

I didn’t want to get close either. But I had to. Sherbert wanted Mai alive, so I had to try.

I dove downwards, unsure if Kazumi’s scream was due to me suddenly drooping ten meters or due to the scene before us. I set her down on the street and rolled, putting my wings to the ground to get enough thrust to rocket back upwards. I’d need altitude for this.

I had to breach that shield. I only ever saw a few shields that looked that solid. Like crystal domes. They were strong, very strong. My only chance was to hit it with kinetic force, a disruptor field, and a spell at the same place at the same time. That might breach a hole through it big enough to enter.

I reached a point a good distance above the shield, and whipped my spear out from its hidden pocket. With a squeeze of the lever on the rear grip, the shimmering blue field sprang to life around the cutting edge of the blade, the churning energy ready to rip atomic bonds apart.

I focused my mind on the task at hand, readying the only shield-breaching spell I knew, and dove.

The green dome rushed up at me, growing closer by the heartbeat. I aimed for the very top, trying to align myself dead center. Where the weak spot normally was.

Ten meters… five… three-

The Overlord dropped Mai’s broken body like a sack of potatoes! TO LATE! DO NOT ANGER THE WIZARD FOR NO REASON! ABORT ABORT ABORT!

I pulled up hard, gravity punching me in the guts as my spear’s blade scraped along the top of the shield, sending a sea of emerald sparks flying through the air in the direction I tumbled through the air.

As I spun head over hooves, the shield dropped. Wait, did I do that? Before I could come up with an answer, my back hit something hard, stopping me cold with a crunch. Dull pain crept across me as I slid down, slamming plot first into the ground.

I felt my magic burn hotly, regenerating my mangled wings. Fortunately, only those gossamer appendages had been hurt via my little bug-on-bungalow collision, and I was able to quickly roll onto my hooves and turn back towards the shield.

Had I pissed her off? Please tell me I hadn’t pissed her off!

I saw the four trapped ponies sprint down the road, leaving my field of view. The Overlord was calmly opening a portal on the ground, a limp, very injured Sherbert held gently in her arcane grip.

My first instinct was to charge and save her from the evil I saw before me, but then I realized that I likely wouldn’t be able to do jack shit, and besides, this was her aunt.

“Ah, you’re unconscious. Great. Tilk always says you should keep injured ponies conscious,” Ayna said half upset, half calmly as she stepped towards her portal, but froze mid step. “Wait, something hit my shield a second ago…”

Her horn lit up with a dull emerald glow for just a second, after which she nodded to herself, then light warped around the wizard as she cast a spell. Nothing seemed to happen.

I frowned and took a step closer, squinting through my helmet’s visor to try and get a closer look at the portal and see what might have-

Ayna reached into the portal. Something sized my by the back of my neck! The grip on my neck yanked me backward, and suddenly I was facing a completely different direction, laying on my back, in the middle of the street, looking up into the glowing eyes of a fully armored changeling battlemage.

“Eep!” I squeaked, recoiling back against the road.

“Hello,” Ayna said in an unsure voice, tilting her head. “Who were you here to help?”

“Sherbert! I’m her best friend! She cooks me lunch!” I yelped immediately.

“Oh! Okay,” she said, the sound of her voice implying a smile behind the organic-inspired helmet. “I’m taking her home for medical attention. Nice spear, by the way. I recommend you learn to move more quickly. Sherbert is fortunate I was already on my way. She is not yet ready for a foe of that demon's caliber.

“Speaking of… Could you get it medical attention? Sherbert desires to kill it. We can’t have nature do it for her, that’s cheating.”

I nodded twice. “Absolutely! In fact, I was on my way here with another of her friends who is a doctor. She’s right over there,” I said pointing to where Kazumi was hiding behind a trash can, aiming her hoof cannon at the two of us.

Ayna looked to where I was pointing, and then let go of my neck to wave at Kazumi, who slowly lowered her gun.

“Hey! That's one of my designs! Nice to see somepony appreciates the finest anti-dragon firearm available to civilians,” Ayna called down the street. “I’ve been informed you’re a doctor. This thug will require arcane healing or amputation. I do not believe I left its hind leg in a mundanely repairable state.

“I’m taking Sherbert to a doctor who should be able to fix her eye. Farewell, she’ll be back in a few days.”

Eye? I frowned and looked at Sherbert’s face, and instantly wish I hadn’t. She’d gotten kicked so hard that her right eye socket had caved in, making the eyeball burst, and staining half her face a bright red. The fact that hit hadn't killed her was a small miracle.

“Oh, shit! I don’t think you can fix that,” I cringed, reverting to my native language in horror.

Ayna looked down at me, tilting her head again. “Huh. I didn’t know we had civilians living way out here,” she replied. In my language. “Well, later!”

Wait, what!? But if Emeralds know English then-

Ayna stepped through the portal, taking Sherbert with her, the green swirling vortex vanishing the instant Sherbert passed through it.

DAMN IT! I had questions! Ugh!

But at least Sherbert would be getting good medical attention. If the Emeralds knew English, then their impenetrable fortress must be a functional ruin like our Queens’ Palace. And that meant that I could probably buy RC Cola from them!

Our hive needs to get out more. We should know about them...

“Hey!” Kazumi shouted, ripping me out of my thoughts.

I turned to look at my little friend. First to the left, then down after I remembered she wasn’t my height.

“What?” I asked with a frown.

“How bad was she hurt?” Kazumi asked coldly.

“Lost an eye. Probably some teeth… Looks like she was taking blows meant to kill,” I sighed.

My eyes narrowed. I stood up. My spear was laying on the street, I’d dropped it when I’d been pulled through the portal.

I picked up the spear with my magic and handed it to Kazumi. Sure, the weapon was HUGE compared to her, but that didn’t matter for this.

“You heard the Terror Wizard,” I grunted. “She recommended an amputation for that rear leg. Go ahead and take care of that. Pull the lever and the wound will cauterize.”

Mai’s limp body twitched slightly, a fearful gurgle escaping her throat.

Kazumi shook her head and passed the spear back to me. “No thanks. I made this bakka a little promise…” Kazumi said as she trotted around to Mai’s head reached out, pulled her left eye open and stared into it. “Hi there? Remember me?”

I took a step backward, the shear wave of hate that Kaz had just thrown at Mai was beyond frightening.

“Looks like I’ve been ordered to tend to your wounds. You’ll be in my clinic soon,” Kaz continued, glaring directly into Mai’s wide eye. “Remember what that means? ‘A month of constant pain, indigestion, and nightmares so bad that you’d have to have other nightmares just to find out how bad they’ll be!”

“Yep, that was what I promised… But you see, that was BEFORE Sherbert was my marefriend, and also BEFORE you tried to murder her. Don’t worry. You'll be healthy enough when it’s over. But just by the minimum medical standards. After all, I am a doctor.

“That said, why don’t you go ahead and try to think about the price you’re about to pay for your little attempted murder while I drag you four blocks by your leg? Sound good?”

Mai gurgled again, her head shaking slightly.

“Too bad, you should have thought of that before you did this. Actions. Have. Consequences...” Kazumi said darkly before letting go of Mai’s eyelid and roughly grabbing her mangled leg.

Mai screamed in agony, blood bubbling up around her lips, the signature of a punctured lung.

“Do you have to be that cruel about this?” I asked with a wince. “She may be evil, and she did try to kill our friend, but maybe just a little mercy-”

“No,” Kaz said simply.

“Why?” I asked angrily.

Kazumi reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a small packet of papers. “Her friends dropped this while fleeing. Let me quote this part, ‘The most fitting way to end the slut is to kick off her horn and shove it up her ass until she bleeds to death.’”

What? No way that was actually a thing. Kaz was just in rage mode because her mate got maimed.

“Give me that,” I said in disbelief, snatching the paper from her with my magic and quickly scanning the page.

There it was. Last paragraph. And given Sherbert’s eye had been hit… Mai probably missed the kick meant to break off her horn. And likely had been going for a second shot. Which would explain why Ayna had turned her leg into a flesh-sack holding bone shards.

“Oh,” I said, eyes narrowing in rage. “I think, that I’m going to go show this to those officers over there.”

I nodded towards the police officers who were slowly, reluctantly walking towards us.

“Good idea,” Kazumi said starting to drag Mai down the road by her leg, clearly not even bothered by the agonized screams.

Noticing the officers changing direction to intercept Mai, I quickly took off my helmet, stored it in my right gauntlet’s dimensional pocket, stored my spear in the left pocket, and fast walked over to the officers.

“Excuse me! Officer?” I called from a distance so they wouldn’t just open fire on me. “It’s fine, I can explain this!”

The officer on the left, a light beige, and brown unicorn mare turned to look at me, her horn lighting up to cast a spell by reflex.

The light dimmed as she saw I was unarmed. “You’d better,” she said, dipping her head slightly, her blue cap’s brim casting a dramatic shadow over her face. “And your friend should stop that right now or you are both under arrest.”

“My friend is a doctor, she’s taking the injured perpetrator in for treatment,” I quickly explained. “This was a premeditated murder the injured person attempted to commit. The intended victim, a mutual friend of the doctor and I, was Sherbert Trigger-”

The cop held up a hoof. “Hold up, are you serious? Someone was dumb enough to attack someone in that family?”

I nodded once. “Yes… Mai Xii is not very bright,” I agreed.

The cop’s eyes narrowed in pure hatred. Her partner’s ears perked, he quickly stopped advancing on Kazumi and rushed over, his wings spread in alarm. “Sarge! The victim is Mai-”

“I’m aware,” the sergeant growled. “Changeling, tell me exactly what happened.”

I nodded and quickly explained everything I knew about the entire ordeal. “-and with her aunt currently taking her presumably to the Emerald Hive for treatment, we’re going to make sure that Mai is healed as requested so we don't have epitaphs that read ‘angered a wizard’,” I summarized, then held out the papers to the sergeant. “This is proof of their intentions, Kazumi found it.”

The Sargent nodded once, her silver magic gently taking the pages from me and flicking through them. Which each page, her face slowly went from grim scowl to a creepy gleeful grin.

Just as I thought she was about to attack me because this was all an elaborate trap, she looked me in the eye and squeed almost maniacally.

“Hahahaha! Oh, this is the single most open and shut case ever!" She exclaimed, beyond delighted, "There’s a blood oath on the final page! Who the hay even does that? I never thought I would be this happy to see someone go full serial killer. We can prove she did it. There’s no way her father can buy off the judge this time!

“I need to find the deepest, darkest, most plague rat infested cell in the whole country! Oh! OH! Even better, in a country we have a prisoner exchange program with! Maybe I can get her sent to Hound! HA! That would be the best! Thank you!”

I winced and looked at her partner for an explanation. The yellow pegasus didn’t give me one. He didn’t have a chance. The Sargent zipped up next to me and pointed at the line where Mai wrote down her… Execution plans.

“See this? That monster killed my son in that exact way,” the mare said with a hint of sadness despite her manic glee. “It’s been seven years, and she got off scot free because the evidence was only my word and well, money speaks louder. But this? This paper? That’s clear proof of a whole laundry list of crimes!"

I blinked, my eyes widening. "I don't even- Are you serious?!" I asked incredulously.

"Ya hear that? You done goofed! Justice is a bitch, mother-bucker!" She sergeant yelled in Mai’s general direction. “Thanks, changebug! The state won't reward you, because we're not going to report your involvement. Right, Raio?"

Her partner coughed once. "Um... well, We should but-"

She pulled his face directly into her own with one hoof firmly grabbing his chin. "Right, Raio?"

"Right, Sarge," Raio decided.

The mare's cheer came back instantly, and she let him go. "Right! So yes, no state reward for you. So I will reward you myself!" She declared happily. "Here’s my address, you can come over any night you like and I’ll give you the best meal of your life.

"If you think I taste good you can have dinner with me anytime you like. Your friend too. She's a buggie too, right? Oh man, this is the best day of my life! You have NO IDEA how disgustingly easy this system can sweep justice under the rug.”

She pulled a small business card out of her uniform’s left barrel pocket and passed it to me before running towards Kazumi, who hadn’t stopped dragging the now silent and presumably unconscious Mai down the street.

“Hey! You! Dwarf buggie! You’re getting a police escort, where we going?” The sergeant called eagerly.

Raio coughed into his hoof awkwardly. “The funny thing… Today’s the anniversary of well, her son’s death,” he said matter of factly.

“Seriously?” I asked with an incredulous drop of my jaw.

He nodded. “Since the victim in question is a Ponyville citizen, I’m going to blame this entire coincidence on Discord and just not think about it ever again. Good day, civilian,” the officer decided as he jogged away to join his partner.

I raised a hoof to question his logic, but then it hit me. Pinkie Pie was also Sherbert’s aunt. Pinkie Pie was Lady Fluttershy’s best friend. A mare who was so completely devastated when her pet rabbit died that it made global news. A mare who was basically dating the avatar of chaos itself.

And her best friend’s niece was almost executed and then sexually violated.

Yeah… Fluttershy’s eldritch abomination boyfriend would definitely want to spare her that emotional pain. And was infamously vindictive. And under orders from Celestia to never do things like what he totally just did.

“I’m going to just go home and not question any of this or mention it to anyone!” I loudly announced so as to be heard by any nearby cosmic horrors.

“Thanks, bug,” a male voice said quietly from seemingly everywhere at once. "By the way, Sherbert's birthday is next week."

I decided that never happened and no one ever said that. Then I took to the skies, headed for home, and never looked back.

But first, I decided to stop by a mini-mart and pick up some gift wrap on the way home.

11 - New Friends, New Skills

Sherbert - 6th of Solar Dusk, 26 AE

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

Uncle Sky had gotten two of his crew to fly me back to Neighpone in one of his shuttles. I’d been given the go ahead to leave by Doctor Tilk two hours ago. That had given me a lot of time to think about things, like regrets. Dad alway said that the things you wind up regretting in life are weirder than you’d think. I was starting to see what he was talking about now.

I could see the city flying by below me out the cargo bay window. Blazing past. Like the shuttle was running. Last time I’d seen the city from this vantage point, it had been like we were crawling.

I’d spent about a day and a half flying out to Neighpone on that airship. One and a half days spent in the third class cabin of a box hanging from the bottom of a big helium filled bag. A nice box. A roomy box. But a slow box.

I turned around, and looked out another window. Now I could see the Academy below. We’d arrived.

It was a little strange to see it from above. I’d seen it from the rooftops a few times, but this bird's eye view was rather interesting. I’d always thought the wall contained the entire dojo. And well, it did. But there was actually a small hidden part of the compound too, concealed by a internal wall which cut the outer wall in two pieces.

The outer wall was divided into two parts by the internal wall. The main section was the one I’d known, and the other part was a small garden with a few little buildings in a tiny cut off portion that had no apparent gateway leading into it from the dojo’s grounds.

That had to be the Academy Elder’s private estate.

I felt the shuttle lurch as it stopped moving forwards and transitioned to VTOL mode, apparently deciding to just land in the training yard. Made sense, this shuttle was taking a prototype of something vital to the Empress. It was to be taken to a classified location, and couldn’t be late.

I checked my watch. The timer read two hours and six minutes. That’s a heck of a lot faster than thirty-seven hours and fifty minutes. Airships: Combining the pampering and luxury of a cruise ship with the speed of... Some other slightly faster ship!

Hello, shuttles? It’s airships. You win.

I should have just asked Uncle Sky to fly me out here the first time! Why am I so stubborn when it comes to asking my family to help me?

The cargo bay’s intercom crackled to life, making me jump slightly, the olive green webbing digging into my barrel as it held me to the bench seat.

“Sorry, Sherbert, but we can't touch down. There’s not enough room between the buildings. We can get down to ten meters,” the pilot explained apologetically. “We’re not cleared to use the airfield here, we would need to wait half an hour for landing permission and we don't have the time.

“You can land that drop safely, right? If not my co-pilot has volunteered to fly you down personally. Don’t worry, he’s carried lost ponies to safety in his legs before.”

Ten meters? Yeah I could land that. At least as long as I knew it was coming.

“Yeah, I can make that just fine. Go ahead and open the ramp for me,” I said as I unbuckled the crash webbing and stood up.

“No problem,” the pilot said, the ramp beginning to lower with a mechanical hiss. “Sorry again.”

“It’s fine. I understand schedules,” I said, giving a weary glance at the large plasteel crate which occupied most of the small cargo bay.

I had no idea what was in that. But well, Uncle Sky did say it was time sensitive. As in, the thing in the box had to be at a place able to safely store it within a very narrow window of time, and for reasons I had not been told, could not be teleported.

That’s the kind of thing you hear about at the beginning of a sci-fi movie where everypony dies at the end.

I walked to the rear of the cargo bay just in time for the ramp to finish lowering. I smiled as the fresh sea-side air filled my nose. I’d missed that smell. It felt comforting, warm even.

I closed my eyes to take in the scent for just a second. The soft tap of cloth muffled hooves on metal made my ears twitch. My eyes snapped back open, revealing a middle-aged unicorn stallion perched on the cargo ramp.

I’d never seen him before.

He was a monochrome, like Master Cho, except he was purple from nose to hoof. A deep, rich, royal purple, with a darker electric purple mane and tail and pale lavender eyes. Or rather, eye. His left eye was covered with a patch which dented inwards too much for there to be an eye beneath it, but a pale, ghostly, blue glow did leak out from around the edges, implying some sort of implant lay beneath the black cloth.

His mane and tail were cut very short, sitting at a length almost but not quite as short as military regulation cuts. He had a cutiemark, but I couldn’t make it out due to a blurry patch of arcane light covering his flanks.

His most notable and interesting feature was the bionic wings attached to his back. Firstly, they were not equine wings, those were shaped and scaled to resemble griffon wings. Second, I knew those prosthetics, those were Rarity’s designs, but they lacked synth skin and the usual holographic plumage. Instead, they left the plasteel and titanium bare, and the guide cables for the flight fields which would be hidden in the center of each feather exposed to the elements.

The skeletonized wings worked despite lacking these cosmetic features, as they were spread in a way which clearly indicated the stallion had just landed on the edge of the ramp.

I would have panicked at his sudden appearance, but he was wearing a light gray vest with the academy's crest embroidered on the vest. I couldn’t help but notice the vest was cut in a griffonese style, likely so it would fit on over his wings.

“Who are you?” I asked suspiciously.

The stallion turned his head to look at me, seemingly proud at first, but immediately frowned as his eyes made contact with my own.

“Bionic eyes are cheating, Sherbert,” he grumbled irritably.

I knew that voice! So THIS is what Master Yoshi looked like.

“Hey, I can’t help having had the old ones popped by... a... psy...cho...path,” I grumbled slowly trailing off as a subconscious realization became conscious, and Yoshi became instantly terrifying.

My ears drooped as I instinctively walked backward away from that stallion with the pointy teeth. All of them. Pointed. Filed down. Made to rip and tear flesh…

“My teeth are the result of growing up in a rural Griffon community which didn’t tolerate plant eaters,” Yoshi said as soothingly as he could. “It’s alright. Everyone reacts like that. Just remember that if I wanted to eat you, I would have by now. After all, I know where you live, have access to your room, and this is the first time you’ve ever seen me despite knowingly standing next to me many times. Clearly, I’m harmless. To you at least.”

OH SWEET SISTERS, THAT’S COMPLETELY CORRECT! AAAAAAAAA!

I-including the harmless part… But since when is fear logical? I mean, Luna’s mane, why would you point that out when your smile screams ‘unnatural predator’?

“That- That makes me super glad I don’t sleep anymore,” I admitted with a fearful wince. “What are you even doing up here?”

“Making sure this shuttle wasn’t about to drop a platoon of soldiers into the dojo,” Master Yoshi answered honestly. “It wasn’t announced, Rojā asked someone to take a look and well, I can fly.

“I am happy to see you on your hooves again, Sherbert. Nahrina and Kazumi said you appeared to have been beaten to death. I’ll go fetch them for you. Wait below.”

Master Yoshi snapped his wings open, their pale white shimmering flight field instantly glowing, forming a bat-like ‘membrane’ between the wing’s cable-rachis’. A second later his wings caught the air, pulling him away from the edge of the ramp in a distinctly griffon flight maneuver.

I guess he really did grow up with griffons. No pegasi would ever depend on their air currents to get lift like that. They’d just make their own.

Remembering that the shuttle had places to be and a ‘totally safe’ cargo which contained ‘absolutely no’ alien super predators nor ‘any other kind of super death in a box’, I quickly channeled my magic into my legs and jumped off the edge of the ramp.

I’d landed these kinds of jumps before without the aid of magic. You just had to flex your legs on impact and roll forwards. Extend the duration of the fall, spread out the impact force across time, lessen the damage to your body. Just like a parachute, only orders of magnitude less effective and even more orders of magnitude more dangerous.

The real question was could I just jump and use my magic to-

I hit the ground, legs flexing slightly, hooves loudly cracking against the stone tile I landed on. I felt my magic shove the impact aside, a slight wave of dust shooting out across the ground while a mild twinge of pain raced up my legs.

Not bad! That only felt like a four meter drop. I should experiment with this.

I heard the shuttle’s hydraulics whine as the ramp began to close. I looked up to watch the shuttle leave. I always liked watching them fly. The harsh, angular, vaguely teardrop shaped, wingless shuttles just sort of floated there, like pegasi. It’s just kinda neat to see a huge metal machine hang in the air like that.

As the shuttle’s warbling-hum faded into the distance, Rin and Kaz came running out of the dining hall. I could see the relief on each of their faces as the ran up, practically tackling me in a group hug.

Kazumi buried her nose in my neck. Adorably, that required her to rear up.

“Thank goodness! I was worried you’d be disfigured for life,” She said, hugging me tightly around my neck. “I know how people treat you for being damaged. That would have been the worst possible thing…”

I flinched. “Okay, I know I lost an eye, but… How bad was it?” I asked, ears laying back in worry.

Rin let go of my right side and gently traced a large patch of my face with the point of one hoof. The point contained my eye, obviously, but also some of my jaw, temple, and cheek.

“So, all of that. Push that in about a centimeter,” he said bluntly.

“Ow,” I winced, closing my eyes tightly for a second. “Thank goodness Tilk’s good at reconstructive surgery. Though I’m a bit sad that I don't get to wear a cool mask or something.”

I could be like Princess Cadence’s bodyguard! That mare always had on that badflank featureless chrome mask. I could have gone to the Crystal Empire and been like ‘Sup, sister? Where’s the badflank disfigured warrior store at? Do you have any coupons I could use?’ That would have been cool.

“I’m just happy you’re alive,” Kaz said as she gave me another squeeze before letting go of my neck… So she could fly up and look closely at my face.

“Hmmm, your doctor did a very good job. A bit too good. Your face is perfectly symmetrical. It wasn’t before. Most ponies aren't. But that’s okay! I don't think anypony else will notice the difference,” Kaz decided with a satisfied nod.

I raised an eyebrow. “How did YOU notice?” I asked suspiciously.

Kaz’s ears drooped with embarrassment. “Um… No reason…”

“She’s got a photo-shrine of you,” Rin helpfully informed.

I snickered, a grin spreading across my lips. “Seriously?”

Kaz shot Rin a dirty look, then gave me a loving kiss on the nose. “Tough mares are still mares,” she said before giving me another hug. “I’m glad you’re not dead, disfigured, or… Well, I was worried you’d have PTSD. But you seem to be normal.”

I blinked in surprise, but still returned my tiny mare’s kiss. “Why would I have that? I just got my ass kicked. I wasn’t in the middle of say, a Griffon Kingdom assault on a major military base.”

“Uh… Because absolutely any trauma can cause PTSD?” Kazumi and Rin said together.

“Wait, really?” I asked with a confused frown.

“Yes!” Kazumi said, looking at me oddly. “How do you not- Oh! Right, you’re not a doctor. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can occur in anyone after any dangerous or extremely stressful event. Not everyone develops chronic fear responses for a particular event, but with how badly you were beaten, and how near you came to a brutal death…

“W-well it seemed like a possibility. But you’re fine. Yoshi said his bio-scanner didn’t pick up any symptoms of mental trauma, and he showed me it the other day, it’s really badflank and-”

Kazumi shook her head quickly. “Uh, that’s a bunny trail. I’m sorry. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“I’ve been beaten up a lot before,” I laughed, shaking my head slowly. “There’s a mare back in Ponyville named Ash Meadow who hates me, I’d say um… Probably about the same as Mai does. She never tried to kill me but she did tie me up and threatened to slice me up with some glass once.

“The only thing that stuck with me from that is how no one believed me that Ash did it. Which is bullshit, because her special talent is lying. So like, how does everyone not understand that she lies all the time since people are inclined to believe her? I just don’t get it.”

Kazumi’s eyes darkened slightly. “I don’t suppose you know this mare’s address… Do you?”

I nodded. “Of course I do, it’s-”

Rin held up his hoof in the ‘stop’ gesture. “Wait, HOLD IT!” He demanded. “So, you slipped free of your bonds, made it to adults while bleeding from a lot of different wounds, said that you were attacked by a specific pony, and no one did a goddamn thing?”

I shook my head rapidly. “Oh no, of course not! First off, I said she threatened to cut me, not that she actually did. Well, not intentionally. I got a nick on my left leg.

“My parents called the Guard, and they sent two guards to Ash’s house and had her arrested. Where she successfully lied her way out of it and convinced them that I’d fallen through a skylight while freerunning.

“And the Guard reported this to my parents, who believed them since I was new to free running and knew I hated Ash. They decided I was lying and punished me. That’s when I realized I would need to learn to fight because no one was going to help me if that happened to me again.”

Kaz hugged me again. “I’m sorry… No wonder you have problems asking your family for help.”

Rin tapped a hoof to his chin. “Huh. PTSD sticks with you till it’s worked out with psychotherapy. So, since Yoshi didn’t pick up anything in you, you didn’t have any problems with being tortured then,” he mused to himself.

I nodded. “Right. It’s just pain and abuse. It’s not that bad. I mean it would be weird if I saw a friend explode and didn’t have any problems from that but like… You know. I got hurt. It was scary. It’s over now. No one I care about got hurt. So, you know. No biggie,” I said with a shrug.

Kazumi raised an eyebrow and gave me a worried look. “Um, okay. I, um… You won't be that lucky forever. You need to be more careful in the future.”

I nodded. “That’s why I’m here! So I can resolve situations I can’t escape or de-escalate,” I replied with a smile. “Don’t worry, silly filly. I’m fine.”

“Except for that whole you almost died thing,” Rin pointed out. “I overheard mom and Master Rojā debating on when to start you on weapons training. It’s going to be soon. If you pick the Naginata as your starting weapon, I can show you some of my people’s tricks. We use similar weapons.

“More importantly, I can give you one of my spare vambraces. They’ve got dimensional pockets in them. You'd be able to carry a weapon on you at all times. Which is good, because most casual attackers will run if you turn out to be armed, and well, if they don’t it's always safer for you to be armed.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Hoof to hoof is beaten by gun. As Kazumi proved. I’ll do it,” I agreed, turning back to look at Kazumi. “Hey so… Did Mai make it?”

Kazumi nodded. “I had to remove a leg, several meters of intestine, half a lung, and several bones too crushed to repair, but yes. She’s alive. Turns out she’s allergic to most pain killers. Swells up like a balloon if you give her morphine. Heh.”

The evil gleam in Kaz’s eye made me want to backup a bit. It also made me wonder if… Well…

“You- You didn’t put that on her medical file so she’d be given surgery without anesthetic, did you?” I asked hesitantly.

“Nope!” Kazumi giggled. “She actually is. I discovered this after giving her morphine about twenty minutes into the amputation when I got tired of her screaming ‘no drugs!’ over and over again. It’s also in her file, but I didn’t read that at first. I was too angry.

“I-, I wound up giving her to another doctor to finish up. She hurt you, Sherbert. I was about to break my Hippocratic Oath. Then again, I’m pretty sure that by leaving her alive I did harm to others… So it was a loose-loose there.”

I nodded once. “Okay, where is she now?”

Rin gave me a happy smile. “It’s okay, she won't hurt you again. She was arrested and according to a new friend of mine who's a police Sergeant, Mai’s going to be sent to the penal colony on Exile’s Isle. It’s a Venisneighlan penal colony. So if Mai wanted to do anything to you again, she’d need to find a way to survive and make a living there first.”

“Oh,” I said, my ears perking. “Well, that’s good. I was all for giving her a second chance. I mean, sometimes ponies do stupid things when angry. But um… I sort of spent a lot of the ride back trying to figure out ways I could kill her if she attacked me again. I- I didn’t like doing that but well... If it’s clear someone wants you dead, what else can you do?”

Rin nodded again, giving me a concerned look. “Well, it’s fine now! You’re completely safe,” he insisted.

“She’s being sent to a tropical island,” Kazumi countered. “That’s hardly what I would call ‘ensured to never hurt you again’.”

Rin rolled his eyes. “If Mai wanted to escape from Exile’s Isle, she would need to:” he said, inhaling in preparation for a long rambling statement. “Not be killed by any of the other serial killers sent to the island, survive the vicious inter-gang conflicts, and endure the total anarchy you get when you just dump a ton of psychopaths on an island and call it a prison.

“If she succeeded at that, Mai would need to find a way to remove the explosive rune collar that’s now welded around her neck. Then she’d have to find a way to escape the island which would involve slipping past a military fleet and elude diviners who have samples of her blood. After she pulled that off, she would need to then find a way to cross about a thousand kilometers of kaiju infested ocean while also successfully navigating to Neighpone.

“Once back on Neighpone, she’d have to evade police who would be alerted to her escape and have prepared for the likelihood of her returning to her country of origin. Assuming she landed on the closest part of Neighpone to Exile’s Isle, she would have another thousand kilometer journey overland, on hoof, to get back here.

“Where she would have to get to you, and because all of us would have heard about that, she’d walk into your room one night to kill you and be beaten into a bloody paste by the entire Dojo who had been hiding in the rafters or something. Meanwhile you’d have been sent back home for safety and have been twelve thousand kilometers away the entire time.

“You’re safe.”

I nodded twice, thoroughly impressed. “Yeah, I have to agree with Rin here, Kazumi. That’s pretty safe.”

Kazumi nodded and gave me another tight hug. “I- I know… I just want to see the person who hurt my mare fall into a black hole, and then watch that black hole rapidly evaporate into nothing more than black body radiation, which is sucked out of this universe via a tear in spacetime, and that universe then experiences a false vacuum collapse, and then that dead universe has its remains ejected into the void.”

I blinked twice. I had no idea what half those words meant. But from the sound of things…

“Sooo… Really, really, really, really dead?” I asked.

She nodded once. “I love you. You got hurt. I’m upset I couldn’t do anything…” She muttered, kicking the ground with one hoof.

I gently picked Kazumi up with my magic and set her down on my back. “I love you too, Chibi. Feel better up there?” I asked, turning my head around to look at her.

Kaz nodded and gently clung to my back. “Yes actually. This is nice.”

A thought suddenly occurred to me. A terrifying, horrible, evil thought! “Oh no! Kaz, did you get your stuff out in time or-”

Kazumi nodded and gave me a hug around my neck. “Yes. Rin and I moved everything over after you were taken to the hospital. It’s a good thing he was here to help, I couldn’t have moved that on my own.”

She seemed extra huggy today. She must have been really worried. I’d have to make her super happy tonight. In a fun way. Heh heh.

“Yep! Why don't you just hang out up there? I’m pretty sure that Rojā wants me to run laps or something. We should go find him,” I said as I began to walk towards the dining hall. “Was he eating with you guys?”

“Actually, he’s out doing a thing,” Rin informed as he jogged a few steps to catch up to me. “We can do anything we want today.”

“How about we go get some ice cream?” I suggested. “Uncle Sky tossed me some credits before I left in case I needed to get some painkillers or something for the new eyes. But they’re fine. I’ll pay.”

“We should go to the parlor on Soaring Crane Lane. It’s awesome,” Kazumi suggested, her voice slipping back into her usual ‘tough mare’ sound.

I looked over at Rin. “Never been, but if she says it’s good, I’ll give it a shot,” he answered.

“Cool, let’s go,” I said, turning around to face the gate.

It was nice to have all this behind me.

Sherbert - 8th of Solar Dusk, 26 AE

Horsiekoshi High School, Neighdo - Neighpone

During my first year, I’d really cracked down and focused on school. I’d had to. If I hadn’t I would have failed. Without the potion treatments, I would have had zero time to do anything besides train and do school.

So this year I’d decided to memorize my textbooks in advance. I hadn’t done all of them yet, but I had read at least the first few chapters of them all before school started today.

I thought that would help.

It didn’t.

It made school more painful.

“In the third year of the Lupon Era,” Mister Rekishi lectured as he paced up and down in front of the blackboard. “A small band of criminals successfully stole the Imperial Crown from the very bedside of the young Emperor Ako Segata-”

I groaned and leaned back in my seat. I knew this. All of it. Including the half an hour of rambling he’d droned out before that last sentence.

You’re just reciting the book… Why are you just reciting the book? I already read the first few chapters of the textbook. You’re just quoting it! Stop! Do teaching!

“The theft of the crown had major political ramifications, as during that era it was widely believed the crown itself was the source of the Emperor’s power and right to rule. This is of course not the case, those were more superstitious days wherein few understood the magic which can reside within a bloodline. The scramble to claim the crown that many Shoguns engaged in, resulted in the beginning of what we now call the Warring States Period-”

Why am I here? I could just read the stupid book, memorize it, and then read more books to learn about the details of things I find interesting.

Why are you here mister teacher stallion!? You’re actively hindering my learning by making this a tedious slog! I could have read another three chapters of the book you’re just quoting back in the time it’s taken you to get to page seventeen of the first chapter!

“This, of course, was the time when the Imperial Family lost control of Neighpone,” Mister Rekishi continued in his dry monotone of doom. “It was a dark time for the peasantry with widespread famine and little to no defense against our great enemy, as the Shogun were more interested in finding and keeping the Crown-”

SISTER’S BLOOD! I can’t take this anymore! This is the biggest waste of my time possible! He’s literally just reading a book at me, a book I’ve already read. He’s not even deviating from the book by saying ‘um’. He’s just regurgitating a script he has perfectly memorized.

Buck this. I’m out. Take me away brain!

The screams and the sounds of fire nearby were the first indications that Twilight wasn’t in Ponyville anymore. It was a long few moments before her other senses returned to her, smoke quickly filling her lungs as she tried to take a breath. The unicorn coughed as she tried to stand. Gone was the familiar feeling of grass and soil, replaced instead with smooth stone beneath her hooves.

“Ugh, girls? What happened?” Twilight slowly opened her eyes to see just what was going on, and she could only gasp.

Gone were the comforting fields of grass outside Ponyville. The ground was perfectly level and entirely stone, and the blockish buildings surrounded her on three sides were ablaze. As her senses recovered further, Twilight's analytical mind continued to take note of the details of her surroundings, including two metal boxes that she now found herself between.

Twilight’s ears perked up upon hearing voices beyond the boxes, and she cautiously peeked around the corner to see the source. On the other side of the clearing, a trio of figures emerged from between the buildings. All three were bipeds, two taller ones and a smaller one clinging as tightly as it could. The largest one shouted and turned back the way it came while the other two continued to run.

“Hey, Sherb,” Rin’s hoof shaking my shoulder snapped me out of my daydream.

I shook my head slowly. Why was it that every time I let my mind just wander like that I always dreamed up some sort of really weird action-adventure scenario for Aunt Twilight to be in? Eh, questions for later.

I looked up towards the front of the room. The Great Devourer of Time was busy packing up his books to move on to his next group of victims. Class was over. I had not been called on to answer something.

Good.

Turning to my right to look at Rin I asked. “Whats- Oh, um, hey?” I said as I saw the mare standing slightly behind him.

Average height. Simple smoky white mane and tail. Her mane was left long, untrimmed but bound back in a tail-shape. Very curvy. Not fat, the skinny graceful curvy. She wasn’t Neighponese, or at least I didn’t think so. Mostly because she had the counter-clockwise horn spiral of a Marelunder, as well as a speckled fur pattern. Also a thing most common in Marelund.

Thing was, I’d seen her before. She was the mare who had run off before Mai started beating me to death. She’s spoken a bit… Come to think of it, she had a Marelundish accent. Yeah, she had to also be an exchange student.

“Yeah so, she says she wants to apologize to you for something,” Rin said, pointing at the mare over his shoulder with one hoof. “I have no idea who she is but she said she wanted me to ‘help be a bridge’ so like… Having trouble with someone aside from Mai or, what?”

“Actually she was with Mai’s brute squad,” I informed Rin, giving the mare a critical look.

Her ears were downturned, she had a worried and remorseful expression, and I do remember she booked it before they actually attacked me.

“I was,” she confirmed. “I’m here to apologize for that. I thought ‘we’re going to kill her’ was just Jock Talk. I know there’s a tradition of street fights between rival dojos, and I haven't done one in my four years of training yet, and um… I wanted to? So I joined up with their group since I figured if a whole bunch of ponies were going after you that you had to be really good.

“I um, I didn’t know it was an actual murder being plotted till they made me sign the blood oath on the briefing packet. I- I wasn’t sure what to do. I mean, to get away. At that point, I realized they would kill me if I ran so I couldn’t turn them in.

“I was going to fake going down in the fight so I didn’t have to hurt you… That was wrong of me. Honestly, the stupidest thing I have ever done…

“I should have taken the packet after signing it and turned it into the police, but I didn’t. You got hurt because of me and I feel horrible about it, and I’m also legally responsible for your injuries. I- I’m so sorry.”

She really did sound sorry. I mulled it over for a few seconds, trying to decide if I believed her or not.

“Eh, It’s fine. I’m okay, she’s in jail, and I got robot eyes out of it,” I decided after thinking it over, giving her an accepting smile.

“It’s not fine,” the mare disagreed, shaking her head violently. “I put you into harm's way to the point where you nearly died. I’m an exchange student too. I am still bound by the laws of Marelund. Do you know what this means?”

I shook my head slowly. “No. I’m afraid I didn’t pay much attention in school back home,” I apologize.

Rin shook his head. “Don't kick yourself over it, Sherb. Marelund’s laws are a messy tangle of… Mess.”

“He’s completely right,” the mare laughed bitterly. “But there are some places where the law is very very clear. See, since I almost got you killed through negligence on my part, I owe you my life,” the gray mare explained slowly.

“Wait, what? Like, a life debt?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She nodded. “Yes. The law is very clear. ‘Any member of a non-ruling house who brings harm upon another individual through gross negligence on their part must extend their services to the harmed party in proportion to the harm inflicted.’

“Three hundred years ago our judges ruled that ‘any member of a non-ruling house’ meant anyone of any nation who isn’t a sovereign, prime minister, or president. And that ruling stuck. Sooo yeah, you count in our legal system as a party I harmed. I have to pay you back. If I don’t do that… When I go home I’ll be enslaved for life.”

I recoiled in genuine horror. “Wait, are you serious!? Marelund still practices slavery?!”

She nodded. “Yes. But you have to break a law first because it can only be applied as a criminal punishment… Which is why our laws are such a mess… But it’s not the worst place to live! Every country has problems and- Ugh! I’m not going to have this discussion again. I’m sorry but every time I do it gets really heated and people yell at me.

“The point is, I have to pay you back equally for what I did to you. Since I would have gotten you killed if not for the intervention of a third party, you have four options.”

“And those are?” I asked quickly. “I’ll do everything I can to make sure you don’t wind up a slave!”

Her ears drooped back sadly. “Uh… Weeeell, about that… Your options are: First, You can kill me. Eye for an Eye. I’d appreciate it if you don’t do that. Not that I think-”

“Like bucking Tartarus I’d do that!” I shouted, tail standing up in a mixture of alarm and offense.

“Oh! Good,” she sighed in relief. “So, uh, second, you can sell my services to someone of your choice for the duration appropriate to the harm inflicted. Since we count attempted murder as murder, legally I killed you. Sooo that duration would be my entire life.”

“Yeah, no. That’s slavery,” I said, shaking my head quickly. “Not going to happen.”

Her worried frown deepened. “Um… Great… See, option Four is you do nothing and I go back home where the government claims me as property. Deciding not to decide gives your choice to our government. I’d wind up working at some corporation forever. Whichever one decides to buy me.”

“Then that leaves option three,” I said slowly. “Which is you serve me for the rest of your life…”

I felt my stomach turn a bit at the thought. This was wrong...

She nodded once. “Yeah… It’s slavery or death. Frankly, my best option would be for you to take me. I- The reports have already been sent back home. I got served notice via teleporting documentation. The file exists. I can’t like, change citizenship or anything now. They lock your files in these kinds of things so you can’t escape the law.

“So um… I know Equestrians abhor slavery but, I really really don’t want to die, or be literally chained to a desk for the rest of my life, or be sold off to a random person you know. So please, PLEASE take me and just call me a squire, or a maid, or servant, or sex pet, or whatever makes you feel comfortable because every other option for my life is just not okay!”

“Buck…” Rin and I groaned together after a long silent moment.

A moment which gave me enough time to see the entire homeroom staring at us.

“You um… You should have picked a more private place for this,” I pointed out.

She shook her head violently. “Couldn’t. I have half an hour until it's been four days since your attack at which point someone would teleport me back to Marelund to collect me under the assumption I’ve fled from the law. I’ve been trying to find you this whole time. Please decide so I can teleport the paperwork over.”

Well, this was a bucking ethics nightmare! What the hay is wrong with her homeland!? The only option that didn’t completely suck for everyone was for me to take her.

Either I became a slave owner, or she died, or she would be literally chained to a desk. Oh, wait… Shit. She was BUCKED!

“I um, I don’t know how to tell you this, but Equestria does not permit slave owning… Except for the Crystal Empire, but that’s a different kind of slavery, and it’s actually regulated to a certain number of hours per- um...,” I said with a deep frown. “I don’t know what to-”

“Actually, according to the Treaty of Pomneigh Equestria agreed to uphold punitive service law within their borders assuming the Owner is an individual and not a company, organization, or whatever,” she corrected. “The treaty, by loophole not design, means an Equestrian could buy slaves from Marelund and keep them, though it was intended only to allow Marelunders to travel with their households and not lose… Property.”

“Why?!” I demanded angrily.

“In return, Equestria got a mutual cultural respect law which prevents Equestrian citizens from winding up owned as property in Marelund,” she replied flatly.

“Oh… This is massively unfair!” I moaned, running a hoof over my eyes. “You had plans, and dreams, and, things!”

She nodded. “Yes. And you could totally let me do those things. Legally I only have to be a part of your household. You can make me do whatever you want.”

I blinked once. “Wait, so like, we could legally get away with you just being my roommate?” I asked skeptically.

“Yes. The law does not govern how you can use me. Why would it? That’s not in their interest,” she grumbled, looking down at the floor.

“In that case, sure. I’ll do it. But only until we can find a way to get you out of it, okay?” I said as I gently put a hoof on her shoulder. “Oh, um, what’s your name? I’m Orange Sherbert.”

“My name is Ash Heap,” she introduced with a polite smile.

I blinked once. “Your parents are MEAN!”

She blushed lightly. “Um, no. It’s because I have naturally very long fur… I keep it trimmed. If I don’t I look like a pile of ash if I curl up to sleep,” she admitted with a little embarrassment.

Okay, that could be kinda cute. Still a bit mean though.

“But that means I’ll have to call you Heap,” I objected. “I um… There’s a bully back in Ponyville who has a thing for picking on me named Ash Meadow and, um… Yeah. I’d rather not think about her. I’ll get angry.”

Ash shook her head once. “Then don’t,” she suggested.

“That’s a bit hard…” I prompted, frowning apologetically.

Ash sighed. “Is she a unicorn?” she asked.

I shook my head no.

“Then this is easy. Good Ash, Bad Ash, I’m the one with the horn. Don’t let one person ruin a good name,” she advices, before going a bit pale and stepping back from me. “Uh, I mean… If that pleases you.”

I cringed. “Okay first rule, none of that shit! Be yourself. This sucks enough without a stupid power dynamic. Oh, and while I’m at it, no lying about your feelings. Just be normal.”

“Thanks! But uh, legally speaking, I still need to follow any order you give me,” Ash apologize, her horn glowing gold as she teleported a small sheet of paper and a fountain pen onto my desk. “Could you sign that, please? Quickly. I mean take the time to read it, but you know… Clock’s ticking.”

I nodded and turned to read the paper.

Some part of me expected the paper to really be some sort of trick. Like I’d be signing a power of attorney writ, or I’d be dropping all charges against Mai so she’d walk free. Nope. It restated everything Ash had told me, only using very cold, cruel, and evil sounding legal phrases.

Marelund. Sucks.

Twilight has to know about this already. Celestia has to know about this already. Some actual motherbucking superhero type person has to know about this already. Somepony should do something!

I finished reading, sighed one last regretful sigh, and sighed each of the seven different indicated places.

“Sorry…” I apologized again as I levitated the paper to Ash.

“Don’t be. I… I was too afraid to think about legal consequences of my actions. This is my fault. Honestly, the best outcome here was be an Equestrian’s live in servant. So, thank you!” Ash said with a genuinely happy smile, her horn lighting up as she teleported the papers away.

Presumably directly to some bureaucrat in her evil, evil, evil homeland.

“Soooo… What now?” I asked Ash hesitantly.

“Am I allowed to own property?” She asked hopefully.

“Bucking- YES! I said live normally!” I violently objected.

“Thank you. In that case, it would be best for you to inform your master of the situation as I need to move my effects into your household by sundown. I will see you after School. I uh, I graduated last year… Was going to go for secondary education here too. Can I-”

“Yes! I said live normally!” I said again as firmly as I could. “I’ll make the call. Move when you want to… I’ll see you later, right?”

“Obviously,” Ash laughed. “Goodbye… Sorry for putting you through this.”

“I’m sorry too,” I apologized again as she walked out of the room.

The now dead silent room.

“Well… That sucked,” Rin moaned.

I looked around the room, wondering where Kaz was during all of this. Only to notice both her and the bathroom pass missing. That was going to be an awkward conversation… Speaking of…

I rubbed my throbbing head with a hoof and pulled out my magegem. “Call Master Rojā…”

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

The shadowed mare shook her head as if in pain. “Sherbert is completely correct. Someone does need to do something about Marelund one of these days,” she said darkly.

Rojā nodded once. “Yes… Why not you?” He asked out of genuine curiosity.

“Because no one wants to start that war. They’re a Sovereign’s Guild Member State. Attack them, the rest of the guild members are treaty bound to attack you. Dismantling the institution through legal means is… Well, it’s been tried many times. Someday someone will figure out how to cut that Gordian Knot,” the mare sighed regretfully. “Was showing me that part of this story anything more than an example of her character?

“And I’ve already noted that her subspecies instinct’s differences includes some sort of ‘trauma shield’. Don’t think I missed that. I'd give my forelegs for that little gem of an ability.”

Rojā nodded. “So would I, Ma’am. As for important information; Ash quit the Flying Horse Dojo, but kept contacts there. She kept Sherbert informed about the Dojo’s planned street fights so she could avoid them.

“She also, well, I’ll show you that bit next. Suffice to say, despite Sherbert’s insistence that Ash treat her contract as ‘roommate by force of law’, Ash sort of became her Squire, Buttler, Maid, Bodyguard, friend.”

The shadowed mare raised an eyebrow. “Why?” She asked.

“Well… Since showing you would take the time you don’t have today, in short, if this were a chapter of a manga I would call it ‘Attack of the Love Triangle’,” Rojā replied with a chuckle. “Um, well, except Kazumi was okay with multiple partners, which was something she thought through before becoming Sherbert’s marefriend. Since she knew Sherbert wanted more than one.

“Besides, Kazumi counts Ash as a stallion. So there’s no compassion for ‘I’m her mare! Not you!’.”

The shadowy mare raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“Sorry, Ma’am! I’m certain you understand how your sex can get in multi-partner relationships. It’s one of the reasons they are so uncommon, after all- Oh… Crud. I mean-” Rojā backpedaled.

Rojā’s commander snickered then burst out laughing for a few short moments. “Haha! Rojā, that’s not remotely what I meant to imply with my gesture. “I wanted to know why Kazumi thinks the way she does. I wasn’t criticizing you for your fairly apt if simplified statement on the behavior of mares within a herd relationship.”

“OH!” Rojā said with a relieved yet nervous smile. “Well, that’s rather easy. Ash is one of those fifteen percent of ponies who are born between the gender-lines, Ma’am.”

“Um, pardon? I don't quite understand you. What do you mean ‘born between’?” The shadowed mare asked, leaning forward slightly.

Rojā paused. “You don’t know?”

“Obviously not,” she replied.

“Sorry. I find it odd, given your hobby, that you’re unaware of-” Rojā trailed off, slowly shaking his head. “Long story short, there’s a mutation a long dead archmage spread through ponies thousands of years ago. Sometimes, you get a pony born with both sets of genitalia. A true functional hermaphrodite. Currently the odds of that happening is about fifteen percent, at least they are outside of Neighpone. You don't see that mutation much here.”

The mare frowned slightly. “Wait, it’s that common? I just didn’t understand your wording. I’m aware some ponies are born like that. Though, I’ve only ever met one and he didn’t mention it being common. Humm… Perhaps I should study other cultures peasantry more than I currently do.”

Rojā nodded in agreement. “Point is, Kazumi thinks of Ash as a stallion, not a mare, because she has both parts. Which is a fair judgment, despite her preferred pronouns and general appearance. She’s quite the tomcolt.”

“Ah, I see,” the mare said with a nod. “I assume that Kazumi hated this situation as well, but agreed there was no better option, given Marelund’s barbaric law?”

Rojā nodded. “Yes. That conversation is basically just everything Ash said here, repeated again and again. Then Kazumi agreeing that Sherbert did the best thing she could and offering Ash some hot chocolate.”

She nodded again, then frowned and held up her hoof. “One moment, Captain,” she said before leaning away from her seat. Her holographic projection distorting and partially vanishing as she left the seat’s general area.

Rojā waited patiently for several minutes, after which the mare returned to her seat. The projection flickering as her entire body registered with the device once more.

“I’m sorry, Captain, I have just been informed of a few important matter which I must deal with tomorrow. It’s time we finished this business. I’m afraid that you will have to cut some of the fat from your presentation.

“We have dawdled a bit. I will admit I did get a little sucked into the narrative here, this is partially my fault. But it’s time for the important stuff. Give me this case’s meat. Now.”

“As you wish, Ma’am,” Rojā said with a polite bow as he cued up the next clip, only to pause and look up at his superior with a frown. “May I ask something, Ma’am?”

“Go ahead,” the mare confirmed.

Rojā nodded thankfully. “Yoshi mentioned a secure transport crate in that shuttle, and now that I’ve seen it from Sherbert’s eyes, it was headed for the Imperial Palace. Do you know what was in it? I don’t recall any prototype machines for the Imperial Family from three years ago.”

“What was the date, Rojā?” the mare asked simply.

“It was the sixth of Solar Dusk,” Rojā answered.

“Indeed it was. Now, what event important to the Imperial Family occurred on the sixth of Solar Dusk?” The amare quizzed.

Rojā facehooved. “The Empress’s birthday…”

“Quite. And we both know that Pinkie thinks if you teleport Pinkie’s cakes they taste terrible. That was a cake delivery,” the mare answered with a cheeky grin. “Now, seriously, we need to finish this.”

12 - A Series of Unfortunate Events

Sherbert - 15th of Harvestide 26

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

A lot of change has come into my life in the last three months. Kazumi had moved into the dojo, and while she wasn’t living in my room, it did mean we saw a lot more of each other. Especially since she started assisting Master Mitsu in brewing the dojo’s potion supplies. With my kenjutsu training, I was getting hurt a lot more than normal.

Fighting with weapons is obviously more dangerous than fighting with your hooves. But you just don’t think about how much more dangerous it is when you just start. Especially when you’re weapon is basically a bo-staff with a blade on one end.

I had only just started to understand how to not cut my own back by accident when performing a haft strike. Not that I’d actually ever done that. My training blade was dull. But I would have a few times. If it had been sharp.

Thank goodness I didn’t go for nunchaku!

I looked down at my watch, frowning as I noticed I was almost late for my morning training session with Master Tamiko. Master Rojā was still training me, of course, but he wasn’t a blades instructor. As a part of my second year, I would begin to rotate between the different trainers to be taught whatever skills they had mastered themselves, with Rojā acting as a personal guide to help me find my own way to use everything they showed me.

I sighed as I slid out of my chair. Not having to sleep has its advantages, but also major downsides. I envied Ash. Time just blurs together when you don’t get tired. I’d sort of just blinked and my science report was half done and I was about to run late.

Ash. There was another change. One I was starting to welcome.

Ash was an odd mare. Not because of her mutation, Sisters know I was familiar enough with hermaphrodites thanks to my dad’s work. She was odd because she had a lot of Aunt Twilight’s drive, but rather than an ecstatic love of all things science, she was more focused specifically on one and only one field. Enchanting.

I had no idea what it was or what she was doing specifically. Partially because I didn’t know anything about Enchanting, and partially because, well...

It turned out that by ‘secondary education’, Ash meant, ‘I did high school and college at the same time and am going for my doctorate’. Her hobbies mostly consisted of scrapping electronics and enchanted items she got from junk stores and using them to improve her own ongoing project, or getting bored/frustrated and making a quick toy out of the scrap.

Sometimes, she’d give whatever she made to me. Like a hologram system that projected a simulated avatar of anypony I called on my watch or mage gem. It projected a convincing image of that individual, just like they would be if they were talking to me in the same room. She made that out of parts of a microwave, a blender, and a dance-floor she found in a junkyard. Thus cementing in my brain that the mare was a budding genius billionaire playmare philanthropist.

A few days after she arrived, I had the idea to get Uncle Sky to see if the Emeralds could take her as a refugee so she couldn’t be returned home. She’d actually begged both of us to stay till she finished. Her school was paid through till the end, she had one semester left. So, why not?

As I turned to pick up my training blade and leave my room I saw Ash, slumped over the desk I’d gotten for her. Having fallen asleep over her project. Again.

How much time had she spent on that… Uh… Thing? I frankly had no idea what she was building.

She was light years ahead of me in magic, and she was working on this as her doctoral thesis. The lump of crystal and rock in a little silver capsule that rested in the grip of her soldering station, and the bracelet thing built to utilize it may as well have been alien technology to me.

Ash squirmed slightly in her chair, head sliding across the desktop, brushing a few blank cards aside. I frowned and gently reached out to pick her up with my magic. She always said to be careful around that thing. I didn’t want her knocking it off her desk by accident.

I barely lifted her out of her seat when the gray mare jolted awake.

“Aaa!” She yelled. “What are you doing!?”

“Sorry. I was just going to put you in bed. You were moving and I thought you might knock your thing over,” I explained as I set the sleepy eyed mare back down.

She eeped and pushed her chair back from the desk.

“Thanks, Sherbert,” she mumbled sleepily. “I just finished the basics… But it’s not refined. Let alone tuned. Could have gotten really hurt if the field overloaded.”

I blinked twice. “Wait, that’s a bomb!?” I demanded.

She shook her head and stood up, stumbling over to the bed. “No more than anything else which stories massive amounts of thaumaturgic current is, Mistress,” she said as she face planted into the bed with a wump.

Ah. Okay. So, it might rupture and damage things near it, but it wasn’t a grenade. Good.

Now for the bad…

“Don’t call me Mistress,” I corrected.

“Yes, Mistress,” Ash answered sleepy-snarky.

I’d been really mad the first few times she called me that. Recently, I was starting to think she was doing it as a joke.

“I’ll be up in a few more hours,” Ash mumbled into the blanket. “I’ll take care of the laundry then. Please put anything you want to be washed in the pile.”

“It’s already there. I have to go, sleep well,” I said as I turned and trotted out the door, levitating my naginata off its wall-hooks and to my side as I left.

I quickly made my way through the dorm hallway, heading for the back entrance which opened out right into the training yard. I didn't want to be late, Tamiko hated that.

Unfortunately for my plans, as I turned the last corner, Rin’s voice echoed down the hallway.

“Hey! Sherb! Wait,” he called eagerly.

I sighed and turned around.

“I’m almost late for training!” I called semi-irritably.

Rin nodded his long mane fluttering. “Yeah, I know,” he said apologetically. “Just wondering if you still can’t go camping with Kaz, Shinju, and I today.”

Shinju? I closed my eyes as I processed the name.

Oh yeah! That police Sargent who Rin met when Mai kicked my ass.

“No can do,” I sighed. “Rojā has something important planned for tonight. I have to be here.”

Rin’s ears drooped sadly. “Aww… I’d push things to tomorrow, but Shinju’s got a schedule from hell this week,” he apologized.

“It’s fine. Go, have fun!” I said as I turned back around. “Friends can’t always do everything together. See you tomorrow.”

“Okay, but you’re going to have to get out to Lake Tōya with us sometime. It’s supercool. Later,” Rin called as his hoofsteps began to echo down the hallway.

Yeah. I definitely would have to. It sounded really nice. Big lake inside a dead volcano’s crater with a white sand beach, the whole thing being one huge hot spring, and all of that surrounded by tropical flowers and forests which grew in volcanic soil.

One day, I’d have a house in a place like that.

I ran the rest of the way to the training yard, hoping I wasn't late. Master Tamiko stood in the middle of the stone courtyard, the other students having left a large ten-meter bubble for her and I to train in.

She didn’t look annoyed.

I ran into the circle sliding to a stop. “I’m sorry, Master. I lost track of time. I was writing a report on atomic theory and it drained everything from me. Total dead soul mode,” I said, hoping the excuse would be enough.

Tamiko nodded once, looking quite serious.

“Funnily enough, you’re on time for the first time,” she said super seriously before flashing me a huge grin. “You know what that means?”

I frowned as I thought back over the last three months to the very few times Tamiko explained her training methods. The dark purple Thestral hated repeating herself, at least in words. She taught by doing, not talking. Exactly my kind of teacher.

“Um… Oh! You show me one of your kata?” I guess, ears perking in excitement.

Tamiko sighed and reared up, holding her own naginata over her head in her forehooves to twirl it acrobatically, the scabbard somehow staying over the blade.

“Not quite, Sherbert,” she scolded, shaking her head. “Though you should be learning my katas every day, I perform them with you. Those are not the standard moves, they are mine.

“No. You’ve got the basics down, and you showed up on time. We had an agreement about what happened in these circumstances. Though it hardly matters you’ve forgotten about it.”

I frowned in genuine despair. “I- Oh come on! I’ll remember! Don’t skip it, please.” I begged.

“Skip it?” Tamiko said, cocking her head to one side. “We’re not skipping it.”

I noticed a few of the other training students slowly put more distance between the two of us. That was the only clue I needed. She was going to fight me.

“But enough talk! Have at you!” Tamiko shouted, whirling her weapon to launch the scabbard at me, before vaulting forward using the butt of the weapon to spring off the ground.

I jumped aside and raised my own weapon just in time to dodge her vault-kick and block the follow-up strike. Our weapons locking together with the violent clang of steel on steel. I honestly had not thought I could do that!

“Well done!” Tamiko encouraged, leaping backward to scythe her blade in to cut off my legs.

I jumped over the attack, managing to swing my own blade mid-air, aiming the blow towards her head. She flicked the back end of her naginati up, parrying my strike with the haft of her own weapon.

I lost track of our duel for a while. Not that I blacked out, but rather my mind was to focused on the future to remember the past. Her strikes, my dodges, and rare counter strikes all blurred together in one single ball of constant motion.

I could see why Tamiko ruled the local tournament circuit. I had no hope of ever hitting her. But at the same time, she wasn’t hitting me. Yeah, she was half-assing the entire fight, you could SEE how much she was holding back, but her barrage of cuts, jabs, and mixed martial arts was more than enough to keep me fully occupied.

And I endured.

Tamiko suddenly dropped low, her kimono rustling as she hooked her wingtip through the ring of a hidden kuni and somehow threw it at me using just that one wing. I saw the knife fly at me in slow motion, while her naginata cut upwards towards my barrel seemingly at normal speed.

I knew what to do.

I stabbed down, my weapon’s point stabbing her blade’s edge and driving it into the ground. I flicked my haft to the left, pushing her blade to the side, and smacking the thrown knife off course with a loud ting.

And then I saw it. The one opening she’d given me. I had her blade pinned, and with her wing extended for the throw…

I threw a punch with the rear end of my naginata, striking Tamiko’s shoulder with my weapon as if it were a quarterstaff.

To my immense surprise, she didn’t flinch, or scream, or grunt. She took that hit like she was an iron sculpture, and smiled at me. I felt my heart start to race in fear, I'd hit it, but nothing happened! What could I possibly do!?

“Outstanding!” Tamiko said, beaming me a huge grin as she disentangled herself from my pin and took a few steps back, clearly no longer fighting. “You took to the naginata like a duck takes to water. I’m surprised you didn’t gain your mark just now.”

I laughed then panted for a few seconds before returning her smile. “I think… That I just won't get one… Cuz ancient unicorn… Genome…” I gasped, just not noticing the sweat pouring off my face.

And back. Chest. Barrel… Everything, really.

“Be that as it may,” Tamiko said proudly. “You managed to hit me in under a half hour at my laziest. Take five, then we’ll go on to level two. Figure out where you lay on the scale so I can tweak the curriculum accordingly. I think that if you can hit me when I’m half assing it, we'll see you get some plotmarkage!”

I cringed at her turn of phrase. “Uhhhh… Did you have to say it like you’re in a porno?” I asked timidly.

She nodded. “Yep! I haven’t been this excited in a long time. I switched to the katana because no one could beat me with this lovely weapon,” she said, swishing her naginata happily through the air. “But I think, one day, that you might. That’s extremely arousing for a blade nut like me.

“Now come on! Get that rest. I wanna go again! Round two! Fight!”

I grinned nervously as the purple thestral eagerly hopped from hoof to hoof, her entire body still fresh as a daisy, clearly having spent no effort at all on that duel which left me, well, starting to cramp up. All I’d done to her was turn her on…

Then again, she was pretty cute… No, no. Kaz is out of town, you promised her you’d ask permission first.

“Okay. I’ll let you know when I can move again,” I promised, sitting down to meditate on the fight and see if I could remember anything useful I’d done in it.

That was another way to learn, after all. Rojā taught it to me. I was still getting the hang of it, but-

Suddenly the Dojo’s intercom crackled to life. “Mister Periwinkle, please report to the Elder’s cabin,” a mare’s voice announced. “Mister Periwinkle, please report to the Elder’s cabin.”

Tamiko frowned, genuine sadness filling her soft features at the sound of those words.

“Dammit, I have to go… We’ll pick this up tomorrow,” she said as she immediately sheathed her weapon before turning and sprinting off towards the rear of the Dojo, leaving me staring after her in confusion.

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

“Wait, I don’t remember a Code Periwinkle that year,” the shadowy mare said with concern, making Rojā fumble for his remote as he hastily paused the playback.

Rojā nodded sharply. “There’s a good reason for that, Ma’am. It was faked. I’m certain you remember my report from the incident?”

The mare paused for a few moments then shook her head. “I’m afraid I do not. It has been a few years, and while the Imminent Danger warning is something that sticks in your mind… Well, I’m me.”

“I imagine a pony in your position would occasionally forget about a few incidents. Nopony is an encyclopedia after all,” Rojā said with a sympathetic smile. “To refresh your memory, an enemy agent broke into the communications protocols and issued a report stating that a terrorist group was going to be attacking a Mana Reactor in Stable that evening.

“I mobilized the entire team to handle it, as the orders for us to deal with it seemed authentic. When we arrived, we were attacked by a group of unmarked special forces. We never found out who they were, but rather than trying to blow the city’s plant, the trap was exclusively meant to destroy my team.”

The mare hummed once then rapped her off against the arm of her chair in recollection. “Ah! Yes, now I remember that incident. I’m glad none of you died. It’s hard enough to replace experts. It’s far worse when those experts are like family to you. I still think one of Venisneighla’s Mageocrats was behind it...

“Back on track, why is this important? What makes this your case’s meat?”

Rojā smiled darkly. “Because while the cat’s away, the mice will play, Ma’am. With all of us gone, Sherbert learned she had made blood enemies…”

Sherbert - 15th of Harvestide 26

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

Today had gone from normal to weird in a hurry. I had no idea where the Masters had vanished to, or why. Obviously, it was some sort of emergency, but after I spent three hours wandering the grounds with my weapon out, looking for intruders, a fourth year came up to me and said that the last time that code was used, the Masters had left the Dojo completely.

So I’d just sort of gone back to my room and resumed working on my science report.

It felt so weird to not be training. I’d spent the whole morning on a day I didn’t have to go to school NOT hitting things. I’d tried to use the training posts, but I just wasn't ready to self-teach yet. I still needed guidance. There was nothing I could do that would have been a wise use of my time.

Except for this report. So that’s what I did. It was done now though. And it was just barely sunset.

Free time is now time, I guess. But what to do with it?

I sighed and leaned back in my chair, the wood creaking loudly as I moved.

“Are you stuck on something? I’d be happy to help,” Ash said without looking up from her own work.

She’d spent the day at her desk too. But that was normal for her. What with being an enchanter and all.

Actually, that should be 'what with her being an inventor and all'. She had a cutiemark for inventing things. That's what the stylized PCB shaped like a cog with a crystal set in the center on her flanks meant.

Ash had a few actual products for sale in real stores. I knew because I sort of was getting the profits from them now... At least for a few days till my bank transferred the money into her old accounts. Which I’d given her access to again.

Stupid evil nation laws. I was starting to kinda like Ash. As in, Like. She was sweet. I needed a way to not do this to her.

“Not really. I just have nothing to do now, and because I was expecting to have things to do today, I didn’t really plan any free time. Rojā and I were going to do nocturnal stealth training tonight, and my friends are gone sooo… Yeah. I haven't had to entertain myself for a while. I honestly can’t remember what I used to do,” I explained simply.

I really couldn’t too. I knew I had hobbies I just… Neighponese schools were stupid hard! And gave out so much homework it should be called torture! I thought that by freeing up my nights by eliminating sleep it would be a cure all. Nope! Turns out that was the minimum needed to survive.

“I would be happy to do something for you,” Ash said in a dead tone which I knew meant she would actually be really upset if I asked her to do anything for me at the moment.

“Ash, I don't care what your law says. You’re just my roommate. I can’t order you to do shit,” I protested.

“You totally can. Cuz my laws apply to me,” she grumbled, her ears folding.

I frowned suspiciously. This wasn’t normally how Ash behaved. Something was up…

“What’s wrong?” I asked her as kindly as I could.

She groaned in frustration. “I don’t want to talk about it, it’s rude,” she tried to dismiss.

I raised an eyebrow. “Ash, please, tell me. You’re upset. You need to talk things out.”

“Fine,” she sighed. “I hate your aunt Ayna. She’s a rotten bastard who's a total ass to DIY people who need high capacity instant discharge mana-batteries.”

I blinked twice. “Umm… What exactly is the problem?” I asked.

Ash turned around and held up the bracelet section of her project for me to see. The bracelet had a two-centimeter thick section that bulged out of one side. The bulge housed some micro electronics and a small lattice of arcane components which joined with the electrical parts in a way which I’d never seen before. Probably because it wasn’t Uncle Sky’s design. Or even based on his stuff.

The bracelet continued to float in her arcane grip as she gently slid the components free of their housing, and separate them out into a strand, the device’s guts having been wound up tightly. At one end of the string was a receptacle for the little cylinder capsule thing, at the other end, a SkyTech Arcane Ultracapacitor.

I knew those! Ayna invented them. They somehow held enough arcane power to perform six teleportations, and could be recharged within a mere eight hours exposure to the local ambient thaumaturgic current! I didn’t think Sky actually sold anything using them...

“So, my card game doesn't sell nearly well enough for me to be able to build my own rose quartz Ultracapacitor,” Ash began with a grumbling flick of her ears. “So I had to buy one of the deluxe SkyTech brand watches and cut this one out of it. No idea how you guys sell them so cheap when they have one of those!”

I frowned. “Card game?” I asked, already totally lost.

“My parents would fund my college and my stay at the Flying Horse Dojo, but not my project,” Ash said, turning her invention this way and that in her arcane grip, clearly still working on it despite talking to me. “I invented a card game to make money to fund this. It’s a simple game. It's basically a trading card RTS where each card is enchanted to produce little illusionary figures, buildings, or landscapes that battle or build as the cards dictate. But that’s not important!

“What’s important is that your Aunt is a total dick! These Ultracapacitors were made for exactly one standard of device. They output power at a highly specific rate, which is supposed to be modulated by a control chip. I don’t have that chip, nor the equipment required to reprogram the one from the watch I got this from. So I used a few transmutation tricks to make my own arcane equivalent to the chip.

“I thought that would work fine, but it’s not! I can’t precisely calibrate the energy levels to the required rates for safe operation. I mean, it will work, but it won't be stable in this configuration. It could cut out while in use, or misapply one of the spells when executing one of the two operations.

“Which is VERY BAD because the spell this device casts for me is a super complex transmutation of my own design. It could really mess you up to use right now, we’re talking WORSE than kill you.

“If your Aunt had made these to international standard, I could use simple spells to adjust the Ultracapacitor itself and bring it to spec. But noooo! It’s all proprietary horseapples up in here! Don't megacorps know that sometimes the little guy needs to scrap their stuff for parts? I'm nice to them! I buy their stuff cuz it's great stuff. They should be nice to me too!”

I nodded, sympathizing if not fully understanding the exact problem. I wasn’t dumb, I understood she was having power problems because SkyTech isn’t exactly open source. But it seemed like she was smart enough to find a way around it.

“Well, what’s this thing even do? All you’ve told me is that you’ve spent ten years on the project and it could kill you if it exploded in your face… And now that it’s got something to do with transmutation,” I asked hoping that by getting her to talk about the project she would find a solution.

Ash’s eyes lit up as I expressed interest. “I didn’t tell you? Sorry. Well, I had this idea ages ago while I was learning transmutation for the first time. I’d already mastered hobbyist grade enchanting, and I realized that with some very tight electronic based timers you could make a spell matrix which would function better than a unicorn ever could do on their own.

“While looking into that I discovered spell amps, battlemages tend to use them. But then I thought about the design of amps themselves and realized that with some very minor tweaking you could make an amp into a single purpose spellcasting engine that could produce one effect at extremely high energy levels.

“That had been done, but what hasn’t been done before is taking lots of spell amps, and hooking them into a computer controlled system which allows for-”

Ash trailed off as she realised my eyes were starting to glaze over from Technobabble poisoning.

Coughing awkwardly into her hoof, she pointed at her invention. “This casts about three hundred spells at once. Most of them are transmutation effects.”

“Okay, and what do those do?” I asked, still eager but now weary. “And um, I know I’m a unicorn, but pretend I know nothing of anything beyond Tier One spells.”

Ash winced. “Ouch… That’s foal grade… Um, well that’s the reason I was attending the Flying Horse. It’s also why I was still a first-year student when I quit, despite being there for four years. See, they require you pass an exam to move onto the next training year. But I wasn’t learning martial arts moves. I was there for access to their library on ancient ninja spells.

“Never learned any actual fighting skills. Heh… Though I can box! I do like sport fighting. That’s fun! But you know, I wasn’t really there specially to learn how I could-”

Ash was cut off as the room’s window shattered into a million pieces as a pony completely covered in dark red gi exploded through it. I ducked, instinct saving me from having a sai thrust into the back of my head. Instead, the ninja landed on my desk.

Before I could even think about reacting to that the wall next to the window evaporated into a sea of bright blue crackling magical sparks. A second deep red clad pegasus ninja charged over the rubble, a spear aimed for my shoulder.

I grabbed my naginata with my telekinesis, and hurled it point first at the second attacker. He failed to deflect the blade, which sliced along his shoulder, cutting deep enough to make him drop with a scream and pass out from the pain.

I’d pass out too if I’d been hit with a blunt practice blade hard enough to slice like that. Or rather, rip.

The first ninja spun around, rearing up in order to take a kama out from his gi and spin it intimidatingly.

“Don’t buck with house Xii, deadmare!” The ninja shouted as he swung the kama at me.

I pulled away. Too little, too late, the kama sliced into my barrel, opening up a nasty gash. It hurt, but it was a pain I was used to. Tamiko’s blades were never dull.

Offering my second master silent thanks for stealth-teaching me how to handle pain, I jumped backward out of my chair, landing on my bed. Still trying to process exactly what was going on. Two seconds ago everything had been sane!

The hostile ninja leapt from my desk, knocking it over in the process. His kama and sai aimed to strike lethal blows. I reared up, pulling my forelegs into a blocking stance.

Left hoof, sai. Blocked! Right hoof, his kama holding hoof. Blocked!

I snapped my right hind leg up, ramming the point of my hoof into the ninja’s groin. To my despair, instead of feeling something pop, my hoof hit a steel cup. The kick knocked my attacker back, sending him stumbling off the bed, falling onto the overturned desk back first with a crush and a grunt of pain.

Okay. Ninjas. Attacking. Something about Xii- Oh shit! Retaliation strike for Mai being arrested!

They want you deader than dead! FINISH HIM!

I reached for my magic, channeling it down to my forelegs and letting it build for two short breaths. The moment I felt the charged magic tingle in my hooves I jumped off the bed, landing on my rear legs in a rather painful way, rushed over to my downed opponent and threw two punches straight down into his chest.

One, two punches, one a millisecond after another. The TK charge’s twin booms echoed off the intact walls of my room like thunder. I felt his ribs shatter. My desk broke in half as I punched him through it.

I took a second to check on my attacker. While gurgling and twitching, he seemed to not be in immediate danger of dying.

Which means he can still attack you. You turn you back and he will put a knife in it. Finish him!

My instincts were right. This was a serious attempt to murder me. I wasn’t safe till they were out cold or dead.

I drew back my right hoof and smashed it into his temple. The ninja went limp. Unconscious, dead, I didn’t care. Ash and I were safe now. The threat has been dealt with.

“Okay, we should report these bodies,” I said turning to Ash with a tired but satisfied smile.

Ash’s eyes widened in horror as she saw something behind me. “LOOK OUT!” She screamed.

Instead of ducking, I turned around. Like a bucking idiot.

The chain whip caught me right around the middle, binding for legs to my sides and yanking me through the hole in the wall in a flash. I landed with a painful thud at the hooves of a third attacker. This one a unicorn.

I grit my teeth and sucked in my gut to try and slip loose from the whip’s coils. The Unicorn’s horn lit up a bright plum, his chain whip crackled with electricity.

I couldn’t scream, the bolts of lighting the whip sent through me wouldn’t allow it. All I could do was thrash in silent pain.

The pain stopped after what felt like an eternity. I heard my attacker grunt. I couldn’t see too well, my vision was splotchy. Clearing rapidly, but splotchy. Like an LCD screen someone had squished in places.

What the hay had that shock done to my bionics?!

“Odd,” the third ninja remarked casually. “That shock should have killed you. Shall we try again?”

I took a deep breath, trying to focus my magic and rip the whip out of his forehooves grip. Nothing doing. My brain was still too traumatized from the electrocution. Complicated thought was right out.

My attacker knelt down to whisper in my ear. “Before you go,” he said condescendingly. “My master wished you know that making an enemy of him by imprisoning his granddaughter was what led you to your grave.”

“Leave her alone!” Ash bellowed from the hole in the wall.

The ninja chuckled. “Are you serious? The four-time failure thinks she can fight me? You’re barely okay at kickboxing. Be happy we let you quit and live,” he said slowly standing up and menacingly drawing a kusarigama from within his gi.

My vision snapped back to full HD clarity. Whatever had been messing with my eyes was gone now!

I could see that Ash was holding her project, having quickly reassembled it. She held it close, probably trying to protect it.

Keep him distracted, Ash. Maybe I can slip free of the chain and get him from behind with a TK punch. I started to slowly squirm searching for the direction the chain would go slack in.

Ash nodded once, extra sharply. “Yes. I did fail four times to pass your tests. But I wasn’t playing your game, so of course, I failed. Do you want to play mine?” She asked threateningly.

“Ha! Please. We have sixteen ninjas on the grounds right now. This whole place is under lockdown. I can take the time to pick you apart and turn you into your namesake,” the ninja mocked.

Ash held her left foreleg out and slipped the bracelet onto it, the three green gems set in its face blinking once as it slid around her hoof. I swore I also saw it shrink slightly to perfectly fit her, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Okay, you have a warded bracelet. Let me guess, shield charm? Big whoop. Your friend seems to have a portable shield generator too. But all defenses overload. Bring it, bakka!” He laughed, starting to while the ball and chain half of his weapon overhead.

Shield generator? I don’t have one of those. Is that why he thought I survived the shock? Must be all the pegasi DNA I- Wait, I’m all unicorn. How the hay did I-

Ash dropped the small silver capsule into her right hoof, and gave it a squeeze with her frog which made the capsule glow a dull yellow-white. An instant later, she slipped the capsule into the bracelets receptacle. The three gems blazed bright green for a single heartbeat, with the bottom one remaining lit.

“Charger… Engaged!” A synthetic male voice loudly announced from the bracelet as the middle light lit up green.

“You sure about that?” Ash asked, while her voice was iron, I could see worry in her eyes. “You really want to play my game?”

“Looks like I’m going to have to,” the ninja said with a slight bit of worry in his voice.

I could tell he didn’t know what the buck that thing did either, and now that he knew it wasn’t just a shield charm, well…

“Hit me with your best shot!” He said a second later, spreading his legs to take a more defensive posture.

I could feel the chain starting to give! Just another second and I could slip free!

Ash nodded again. I could see the sweat dripping down her forehead. She had been bluffing, and now she had been called out on it. She was completely terrified about activating that device. If I could see it, so could he. He’d attack soon…

Ash knew that. She had to.

Ash gulped, and moved the bracelet into position near her mouth, as if folding her leg across her barrel in salute. “Energize!” She commanded.

A lot of stuff happened at once, and only for the briefest of instants.

The ground below Ash lit up as if she were standing atop a bright green spotlight.

Her body sparked green as it was consumed by a green white-glow.

The air around her erupted in a fireball.

Magical energy cascaded away from her in a freakish maelstrom that even a non-unicorn would have been able to sense.

A visible heat ripple blasted outwards in a shockwave.

When the chaos was over, Ash stood where she had before, only now clad in a streamlined suit of black armor which rested somewhere between ancient and futuristic. Each plate was trimmed in silver, as was the broad slit, mirrored black visor on her helmet. A crimson lined black cape fluttered behind her.

Then the remainder of my bedroom wall exploded as a secondary fireball erupted around her. This time, I saw the arcane singularity which had exploded. Whatever the buck Ash just did was using mind numbing amounts of energy.

“D-did you invent a working super sentai transformation?” The ninja asked hesitantly.

“No, it’s a flashforge set of skill boosting power armor that- Um, yes! Kinda!” Ash boasted, the silver horn around her helmet shining gold as she levitated two swords out from under her cape and swept them up into an offensive guard. “Every single martial arts move performed in your dojo over the last four years was captured on film, motion mapped, and has been wired right into my autonomic nervous system using a mixture of alicorn pilot control spells, and transformation spells I learned in your library!

“I have the strength, speed, stamina, and agility of twenty ponies, and all the skill of your masters at my subconscious disposal. All while in enough power armor to face-tank a light mech! This is me playing MY game. Bring it!”

I stopped squirming out of the chain.

She’d invented an actual can of whoopass! That bucking brilliant, cheating, bastard! Why the buck didn't I just buckle down and make one of those!?

“How about no!” The Ninja said loudly, taking a step back.

His horn pulsed once. A bright flash of white light and a loud boom slapped me across the eyes.

“Aaaa!” I yelped, trying to blink the blinding light away.

When the light finally cleared, the ninja was gone. Looking through the now non-existent wall I could see that his two allies were gone too.

Ash was staggering around, still in her armor, moaning.

“Owww… Development log entry eight oh seven, visor doesn't actually protect against bright light as intended. Revise flashforge program,” she said in a daze.

Then her right pauldron exploded in a flash of bright green sparks, sending her hurtling through the air into the ruined wall with a crunch. Apparently, that impact was all her very cool, but very unstable, prototype could take.

The entire suit disintegrated into green sparks, some blackening the wall next to Ash as she began to shake and jerk in an obvious seizure!

I slipped free of the chain and ran to her side just in time to see her sit bolt upright and scream before falling back over limp and twitching more. The genuinely horrifying scene was only compounded by the way she looked up at me when I got to her, one eye moving, the other not.

“Ambulance… Please…” Ash whimpered, her body twisted in pain. “Also… Take note for… Me. Nervous system… Armor interface… Disconnect… Protocols… Need more work.”

Ash’s eyes closed, and her twitching stopped dead. Thankfully her chest kept moving. She was alive, barely.

I tore the cover off my watch and dialed the emergency number. Thankfully, the dispatchers picked up immediately.

“Civil Services. What’s the emergency?” The dispatcher asked.

“There's been an attempted murder. We need an ambulance and police at Kōmoriakademī right now! I don’t know if they all left,” I said in a panic.

My friend had been hurt! This was not okay! I was there, I should have been able to stop it!

“Stay calm, ma’am,” the dispatcher said gently. “We’re on the way. ETA three minutes.”

I stayed with Ash until the medics and police arrived. The cops wouldn’t let me go to the hospital with her. They needed to take my statement.

The moment I was able to come back home, I was going to make sure that nothing would ever stop me like that again. No one was ever going to make one of my friends hurt themselves or hurt them ever again. Not while I was around to stop it.

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

“I see what you wanted me to know,” the mysterious mare said as Rojā stopped the footage. “The Flying Horse, or rather Xii himself, declared a blood feud against her. Why didn’t her family intervene?”

“They did. Preemptively,” Rojā explained. “Or rather her uncle did. He installed a small shield generator in her watch. That’s what saved her from the electro-whip. I talked to him after the attack, since he was the pony Sherbert insisted I contact instead of her parents. Other safety protocols were arranged.

“For instance, her room was rebuilt using durasteel and shielded. I sent a personalized warning from Doctor Trigger to Xii as well, and more practically… Remember how I said Ash became a bodyguard? Well, now you know how. After we pried what the hay happened to that poor mare out of Sherbert, Doctor Trigger special delivered a proper power supply. Apparently, the one she had been using was a very good counterfeit. He also helped her fine tune her conjured armor.

“Incidentally, I copied the plans and sent them to you. Did you get them?”

“I did. I thought they were a joke. Because it’s an actual super-sentai transformation device,” the mare stated flatly. “I’m pretty sure I threw them away. I really hope you still have a copy.”

Rojā’s ears drooped in embarrassment. “No… There was a fire. Nothing malicious. Someone just wasn’t careful with a cigarette.”

“Damn,” the mare cursed. “See if Ash will sell the designs to us. I’ll have someone look for my copy. Maybe it’s squirreled away somewhere. Though I doubt it. I remember tossing them into a shredder and thinking someone sent them to me as a racist joke.”

“Well, in any case, measures were taken. And the event which allowed the dojo to be free to attack was a once in a blue moon occurrence. We felt it safe to allow her to remain, especially in light of a certain discovery about Sherbert and trauma. Did you notice, ma’am? It’s very important that you did,” Rojā informed adamantly.

“She experienced PTSD when a friend was gravely injured, but does not experience anything like that if she herself is harmed or in danger. Which means if one of her friends is threatened, she’ll take that threat even more seriously than something threatening her own life,” the mare replied. “I understand the significance of this, Rojā. And trust me, it does make me lean in your favor today.

“While there are some events I would like to see, such as Kazumi and Rin’s reaction to the attack, I am out of time. Is there anything absolutely critical which occurred between these events and the incident in question?”

Rojā paused and nodded. “There are a few things I would like to show you. How pressed for time are we?” He asked. “And what is the issue? Anything one of your spymasters should know about?

The mare paused for a moment, then nodded to herself. “I have an hour and thirty more minutes. The event is to remain quiet, but since your cell operates out of the at risk area… Naval scouts reported a migration of Kaiju off the coast six hundred kilometers south of Neighdo. Unfortunately, scans show several pregnant females, who are… Ready to lay.

“They will be coming ashore if the navy can’t drive them off. An evacuation is currently being planned. It doesn't yet seem necessary, the depth charges should work as usual, but I need to prep for possible takeoff in case things go wrong.”

Rojā stood silent for several long moments, using his mastery of emotional masks to hide his terror.

“It’s too bad they are two years too late,” Rojā joked nervously. “They were almost dramatically appropriate. Hundred year anniversary and all.”

“It will be fine, Rojā. The city has excellent defenses, and I’ll be there with the rest of the Imperial Squadron. Princess Luna is visiting Neighdo at the moment, so her security is there as well. And this is all hypothetical. The Navy drives them away ninety-nine percent of the time.

“Now what did you want to show me?”

“Well, their eventual familial bond is important to my case. I’d like to show you Kaz and Ash bonding, how that led to Sherbert asking if Kaz would like to start a herd with Ash since she can serve as a stallion during estrus season and they both liked her, and the herd ceremony they had a short while after Sherbert and Kazumi got married,” Rojā said simply.

The shadowy mare sat bolt upright. “Sherbert is MARRIED to Kazumi?” She demanded.

“Yes ma’am,” Rojā affirmed. “Has been for two years now. The day of the attack is also their anniversary. That seems to have been planned.”

“And she’s in custody for this despite the Family Protection Act of-”

Rojā shook his head violently. “Ma’am, she’s NOT a Neighponese Citizen. She’s not protected by those laws. She’s under the protections and responsibilities of her student visa. I wouldn’t be here asking for your help if-”

The mare raised a hoof, gesturing Rojā to stop. “Captain, how long is the footage of the attack?”

“About thirty minutes, Ma’am,” he replied.

“And the moment when they profess their love, and the marriage?” she pressed.

Rojā stroked his chin with a hoof for a few moments. “If I skip some smaller moments in the ceremony… We can squeeze that in,” Rojā decided.

“Then do it. A good love story on the eve of battle- WAIT! If they are married, how is Sherbert not legally a Neighponese citizen?” The mare demanded.

“Oh. It was an Equestrian ceremony, Ma’am. So it’s actually Kazumi’s citizenship that changed. And well, Ash’s would have as well. But the obvious circumstances…” Rojā sighed.

The mare closed her eyes for a moment. “She wants to live with Sherbert enough to leave her homeland behind… It’s so romantic, but tragic. If they’d only decided to just file immigration papers when Sherbert was ready to leave… None of this would be a problem.”

Rojā nodded once. “Yes, ma’am. The law is often a double edged sword. That’s why we exist, isn’t it?” he asked.

She nodded in agreement. “That’s exactly why my family will never dissolve your organization. Now, as I was saying, A good love story on the eve of battle is one of the best reminders of what we’re fighting for. Captain Rojā, show me their special day!”

“Yes, my Emperor,” Rojā said with a bow as he cued up the footage.

“I thought you knew better than to refer to me by title over the Dark Web, Captain,” the Emperor reminded.

“Sorry. Just a bit nervous. Any migration that size will have a few Class Fives in it,” Rojā said with an embarrassed blush before hitting play.

13 - What is Love?

Sherbert - 6th of Plantation, 27 AE

Ponyville - Equestria

“Okay,” Kazumi said slowly in Neighponese while she looked up at me with a worried frown. “But.. Just, please run that by me one more time.”

I groaned and ran a hoof over my eyes in exasperation.

I’d been so happy when Kazumi said she wanted to have our wedding in Equestria so she’d be a citizen. It meant she was serious about being with me.

In terms of marriage, Equestria was weird by Neighpones standards. Most other cultures don’t actually marry for life. Heck, if we got married in Neighpone it would be for just twenty years, with a ‘renewal ceremony’ at the end if we wanted to continue.

Not to bash other cultures, but that doesn't quite say love to me. Which is why it meant so much to me that Kaz wanted to have our wedding here, under Equestrian law. She was saying she wanted to be with me forever. Just like how I wanted to be with her forever.

Sure, we were young. Really young by most ponies standards. I wasn't a full legal adult yet. Just two and a half years left to go. But, I was still old enough to marry. Furthermore, we worked well together.

We’d been dating for two years. To most, that would be an insanely short time… But because Kaz had never found an apartment she could afford, we eventually moved into one room at Kōmoriakademī together. We’d lived together as a couple for most of those two years. We worked. We were happier. It felt right.

Unfortunately, Kaz was having the hardest time ever acclimating to Ponyville. I really couldn’t understand why she couldn’t understand why certain arrangements had to be made for our wedding today. It’s really quite simple.

“I’ll do it one more time. But then I have to go and talk to my parents for a bit,” I said as I bent down to give Kaz a kiss on the lips to apologize for getting irritated with her.

Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself to repeat the explanation for the fifth time.

“Okay, so because Princess Twilight is my aunt, she will be attending the wedding,” I said.

Kazumi nodded, instantly interrupting. “Yes, I understand that. But why do they need to-”

I closed my eyes tightly. “Please, just, listen closely, okay?” I asked as I resumed yet again. “I had to invite my Uncle too, and because the invitations have a Plus One so you can invite a friend to go with you- Oh! About that those, Plus Ones have to bring wedding presents too, it’s tradition. Awesome, right?

“Anyways, since my Uncle is coming, that means he invited Princess Luna because they go way back. And since Luna is coming, Princess Celestia will probably come too. I mean, she’s technically invited to every wedding by law as they are all in her name. This means that our wedding has three of the four Crown Princesses attending it.

“Oh! No! Aunt Twilight invited her brother as her plus one, which means that Princess Cadence will be coming with him. So we will have all four members of the Crown, and the Elements of Harmony, all in one spot, which happens to be Ponyville.”

Kazumi nodded and held up her hoof. I nodded, “Go ahead.”

“I get that. I’m not dumb. I understand that when two sovereigns are in one place there needs to be security. But Twilight’s entire Legion is here. That HAS to be enough. Why are your Uncle’s crew installing temporary anti-aircraft batteries, and radar installations, and what I think is a plasma lance turret, at strategic locations all around town?”

“For protection,” I repeated dryly. “Because we’ve got all of the-”

“Yeah! ALL OF THAT, and even more! A whole battalion of your Library Wizards are setting up magical traps, barriers, wards, and defenses to supplement the half a platoon of military hardware your Uncle is deploying. That’s just overkill! They’re alicorns, they can handle themselves, right? WHY!? What could be so bad they CAN’T handle it?” She asked eyes almost unfocusing from her extreme confusion.

I blinked. “Um, because it’s Ponyville. And we’re having a wedding in it. Like you asked,” I answered. “What part of that don’t you get?”

“Obviously the core concept!” Kazumi snapped in frustration.

I sat down to gently hug her to my barrel. “I’m sorry… I just, I mean this is Ponyville. You have to know about the stuff that happens here all the time!”

Kaz hugged me back and sighed into my fur. “Yeah, you have lots of monster problems here because of the everfree, and then people exaggerate them until you have nonsense like ‘One time the town was devoured by parasprites’,” Kaz huffed.

I raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “Um, no. That happened,” I corrected.

Kaz took a step back and blinked. “Really?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Well, okay…” Kaz said with a frown and an accepting nod. “But there’s no way that the mythical spirit of Chaos attacked the town-”

“He did! Twice, actually. He lives here now. It’s okay though, he’s cool. He’ll be Fluttershy’s Plus one. They’re kinda life partners,” I answered casually.

Kaz blinked.

“What?” I asked with a frown.

“So um, when Nightmare Moon returned from the moon… Also true?” Kazumi asked, wide eyed.

I nodded. “Yep!”

“So… I know that the whole Tartarus gate thing happened, and that Tirek happened… But um… What else?” Kaz asked, her ears flicking nervously.

“Let’s see…” I said, sitting down and tapping my hoof to my chin as I tried to recall a few dozen history lessons. “Spike once went mini-kaiju. Um, that time Pinkie cloned herself! Everypony says that was really devastating to the town. Then there’s the time my Aunt Trixie was possessed by King Sombra because she put on his phylactery and he took over the town via slowly corrupting her.

“There’s the time Rarity was possessed by dark magic which drove her to transmute half the town into fashion vomit. Oh! There’s the time a cute donkey couple got married here, that involved a bugbear attack and apparently somepony jumped a shark. So I guess there were landsharks too. Which is pretty scary.

“We had some Yaks try to start a war here, but that barely counts. We’da atomized them. But shortly after that Princess Luna accidently let some kind of dark magic based dream power having creature loose and it attacked Ponyville.

“Then there was the time Chrysalis attacked Ponyville to get revenge on Aunt Twilight, and wound up kidnapping my mom and her friends. The time it was besieged by a colossal book eating worm. Ummm… There’s a LOT more.”

I shuffled my hooves on the wooden floor. “Thing is, I just don't remember the specifics. But I could tell you about my parents wedding.”

Kazumi shook herself once, then blinked. “Okay. Hold on. What you’re telling me is that MOST of the completely horseapples sounding stuff about this town actually happened!?”

I nodded again. “Yeah! Heck, there’s a hiveless changeling living in town who actually managed to calculate the statistics behind Ponyville Disasters enough to get a fairly accurate weekly forecast going. We can flip on the radio if you want to know about the wedding preparations. The disaster forecast channel is Ninety-three-point-six FM.”

“T-that channel wasn’t a joke?” Kaz asked, seemingly shellshocked.

I nodded and looked around the room for the radio I knew had to be in out hotel room someplace. Spotting it by the bedside lamp, I quickly tuned it and then switched it on with my telekinesis.

“-vening,” a stallion’s voice said, tone indicating the closing of one story. “This just in! Due to today being a Plausible Disaster Day, Iron Shod’s Hardware will be selling all wood based construction materials, and drywall, at sixty percent off starting tomorrow morning at five sharp.

“For anypony not in the loop, today’s Plausible Disaster is the marriage of Orange Sherbert and Kazumi Hattori. Given Sherbert’s lineage, our resident Forecasting Master, Meep of Amber, pre-recorded the prediction for all of you wonderful ponies last night.”

Kazumi’s ears drooped as the familiar low buzzing changeling mare’s voice took over for the stallion.

“Tomorrow’s wedding is between one of our own, Orange Sherbert. As the daughter of a retired adventurer and Wizard, and with a member of the CMC as her mother, with blood ties to two of the Elements, her getting married alone carries a Risk Factor of seven.

“As her bride to be is a foreigner from a far off land whom she met while training to be a ninja, yes really, that ups the factor to a nine. Further complicating matters is that her bride, one Kazumi Hattori, is a doctor, as well as a little little-pony, who is by all accounts adorable but totally a Tsundere. Since that’s very tropey, we have a Discord factor of point three.

“Finishing off the union specific details, they seem to have a true love thing going on. Not quite a Cadence-Shining level factor, we’re talking several steps down, but within the same order of magnitude. This gives us a final Initial Risk Factor of nine point seven five.

“As many of you are aware, the Elements of Harmony will be in attendance at the wedding. What’s more it seems that all four Princesses are attending. Seeing as how the last time those nine ponies attended a wedding here, the town was attacked by a rogue griffon war band- Oh, wait that was Sherbert’s Father's wedding. Better make that a nine point eight.”

I turned down the radio volume. “Huh, that’s right. Yeah, this one should be about a nine point eight,” I said with a half worried half proud nod.

“I have no baseline for that number,” Kazumi squeaked.

“Tirek was a ten, Tartarus was a fifteen,” I explained, turning the radio back up.

“- all factors considered, we have an eighty two point three percent chance of a nine point eight IRF Disaster occurring tomorrow, with a spike in probability to eighty six percent when they kiss. Probable disasters include-”

I clicked the radio off. “Let’s leave that a surprise,” I said with a nervous giggle.

Kazumi looked at the radio, and then at me. Back to the radio, and then once more to me.

“I just realized,” she said, the fur on the back of her neck standing up. “You turned on the radio, and it just instantly played something that is actual exposision for what we are doing right now!”

I nodded. “Yeah. I mean, we wouldn’t have had to listen for long. They repeat the day’s forecast every fifteen minutes.”

Kazumi shook her head. “No! No you turned it on and INSTANTLY the thing we needed was said. That only happens in stories!”

I raised an eyebrow. “Um, Kaz-”

Kazumi's tail stood bolt upright. “Those calculations! She was factoring in narrative tropes. This town works on book-logic!”

I frowned, then sturged. “Um, I wouldn’t say so, but… Yeah? The level of drama does factor in to-”

Kazumi jumped up and ran over to her suitcase, throwing it open and practically ripping her saddlebags out of the case, immediately removing her two Hoof Cannons from their concealed holsters.

“What are you doing?” I asked worriedly.

“I’m going to field-strip and clean these to ensure they can’t jam! Then find a way to conceal the holsters under my wedding dress!” Kaz replied with a semi-panicked swish of her tail.

I rolled my eyes and facehooved. “You don’t need to do that kind of stuff anymore. Not like, since I was eight. Aunt Twilight finally cracked down and put up good defenses so citizens don't really have to fight or anything. Besides, Ponyville has the lowest death rate of any Equestrian city.”

“Yes, but that myth that this town is cursed to work like a fictional story is clearly true, and under that assumption, you have the leaders of your nation along with everyone who would be considered a main character in your nation’s story all in one place!” Kaz replied. “It doesn't matter how safe the place is made, there’s going to be... I- I don’t know. Sombra reforming in the middle of town. Or something!”

I bit my lip to stop from saying something along the lines of ‘That would be awesome!’ Nopony got to see Twilight take on Sombra last time. A rematch would be badflank!

Poor Kaz was already having enough problems adjusting without realizing that we peasants watched the monster fights for fun. No need to let her know about the club that turned the disasters into movies to watch later. Or how at this point everypony in town could rebuild faster than most professional construction workers, so it wasn’t a problem for things to break, just an annoyance.

“Look, if it does work like a book, that means the good guys always win and-” I paused trailing off for a few seconds. “Huh… They do. Well, that aside, it’s really nothing to worry about.”

“I’m still carrying these,” Kazumi said adamantly.

I shook my head slowly. “It will be fine, but if it makes you feel safer, go ahead. Will you be okay? I need to say hi to mom. I promised I would before the ceremony. Cuz you know. Parents tagging along on a honeymoon sucks.”

Kaz nodded twice as she produced a small tool kit from her saddlebags and took out a screw driver. “Yes. I’ll be okay as soon as I’ve disabled the safety locks and slaved the magebane modification to the armor piercing incendiary rounds so they both apply to the same shell, and enabled select fire functionality.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why don’t you ask Sky for a forcefield generator belt while you’re at it?” I teased with a grin.

“That’s a good idea, actually,” Kazumi said, giving me a grateful smile. “Thanks for helping. I’ll meet you at the altar in an hour. Does your uncle make armored dresses?”

I rolled my eyes. “Kaz, you come from a nation where building sized monsters climb out of the sea to eat you. Come on...”

“Yeah, RARELY! And that’s never happened to my city in my lifetime. And we have hundreds of Mechs with allegedly a quarter of an Alicorn’s power on standby at all times to deal with them! This is a rural village in the middle of nowhere protected by infantry. And not even Mobile Infantry.”

I nodded and gave her one last kiss on the cheek. “Yeah. It is. But seriously, don’t worry. If it were really dangerous, there wouldn’t be a whole town of people living here,” I pointed out as I turned to leave. “See you in a little while!”

“Actually it’s BECAUSE it’s dangerous that people live here! Don’t you read fantasy novels?” Kaz called after me as I left the room.

I shook my head slowly and smiled. She’d get used to it sooner or later. Whatever it was, if it happened in Ponyville, it wasn’t a real problem.

I quickly left the hotel and headed for my parent’s house. It was weird to be in Ponyville again. I’d been away for such a long time that the place looked a bit alien.

Sure, I’d been living in a place that used lots of traditional architecture too, but there’s a huge difference in style. Wattle and Daub is very very different from jointed timber and pagodas.

It still felt like home though. The cobblestone roads, thatched roof buildings, and whimsically designed edifices every business sported made me smile. Though I was missing the modern touches I’d gotten accustomed to. Even the Uneigh Ward you saw the ocasional satellite dish bolted to a roof and then decorated to look more ancient.

But Ponyville? Sure she had more brick and stone buildings now, and some glass accents here and there, but everything was still… Primitive feeling.

I was tempted to run through town like I used too, but today it felt nice to just walk normally. The hotel was only fifteen minutes away. Running would cut that down to three but… Yeah the walk was nice.

I got to go down Spur Street again! If only I had time to stop at the Quesadilla Shack for lunch. Man I was starting to miss Equestrian food. I always liked ordering Neighponese was a younger filly, but after eating it for years straight… I could go for a burger. Or maybe even pop into a griffon restaurant and go for a steak.

But I didn’t have the time for such a nice break from the routine, and instead continued on to the clinic.

I smiled when I arrived. The big, boxy, two story, C-shaped building was a bit ugly on the outside, but I loved it. How could I not? It was my home.

It didn’t look like much had changed in the two and a half years since I’d left. Dad put a fresh coat of paint on the clinic portion. Mom had tended to the front gate, scrubbing off the rust. Just minor touch ups.

I took a few steps towards the gate before getting an idea. A fun idea!

I’d been gone for a few years now. Learning ninjutsu. Shouldn’t I show mom and dad that I wasn’t wasting my time?

Yes. Yes I should!

And I could! Since Ash and Rin were helping Sky setup defenses, I was on my own. That rarely happened these days.

Yeah! I could sneak in, make them some sandwiches, and then say hi! Heh, this would be f-

“Hey, blankflank,” the most familiar and hated voice in the world called out to me, full of so much smug the words sounded wet.

Ash. Not my Ash. The dipshit little bullying punk. Ash Meadow.

I turned around slowly, doing my best to keep a disinterested look on my face. She’d aged well. Same short mane and tail. Same pretty shimmery tan fur. Same elegantly thin horn. But generally better looking.

Shame under that hot there lay only jerk.

“Don’t start anything you’ll regret,” I said blankly, intending that to be all I said to my old bully.

“Regret? I never regret anything,” Ash Meadow chuckled. “I just thought I should find you and point out, well, you know, that marrying a half sized ugly mare is a whole step beyond what I thought you could ever achieve! Congrats!”

My eyes narrowed.

“Seriously?” I asked half angrily, half incredulously.

“Absolutely!” She said with a genuine smile. “A no-name blank flank marrying anything other than a lame griffon or something is-”

Okay. Done.

I reached out to my second implanted gem. Master Rojā gave it to me as a wedding gift. Line of sight, fifty meters max. More than enough for this job. I didn’t expect I’d be using it so soon.

My magic found the gem. I activated it. From Ash Medow’s perspective, I would have just vanished. No flash of magic, thaumaturgic signature just barely above the background, no sound, nothing. I was just gone.

From my perspective, I teleported directly behind her.

“I know where you sleep,” I whispered into her ear, and then teleported again.

I instantly arrived on the rooftop of the clinic, dropping down the half meter to hide behind the barrel high safety-wall.

I peeked over the top, holding back a snicker as I watched Ash wheel around in surprise, looking for me desperately behind her.

I teleported again, returning back to her blind spot.

I tapped her back with a hoof, just to the left of the spine. Fourth lumbar down. The abdominal aorta.

“Dead,” I whispered, again teleporting away instantly afterwards.

I waited on the roof of the house across the street, assuming she’d turn around again. Instead she went white and just stood there, locked up. Good.

I teleported one more time, arriving in front of her by ten paces.

“You can keep being a total jerk to me, if you want,” I said as I walked past her towards the clinic. “But if you insult Kazumi again, well...”

Leaving the threat hanging, I reached for my illusion gem with my magic, and made myself look like a faily generic stallion. Earth pony, no special colors, no extraordinary features. Plane old brown farm pony type.

Then I added a mailcolt’s uniform to the disguise.

“You’ll never know if you can trust someone to not be me ever again,” I informed, letting the illusion drop as I cheerfully trotted off.

I made it to the gates before breaking out into a huge grin. MAN that felt great! Too bad I wasn’t carrying anything on me right now. Throwing a kunai into the street in front of her after vanishing once would have been awesome.

Maybe she’ll think twice about being an asshole now.

Since I was a bit winded from the rapid fire teleports, I took the courtyard stairs to the roof. I could still give mom and dad a little demo… Though I was already in a pretty good mood.

Risk things by not living up to their expectations and lose the extra good mood? Or show off a bit?

Yeah. Show off a bit.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and focused hard on creating a really, really good illusion to wrap myself with. Doing a random pony was one thing, but imitating someone specific? Much harder. It had to be someone I knew very, very well.

And in this case, someone mom and dad knew very well too. Whose voice I could mimic. Even magic can only help change a voice so much without sounding.. Wierd.

Sadly, it couldn’t be Pinkie Pie. I could do her voice without magic easily, but well, nopony can copy her properly. Tartarus, no LING can copy her properly! There really was only one option.

Focusing my enetire will, I wrapped myself in an illusion of Uncle Sky. I made double sure that I’d gotten his fairly complex cutiemark right, adjusted it twice, cleared my throat, did a quick voice check, then trotted to the front door.

I knocked five times, waited a half second, then two more times. Had to mimic that silly reference Uncle Sky did when he knocked. Was I standing right? No! I was standing like me.

I just barely managed to change posture before the door opened, my dad’s slender forelegs instantly reaching out to hug me tight.

“That’s a really good illusion, Sherbert! I’m so happy you’ve gotten better with your magic! How have you been?” He asked instantly and super happily.

WHAT!? Buck! Where did I mess up!?

“But- How did-” I asked, eye wide.

“Window,” dad said with a smirk, pointing with one hoof to the large window next to the front door.

“Also, I’m over here,” Uncle Sky called from inside. “So you know. Bad choice.”

I looked through the doorway, and spotted Uncle Sky sitting in one of the living room’s overstuffed chairs. Along with mom. And Rin. And Ash.

“Und I installed a bioscanner on the door last year,” Dad added with a sheepish grin, his mismatched eyes twinkling mischievously.

I took a half step backwards as my face flushed red with embarrassment. “Uhhhhh, NINJA VANISH!” I yelped defensively, teleporting straight up, and then a second time so I could land atop the roof.

SISTERS DAMNIT!

“Hey, that’s good invisibility!” I heard Sky say from inside, sounding impressed.

“Nien, it’s not invisibility, she’s not here,” Dad said a second later. “She teleported! My little filly teleported!”

“No way she teleported,” Mom disagreed. “There wasn’t a scrap of magic in the air.”

“Could have used tech,” Sky pointed out.

My embarrassment left me as I listened in to their debate. I’d managed to impress them after all!

“Even your teleporters leave behind a bit of an energy signature. You can at the very least tell one of them was used recently,” Mom countered.

“Then she snuck away mundanely?” Dad asked, clearly confused. “Nahrina, was it? Can she do that? Mundanely vanish while you look at her?”

“Heh, no… She’s not that good,” he said politely. “She could vanish in a crowd easily, but aside from Master Yoshi, no one can just blink out like that. She teleported.”

“Without leaving a trace?” Mom asked skeptically.

I carefully crept across the roof, making sure to step so I wouldn’t make a sound. Then I lowered my upper body off the edge of the roof, and looked into the house through the top of the front window, picked a spot behind mom’s chair, and teleported once more.

“Gee, it’s almost like I’m learning to be a Shinobi,” I said with a grin.

Everypony jumped slightly. HA! Take that, dad! Now the windows are turned.

Mom turned around, raising her forelegs on the back of her chair as she gave me an impressed smile. “You’ve made a lot of progress. I’m glad things have been working out for you. Would you like something to eat before the ceremony? I think we have about half an hour before we need to go. We could all get something to eat and catch up. Your letters home only tell us so much!”

“I actually wanted to get a bite to eat on the way here!” I said with a cheerful smile. “Let’s go! There’s plenty of places nearby with quick-service.”

“I could go for some food too,” Sky agreed, before giving me a critical look. “But before we go.. This town ain’t big enough for two of me. You should turn that off.”

I looked down at my hooves, and blushed slightly as I noticed they were still brown. Quickly dismissing the illusion, I walked out from behind the chair. “It was good though, right?”

“Pretty good, but you made me brown. I’m not brown, I’m burnt orange,” Sky said as he stood up. “So where are we going to eat?”

“Someplace where no one starts debating your furcolor again,” dad said flatly. “We’ve debated that to death, und the answer remains ‘It depends on the lighting you’re under’.”

“No. It doesn't. I’m. Burnt. Orange,” Sky insisted. “I will pull up the chromatic spectral data I got from analyzing my fur. I thought we settled this once and for all!”

I couldn’t help but crack a smile. It felt great to be home again.

“You guys don’t have to get into the usual arguments just to make me feel more at home,” I said with a smile.

“Yes we do,” Uncle Sky and dad protested in unison.

Mom rolled her eyes and stretched her wings as she stood up. “Come on boys, walk and talk. I say we hit up the Quesadilla Shack. It’s your special day, Sherbert, may as well go to your favorite restaurant.”

Mom must have been trying to sabotage me! What was I thinking? Getting Mexicolt food from a griffon ran shop open to the street before standing still in front of a hundred ponies!

I shouldn’t have gotten the black bean soup…

At least everything looked nice. We were having the wedding in the town hall. I don't know why we didn’t just rename it the ‘community center’. I mean that’s what It had been ever since Aunt Twilight became a Princess. Everypony worked out of her castle now…

Silly outdated names aside, everypony had gone the extra mile on decorations. Rarity had her hoof in the planning of course. She did a great job mixing traditional Equestrian and Neighponese aesthetics to decorate the building.

We had chains of paper lanterns hung from the ceiling, plenty of white curtains, the traditional Equestrian red carpet, bamboo plants everywhere… It was nice. We should decorate our house like this in the future.

As for the podium itself, we’d put the usual wedding arch up, and somepony had the really neat idea to cover it in cherry blossoms. That had to be extra expensive this time of year. Well worth the money though.

The benches full of people buzzed with conversation. The ceremony was just a few minutes late. Not enough for anyone to think I was being left at the altar, but I could hear a few ponies wondering if Kazumi’s dress had ripped or something.

More interestingly to me, was the front two rows on each side. Thats’ where personal friends and family of the couple were supposed to sit. On my side, I had my whole family. Mom, dad, my Uncle, all of my aunts, and even a few members of Twilight’s Guard who may or may not have been ones I knew somehow.

It’s hard to tell clones apart, after all.

Then again, they were probably just Twilight’s personal security detail.

But Kazumi’s side? No one. Not one pony. It’s not like we had not invited her parents… I’d hoof delivered their invites. They’d taken them from me. They GOT their invitations.

At least I'd talked Pinkie out of getting some dummies to fill in the seats with. That would have made the poor mare feel worse.

At least plenty of townsfolk filled out the rear seats on her side.

While I debated getting a few of the real ponies in the back to sit up front, since THAT might work to make it look like some of her family were in attendance, a pegasi hovering by one of the town hall’s front windows waved her hoof. Kaz was coming!

Miss Breeze, Cadence’s bodyguard straitened up. She was going to officiate our vows since Cadence and Celestia wanted to watch. It did make me a little bit nervous to have one of Equestria’s more ‘classified’ warriors standing next to me, though she seemed very nice!

Besides, the bright white cloak she was wearing made her look a lot less intimidating. Also, she apparently had a second featureless chrome mask, but this one with a beautiful gold inlay of vines for special occasions. So it’s not like she was standing there in full war gear.

The small band started to play the usual wedding march. It sounded a bit odd though. Mixing the traditional brass band instruments with Neighponese strings… Not the best mash up. Still, it was a nice thought!

The doors opened, and I saw Kaz in her ‘dress’ for the first time. She looked gorgeous! She’d gone with a traditional wedding kimono, a simple white one, with another big brightly colored, floral patterned outer robe which covered her wings.

I had never seen one, but I’d read about them. The outer robe, it covered her wings as a way to say “I don’t want to fly away from you’. A traditional romantic phrase which was kinda clunky sounding in Equish.

I smiled at her as she began to walk up the aisle. While everyone remained politely quiet, I could see a few pony’s surprised faces as the took in her size. I knew nopony would say anything about it, I just hoped that poor Kaz wouldn’t be made to feel unwelcome by someone's warranted ‘woah!’

I mean, dwarf ponies were fairly rare after all. Not everyone’s seen someone like Kazumi before.

I wish we had time to rehearse the wedding… It’s hard to fit a wedding and a honeymoon into one spring break when you need two international flights in there as well.

Kazumi made her way up the aisle, and stopped beside me at the altar. She gave Breeze smile and whispered. “H-has the disaster struck yet?”

“Not yet, but don’t worry. This room is exceptionally safe,” the older mare applied kindly.

“But… Um… An armored warrior is the one asking for our vows,” Kaz whispered again.

“This isn’t armor,” Breeze said, equally as kind. “It’s merely something nicer for you to look at than burn scars.”

“Oh!” Kaz said a little loudly, her ears standing up in alarm. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to point out any disfigure-”

“It’s quite alright, you didn’t know,” Breeze applied, dipping her head slightly.

Kaz opened her mouth to apologize again, but Breeze cut her off by clearing her throat loudly and beginning the ceremony.

“Ladies and Gentlecolts, we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Orange Sherbert, and Kazumi Hattori. In the years they have been together, their love and understanding of each other has grown and matured, and now they have decided to live their lives together as wife and wife,” Breeze announced.

I always expected her voice to sound harsh. I mean, according to the official story she’d tangled with a dragon and survived. You’d think her throat would have been burnt too. But no! She had a super cool, melodic voice. That or a really good voice changer hidden in her mask.

“T-there are four alicorns over there…” Kaz whispered to me, still nervous but awestruck.

“Five. Apparently someling invited Princess Flurry Heart. She’s sitting on your side,” I said nodding slightly so Kaz knew where to look.

She turned, saw the tri-color Princess, and eeped.

“F-five?! What do I do? I don’t want to look like a bakka,” Kaz whispered urgently.

“Just get to the cake before Celestia,” I whispered back.

Breeze turned to face me. “Repeat after me,” she instructed. “I, Orange Sherbert, take you, Doctor Kazumi Hattori, to be my wife. I will be yours in times of plenty, and in times of want. In times of sickness, and in times of health. In times of joy, and in times of sorrow. In times of failure, and in times of triumph.

“I promise to cherish and respect you, to care and protect you, to comfort and encourage you, and stay with you, for all eternity.”

Oh-crap-the-doing-things-bit!

I cleared my throat and gently took Kaz’s left hoof in my own and gave it a squeeze. “I, Orange Sherbert, take you, Doctor Kazumi Hattori, to be my wife. I will be yours in times of plenty, and in times of want. In times of sickness, and in times of health. In times of joy, and in times of sorrow. In times of failure, and in times of triumph.

“I promise to cherish and respect you, to care and protect you, to comfort and encourage you, and stay with you, for all eternity.”

Breeze turned to face Kaz, and prompted her for her own vow. “Doctor Kazumi Hattori, repeat after me,” she instructed. “I, Doctor Kazumi Hattori, take you, Orange Sherbert, to be my wife. I will be yours in times of plenty, and in times of want. In times of sickness, and in times of health. In times of joy, and in times of sorrow. In times of failure, and in times of triumph.

“I promise to cherish and respect you, to care and protect you, to comfort and encourage you, and stay with you, for all eternity.”

“I, Doctor Kazumi Hattori, take you, Orange Sherbert, to be my wife. I will be yours in times of plenty, and in times of want. In times of sickness, and in times of health. In times of joy, and in times of sorrow. In times of failure, and in times of triumph.

“I promise to cherish and respect you, to care and protect you, to comfort and encourage you, and stay with you, for all eternity,” Kazumi vowed, returning my hoof squeeze with one of her own.

Yay! She remembered that was a tradition here!

Rin stood up from his chair on the left side of the altar, and carefully carried over the pillow holding the rings, holding them out between us.

Traditionally, a unicorn wore their ring on their horn, but since Kazumi wasn’t a unicorn too, I’d gotten us each a tail ring. They were simple silver bands. Noting elaborate. I knew Kazumi’s tastes. She’d hate to be stuck wearing some fancy thing around forever.

Picking up Kazumi’s ring with my magic, I held it out in front of her.

“I give you this ring as an eternal symbol of my love and commitment to you,” I said, finishing my part of the ceremony by gently sliding the ring down her tail so it would stick around the fleshy base.

Blushing slightly, Kazumi reached up, grabbed my ring, and whispered the same vow before trotting around to put it on for me, finishing the ritual.

Breeze nodded in satisfaction. Clearly happy that she now only had the most famous line to recite. Remembering exactly what to say must be hard when you’re the person who has to tell the people what to say.

“By the power vested in me by the Prince Ca-lestia,” she said, almost perfectly holding her slip up. “I now pronounce you-”

A massive crystal coffin exploded through the roof, sending bits of splintered wood and thatch flying everywhere!

The chunk of crystal landed in the middle of the room, crushing in a large chunk of floor to make a small crater.

Kazumi screamed in a blind panic and drew both her guns from under her outer robe, reared up, adopting a solid marksmare’s stance, and immediately but ineffectively begun to hose the coffin down with automatic fire!

Twilight and the Elements sighed wearily and began to stand up. I heard Dash call “Sherbert has great taste in Mare’s! That’s the coolest thing I’ve seen all week,” as they begun their pre-fight stretch.

Everypony else just sort of grumbled in annoyance and shuffled off to the side of the room to clear the area. More annoyed that they had to move than anything else.

The coffin lid shook and trembled violently as something inside began to smash it’s way out. Kaz’s guns began to beep loudly, overheating warnings flashing on the sides. She swore rather violently and dove for cover behind a potted plant.

The lid flew off the coffin, from which a tall, skeletally thin, light brown Diamond Dog in deep red sorcerer's robes. As the dog looked around, his green lensed goggles glimmered in the shadows beneath his hood as he loomed menacingly in the center of the room.

“Okay let's get this over with,” Twilight sighed.

Should I help them? I mean, I WAS training to be a hero, and my wife was sort of but not really in danger. I knew a little bit of real fighting, and that Dog looked pretty punchable…

Nah I’d just get in their way. Let the well oiled machine work without tossing a half-made cog into it.

“And lo, after centuries of frozen slumber I am free once more!” The Dog laughed in a booming yet raspy voice which echoed oddly, implying he used Dark Magic. “Cosmic infinity courses through my veins. My body is ablaze with astral charge! The galaxy shall once again tremble before the might of-”

Discord snapped his talon. The Dog vanished in a flash of white light. The broken roof was fixed. The floor was fine. All the decorations were back as they had been. He’d even moved Kazumi back to where she had been standing a moment ago.

“Somepony mark that spot! I sent him into next week. We’ll just take care of it then. Should take, oh, the usual forty five minutes,” Discord called loudly. “Consider that a wedding loan, Sherbert!”

Loan? He meant gift, right? Never mind that, time to comfort wife.

“See?” I said as I picked Kazumi up with my forelegs and hugged her tightly. “I told you it was safe.”

“I um… I sort of didn’t realize the implications behind a friendly Eldritch Abomination attending…” Kazumi admitted with an embarrassed blush.

I cracked a grin and nodded.

“-mare and mare,” Breeze finished as if nothing at all had happened. “You may now kiss.”

To my surprise, Kazumi stretched her neck and planted the first kiss on my lips while I held her.

I hugged her tightly until she broke the kiss, then gave her one of my own.

“Come on,” I whispered. “Let’s cut the cake before Princess Celestia gets too twitchy.”

14 - End of the Road (Tragedy Part 1)

CEO’s Office, Severn Valley Industries - Heartstrings, Marelund

1st of Plantation, 29 AE

The office’s outer wall could have been mistaken for a sheet of old steel. Smooth, glossy, reflecting the luxurious retro furniture which filled the sprawling room’s floor, and the vintage artwork which adorned its other three walls. The only hint of it not being made of metal was the simple fact that it was completely barren. With not one single decoration of any kind.

If Heartstrings were in any other nation on Equis, the wall would have been made from steel. It would have had to have been. But this was Heartstrings, the center of Marelund. The wall was in actuality a window.

A window looking out into the semi-permanent smog storm which engulfed Marelund’s capital, which had raged for the last nineteen lifetimes. Outside the city’s environmentally sealed buildings, a pony with the best eyes nature or science could produce might be able to see the hoof at the end of their outstretched leg. If they didn’t choke on the granular air first, since they’d have to take off their protective mask to see even that much.

One would wonder why a city in such a place would even have buildings with windows. Truth be told, most did not. The sheer expense of cleaning one made such seemingly simple things prohibitively expensive. Natural sunlight on those rare days was a princely luxury within these lands.

This was Heartstrings. This was the office of Mister Padock, the CEO Severn Valley Industries. This was a place few people wanted to be.

The office’s airlock hissed, and slowly opened, permitting two uniformed Pacification Agents to wheel in a single pony strapped to a dolly.

The agents were nothing special, black riot gear, full face gas masks with self-cleaning enchantments. More spellrods strapped to them then seemed either safe or necessary. The usual.

But the pony strapped to the dolly… She was something special.

Not many prisoners are transported bound in a full straitjacket and leg irons, while also muzzled, ratchet strapped to a steel framed dolly, and sealed with a large paralysis hex glyph sewn into the barrel of their jacket. Of those extremely few, most were unicorns, the rest were earth ponies of impossible strength.

She was a pegasus. A yellow one. With a matted, grungy, bright red mane and tail which looked as if they hadn’t been washed, let alone trimmed or styled, for three hellish years. For that is exactly what had happened.

The PAs wheeled the dolly up to the large dark colored wood and brass desk in the center of the room. The one on the left levitated a large packet of papers from his saddlebags and set them on the desk, well away from the other piles.

“Mister Padock? Sign here please,” the Agent requested.

The large chair behind the main desk turned silently, revealing a very ordinary looking unicorn. He had the most unusual sort of appearance. The sort nopony could remember for more than a few minutes after looking at him.

The most anyone ever remembered about Mister Padock was his black three piece suit. More specifically, the yellow tie he wore. It’s not every day you see a tie so ordinary and inconspicuous, yet so memorably unsettling.

Mister Padock plucked a quill pen from one of the inkwells on his desk, and quickly signed the papers presented to him.

“Are there any other forms?” Mister Padock asked with an aloof sigh. “This is an international purchase.”

“No sir,” the other Agent replied. “Central Processing takes care of that. She’s all yours. I recommend you have security unlock her. Here are the keys.”

The first agent reclaimed the signed papers while the second tossed a ring of three keys onto Mister Padock’s desk, followed by a small iron rod which would short out the paralyzing glyph.

“That will be all, Agents,” Mister Padock commanded, turning his chair back around.

The two agents nodded and wordlessly left the room. The airlock shutting tightly behind them, immediately sealing. After all, if that window broke, well... The gases outside were often quite toxic.

Mister Padock waited for several minutes before turning his chair back around, his bland eyes looking into the prisoner’s hardened, hateful, near-manic gray orbs. She expected him to blink. He didn’t.

His forgettable eyes seemed to stare right down into her very soul, meticulously analyzing every iota of her being with casual indifference. Her hateful eyes slowly widened, as with each passing second Mister Padock’s message became more and more clear.

He understood her as deeply as could be. And he found her to be… Disposable.

The mare broke eye contact, her mind needing to focus on anything other than the casual indifference to her existence this stallion exhibited. Her eyes found one of the many pictures on the walls. A simple painting, a black field with but a single odd glyph painted in a dull yellow.

A backward question mark pointing down. A fishhook-like swirl pointing up and to the left. A not quite straight thorn, almost like an exclamation point, pointing up and to the right. All arrayed in a triangular pattern, sharing the same splotchy dot as a point of origin. She knew that glyph well.

“My grandfather has the same painting,” Mai Xii said, doing her best to sound conversational rather than afraid.

She almost succeeded.

“Indeed he does,” Mister Padock agreed, his lips curling into a smile as Mai looked away. “Do you know what it’s trying to tell you?”

“I’m not into abstract art,” Mai dismissed gruffly, her eyes turning back to face her new owner.

“I see,” Mister Padock said with a nod steepling his hooves. “It is fortunate I did not purchase you to comment on my collection.”

“I didn’t even know that you could enslave a Neighponese Citizen,” Mai spat.

“I can’t. But I can buy Venisneighlan prisoners who have been given a life sentence to Exile’s Isle. Which is exactly what you are, legally. As we both know, legally is all that really matters in the end. You’re mine now, Miss Xii. But… I am willing to sell you back to yourself,” he informed, his eyes once again boring into her own.

Mai snorted. “That’s horse apples. Let me go, or I’ll get loose. I’ve killed bigger than you,” she threatened.

Mister Padock didn’t react to her threat in the slightest. Except to say, “I can hire anyone else for this job, Miss Xii. If you’re going to threaten me, I will put you to one of two alternate uses. You will not like them.”

“You won’t like my hooves in your eye sockets either,” Mai growled, attempting to lunge at the stallion in front of her

“Option one,” Mister Padock began, his voice slipping into a marketing pitch which sounded oddly hypnotic. “I radically surgically modify you, and give you to my eldest son for use as furniture in one of his storefronts.”

“Drop dead!” Mai spat.

“Option two,” Mister Padock continued. “I alchemically paralyze, then augment you with rapid regeneration capabilities, and sell you to the Griffon Kingdoms as self-replenishing livestock.”

Mai didn’t have anything to say to that. She was too busy being stunned at how adamantly serious, yet blissfully casually she had been told of that fate.

Mister Padock leaned forward slightly. “Or, you can take option three. Which I think you will enjoy.”

“What’s that?” Mai asked nervously.

Mister Padock pushed his chair back from his desk and stood up, walking over to his occluded window as if to stare out at the cityscape.

“There is a particular pony my wife and I want dead,” he said matter of factly. “Three years ago, this pony became my daughter’s owner. The law is the law, and she foolishly broke it. It may seem barbaric to you, but here incarceration and reformation is as barbarism. Ash knew what would happen to her if she broke the law, and justice was served. I have no objection to that.

“What I object to, is her mistress has refused to allow her to contact her family. You see, I can’t let an asset like my daughter Ash Heap remain outside the family. While she never quite understood the way the world works, she’s a genuine genius. She would have increased our gross profits by twenty-five percent within a decade.

“I always intended to buy my daughter back, and simply have her work for me. But without her being free to contact me, I can’t negotiate the sale. I can’t contact her owner either. My letters to her come back marked as ‘Undeliverable: Spam’. For that to have happened, she must have received my letters, seen they came from her slave’s father, and then marked them as spam at the post office.

“Obviously, since her owner is a member of a family who owns a Megacorporation, she clearly has recognized those talents and is using them for her family’s benefit. But what she doesn't know, is how Bondscolt Law works. That’s where you come in.

“I want you to kill my daughter’s owner and her wife. With them dead, and having no offspring, my daughter will revert to being Government Property. I’ve already paid the bribes to have Ash sold to me upon her return to the system.”

“And then you let me go free?” Mai asked skeptically. “Any thug could do this. But you spend kami knows how much to buy me out of a prison isle, and drag me here for this spiel, instead of mailing some stupid colt five thousand credits and a spell rod?”

Mister Padock smiled, his teeth flashing white in his uninteresting, unmemorable reflection.

“I want her owner to die painfully. Only a cruel owner forbids contact with the slave’s family. I expect I shall have to heal torture-wounds upon Ash’s safe return,” he said coldly.

Mai frowned, the daughter’s name finally piercing the fuzzy depths of her mind from the time before her imprisonment.

“Ash Heap… I knew her. Useless bookworm. Spent all her time studying ancient ninja sorcery, but never used any of it in the ring,” Mai recalled. “If you think we were friends so I’d care enough to be extra artistic, you’re sadly mistaken. But I mean, I’ll still do it.”

Mister Padock smiled even wider. “Oh, no. I assure you, you’ll be as artistic as you can be. Furthermore, if you agree to take this job, not only will I set you free right here and now, but I will personally replace that wooden leg of yours with a cloned one, arm you, and send you on your way with a luxury dinner.”

Mai snickered. “Seriously? I’ve always seen everyone else as an idiot, but you really take the cake. You don’t pay someone before the hit. You do and they just walk off with the reward and you get nothing. Or they shiv you after you hand everything over and they take everything else your naive little plot owns… I kinda like this office.”

“Your targets are Orange Sherbert, and Kazumi Hattori,” Mister Padock said, still looking out the occluded window.

Mai froze, a sick smile twisting her face for several moments until… “Wait. That’s too good to be true. What’s the catch?” She demanded.

“No catch,” Mister Padock insisted. “I want them dead, you have the motivation, skill, and could shortly have the means to do it. If you do it, I will know it got done. You want them dead as much as I do.

“I’ve read the reports about what happened to you on that island. I know of the indignities you suffered because of Sherbert. Your grandfather may have written you off as useless, but well, I’ve always been known to find the proper use for all manner of salvage.

“Kill them, and walk free if you wish. Or, come back to me. I could use a competent assassin on retainer. But that will be your choice as a freepony should you take option three. As for options one and two, well…

“Harm one hair of my daughter’s mane during this job and you will wish you’d chosen of those options instead.”

Mai recoiled as much as her restraints would allow. Mister Padock’s threat had slammed into her with unnatural force, shaking her up almost as much as a physical punch to the gut. In that moment Mai knew one thing to be true.

If she tried to kill this stallion, she would fail.

“I’ll take the job,” Mai decided. “Where do I sign?”

Mister Padock nodded, seemingly bored. After all, the conversation had gone where it was always going to go. Right where he steered it. There had been no surprises.

“Excellent. The papers are all on my desk. Let’s get you loose.”

Sherbert - 6th of Plantation, 29 AE

Horsiekoshi High School, Neighdo - Neighpone

“I can’t believe we’re late,” I grumble to Kazumi as we walked down the hallway towards our homeroom. “First time in like, a year!”

She nodded once. “It happens to everyone sometimes.”

“You could have gone ahead with Rin and not been late too,” I pointed out.

She shrugged her shoulders. “We’re only ten minutes behind. It’s alright.”

I nodded once and looked around the empty halls. We’d make it in time for the tests, but being late to homeroom does mean you lose a few points off your homeroom grade… Eh, Kaz was right. I could spare them.

“We have the Math final tomorrow,” Kazumi reminded me. “Do you think you can pass it?”

Ugh. Don’t remind me.

I nodded. “Yeah. I’ll get at least a sixty percent. I’m more worried about the Chemistry final today. Master Rojā did a way better job explaining everything in Alchemical terms. I’m not sure I’ll remember the chemistry terms every time.”

Kaz gave me a smile. “Don’t worry about that. I’m sure that Miss Emiko will grade you on the results more than the method. Alchemy’s still perfectly viable after all.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But it’s much less precise for mundane reactions. Also, I’m not sure how I would write down atomic interactions using it. It’s more for- Heh, what am I saying this for?”

Kazumi laughed and flashed me a quick smile. “You’re getting better at thinking, Bakka,” she giggled. “In another year maybe you won't try to explain Alchemy to an Alchemist.”

I nodded. “Next year is going to be so weird,” I remarked.

“What, because you won't be in school anymore?” She asked as we rounded the corner.

“Yeah! The whole year will be nothing but training… And Master Rojā said I’m good enough to try and earn the Master title. So, it won’t be anything at all like what I’ve been doing. I don’t know what it entails, like, at all,” I said my ears drooping worriedly.

Kazumi stepped over just enough to gently press herself against my side. We both hated how our school forbade public displays of affection. But at least she could do that, and at least they didn’t have a ‘no couples period’ policy.

We forgot to check that one before marrying those years ago. That could have been an oops.

“Well, you get to choose your Mastery,” Kazumi observed. “What do you like more? Taijutsu, Naginatajutsu, or Hensōjutsu?”

“Humm,” I said as I let my mind drift back to my greatest achievements in the three arts I had down pat.

The sparring match Rojā and I had gotten into could only be described as insane.

‘Let’s take this some place interesting!’ He’d said.

Now we were fighting atop the fire escapes of two skyscrapers one district over, having engaged in a 3 kilometer long running dule.

I slipped between the safety railing bars, dodging the quick rear jab Rojā threw my way by flinging myself out into empty space. I curled my body inwards, rolling to sling my momentum forwards while throwing my rear legs outwards. My rear knees hooked the safety rail a floor below.

I jerked to a violent stop a good fifty-five meters above the street below.

Rojā vaulted over the railing, retrieving a grappling hook from his suit jacket up as he jumped. The hook caught the fire escape on the opposite side of the alley. He was fleeing!

But why?

I squinted, focusing my eyes on Rojā as he moved. His left foreleg! He didn’t grab the rope with it. It wasn’t hanging limply but was held in a rather stiff looking fashion as if he WAS holding the rope.

He was hiding an injury!

I knew that Rojā had a regeneration gem implanted in him. He’d be fine in a few minutes. But right now, I had an advantage.

I focused my magic, putting a good chunk of power into enhancing a jump. More than normal. I had to do this with two legs.

I grabbed the fire escape steel mesh floor with my forehooves and swung down, my rear legs sparking slightly as my magic filled my muscles. My hooves touched the skyscraper wall.

I jumped. I flew. A perfect arc from my fire escape to the one he was to land on. As I sailed through the air I charged a telekinetic punch, getting my finishing strike ready. Master Rojā’s eyes widened in surprise as I shot past him.

He knew it was over.

I landed neatly a top Rojā’s destination and held out the hoof I had not charged. He swung neatly into that outstretched hoof, letting me grab him by his tie. I drew back my charged hoof to punch and held it.

“I win,” I said confidently.

Rojā smiled proudly. “You do. Congratulations! There’s no more I can teach you. But we must do this again! It’s been forever since I’ve had a peer who was a proper match for me.”

Tamiko was becoming something of a major pain to spar with. The better I got, the more she liked me. As in, like liked me.

It would have been nice if somepony had told me her sex drive was linked to physical challenges BEFORE I decided to invest in weapons training!

It wouldn’t have been a problem if I liked her back, but for whatever reason, Tamiko just didn’t do it for me in terms of her personality. Too scary.

Which was bad. Because for the last year I’d been sparring against a horribly blue-balled mare. A pretty one, but a scary one.

Our blades clashed as I parried a strike before she’d gotten it more than a third of the way to me. I’d seen it coming four moves ago. She always used that little feint before throwing a six-to-two cut.

Last month Nahrina had given me a copy of his guardian spear as a gift. While a slightly more cumbersome weapon, the only reason I was able to stop Tamiko’ strikes was the extra mass the cannon gave my blade. Her strength was nightmarish!

I smirked. “Come on Tam! You ALWAYS use that move. It’s so predictable,” I taunted.

Tamiko’s eyes lit up. “You’re finally predicting my moves!?” She asked, her face splitting into a Pinkie level smile.

I frowned slightly. That couldn’t be go-

Tamiko jumped backward. I swung my blade out, hoping I could score a hit and end the match. Nothing doing. The blade scythed air. Millimeters away from her flowing kimono.

Tamiko reached down with her wing tips, and swiftly untied the sash holding her kimono on. With another swift wing-flick, she tore it off herself, throwing the cloth aside. This was the first time I’d ever seen her cutiemark. Or well, her body from the neck down.

First off, her mark. It was a pair of naginata crossed over a bright red heart.

Second, her body. She had a full body prosthesis from her neck down. SkyTech make. Good quality Synth Fur. But only on her legs and wings. She’d stripped her barrel, chest, groin… to show off the tritanium plates of her military grade chassis. Which she’d painted a hot Cadence pink.

Oh sweet Luna, no!

“I have a sneaking suspicion you’ve gotten in some extra practice,” Tamiko said, still smiling wide. “With the help of NAHRINA!”

As she roared Rin’s name Tamiko jumped at me, her blade raised to strike. I jumped to my left, avoiding her downward chop just in time to see dozens of her plates ratchet open, extending a series of gold colored thrusters out from hidden recesses within her chassis.

OH SWEET LUNA, NO!

I got my haft into position just barely in time to block Tami’s rocket assisted swing. My hooves stung and burned like I’d just punched red-hot iron. I almost dropped my weapon, barely managing to hold onto it as she rocketed away, gaining some distance from me.

Wait, what?

She smiled at me, her eyes metaphorically glowing with delight. Something clicked, and a low hum began to slowly raise itself in pitch and volume. A few light blue runes began to glow on her weapon’s blade.

“Noooo…” I said with a worried grimace.

“This heart blazes with an immense JOY!” Tamico announced. “It’s song demands I give my all to you!”

Her blade began to glow a bright blue, almost like it were a unicorn’s horn charging a spell...

“No! No! No!” I yelped, ears flattening. “I’m fine, thank you!”

“FEEL THIS, WARRIOR’S LOVE!” Tami cried as she launched herself at me on a trail of white hot plasma, blue burning blade closing in fast!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! SCREW FAIR PLAY! I WANNA LIVE!

I reached for my teleportation crystal’s power, and flash stepped behind Taimako, a terrified mouse’s heartbeat before her glowing blade slammed into the ground.

The stone floor exploded in a white-hot ball of arcane fire as her charged blade met the ground, slicing a two-meter long head deep gouge in the hard rock as if it were mere sand.

“Kuso!” Tami swore in alarm. “She’s- I- Oh no! NONONONONO! She couldn’t take it. I thought she could. I-”

In a blind panic, I thrust my blade forwards hoping to stab Tami in the back and end the fight.

To my surprise, my blade point clinked against metal. It didn’t pierce her chassis. The point just put a tiny scratch into her pink paint.

Tamiko’s blade fell from her hooves, clattering to the ground.

She turned around, her thrusters retracting as she looked at me wide eyed. “Y-you’re alive! And you hit me!” She gasped.

I nodded, hooves shaking with terror. “Y-yeah!”

Tami jumped at me. I was too shocked to dodge as she wrapped me in a tight hug and planted a loving kiss on my lips before jumping back and hopping excitedly from hoof to hoof. “Do it again! Do it again! Do it again! Do it again! Do it again! Do it again! Do it again!”

“TAMI!” Rojā bellowed, making me jump. “No using your enhanced systems during training! How badly did you maim-”

Rojā trailed off as he noticed Tami’s excited happy hoppy dance.

“By the Emperor! You BEAT her!?” He asked, jaw dropping.

I nodded once. “Yeah…” I said, a small grin starting to form on my face.

Rojā jogged over to me, and to my surprise grabbed the side of my pants and yanked them down.

“Hey!” I yelped eyes widening before Rojā threw his hooves up in the air incredulously.

“BULLSHIT!” He bellowed, stomping angrily against the ground. “If ANYTHING is worth a bucking cutiemark- What the actual flying BUCK- URGH!”

Oh. That’s what he had been going for. Well, at least he was as interested in what my mark would be as Dad. Heh.

I glanced down at my still bare flank and shrugged. “Meh, I’ve just accepted that I won't be getting one,” I said decisively, pulling my pants back up with my magic.

Tami stopped her dance and trotted up to me, smiling super wide still. “I love you so much! If your feelings ever change towards me in the future… Please call?”

Well… She was being super cute right now. Okay, yeah!

“Okay,” I promised.

“Yay!” Tami exclaimed, rearing up happily. “Oh! Yeah, so, Rojā, she’s done here.”

“No, she is?” Rojā laughed sarcastically.

“But… I cheated. I teleported,” I pointed out, ears drooping in shame.

Tami shook her head. “No! You FINALLY realized that you had abilities other than your martial skills and combined them to snatch victory from the jaws of certain doom!” She praised happily. “Ten out of ten! Hottest thing I’ve seen all year!”

“I-I could ALWAYS have used other moves and arts in our duels?” I asked incredulously.

“Mmmmhm! As soon as you finished learning the basic movements,” she giggled.

Tami gave me a loving hug, nuzzling into my neck super affectionately. “Again? Pleeeease?” She begged adorably.

Rojā snickered. “You’re acting like it’s your first time,” he joked.

“It is! This has never happened before,” she replied with a blush.

"Horseapples!" Roja and I said together.

"You have to have lost at least a sparring match while training," Roja insisted.

Tamiko shook her head almost violently. "Nope," she insisted. "I beat my teacher on my first day. My natural talent let me barely win, that's when I realized that fighting is my fetish, and earned my cutiemark.

"I've always been just a hair better or more lucky than anyone else when fighting naginata to naginata. Every instructor I had I beat the first time. I still learned things, but at first, I only won through luck. But after training, well...

“I went cyborg to see if people in the Super-Equine League could beat me. Nope. Never once. Not ever. Fighting became a thing that made me sad because it was too easy. So I had to stop using my favorite weapon for sport.

"Until Sherbert took my loser virginity just now! Thanks, babe! It was AWESOME!”

I blinked once. “You know, I used to think you treating fighting like sex was a joke.”

She giggled and shook her head. “Nope!”

I couldn’t help but feel for her a bit. “Okay… One more time,” I promised. “After my heart settles down.”

I walked into Master Cho’s room. The most dangerous part of the operation. I had a sneaking suspicion that she was a real actual practicing assassin. She was gone a lot, and definitely had the personality required to hide that side of her effortlessly.

But that wasn’t why I was here. I was not out to unmask her. No. I had something far more dangerous in mind.

Cho lay down, sleeping, or perhaps resting, on a tatami mat on her floor, stretched out flat like how I saw Lyra’s sister sleeping that one time.

“She’s asleep,” I whispered into my headset, my voice perfectly matching Rin’s.

Because at the moment, I was Rin. That way, if I was caught, I wouldn’t get blamed.

“Make sure she’s breathing in little groups of three,” Rin whispered through my earpiece.

I nodded and tilted my ears, focusing on the sound of the huge mare’s breath. One. Two. Three. Pause. One. Two. Three.

“She is,” I replied.

“Then she’s actually asleep,” Rin whispered. “Mission is go!”

“Why am I doing this again?” I asked as I slipped the potion bottle out of the magic pocket built into my gi’s inner pocket.

“Because if she wakes up you can teleport away. I can’t,” Rin replied.

I nodded and trotted up to the ice colored sleeping mare, and uncorked the potion bottle. The bright green fluid inside sloshed as the cork was removed, some flowing over the top of the bottle. Suppressing a yelp I caught the liquid with my magic, glad I had used my hooves to retrieve the bottle.

Taking a deep breath I poured the spilled liquid back into the bottle and then poured half the container over Master Cho’s mane.

The liquid sank into her mane, flowing along each hair, dying it a bright, glowing green. Stage one, complete.

I paused, listened for her breathing. One. Two. Three. Pause. One. Two. Three. Pause.

Still asleep. I’d been worried that the smell would wake her up. This stuff smelled kinda strong.

I reached out to the base of her tail, and poured the rest of the bottle out, the alchemical dye flowing down through her tail as well.

Corking the bottle, I placed it back into my magic pocket and turned to leave the room.

“Mission complete. Thanks Kaz for the dye pot for me,” I whispered.

And then walked face first into Master Yoshi!

The griffon-like pony scowled down at me angrily, his eyes burning in the message of ‘you done did goof son!’

“Um… heh heh…” I said with a nervous grin.

“Nahrina,” he sighed. “This is because she stole your dessert last night, isn’t it?”

Yeah, it was. Or at least, that’s what he told me.

“Yes, sir,” I sighed, looking down at the floor. “I’ll get a dye remov-”

Master Yoshi shook his head twice. “Mmmmhm. No, don’t do that. The problem isn’t that you pranked her, it’s that your prank won’t work.”

I blinked and looked up at the stealth specialist in surprise. It just hit me that he thought I really was Rin!

“Honestly, how could you forget your own mother is color blind?” He asked, quietly clicking his tongue. “Or if you did remember, that shade of green is too close to her normal blue for her to differentiate. This won't do. Come on, let’s fix this.”

To my surprise, Yoshi quietly slipped past me and sat down behind Master Cho, his horn glowing faintly as he started to separate her tail into three strands.

“Go up to my room and get the black box from my bedside. We’re going to braid her hair. I’ll need some pink bows and glitter dust,” he said, flashing me a smile.

“Wait, so, what did she do to you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow just like Rin would.

“Nothing. I just like pranks. OH! Get the curling iron too. We’ll make it a fancy braid. Don’t worry about walking her up, Cho just got back from a five-day mission where she was up the whole time, she’s out cold. This is a drugged sleep,” Yoshi said as he began to slowly begin braiding Cho's tail and whistling nonchalantly.

“Woah… Jackpot!” Rin whispered through my earpiece, having heard everything.

I walked out into the hallway and made sure I was out of earshot before reapplying. “Did you really not know she was colorblind?” I asked skeptically.

“No. It’s option two. I didn’t know she wouldn’t see the difference. Though I think her mane glowing would be something still… Meh, keep it up! This is great,” he snickered.

I nodded and resumed heading for Master Yoshi’s room. Retrieving his box of makeup and costume supplies was a simple matter. Though intriguing. I never suspected that he would also use mundane disguise elements.

Even more surprising was when I returned to Master Cho’s room, Yoshi kept talking to me. As if I were Rin. I had him totally fooled!

We spent a good forty-five minutes styling Cho’s mane and tail into the most elaborate feminine coif the two of us could conceive of. Then another fifteen gently and carefully trimming and painting her hooves with a dark red hoof polish. And lastly, another twenty minutes applying all week fur dye makeup to her face.

The transformation was remarkable! She’d gone from huge, scary, warrior, to a mare I’d likely see shopping at Aunt Rarity’s Boutique who was genuinely there for the fashion and not the prestige of owning a Rarity-made dress.

Heh heh!

The two of us left her room, snickering loudly. When we were out in the hallway, Yoshi shut the door and sighed happily. “Ah! It’s been a long time since I pulled one over on her. Good times! Though now, I have work to do. I’ll see you later Rin. And remember, I didn’t do anything today.”

Yoshi whistled happily as he began to trot down the hall. I’d gotten away with it! The whole time.

I felt like I couldn’t hide it any longer. I opened my mouth to call ‘hey!’ thinking about letting the transformation drop and showing him. But then I stopped.

Telling him would ruin this. My first true success in infiltration. I wanted to hold on to that.

Because right now only Rin and I knew. Someone could back up my story if I ever talked about this years from now. That was good enough.

Turning around wordlessly, I trotted off to my room. Feeling more accomplished than I had in a long time.

With all three of my greatest accomplishments crystallized in my mind, I knew what I would have to do.

Figure out how the hay Master Rojā found out I deceived Master Yoshi!

As for my mastery, well, that was obvious.

“If I don’t focus on my blade work, Tami might decide to kill me out of desperation for another good fight,” I joked, flashing Kaz a grin. “I think I’ll go for being a blade master.”

Kazumi laughed. “You just want to score a date with her,” she teased. “Aren't Ash and I enough for you?”

I gently tousled Kaz’s mane. “You alone would be plenty for me, hon. I mean, yeah I want a herd. But I'd have gone mono for you if you wanted,” I said lovingly. “Besides, Aunt Dash’s only sex advice to me was ‘don’t stick your tongue in crazy’. And Tami is… Very crazy.”

Kaz hummed. “She is at that. But she is super cute,” she admitted shyly.

I snickered. “Okay, now who wants a herd?” I teased.

“Both of us?” Kaz said, playfully sticking out her tongue. “Besides, I like her chassis.”

I nodded slowly. “That’s right, I forgot you like technology like that too. That said, I was WAY too focused on her blade for that whole fight. Does she even have sex organs? You seem like the right person to ask about that. Heh heh.”

“She does,” Kazumi said matter of factly. “Though they don’t look natural. I think she peeled the skin off them. She’s got a rather interesting ‘blue liquid filled soft looking’ thing going on.”

I blinked. “Um, I was making a short joke…”

Kazumi nodded. “I know. But I’ve also helped her reconnect some blood vessels that came loose from her hardware and got a good look at her, sooo, yeah!”

I thought about it for a few minutes while we walked. Yeah, Tamiko was scary when you fought her, but she was very sweet outside the ring. After all, she’d helped me for a whole year with concealing my blank flanks in this stupid school uniform.

She’d always personally treated any injury I got while we were training. She also was the one to show me how to successfully sneak snacks away from the kitchen after hearing me groaning with hunger pains one night.

Yeah, she was nice.

I nodded. “Okay. If you like her, we’ll talk to her about things. But it likely won't last long. We’re going to move to Equestria after the end of next year,” I reminded.

Kazumi nodded. “I know. But better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, right?”

“Fair enough,” I agreed as our homeroom’s sign became visible just down the hall. “We’ll talk more after school, okay? Right now I need to refocus on all the test stuff. Kinda let it slip my mind a bit when you asked me about what mastery I wanted to go for.

“Then you brought up wanting to open our Herd to Tamiko, and that’s sort of a weird thing to think about.”

“Because she creeps you out when you spar?” Kazumi asked.

I shook my head. “No, because now I have to plan how to get her to join us and what we can do to make her happy without getting my head chopped off,” I said slowly, “and today is our anniversary soooo I was planning everything for you for this evening, and I didn’t make those plans for three.”

“Oh!” Kaz exclaimed her tail flicking in delight. “I”m sorry. I didn’t mean we had to do that tonight. I don't want to sleep with her as an anniversary night thing. Tonight’s just us of course!”

“Oh! Well, good,” I said with a happy smile. “I like how we do intimate ‘couples nights’. It really helps us all stay-”

The light at the end of the hallway died, distracting me enough to stop talking mid word.

It hadn’t flickered, then died. It had just died. Like it had been turned off. The crystal hadn’t gone bad, or overloaded. It just… turned off.

The school NEVER turned off the hallway lights. There were no windows in them. It was a safety issue. They kept them on all night.

“Um… I guess there’s maintenance today?” I said in surprise.

Kazumi nodded. “Yeah, guess so. Odd, normally they post flyers to let you know when-”

The next light died. And then the next. And the next. Each one faster than the last.

I had just enough time to realize something was very, very wrong and grab Kazumi with my magic to run to the nearest doorway.Then the door slammed in my face. Just like every single other door in the hallway closed by themselves, locking with a loud in unison crack of magnetized steel hitting steel.

“WARNING:” a Stallion’s prerecorded voice called over the PA. “Suspicious person on campus! Lockdown is in effect. The Police are on their way!”

“Crap,” I grumbled.

“Yeah… If you fight them you’ll get expelled,” Kazumi grumbled back.

“Well, I’m going to keep us both safe,” I promised, realizing I couldn’t just use illusion to turn myself invisible and hide.

“Can you teleport us both? I’ve seen you go through glass before,” Kazumi wondered, looking at the large window set into each classroom door.

I shook my head. “No. You have too much mass. Unless maybe if I stripped- No. Still not enough,” I groaned. “Come on. We’ll just have to move for the entrance. It won't take long with your riding and me running. We’ll be safe in the lobby till the cops show up.”

“No you won't,” an eerily familiar, smug sounding mare’s voice said from behind me.

I turned around. Standing at the end of the hallway, clad from hoof to head in a foreign set of riot armor, was a Pegasus I would never forget.

Mai Xii.

“Oh shit,” I swore reflexively.

Mai nodded. “Round three, bitch!” She announced as she swept one hoof up, a flamethrower extending from her gauntlet, the pilot light auto-igniting. “This time you DIE!”

15 - One Fate for the Defeated (Tragedy Part 2)

Sherbert - 6th of Plantation, 29 AE

Horsiekoshi High School, Neighdo - Neighpone

She chose her ambush well. A smooth hallway, only describable as an extended box. Not a pillar or alcove in sight. No cover at all.

The floor and ceiling were solid steel covered in wood. The building had been built to support the weight of light mecha, for the engineering student’s benefit. There was no way we were going to break out of there through one of those.

I could break a door down, or the window in one, and pass through that way. But Mai had that flamethrower, and those rooms were full of innocent bystanders. And I knew Mai wouldn’t care about that.

The walls were reinforced concrete. Even if Kaz thought to use her Thestrial magic to make a hole for us, it would take much longer than Mai needed to sweep that flamer across us.

That flamer… The floors were carpeted in the hallways. And while they looked clean, they were decades old. Forty years of soaking up all kinds of body oils, cleaners, and gunk… Dry as a twig.

The floors would go up like a flask of Alchemist’s Fire.

“Well, you certainly picked the right tool for the job,” I admitted with a sigh, hoping to get Mai talking to buy me more time to think.

“Oh I did! In more ways than you can see,” Mai snarled, flicking her head so the darkly tinted visor attached to her riot helmet flopped down into place.

YES! Okay, start thinking. Best way to finish this quickly. Perhaps a teleport strike? No good. That riot armor covered the places I could get a disabling or lethal shot in.

“I was going to use a spell rod, but then I learned from a certain stallion that you carry a personal shield emitter. Like a coward,” Mai continued. “So I’ve got this nice big tank of gunk that will short that right out while also burning hot enough to melt iron. But hey, tell you what… Lower that shield and I’ll kill you in a less efficient manner.”

Wait, what? The stupidity of her statement caught me off guard, throwing me out of my line of thought.

“You know that Sherbert’s family monitors her vitals, right?” Kazumi asked from her seat on my back.

“So what?” Mai snorted dismissively.

That’s right! They do. I learned that while fiddling with my watch. Uncle Sky said it was to make sure they got to me in time if I was hurt in a street fight. Hey, fair enough. I almost died once already.

“It means if you hurt me badly, or kill me, my Aunt will beam in within a few moments to kill you,” I answered.

“You think I’d come back and NOT be ready to fight a wizard? The inside of this armor is nothing but hexagrams. I’m in a magical DEADZONE! Go ahead, try a spell on me. See what happens,” Mai laughed, taking her eyes off us for just a moment as she did so.

One would think that would have been the perfect time to attack. Thing is… I could tell she wasn’t bluffing. And since I’d actually payed attention in magic class…

“ARE YOU INSANE!?” I demanded, taking several steps backwards. “What if the building uses magic to strengthen the support structure!? You could bring this whole place down! And your own magic will be PERMANENTLY ruined by this, just for being nearby that deadzone for like, half an hour! You will never fly again! Cloaking yourself in anti-matter would be safer!”

“Even a foal knows not to mess with Anti-magic!” Kazumi snapped. “Magic tells mundane physics how to behave. You’re in a ‘no physics’ zone! How are you not quark soup!? Even if you solved that problem, do you have any idea how much of your biology depends on your mana flow!? How are you not a withered corpse!?”

“I have help from some friends outside. That’s all you need to know. ENOUGH TALK! DIE!” Mai snapped

FWOOOOOM! Said her flamer.

The hallway erupted into blue white-light as intense and bright as a welding torch! If I hadn’t had my eyes replaced years ago, I’d have gone blind.

The heat was impossibly intense. I had no comparison for it. I could see the carpet smoking. The paint on the walls peeled and flaked away. The glass in nearby windows cracked. My left side felt sunburnt. I didn’t have to look to tell that my fur had been scorched.

All from the short rolling ball of fire which Mai had launched at me, and MISSED.

“Oh sweet kami, it’s filled with Dicyanoacetylene,” Kazumi squeaked in terror. “RUN! THAT'S THOUSANDS OF DEGREES! RUN!”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I wheeled around on my left hoof and took off down the hallway at a full sprint.

A pillar of flame swept across the hallway. I could feel the heat almost before I heard the horrible screeching roar of the flames. I ran left and jumped, twisting to hit the wall with my hooves and jump again. I could feel Kaz’s legs tighten around me as I moved, keeping her in place as I jumped over the torrent of death below.

Thank goodness Kazumi had taken to letting me carry her around. If we didn’t do this all the time, I wouldn’t be fast enough to-

My heart skipped a beat. The hallway in front of me was nothing but fire for the next twenty meters.

Wait… If I could jump it, Mai would need to find a way around her own firewall!

Could I do this? I’d made a jump like that when fighting Rojā. But with Kaz on my back? I had to try.

I took a deep breath and pushed my magic back and down, putting everything I had into my legs.

“Hold on!” I shouted.

Kazumi gripped even harder. I took what little running room fate had given me and jumped, a flash of blue magic accompanying me. The flames roared below as we sailed over the deathly blue. I landed just barely out of the fire. I smelled my tail catch fire, and sprinted forwards to get away from the heat.

“ON FIRE!” I shouted loudly.

“On it!” Kaz yelled.

I felt her repeatedly swat at my tail for a few seconds. “Out!” She reported.

I turned around and looked across the pool of blue flames and laughed. “Good luck finding a way around before we’re out of the building!” I called mockingly, going as far as to stick my tongue out at Mai.

Mai opened her wings, and flapped them once, taking to the air to simply fly over the flames.

“But- Antimagic!” I exclaimed in panic.

“She was bluffing! Shoot her wings!” Kaz yelled, pointing at the flames ahead of us.

Oh! Oh yes. That was an idea!

I focused as hard as I could on casting a simple ray spell. I never was able to master anything more complex than an arcane laser, but that’s all I needed. Just had to scorch her wings.

I fired, the blue ray lept from my horn, sliced towards Mai’s left wing… And vanished into nothingness two meters in front of her. No effect. No sparks. No indication of having hit a ward. The magic just stopped. That’s what anti-magic fields do. It’s why no one uses them.

Even Sombra knew not to make instant death fields. They’d work on him too.

“S-she’s immune… To anti… Uhhhh- NOPE!” I decided, turning and sprinting down the hall as fast as my legs would carry me.

Not dealing with a physics impossibility. Not today. Not ever!

I heard a low hum from my back and turned around to see Kazumi pulling her guns out of her saddlebags.

“I but, what!?” I asked, confused despite the dire situation.

Like, was she TRYING to get expelled!?

“Doctor’s note! Can’t feel safe in public unarmed,” Kazumi explained. “Just keep running!”

I did. I kept running. The deep bass thunderclap of Kaz’s hoof cannons echoed deafeningly off the halls. The bright orange muzzle flashes lit up the darkened hallway, punctuated by the ocasional roar and flash of blue from Mai’s flamer.

The school was monstrously huge, and sadly linear. All I could do was run and turn or jump when Kaz screamed at me to dodge. The few corners which came up Mai managed to bathe in flames. There was nowhere to go but ahead, through the kill zone. At least until we reached the lobby. Everything eventually comes to the lobby!

“How, not, kill, yet?” I asked between pants as I sidestepped around another gout of flame.

“She’s got a shield,” Kaz growled. “Good one!”

Master Rojā’s words echoed through my mind.

”I know fiction shows ninjas as unstoppable killing machines. While it’s true that we can hold our own in battle, that’s only the case against other martial artists and unarmed people. If you’re ever faced with a fully outfitted soldier, and you lack your own equipment, you won’t stand a chance.”

I’d called bullshit then. I was so wrong!

We needed help, NOW!

Using my magic as I ran, I ripped my watch off my leg and floated it up so I could press the buttons with my tongue and still run.

I needed help. NOW. And it couldn’t be my Aunt, not with that anti-magic field. Couldn't be uncle Sky either. Lots of his tech used magical components. There's no telling if he even had something purely technological. But I knew someone who did!

The speed dial chirped as I reached Ash. “Hey Sherbert, did you forget your homework or som- I hear fire!” Ash exclaimed.

“Mai’s back! She’s got a flamer! Anti-magic shield! Teleport to Rin, get him to his gear, then to me! Tell Rojā!” I ordered.

“Understood,” Ash said, the com clicking dead.

I slid my watch back on, knowing I’d likely need it to call for more help soon. The lobby was coming up in just a few more seconds. We could-

A large steel security gate had slid shut, blocking the end of the hallway completely.

“Oh no…” I whimpered.

“What?” Kaz asked, instantly swearing as one of her guns began to loudly beep out an overheating warning.

“Security gate! We’re trapped,” I said as I skidded to a halt a few meters from the door.

If I was allowed to wear my gi to school, I’d have had a few grams of Semtex on me. I could have blown the gate open. School had literally killed me by insisting on me using a school uniform. I hope there’d be a Sherbet’s Law banning them after this…

Screw it. This is the end. But we’re goin down swinging!

I plucked Kaz off my back with my magic and set her down so I could give the left side wall a one two TK punch. The wall cracked, groaned and then crumbled. The rebar mesh inside held up against my punches, there would be no escaping through the hole, but that’s not what I’d wanted.

I’d wanted the concrete chunks.

I reached down with a hoof and picked up an apple sized chunk of concrete, and charged my arm with as much magic as I could. I turned, winding up a fastball- style throw.

“Eat this!” I shouted, instantly regretting my choice of last words as I let the concrete fly.

Mai ducked left. Making me regret yelling. That had let her known when the attack would-

The chunk of concrete soared through the air, trailing blue as my magic accelerated it. The moment it enters the anti-magic, the glow vanished. But the concrete retained it’s momentum.

With a loud crunch and crack of stressed metal, the chunk hit something I had not been aiming for. It hit her flamer, smashing the barrel and bending it enough where only a total idiot would fire it again.

I couldn’t have hit that with a rock if I’d tried.

The chunk would have missed Mai if she hadn’t moved… Thank you luck. I owe you a beer if I live.

Mai glared down at her disabled weapon. Kazumi laughed and fired a rapid volly of three shots from her left hoof gun. I saw everything I needed to know.

My eyes were not the same as my old ones. They saw just a bit more light. As Kazumi fired, three tiny lenses, almost totally hidden in Mai’s riot armor fired three quick busts of ultraviolet light.

Lasers. The intense light scorched each bullet, either incinerating them, or vaporizing material, making a jet of exhaust, and blowing them off course.

She didn’t have shields. She had active countermeasures meant to stop bullets.

That meant rocks would work. Most of her body was protected by armor… But her mouth wasn’t!

I grabbed another chunk of concrete, charged it, and threw. Mai dodged right, the rock missing. I threw another, and another. Most missing, but some striking one of her plates with a solid crunch.

I wasn’t hurting her. Mai’s growls and screams were angry ones. But I was keeping her at bay.

If I could just hold her off long enough, maybe Rin would arrive!

Mai soundedly screeched in pain, my last throw had caught her in the cheek! Not directly. I didn’t break her jaw, but I could see a huge gash torn along it.

“HA!” I laughed mockingly.

“That’s it!” Mai roared, ripping a spell rod from a barrel holster.

Before I could even think about what might be letting her use magic despite that being physically impossible inside her ‘zone of this-is-a-terrible-idea’, a bright flash of magic nearly blinded me.

The light cleared, revealing Ash and Rin. Rin was clad head to hoof in his odd plate armor, though he had forgone the cloak. Probably to get ready faster. He carried a normal naginata, I guess something was wrong with his own Guardian Spear.

Shit.

Ash was unmorphed. Which made sense. Anti-magic would just strip off her armor and waste the charge.

Without a word, Rin charged forwards, going right for Mai.

Ash turned around and tossed me my spear, which I caught reflexively. “I’ll get this gate open. Back Rin up!” She instructed.

I nodded, wordlessly agreeing with the plan and charged forwards, using the haft of my weapon to vault, hoping to move faster than Mai was expecting. I’d attack from above, and hopefully pierce-

Mai’s left hoof snapped down as she activated the spellrod. Or rather, the Soul Blade. A Samurai's weapon.

The weapon’s blade sprang to life, forming a light green, crackling, sparking katana blade.

We’d studied those. They were each unique. Bound to their creator as a reflection of themselves in blade form. The crackling meant its creator and intended wielder was dead.

Mai swept the blade up, intercepting Rin’s charge and deflecting his naginata to the side. She stepped as she moved, causing my blade to strike the floor, cutting deep into the carpet and wood below.

I knew two things. First, Mai had changed. A lot. Her moves were not the same as before. She wasn’t using a particular style. She was fighting on instinct, mashing up formal moves with short brutal primal motions. Rojā said that was the mark of a properly seasoned warrior. Knowing when and how to break the rules.

Mai had lived through a lot of combat… I was still just experienced at sparring.

Second, Mai’s equipment, now that I was close up, was crude. She had a lot of it, and it was functional, but there was plenty of unfinished jagged edges on the armored plates. This equipment had been made recently, and in a hurry. It wasn’t perfected. I had a chance!

I swept my blade back up, wrenching it from the floor, and threw a series of three rapid cuts at Mai, careful to stay as far back from her as my weapon allowed. I did NOT want to step into that bubble…

Mai dodged the first strike. The second skipped off her armor as she turned to block Rin’s own attack. My third landed solidly on her left flank, and bit into her armor, cutting a decently deep gash into the metal… But didn’t go through.

So much for that legendary ceramite sharpness.

Mai growled, glaring at Rin angrily. “OUT OF MY WAY!” She roared, charging forward, jamming his blade point first into her right pauldron, then chopping savagely at his weapons’ haft, hacking through the thick oak rod in a mere two chops.

The blade clattered to the ground, leaving only a small dent in Mai’s armor. Rin yelped and jumped backwards, not having expected to be disarmed.

I growled and swiped at Mai’s face, hoping to buy Rin time to get back and get another weapon out. Mai swatted my blade aside, but not quite fast enough. The point sliced a cut along her cheek, just under the one the rock had made before.

Mai growled and jumped backwards, moving out of range. I readied my blade to advance, preparing a series of thrusts.

“Gate’s open!” Ash yelled.

Time to go!

Mai grit her teeth and began to sprint at me, I could feel her hatred. She wanted to ensure I didn’t get away. No… She wasn’t looking at me, she was looking past me.

She wanted to ensure that Kaz didn't get away! Kaz was in danger!

I spread my rear legs out and adopted a bipedal stance. “You move NO FURTHER!” I roared, getting ready to block every strike she sent my way.

Mai was good, but she was no Tami. I had this.

Mai smirked and raised a hoof. A rune on the bottom of her boot pulsed blue. I saw the concussion blast smash into my barrel. I had a few snapshots of the ceiling, a hole cut into the gate, and the lobby’s front glass wall before I crashed back first into a table.

Stars exploded in my eyes. I knew i was stunned, but I had to move! I could feel that I had kept my grip on my spear. Using that as my focus on reality, I slowly pulled myself together. The moment I felt my right forehoof I reached down to my pocket, and slipped the healing potion I kept for emergencies out, and drank it.

I didn’t feel hurt. Which meant that either I was fine, or the table broke my spine. The potion would either do nothing, or be administered quickly enough to fix a permanent injury. Never thought I’d need it for more than a bad cut while carving things in art class…

As I returned to reality I saw and heard the insanity unfolding before me.

The police had finally arrived, and entered the lobby, but were completely pinned down. I could see them sheltering behind overturned tables, the lobby’s pillars, and cabinets, completely hunkered down.

But why?

As I watched, one earth pony Officer took two nervous breaths, readied his stunrod, and stepped out of cover to take a shot. A deafening sound only describable as ‘brrrrrrrraaaaak!’ shook the lobby, and the officer fell down, physically shredded.

The backpack Mai had on had concealed a Luna damned minigun. On an auto turret mount. Why the buck hadn’t she opened with that!?

Oh yeah… She wanted me to die. Painfully.

Follow up question: Who the BUCK gave her this warsuit!?

I was afraid to stand. I had no counter for a motion tracking turret. I didn’t feel up to a teleport at the moment. My head was still hazy from the hit.

I saw Ash and Rin fighting Mai near the door. Ash had morphed. Her armor was in bad shape though. I could see holes in it, slashes, rips, and punctures. Each of them bleeding green crackling energy.

Anti-magic’s handywork. That’s what should've happened to Mai and everything within the bubble of stupid she was using. How? Magic couldn’t explain it! What is this bullshit!?

At least it also protected our weapons when they entered the field… Now that I thought about it my spear should have disintegrated too.

Rin was using his telekinesis to parry Mai’s strikes with a wakizashi. I guess he hadn’t been carrying another long range weapon. He couldn't strike at her with it, if he did, his magic would be disrupted and he’d drop the blade.

Ash was using my old strategy. Ripping up chunks of things with her telekinesis and throwing them at Mai. She couldn’t put much energy into her throws. Not like me. But she was doing enough to keep Mai from having a real combat advantage-

Kazumi was laying down just behind Ash, holding her rear left leg and whimpering. She’d been hit.

My heart fell into a pool of ice water. I could physically feel the despair welling up inside me as she squirmed, desperately trying to hold a deep gash on her inner thigh shut.

I could see the pool of blood she was laying in. She was hit BAD. But she was still alive! For now...

I turned my head to target a spot just behind the turret for a teleport. We just had to get her out of the lobby. There has to be an ambulance outside! I could do this. I’d just teleport over behind the turret, break it, and then run her out of the-

Mai lunged forwards! Her bullshit field touched Rin’s blade, it dropped from the air, clattering across the ground. Her bladepoint buried itself in Rin’s shoulder. He screamed, definitely hit. In the same instant, Mai swept her free foreleg up and fired a dart into Kaz’s left side.

She yelped. Then began to convulse as an electric charge went off.

Something deep within me gave way. As if somepony had been sitting there, my entire life, holding a door shut, and just said ‘Okay, now.’ and let that door open.

I could feel it. That massive reserve of magic everyone said I had. This is where it was. Behind that door.

Hello, magic. Kazumi needs us.

I saw Kaz’s eyes roll back in her head. Her mouth gaped open in silent pain. Poison. Fast acting. I knew it. Rojā showed me how to make it. I knew exactly how much pain Kaz was in...

I didn’t have much of a chance to think about that, because the world turned red.

“WAAAGH!” Something roared angrily.

It was very very mad. Killing mad. A threat. I’d kill it next.

I grabbed all of my magic and pushed it directly into my body. All of it. Every part. I gave it one single order. Improve everything.

I lunged forwards, everything deciding to move really really slowly for some reason.

Mai’s turret slowly spun to face me. It’s four barrels rotating lazily as a grandmare stirring a pot of soup. Wierd.

I made it halfway to Mai. Her turret fired. The twenty copper slugs left the barrel at the speed of a nerf dart. So I chopped them out of the air. It was easy. Like slicing tossed fruit.

I could feel my magic going completely insane. Every part of me felt like it was on fire. Not in a painful way. In that ‘casting a transformation spell’ way. I was using a LOT of energy. Pushing myself beyond the pony norm by Sisters knew how much.

I had to keep that up. Forever. Always. So I could exterminate the threat.

IMPROVE ME! I commanded, pushing even harder on the arcane energy within me.

I got close to Mai. The burning got WAY worse. Now it felt like real fire. Like my magic was being ripped away from me.

This couldn’t be healthy. But I didn’t care.

The next set of bullets began to leave Mai’s turret as I stepped next to her. She’d turned her head to look at me. But that had taken her like, for bucking ever. I reached out with a forehoof and twisted her turret away from me, holding it so the barrels touched her neck.

I’d thought that the gun would turn and fire. It didn’t the barrel assembly snapped clean off. I could see the stressed metal shards hanging from the end of the barrels. Exactly what you get when hot metal is bent way to fast.

Huh. Okay. Plan two.

Wait, was I in her anti-magic field? Yes I was. Let’s make it go away.

Magic. I’m failing. Unacceptable. IMPROVE ME!

It compiled. I felt my magic change form, the burning feeling slowed.

I could feel impossible power coursing through me, but I couldn’t tap into it. It was all needed to resist Mai’s bulshit invulnerability shield.

Hexagrammic wards, right? They all need to be connected and shit. I could fix that.

I swung my spear’s blade, scything in from the left. The weapon’s edge connected with her rear left leg, then slid through. Not effortlessly. There was resistance. That made me mad, so I pulled on the haft harder.

Mai’s leg came off. The lazy thing sort of just floated through the air. Kinda like if we’d been standing in thick oil.

I saw some sparks as electrical systems began to short out. Oh! Even better. Of course you couldn’t make an anti-magic field with magic. The Hexagrams were electrically based.

I raised my blade and chopped down, carving a blade-length gash through Mai’s shoulder and out her barrel. Then another, and another, and another.

I kept hacking chunks out of her armor, and her, moving each time, making sure to slice a different section of armor with each chop. Not one single pathway would be unbroken. This field would DIE. The threat would DIE.

Then I would kill the threat to my family. Mai would fall after this abomination of nature.

As my blade cleaved through Mai’s right pauldron for the fifth time, the fiery burning went away. I felt my magic snapback to normal.

No, not normal. That same overdrive from before.

Meh. Questions for later. Time to kill the danger to my family!

That thing was still screaming in rage. I’d have to deal with that next. It was getting annoying.

I swung my blade around, getting ready to throw a flurry of strikes into Mai. But she dropped to the floor. Really slowly.

“Trying to dodge, are we!?” I screeched, altering my angle of attack to send the flurry of thrusts downwards.

As my blade plunged into her, something hit me in the left shoulder. It kinda hurt. And tingled a bit.

I looked down. Oh. Taser prongs. Okay.

That might have hurt, but my back and shoulders were already feeling really electrocuted. So like, whatever. More pain. Meh.

Wait. Something shot the thing at me. More danger! Kaz not safe!

EXTERMINATE THE THREAT!

I wheeled around. The taser belonged to a pegasus. She had on a police uniform.

But… Cops are good guys. They help you.

Did she miss Mai? She must have. Not a threat. Accident.

I sliced the taser wires with a quick flick of my blade, and resumed disassembling Mai.

Her armor made it a bit hard to separate things, but I was making some progress about every fifth chop. I felt the extra magic slowly settle down. The craziness left. But the magic was still here. But it felt different now. Natural.

Like my normal unicorn magic. I guess I’d just sort of made it normal.

The problem solved itself. Unlike this one I was solving manually. There would be no returning this time. The threat would forever be gone.

“Sherbert,” someone said ultra slowly. “I’m going to touch you.”

Oh. Okay. That’s fine. That won’t stop me working.

I’d just buried my blade into her side when something grabbed my left shoulder. Hard.

“She’s dead. Stop,” a familiar female voice ordered adamantly.

I spun to see what had grabbed me. A mare. Thestrial. Mostly mechanical. A cyborg.

Oh. Tami. She was afraid. And awestruck.

Not a threat.

I looked down at Mai, and instantly winced, my stomach churning slightly. That was not a body… that was a pile of meat and chunks of armor. I literally couldn't identify more than five body parts. None of them were a head.

“Holy… I- I’m going to be sick,” I groaned, looking away from the horror movie mess I’d made.

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

The Emperor shuddered, a nervous breath finally breaking her silence as she watched the carnage unfold from Sherbert’s own eyes.

“By the Kami… So that’s what a red-mist moment is like,” she said with a shiver.

Rojā nodded once. Also quite disturbed, but less so. Having seen the recording before while preparing Sherbert’s defense.

“Yeah… You can see that she had absolutely no control over her actions,” he said softly. “If it was a threat, she was going to kill it. She had no choice. That was all instinct, and ingrained training. If she hadn’t been raised in Equestria, those Officers would have been butchered after they shot her. They have no idea how fortunate they all are that she was raised to see cops as her protectors.”

The Empress nodded twice. “I- I can see why she was arrested now,” she informed. “I can’t say that she shouldn’t have been.”

“Yes,” Rojā agreed. “In that moment she was full of adrenaline and a clear and present threat to others. However, that’s not a crime. Being killing mad and shellshocked is a state every warrior has been in at least once before.”

“Yes,” the mare agreed with a nod. “If it weren't for the second murder, she’d have been let go by any sane judge. This one is pure self defense… Even if she did use excessive force. That said, I hereby dismiss the first charge.

“Sherbert had no control over herself at the moment and was driven to that level of violence by the victim. None of this part is her fault.”

Rojā bowed low. “Thank you, Ma’am. And the other charge?” He asked hopefully.

The Empress paused, then shook her head. “No,” She decided. “At least, not yet. I want to see it too. Though… Given the fact that House Xii swore a blood feud against her and her family, I am leaning in your favor. While not strictly legal, Clan Wars are still a respected part of cultural tradition. And Sherbert may still be considered to be acting in her own defense.”

“Thank you, Ma’am,” Rojā sighed in relief. “I’ll resume playback now.”

“Please do!” The Empress agreed, leaning forward in her seat. “I can’t believe she was so rage filled that she didn’t notice what happened to her.”

“I can,” Rojā mumbled, shuddering at the memory of a true red-mist as he hit play.

Sherbert - 6th of Plantation, 29 AE

Horsiekoshi High School, Neighdo - Neighpone

I threw up. It had been a long while since I had done that. It wasn’t all from seeing what I’d done either. My everything felt… Off. Whatever I’d done with my magic had taken a LOT out of me. I could tell that I was only still standing because of the residual energy left over from that ragesplosion I’d had.

“S-sher…” Kaz gurgled faintly.

I snapped my head around. Desperate energy filling my body as I raced over to her side.

“She’s-dead-it’s-fine-we’ll-fix-you!” I babbled as I dropped down next to her limp body.

She twitched, trying to shake her head. “Femoral… cut. C-cold... Can’t see. S-sorry,” she apologised before laying still.

She was dead.

NO!

This was not happening. Not today! She only just died. Magic and medicine could still do something! But there were minutes.

I ripped my watch off my leg and set it on Kaz’s back, hitting the speed dial for Uncle Sky.

He picked up instantly. “I just got the alert saying your vitals are going nuts. Do you need medical-”

“KAZ IS DYING! TELEPORT HER NOW! TARGET MY WATCH!” I roared.

“SHIT!” Sky swore, “Sai! Initiate emergency telep-”

“Already targeting, boss,” the AI reported.

“SAVE HER!” I scream-pleaded. “I DON’T CARE HOW!”

A light blue shimmering energy field appeared around Kaz. Space around her seemed to fold in on itself, and she was gone. Not Sky’s normal teleport effect. I guess the emergency one was more subtle.

My watch left with her. It was the targeting beacon after all. It would have been good to tell him what had happened to her… BUCK! Would Tilk even know what that poison was? Or that it was a poison?

Baneleaf… It’s… It’s very subtle. That’s the point. Even magic examination will just show a slightly higher level of sodium in the body. It decays as soon as it causes the damage it’s going to do. Kaz would look like she’d drunk herself to death and got cut.

No! No she wouldn’t the dart was still in her. They’d see it, maybe get some residual poison out of it. I didn’t know an antidote anyways.

Ugh… I definitely needed medical attention too. My back was really sore, and my magic was still all.. Weird feeling. Made sense. I’d been in an antimagic field. Do… Do we even have medicine for that?

I heard hoofsteps behind me. Tami cleared her throat, announcing her presence.

“Sherbert,” she said very calmly. “The Officers need you to go with them now. Okay?”

“Why?” I asked. “Oh. Hospital, right?”

I turned around to look at her, the exhaustion starting to creep back into my body.

Tami shook her head her mane was half done. And a few ribbon cables were sticking out of one of her armor plates. She looked like she had teleported over midway through cleaning herself.

Makes sense. I mean, she was on the ‘monitor Sherbert’s vitals’ roster.

“No, Sherbert,” she said with the same clinical calm, her face locked in ‘concerned for you’, while her eyes were in full on ‘holy shit!’ mode. “You’re stressed, and just went completely berserk, and um… You’ve got a lot of magic that I’m sure you have no idea how to control running through you now.

“They need to make sure you’re safe, and that everypony else is safe. They’ll take you to a room, and you just stay there till you’ve completely calmed down. Okay?”

“It’s not out of control,” I said with a frown. “It’s just weird… And my back hurts… And head… Do you have any aspirin?”

I closed my eyes for a moment. I was starting to feel loopy.

I saw Rin behind Tami, he had taken off his helmet, and changed back into his changeling body. Probably to avoid the stab wound he’d took.

He blinked once in shock. “Wait, how can you not know!?” He demanded incredulously.

“Know what?” I asked, ears flopping back in annoyance.

“Look at yourself!” He said, pointing with one hoof.

I turned to look curiously. To my surprise, Tami grabbed my head, stopping me.

“NO! Don’t! If you don't already know you may go into shock and we need you to remain calm, rational, and stable right now,” she ordered desperately.

A female Officer to Tami’s right nodded, a terrified expression on her face. “Y-yeah!” She agreed with a nervous stammer. “I don’t want to taze an angry alicorn twice today.”

“What?” I asked.

Tami took a deep, nervous breath. “Damit, Officer No-Trauma-Training! Sherbert, just focus on me. Nothing else. I saw everything. You… Ascended.

“I don’t know how, but you did. Your whole body became a bright white light as you charged Mai. There wasn’t a… Body. Just magic. Nothing else. I know because when you entered that disruptor field she had, you started to flicker out of existence.

“Then you began to burn brighter. Stabilized. And reformed. As an Alicorn.”

“And then I tased you. Please don't kill me,” the officer whimpered.

“Were you aiming for Mai?” I asked.

The mare nodded. “Yes, kami!”

“Then we’re good,” I said turning my eyes back to Tami. “I want to look.”

She sighed and let go of my face. “Okay.”

I turned my head and looked at my back. I had a pair of rather nice wings. Somewhere between a bat’s and a dragons. They also had some faint circuitry patterns visible in the membranes. Huh. I guess my bionics were just sort of… Extrapolated and added to me when I change- Wait a minute.

“They’re supposed to be avian wings,” I said with a confused frown.

“They were at first,” Tami said quickly. “They warped as you hacked her to pieces.”

“Oh… Well, she was generating an anti-magic field,” I mused, giving the wings an experimental twitch.

They moved.

This was WEIRD!

“I told my magic to make me better. All of it,” I babbled. “I didn’t think it could do this.”

“Did you say anti-magic field?” Tami asked, a shocked look taking over her face.

“Yes,” Ash, Rin, and I said together.

Tami reached into a small pocket that folded out of her left flank, and retrieved a small ID wallet, opening it to reveal a badge.

“I’m Chief Master Sergeant Tamiko, Imperial Intelligence Institute,” Tami identified. “That gore pile needs to be quarantined RIGHT NOW! Use drones. This school is to be evacuated immediately. No one is to leave through this lobby.”

The officer yelped and sluted. “Y-yes ma’am!”

Anti-magic field.

Mai had come back from prison far far away. Gotten her hooves on that armor. A Samurai's blade. And on an anti-magic field. Which she said she was immune to, because she had ‘friends outside’.

I had to be dreaming. This had to be a nightmare.

But it felt so real. Even if this is a dream, I had to act as if it were real. My blood enemy had impossible technology. I had to stop this. Now.

I stood up.

“Kazumi isn’t safe yet.” I announced matter of factly.

Tami frowned. “Sherbert, please, do-”

I shook my head. “No. Mai escaped prison. She got her hooves on technology that should be physically impossible to make. She said she had help. Kazumi isn't safe,” I said more firmly. I could feel my body’s energy starting to come back.

Master Xii was responsible for this. He ordered the blood feud. On my very first day here, I’d seen him and Rojā lock horns. They saw one another as equals.

I’d beaten Rojā once before. Before I was this. Before I’d become an alicorn. That meant I could beat Xii.

Cut off the head, and the body will die.

Tami swore. I didn’t catch exactly what she said. “Sherbert, what are you going to do.”

“I’m going to the Flying Horse, and I’m killing Master Xii. He ordered the attack. He supplied Mai. He swore he’d kill me for sending her to prison. Nothing else makes sense,” I informed.

Tami turned to face another one of the officers who now filled the lobby. “Have someone arrest Master Xii on suspicion of aiding in an assassination,” she ordered.

“Not good enough,” I dismissed, shaking my head. The anger starting to come back. “If you put them in prison, they just come back later. Against all odds. They come back even more dangerous than before. Mai proved that today.

“I’m going to go kill him. He swore a blood oath against us. Kazumi isn’t safe until he’s dead. His exiled daughter came back in a bucking warsuit, and nearly killed both of us today. He’ll have a plan B ready to finish us off. Kazumi is already dying. She might be dead on a medical bed right now. We may have been too late.

“I’m going to go kill Xii right now. You’ll have to stop me if you don’t want that to happen.”

Tami bit her lip nervously. “I…” she sighed and closed her eyes. “I should… But I won't. Because I understand. Buck, this could end my career…”

I looked over at the nervous officer. Her eyes were closed. “If don't see it I can’t report it,” she laughed extra nervously.

I looked at another of the officers. An earth pony stallion. He shook his head. “I’m not tangling with you,” he laughed. “That is SO above my paygrade.”

“Good,” I said, and turned to walk out the doors.

“Wait!” Tami commanded.

My ears drooped sadly as I turned to look at her again. “Changed your mind?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. I- I’ve never had a family. But I understand how you feel. And I care for you. I know I wont talk you out of this,” she said as she reached back into her pocket and took a small potion bottle out to show me. “You’re running on fumes. Fight now, and you’ll die. Drink this first. It replenishes your stamina completely.”

I took the vial with my magic, focused as well as I could with my headache, and cast a detect poison charm. It was clean. She wasn’t trying to knock me out.

“Thanks,” I said, and tipped the vial back.

The potion took affect almost instantly. It HAD to be a combat stim of some kind. Every last fiber of my being went from barely working, to sore, to tired, to normal, to three cups of coffee energized in just a few heartbeats.

I turned and began to walk out the door. It hit me that Kazumi could be beyond saving. That I’d never see her again. That the last thing she ever said to me was ‘sorry’. An apology for hurting me by passing on.

Mai had struck the blow, but she was just the weapon. Xii was the one who wielded the weapon. He was to blame.

Today was my own personal Tartarus. What was the most likely? Kazumi survives, or Kazumi stayed dead?

My heart knew. This day was evil. So she was gone.

The rage began to boil again as I walked out of the school.

Kazumi… By Clover's Fire, by the Mare of Dreams, you shall be avenged!

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

Rojā paused the recording.

“Rojā, I need to see this. Why are you pausing?” The Emperor asked with a steep frown.

“I just want to know… Now that you’ve seen her reasoning, well… Will you dismiss the charge?” He asked nervously.

“Her reasoning is very sound. But I can not make any judgment until we see what Xii had to say,” the Emperor said adamantly. “It’s possible he wasn’t involved with this at all. If he wasn’t… I’m sorry, but the law is the law.”

Rojā nodded once. “I understand, Ma’am. A-as for Tami… Is there anything you can do?”

She shook her head, and gave Rojā a truly sorrowful look. “No. She broke the rules by giving Sherbert that potion, and refusing to stop her. Her discharge from service has already been settled… Though she may continue living at the Academy as a teacher.”

Rojā nodded once. “I understand. And I hope you do too after seeing this,” he said hopefully.

“I just had a thought,” the Empress mused. “I was under the assumption that Alicorns could sense an ascension nearby them. Luna was here at the time… Still is, here, actually. But she hasn’t reported anything. Why? We’re missing something.”

Rojā nodded in agreement. “True… But that’s not related to Sherbert’s case, Ma’am. That’s international politics,” he said as he hit play for the last time.

Princess Luna - 6th of Plantation, 29 AE

Akihabara, Neighdo - Neighpone

“Hey, cool!” Vinyl exclaimed from the next aisle over. “Guys! They sell little action figures of us!”

I couldn’t help but smile as the rest of my friends converged on Vi’s location, each one curious about how close of a likeness their figure bore to them.

I loved taking my Knights with me on these mini-vacations. They worked so hard over the last few decades, but for no real reward back home. How could they get one? Sure, ponies knew of their exploits. Or rather, some of them, but the true acts of heroism my bodyguards had performed… Nopony back home knew that.

But here? In Neighpone? They all knew. By treaty, all Equestrian military operations were reported by us to them. It was a fair trade, they did the same thing.

But the thing is, Neighponese ponies knew what my knights did a mere year after they had done it. And in a culture where alicorns were so beloved that their defense against their greatest foes were built to resemble us, my Knights got to share in my glory.

Here, they were as gods too. And my girls deserved that from time to time.

I had personal reasons for coming here too, of course. Where else would I be able to buy RPGs my Sister had banned for sale in Equestria? In Cadence’s city-wide pleasure den? I think not.

I hated going there. The Crystal Empire was too chilly for my liking.

So the Electric City in Akihabara it was!

I reached out with my magic to grab a copy of The Mare and the Timberwolf IV from the adult section of the computer game shelf and froze.

A blinding power was nearby! What on Equis-

An Ascension! But how!? WHO!?

I focused my arcane senses. They were close. Very close. And also angry, extremely angry. Righteously so.

Someone was in a life or death fight. They had very unusual magic. They could self-modify with arcane energy. Enhance their body.

Ah! They’d pushed themselves so far they crossed the threshold. The Ascension spell hadn't been cracked. This person did it by pure acciden-

No. No it wasn’t an Ascension. It was something else, similar, but different. And rapidly changing away from what it had been. It warped, twisted, and mutated. Something was terribly wrong!

Dark Magic!? No. Something else...

I closed my eyes, horn glowing as I cast every scrying spell I could. The spells refused to complete fully. Something was messing with magic around the new alicorn- Er, new thing. Warping the transformation spell, bleeding off energy.

Whatever the transformation had been, its caster would not form properly. They may even die. Too much energy had been lost, completely stripped away. Deleted.

Only one thing I was aware of could do that. And it had been entirely theoretical until now, as far as I knew.

“By the Gods,” I whispered in horror. “Anti-magic…”

I dismissed my scrying spell and cast a summons. I promised Discord I’d only call him with it if the need was great, and it was.

He didn’t appear visibly, but I could feel the Elder God’s presence nearby. He came. Discreetly, just like we agreed upon when making the summons.

“Discord,” I asked worriedly. “Is that you?”

“Of course it’s me,” he replied slightly confused. “Who else can be called with this sp- OH! Oh wow! No, I sense that now. That is not me. I’ll go look into this. The location is Horsiekoshi High School.”

“Thank you. We will too,” I informed.

I quickly walked around to the aisle my knights had gone over to.

“Girls, it’s game time,” I announced. “Emergency stealth operation. We’re going to Horsiekoshi High School. I’ll explain on the way.”

16 - Occluded Hero (Tragedy Part 3)

Sherbert - 6th of Plantation, 29 AE

Uneigh Ward, Neighdo - Neighpone

The buildings flew past me as I ran across the rooftops. Neighdo was a blur. One I didn’t care to focus on. One I couldn’t afford to focus on.

I could feel my heart with the back of my mind. It was screaming in something beyond mere agony.

If I wavered for even a moment in my crystal clear, laser focused, precision efforts to plan my pending attack… I would fall deep into a black abyss from which I doubted I would ever recover.

No! No! Don’t even think about THAT, Sherbert. Focus on the job at hoof.

I was a Shinobi, not the Mare With no Name, John Neightrix, or Officer Murphy. I couldn’t just go in guns blazing and take everything down via sheer balls of steel. I needed a plan.

I didn’t have my Gi on me. I could go get it. Though, I did feel that potion Tami gave me starting to fade. Either it wasn’t meant to fully restore your stamina, but merely replenish some of it, or I was seriously injured somehow and pushing myself way too hard with the dead-sprint I’d been doing for the last five minutes.

Yeah, getting my Gi was a bad idea. I’d have to improvise. That was fine. I had stealth op training. I could find everything I needed inside.

First, I would acquire one of their uniforms. These wings would have to go. I’d hide them with an illusion. Change my face up. Don’t imitate a specific student. Just appear ordinary looking.

Second, acquire a shiv. A teleport strike while he’s not looking will be the most effective. Preferably materialize with the blade inside the target. There’d be a kitchen. It would have knives. We’d find that.

Third: Locate Xii and exterminate. Accept any consequences for this action, be it death at his student’s hooves, or being arrested.

Yes. That plan would work.

I reached the edge of a rooftop, one of the last ones before I’d have to take to the street level as the forested section of the district was coming up, and its canopy was just too thick to do tree running in. I gave my magic a quick pulse as I jumped, spreading my wings to glide and get the extra distance.

My hooves left the rooftop, I began to soar through the air, and then i just stopped. Instantly. With no discomfort. Just like pausing a movie.

“Huh?” I asked of reality itself.

I swished a hoof at the air below me. It wasn’t solid. I wasn’t atop an invisible platform. I wasn’t glowing, no unicorn had grabbed me. My wings didn’t let me hover like this. I’d been using them to glide the whole way over.

The flying bu-

The air in front of me flashed white. Bright white. The light forming a vertical streak before radiating outwards.

Discord. Nothing else had magic that looked like that. Not even any of the others of his kind.

The Spirit of Chaos slid out of the light much like a snake slipping through a crack in a wall. For one terrifying second he looked at me with genuine hatred. Hatred mixed with worry, fear, and-

FEAR!? What in all of Existence could make a deity who was the anthropomorphic personification of chaos itself afraid!?

While I tried to sort that out, Discord froze, frowning apologetically as he looked at me seemingly with pity. He recoiled back on his serpentine body slightly and stroked his beard with his lion’s paw while looking me up and down.

“Well, at least you’re not what I thought you were,” he said with genuine relief.

“What’s going on?” I asked my ears laying flat with fear of my own. “Why are you worried? What’s wrong with me?!”

Something had to be wrong with me. Discord had come out of that teleport ready to destroy! What the flying buck could possibly-

Discord snapped his talon, and a globe of darkness surrounded the two of us like a shell made from obsidian. He produced my messenger gem with a twitch of his paw and held it in the center of his palm.

“It just so happens that I need some help,” Discord said with a nod, looking directly into my eyes, or rather, seemingly through my eyes. “But we’ll need a little privacy.”

“Right, which is what the bubble’s for,” I said dumbly.

“̟B̬͇̝̖͐̄͜ͅo͔̠̳͓̖͂̀̔́õ̹ͭ͆͊̾͑ͮp̰̗̩̭̼͍̈̔!̩̤̙͆͋͒ͭ͗̃”̦̩̦̰͍͖̍̽̎ ̝̽ͪ̍ͫ̔̃ͤ̀D̤͔̬̥̀̕i͈͚̰͔̥ͬs̒̽ͦ̉ͫ҉̳̯̝c̥̙̹̮̜̗̐̇͒ͨ͆͌̐ȍ̲̼̙̤̍͑ͫr͙ḍ̲̠̦ͣͤ̉͘ͅ ̯̭͉͖̪s̆̍͏a̠̥̠͈̝͓ͦͫͫͅi̞̤̫̎̃ͥ̋ͪ͋ͪd͓͓̩͐ͭ ̶̄ͭ̋̇̓a̜̦̹ͬ́͗̏̄̚s̲̭̭͌ͪ̌̈ ̷̘̦̜̭̼̩̹ͮ͆ḥ̯̻̏ͩͫ͟e͎̳͓̘͔ ͓̻̟̱͗̽ͥ̎͟ͅt͂ͧ̄̍̊͑ͩa̯̠͙̻̅p̆̾̈̓͐͗͏̯̥̘̦p̟ͯ̃̒ͪ͒̓ͨȇ̷̹ͥ̈̊̾̚d̡̊̈́̿ͬ̏̿̆ ̹͞m͗͘y̲͔̲̳̪̖̺̔ ̌̎̓͐̋̽͏g̢͛̐̀͌eͤ̊ḿ̭͕̽̓ͭͅ ̪̯̻̪̀͗̒w͓̳̽͒͗ͅĩ͔̟̌͌̆̎ͨ͛̕t̪̥̼̜̲̼̍ͥͩ̂̈́ͫ̃͢h̤͉̱̍̆̕ ̳̺̱̬̞̘̿̍͑͒̔ͧ͐h͎̠̙̞͂̌ͮ̂̑i̙ͣͤ͗͘s̔̅͑̂͗̈ ̳̘̩͍͖̹ͅc̜̭̘̉l̰̝̜̟̹̺͙ͣͩ͐͐ͩ-̰̻̯̻̟̕

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

“What the hay!” The Emperor exclaimed, jumping up from her seat as the recording morphed into a static image of a CD lying atop a grid with Discord’s laughing face floating above the disk.

“To be fair, I think he can just see magic. There’s no way he didn’t know I was recording everything she saw,” Rojā said as he hit the fast forward button on his remote control.

“But he looked at me!” The Emperor insisted, staring at the ancient Test Pattern in horror. “DISCORD WAS MAD AND LOOKED RIGHT AT ME! PANTS TO BE DARKENED!”

“He looked into the camera. He’s a trixter type. He didn’t look specifically at you,” Rojā said with a shake of his head. “Every report I have say’s that Discord isn’t omniscient. None of the Arameneli are.”

“It’s a gut feeling,” she said with a frown as she took her seat once more. “We don’t hear a thing from this conversation, do we?”

Rojā nodded. “I’m afraid not. Nothing I could do could get anything to happen other than for the head to repeat ‘ah ah ah! You didn’t say the magic word’ over and over again. And before you ask, it wasn’t ‘please’.”

The Emperor sighed and rubbed her head for a few moments.

“You think that Discord told her to do it, don’t you?” she asked.

Rojā nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Unfortunately, since we can’t know, I can’t give that possibility any weight in my judgement,” the Emperor said adamantly. “And even if he did, legally speaking, unless he threatened her, there’d be nothing to do anyways. The law is the law.”

“I still would like to think that she had a very good reason,” Rojā stated as the footage started to play again. “Oops! Let me just rewind a bit.”

The Emperor steepled her hooves in thought. “However, Sherbert is right. Knowing what made Discord act like that is something very important to know. Once this is done, Rojā, I want your cell to try and find out. I refuse to not know.”

Sherbert - 6th of Plantation, 29 AE

Uneigh Ward, Neighdo - Neighpone

The Unseen Conversation

”Boop!” Discord said as he tapped my gem with his claw.

I blinked once. His switch flip from super serious to the normal silliness he embodied was like a slap to the face.

“I- I don’t,” I stammered. “What’s going on?”

Discord snapped his talon, conjuring an ordinary folding chair, and took a seat upon it in mid air.

“That is a question with a very complicated answer, Sherbert,” he said, waving a paw to drag me closer to him. “Before I answer it, let me just clean you up a little.”

Clean me up? I mean, I guess I had to be pretty dusty, and a bit scorched, and otherwise grungy from the fight with Mai, but...

“But why though?” I asked, tilting my head.

Discord reached out with his talon, and grabbed my forehead. I expected pain as his nails dug into my forehead, but instead, nothing. I felt nothing. As he retracted his hand, a long thick strip of nothing pulled away from me, like he was pulling a rope through a hole in a bucket. I felt… cold.

Discord balled the nothing up, and tossed it from paw to talon a few times. It was… Unsettling.

It wasn’t as if he were merely tossing a black ball back and forth. No. It was… Nothing.

A blank space within space. A hole, that behaved like an object in and of itself. A thing that was not a thing.

“Can you see this?” Discord asked me, as he tossed the nothing-ball up, playing a short game of hacky sack with it. “Or do you think I’m doing some sort of interpretive dance?”

“I… Both see, but also don’t see, a nothing that is something,” I said with a wince at just how incoherent I sounded.

He nodded once, looking at me extremely critical. “I’m not… Comfortable being serious for long periods of time. So please don’t interrupt me,” he begged. “This situation is very serious. So serious that I’ve sealed this pocket of the universe off from the rest of it, temporarily disenchanted your messenger gem, and am jamming your watch, so we can be absolutely certain no one is listening.

“Since you can see this, you need to know something that no mortals should know. You must also Pinkie Promise to never, ever, discuss your knowledge of this thing with anyone who doesn't already know of it.”

Discord paused and gestured at me with his talon, prompting me to swear. I nodded.

“I promise to never tell anyone what you are about to tell me, unless they already know about that thing,” I swore. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Discord snapped his talon, and the nothing returned to rest in his paw. “This, is Voidstuff,” he explained. “It’s the stuff which fills the space between universes. How much do you know of my kind and our role in maintaining this universe, Sherbert?”

“Not very much,” I admitted with a small blush.

He nodded once and snapped his talon, the ball of Voidstuff vanishing completely into the burst of light.

“Understandable. We don’t exactly tell mortals much about what we do. A shame really, you can be some of the most fun things within the entirety of creation itself!” He sighed. “But we do exist for a purpose. It’s our job to make sure that this universe exists forever, and that everything in it works exactly as described in the rules we were given.”

“I know that,” I said, wondering why he was giving me a lecture about the purpose of the Gods.

Discord nodded once. “One of the tasks is to keep this universe free of things known as Voidborn. Specifically, that’s the job of my great great great grandson, Chief- Um, well, you’d only know of him as War.

“When Voidstuff, or Voidborn, gets inside a universe, it’s a very very bad thing. Voidstuff is raw potential. It can become, or be made, into absolutely anything. Even impossible things. It can do things even I can not do. All because the inherent property of true nothingness, of the Void, is to make something.

“Voidborn are creatures which Voidstuff has made, that simply appear within the Void. The vast majority of them are extremely hostile, and very dangerous. They seem to exist only to destroy, and are quite capable of killing myself and everyone like me. They are very bad news.

“How bad? Well, while eavesdropping on my own creator, I happened to learn that this universe exists as a lifeboat to escape a universe that ONE ancient Voidborn had gotten its tendrils into and was devouring. That’s how bad this stuff is.

“And you came into contact with a magical effect created via Voidstuff. This means Chief missed one while defending a breach into the universe. We would know if a powerful Voidborn had gotten in here, we would simply feel it. Since we had no clue about, well, whatever corrupted you, it must be a very minor incursion. Perhaps just a few cultists being fed energy, at the worst it's a single minor Voidling.

“I need to know exactly where you came into contact with that Voidstuff.”

Well, that left absolutely no room for error!

Doing my best to suppress the loud screaming that was my own fear, I gulped and nodded. “The obvious thing was the suit of armor Mai was wearing when we fought. It had a bubble around it that just… Deleted magic. But she was completely fine inside it. K-Kazumi… She said that should have disintegrated her.”

Discord nodded and stood up, folding up his chair, and also removing it from existence. “Thank you very much, Sherbert. Please wait here a moment while I take care of that cleanup, and then come back here to finish with you.”

“Wait!” I said, the fur on the back of my neck standing on end. “But you said I was contaminat-”

“I took the Stuff that was killing you out already. I’ll fix everything I can when I get back. I need to know what did it. One moment,” Discord said, vanishing with a snap of his talons.

And then reappearing with a flash of light slightly to the left of the one he made when he vanished. Before the first flash had even begun to fade.

Discord stretched his arms over his head as he remembered. “Whew! That was rather exhausting. I didn’t keep you waiting, did I?” He asked as he lay down in mid air, seemingly tired.

“Um, you literally arrived the moment you left,” I replied. “Can you time travel?”

“Yes. It’s been five hours for me. Cleaning up that armor was… Tricky. So was tracking down where it was made. But that’s all been taken care of,” He said with a smile. “The truly exhausting part was throwing Luna and her girls off the trail.”

“Wait, they're here!?” I asked, my heart skipping a beat at the thought of some of my biggest heroes seeing me snap like I had when Mai… Killed her.

Discord nodded and reached behind my ear, producing a life size Lyra plushie, complete with her Knight’s uniform. I couldn’t help but be impressed with the life-like level of quality, until I realized that Discord had just conjured it.

“Yes, here you are, fanfilly,” Discord teased just before yawning. “Before you ask, I had to throw them off the trail. There are some rules even I can’t break. One of them is allowing powerful mortals to know of the Void.”

I took the plushie and stuffed it into the magic pocket in my left vambrace. Life was on something of a ‘take things from Sherbert’ crusade. At the very least, i was keeping the stupid joke plushie. At least at the end of this mess I’d have something…

"Sooo, are we going to erase my memory of all this?” I asked hesitantly.

Discord shook his head. “Oh, Sherbert… I’m sorry, but I can’t do that to you. Not with how much of the Void you were exposed to. Once you can physically see it, there’s nothing that can be done to make you forget.

“Let’s get you as fixed up as best we can.”

I frowned. The realization that my energy had been falling because I had been dying hitting home hard.

“So… What happened?” I asked.

Discord sat up and conjured a tiny version of myself into the palm of his paw. “You are an Ancient Unicorn, complete with their physical magic. It’s very simple stuff. It allows you to temporarily transform your own body to make it better. Of course, you know that.

“What you don’t know, is this.”

Discord tossed the tiny me upwards, and the illusion unfolded, becoming a lifesize picture of my spine, and more importantly the gems implanted in it which allowed me the limited spells I had.

I nodded in realization. “The magic decided my gems were a body part,” I said with an understanding smile.

“Bingo!” Discord laughed. “It altered them. Thing is, crystals like that take power to change. Unlike your body, they won't return to normal once your magic leaves. Since you’re not Twilight, I assume you don’t know that illusion and transformation magic is, well, technically speaking, quite close to one another.

“That nifty little illusion toy you got for yourself seems to have become a transformation spell instead. And once that happened, the magic you were throwing around like a sack of anvil shaped kittens, used it to do what you told it to do. Improve you.”

“And that made me become an alicorn?” I asked skeptical.

Discord shook his head rapidly. “No no no no! You didn’t do that. Though Luna said the transformation effect is eerily similar. What happened is your uncontrolled magic and glitchy gemstone were creating an entirely new demi-god type form. But it was interrupted by you running face first into Voidstuff designed to make magic go away.

“Whatever you would have become, that’s now lost. Forever. You have two options. Well, three, but I don't think you want to keel over dead. I can either try to get you as close to how you used to be as possible, or I can try and complete as much of your transformation as possible. Pick one. And be quick! I’m getting tired of being professional.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Um… Why are you being so-”

“Because I need your help. Voidborn can hide from us, but not from you. Not anymore. I know you won't say no, because you’re a good pony at heart and don’t want the world to end,” Discord said with a sad smile. “I am sorry, by the way. I never thought we would need a pony’s help. The last time this happened was, oh… Several hundred million years ago. This sort of thing is more rare than Twilight choosing to not read a new book.”

“You need my help?” I asked worriedly, trying to take a step back, but my legs just wiggled since I was still frozen in place.

“I do. So which is it? As you were, or as you could have been?” Discord asked with another yawn. “Please hurry.”

The only reason I felt I could face Xii and win was because I had thought I was an Alicorn… I needed the power boost.

“Finish as much of it as you can, please,” I asked.

Discord nodded and snapped his talon. I felt icy cold again as more Voidstuff slid out of me. Not as much as before, but it seemed thicker. More like molten metal than a rope. I felt my bones pop and crunch as they shifted. I braced myself for pain, but none came. I could feel things sliding under my skin, which also felt very hot.

Something flashed white, looking back to see where the flash had come from, I saw my left flank.

I had it. I got a cutie mark! AT BUCKING LAST!

I had NO IDEA what it was! It was a lightning bolt which pointed up, and kinda looked a bit like an arrow, with a blue streak trailing behind it which formed a circle around the lightning bolt.

“Ah! So that’s what that bit of magic was,” Discord noted. “Cutiemark stuck in that tangled mess of mana. Alright, let me just nudge a few more things. You’re still a tangled mess, but I almost have the knots undone.”

“What’s it mean?” I asked curiously. “It looks sort of like the software upgrade icon for my watch.”

Discord facepawed and loudly groaned into his paw. “What were you doing when this thing tried to manifest and failed?”

“Improving mysel- Oh,” I said, facehooving as well. “My special talent is self-improvement. At least, magically speaking. I kinda suck at just being a better pon-”

I felt a few more bits of me shift around, then a massive migraine blindsided me. The pain was intense enough for me to scream.

“That’s as far as I can take it,” Discord said, the pain stopping immediately. “Kazumi is filling your mind right now, isn’t she?”

I nodded and opened my eyes, “Yeah… I… I swore I would avenge her. How did you know I was thinking of her?”

“Because of this,” he said as he pulled a large standing mirror from behind his back.

I looked into the reflection, noticing that I was taller by a good bit. It’s weird that I noticed that first because-

“I- I'm a thestral!” I yelped as I saw my lack of a horn and well, the normal bat wings attached to my shoulderblades.

Nothing else had changed, just my height, and tribe.

Discord nodded. “Yes. I just turned the transformation back on, and fed you power. It was still your magic doing the work. Your love for her influenced the change.”

“But I don’t want to be a batpony!” I yelped fearfully.

“Don’t worry, just a little bit of magic and this will have you looking like your old self,” Discord said as he tapped my forehead gently.

“That’s right!” I said with a grin. “You said it warped into a transformation stone!”

“Yes, and also no,” he said with a smirk. “I’m afraid that I couldn’t remove all of the Voidstuff from you. Some of it is well, a part of you now. Inseparable. You’re a mishmash of- Um, it’s just simpler to say you’re a shapeshifter now. As in, your form is whatever you want it to be.

“I’d say like a changeling, but you won't gain any special powers or magic from shapechanging. Just the body itself. That’s the gem’s part. The Voidstuff’s part lets you simply imagine a body you want and just BE that thing you imagined. Hence why you’re currently a batpony.

“Being somewhat composed of potential creation is rather nice, isn’t it?”

I frowned, and closed my eyes tightly. I reached for my magic, worrying I couldn’t find it without a horn… But it was there as always. Or rather, most of it was. I could still feel the magic I used to boost myself, or use a TK punch, and my telekinesis itself, but everything else? Completely gone. Not a drop.

Maybe it would come back if I were a unicorn? I pushed it towards my implanted gem, and pictured my old self as clearly as I could.

I saw the bright white flash even through my shut eyelids. When I opened them, I was my old unicorn self again. But my magic didn’t return to the way it had been.

That was enough for me to fundamentally understand what had happened. I’d asked my magic to improve everything, and that counted itself. It absorbed the week parts of my unicorn magic, so, um, all of it.

What remained was a vast pool of very focused energy. I could easily push my body to a superequine status for… For some amount of time. I couldn’t tell exactly how long. But it would be a long time! I could feel it. I had more power than I had before by a lot.

But none of that magic was for spellcraft. Not one drop. All of it was physical in nature. The slim chance of learning wizardry I’d had before was gone. I would forever more be limited to self-enhancement, telekinesis, and the short range teleport and transformation powers my gems provided me with.

Okay. That’s fine. I can deal with that.

“Okay,” I said after taking it all in. “I understand what happened to me now. What do you need?”

Discord smiled and slithered through the air like a snake to take a position in front of me where he conjured a chalkboard.

“I need you to be a hero,” he said as he began to draw an odd looking sigil in the chalkboard.

I blinked. “Um, come again?”

“You know, that hero thing you’ve always wanted to be? I need you to do it now,” he said, taking a step back from the board so I could see what he drew.

The sigil looked like nonsense to me. It had to be an insignia, rather than an arcane device. It looked like a backward question mark, a fishhook, and an exclamation point arranged in a triangle around a little dot they all shared as a ‘base’.

“This is a Voidborn glyph. It’s how they write. I’m afraid I don’t know the language,” Discord said as he pulled a book labeled ‘Equish-Voidborn Dictionary’. “Unfortunately this book doesn't actually exist.”

I nodded. “Okay. Why is this symbol important?”

“It serves as a magic circle, and allows for Voidstuff to be infused into it and- Well, you know, do magic. This one was made out of copper wire on the inside of your former enemy's barrel-plate,” Discord said with a frown. “It… Seems more powerful than the few we’ve encountered before. Especially since the dojo Mai lived at is… Invisible to me.”

“Woah, woah, woah, you can’t see the Flying Horse!?” I asked, ears laying back in alarm.

Discord shook his head again, flashing a rather creepy smile my way. “No. But I know where it should be. Which means they are using one or more of these glyphs to hide that building from all anthropomorphic manifestations of fundamental concepts.”

“Which implies they know they should hide from you if they are using this stuff,” I said with a grim nod.

“Exactly. But they don’t know that your little brush with the Void means you can see it. They can’t hide it from you,” Discord said with a sly wink as he snapped his talons, summoning a box of matches into the air in front of my face. “All you need to do is sneak in there, destroy the glyph, and then I can get rid of this threat before it becomes a real problem.”

I frowned. “That’s it?” I asked skeptically.

Discord nodded and gave me a smile. “I can’t do this alone. If I try to clean up Voidstuff I can’t see, I could accidently doom everything to, horrible things. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy chaos, and while few things would cause more chaos than a sudden Old One invasion, I would much rather be the only thing causing chaos in this universe.

“After all, mischievous chaos is much more fun for everyone than ‘brain trying to escape your ear insanity inducing horrors are eating our world’ chaos.”

I nodded sharply. “Yeah… So, I can be the one to prevent that from ever happening?” I asked, realizing that well, this was it.

This was the big thing I would do. This is what would make me a true hero. This is what would make me worthy of being a member of my family!

“That’s right,” Discord said, floating over to me and giving me a very brief hug. “And you already ARE one. If you hadn't fought Mai, Luna would never have sensed you transform and summoned me to find out what was going on. We would have never known about this cult. Thank you.”

Discord cleared hs throat and floated away from me. “Though, there’s one little problem,” he said sadly. “I know you want to be known as a hero, but no one can EVER know about this.”

I nodded. “You already made me promise not to tell,” I said as I looked at the board, memorizing the glyph’s shape. “I don’t care if others know I saved the world. I’ll know, and that’s good enough for me. I’ll do it. Let me out.”

Discord smiled in relief. “Thank you, Sherbert. Now, since the super serious, doom and gloom, terrifying tedium has been resolved, I can stop being serious,” he said with a happy laugh. “Go ahead and take care of your part. The next time we see eachother, we’ll go animate some flowers and make them fight inside of a little bread coliseum or something.

“Oh! I should mention that plush is- Eh, you’ll figure it out. It will be fun. Don’t worry, it’s safe fun. I remembered Fluttershy forgot your birthday when you were eighteen is all. And well, I also owe Lyra a revenge for a prank of hers. Ta ta!”

I felt I should ask about that, but realized that the situation at hoof needed to be dealt with first.

Discord snapped his talon, vanishing at the same time as the opaque bubble around me.

Surveillance Footage Resumes

To my surprise I didn’t fall straight down, my jump’s arc continued through, allowing me to land on the roof I had been aiming for without any difficulty.

The moment I landed. I began to plan. New plan. Forget Xii. Didn’t need to kill him anymore. All I had to do was search the place and destroy any █̘̱̱̤̭̰͈̔█͊̀̃̐█̬͉█̗̠̗̼̫͓͇̚█̙̄̓̏̓̏̇̋█̳̤̰̓͛͌̃̍̈́ I could find.

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

“Pause,” the Emperor ordered as the horrible staticy shriek made bouth herself and Rojā wince in pain. “How… How often did she think about whatever Discord is censoring on the way over?”

Rojā cleared his throat. “Um, quite a lot.”

The Emperor rubbed her temples. “I really, really don’t want to hear that again.”

“Want me to skip to the final confrontation again, Ma’am?” Rojā asked with a frown. “Because naturally she’s thinking about whatever that word is the entire time she’s infiltrating. Whatever it is, she’s looking for them ALL over the place. Even on the bottom of furniture.”

“Why didn’t you edit the beeps out?” The Emperor demanded angrily.

“I did. They go back in after the video is done rendering,” Rojā grumbled in the unmistakable voice of a stallion experiencing a technical problem from Tartarus itself.

“Ah,” the mare applied understandingly. “Well, I don't really need to see the whole infiltration. We already know she can fool our own disguise experts, it’s easy to understand how she got inside the public building. Let’s just see the result of her work.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Rojā said with a nod, quickly skipping ahead and then hitting play.

The projection changed, showing Sherbert’s PoV as a bookcase door in a library slid open.

“I was shocked as the door slid open,” her inner monologue said, sounding rather surprised. “Honestly, since it’s title had been Dark Sacraments, I’d just wanted to see if the book had the █͙̟̟͉ͫ̓̏ͣ█͂͋ͮ͊̌█̦̞̞̯ͣ͗̃͊̚█̶̖̖̬̌ͯ̑ͪ̔█̡̰̟͍ͫ█̨͉͒̀ͩ̆̄̚ on it’s cover.”

“AAAAAA!” The Emperor screamed, clamping her hooves over her ears. “It’s like one drill in one ear, and another drill in the other ear, and they’re meeting in the middle!”

Rojā nodded once. “I know… I’m sorry. Don’t worry, there isn’t much more of th-”

The projection showed the bookcase slide completely aside, revealing a stairway down to a hidden chamber. A stairway lined with black tapestries, which presumably had the marking Sherbert was looking for on them. However, each of the symbols was completely obscured by a different thirty year old cheesy porn pinup which looked to have been cut out from life sized posters. All of which were snapshots of adorably effeminate stallions dressed in Playcolt Bunny outfits.

The Emperor blinked in mild surprise at what she presumed was Discord’s choice of censorship. Censorship which in and of itself was nonsensical. Had the spirit of Chaos wished to truly hide something from others, he could have easily corrupted the entire recording. No, he wanted her to see that something was wrong here, but not exactly what that was.

A strange state of affairs to be certain. A true puzzle, one which the Emperor immediately began to solve, distracting her from the matter at hoof by more than a little bit.

“Well… This is going to make paying attention to what’s going on hard!” She said after a few seconds, referring to the mental puzzle she was solving.

Rojā nodded and turned his face away from the Empress’s bashfully. “Um, yes,” he agreed, shyly looking away from one of the cuter pinups.

The Emperor blinked, noticing the difference between their distractions and smiled. “This is why it took you two days to prepare your case, isn’t it?”

“NO!” Rojā protested with an indignant stompy. “There was years of footage to go through, time code, and then cut into clips. Besides, Lii is cuter than any of them.”

The Empress shot her captain a grin. “Did you check?” She teased.

“... Just shut up and watch the thing,” Rojā grumbled.

Sherbert - 6th of Plantation, 29 AE

Uneigh Ward, Neighdo - Neighpone

I had to say, using a copy of a book called ‘Dark Sacraments’ to hide your creepy staircase down to the evil chamber of █̬͚̖͙̫█̹̙̥͈́█̷̰͇̜̙̱̃̅͌́̃ͤ█̥̟͈̮̜̀█̙̺̹█̢͔̂͐̑█̸̪͇̘̥̗͖ͫͧ͗̓̂█̯̗̖̭̮̀̀ͭ̔̉͠ stuff is pritty dumb. Then again, it wasn’t titled in Neighponese, but in Equish. Perhaps they were banking on-

On someone assuming it was misshelved. And picking it up. And this was a trap.

A trap I’d already most likely begun.

I looked down the long stairwell, my eyes tracing over the granite flagstones into the distant room below. It could be an illusion… But I was on the ground floor. There could be a hidden basement chamber here. You wouldn’t dig one of those just for a trap.

But at the same time, you wouldn’t hide it with a bookcase door that’s triggered by a book on that bookcase. Because every book on that shelf will get handled by somepony at some point. Especially when the trigger book looks out of place.

So this door had to be recently altered. For me to find, judging by the fact that the book was titled in Equish. Which mean they knew I was here.

Their means of detection had to be arcane. I’d used my improved disguise powers to assume the form of a fairly bland looking Earth Pony stallion, and had gotten a uniform from a clothes line. All while remaining in full stealth mode. I’d talked with a few people to look normal. I’d spent a few minutes practicing in the training yard to further sell the image.

I’d spent a good three hours walking arround and looking for the █̝̗͈̖̞̫͊ͥ̽█͈͙͖̞͎̙̯̾̾͑ͫ█̰̺͍͔█̬̝̂̾̓ͭ͊̚█͕̖͍̿ too. No one had stopped me or said anything suspicious.

They had some sort of magical security that either detected the shapechange I was using, or had been scrying the fight with Mai and knew I was coming.

But why the trap? There would be plenty of ways to kill me while I was looking around. Well, assuming they knew WHERE I was within the Flying Horse Dojo.

They wouldn’t set up this chamber for me to find if they did. They’d just have a dozen people attack me at once. Meaning I had stealth going for me even though they knew I was here.

Meaning that room down below was what I was looking for, and also where they had set their little trap.

But more importantly, it meant they knew I was going to be searching this place. Not good.

I put the book back on the shelf, the door closing as swiftly and quietly as it opened. I wasn’t going down there. Not yet. I had a plan.

Leaving the small study, I exited the building and crossed the courtyard to the dojo’s dining hall, and entered the kitchen through the back door.

I’d been through here before, but the kitchen had been empty at the time. Now a few cooks were walking around, getting the kitchen ready for dinner.

I cleared my throat to get their attention. “Hey, so, I was asked to bring a barrel of cooking oil to Master Chinatsu’s room. Where do we store those?” I asked casually.

One of the cooks, a purple and gray spotted pegasus mare looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. “Um… Why does she need that?” She asked, one ear flopping slightly.

I shrugged. “Beats me. She asked me to get one, so I am,” I replied, flashing her a ‘I’m just as confused as you’ expression.

The mare nodded towards one of the pantries.

“That one. Make sure you get a barrel of the cheap stuff. If she’s going to waste it on some weird martial trick, it’s not going to be the good stuff,” she grumbled as she turned back to the recipe book she had been reading.

I trotted over and opened the pantry door. It was full of barrels, mostly wooden ones, with a few metal ones here and there. It didn’t matter what kind I got, so I just grabbed the first one I saw and started to roll it out of the kitchen.

“Thanks!” I called to the cook.

“Hey! Wait!” she snapped. “That’s peanut oil! Don’t you know what oils are expensive?”

I did not. I shook my head. “Uh, no?”

“Oh for buck’s sake,” she grumbled as she trotted over to the closet, and retrieved another slightly larger barrel. “This is corn oil, dirt cheep. She can waste this one.”

I nodded and switched out the barrels, pushing the new one towards the door. “Sorry. Thanks again,” I called.

The cook waved a hoof dismissively and returned to her work.

That settled it. They didn’t know who I was. Or at least, the cook wasn’t in on it.

I rolled the barrel across the training yard. I was only questioned once, and a simple ‘Some kind of strength and endurance training thing, apparently’ was enough to get the instructor to leave me alone.

It was funny just how different real stealth is from fictional stealth. Everyone notices the guy peeking around a corner and action rolling into the shadows. No one questions the stallion rolling a barrel any further than ‘wait, why?’

Master Yoshi had been so right about this sort of thing. Just make it look like you belong and you own the place you’re infiltrating.

I rolled the barrel back into the small study I had discovered before, and moved it up to the bookcase, and then shoved it upright, and smashed the top open with a quick punch, immediately yelling. “Ah crap!” to make the snap sound like an accident.

Sure enough, a stallions’s voice called out. “What did you break?”

“Just a chair. The leg snapped when I sat down,” I yelled back. “It’s cool, I know a repair charm.”

“Ha! Fatflank,” he laughed.

Smirking at the fact I’d gotten away with that, I closed my eyes and focused on my transformation spell, returning to the thestril shape I’d been given. I had no idea how big of a room was down below, or if there was some sort of maze of rooms. A batpony’s hearing would help a lot down below.

As soon as the flash of light cleared, I took the Dark Sacraments book down from the shelf once more. The bookcase once again immediately slid to the left, revealing the hidden passageway. Rather than head down the stairs, I began to implement my plan.

I grabbed a legfull of books from the shelf, then looked around for Twilight, just to be safe. What? EVERY Ponyvillian would do the same exact thing if they were doing what I was about to do.

As soon as I was certain she wasn’t in this library, I quietly began to rip out the pages from the books a hooffull at a time. As soon as I had a large stack of loose paper, I crumpled them as quietly as I could and dunked them into the oil, let them soak a bit, then set the oily papers on the floor.

Time for part two. Using my teleknesis, I scooped up globs of the oil, and dropped them slowly onto the █̪̯͍ͭͥ͗̋̐͑█͚̹̣͖̱̠͖̎͐█̗̗̰̤͍͍̩ͬ͆̾ͦͫ█͙̣̮̊̆̓̀̽͑ͣ█͍̣̞ͫ͗̉ͭ s in the center of each hanging tapestry, and made sure that the oil soaked the walls from the tapestry to the floor. That would take care of those. But there could be more.

I’d have to go down and see if there was any more of them below. But first, a distraction.

Taking some of my papers, I levitated them into place around the steps, making sure to cover the majority of them with a page. Then I took the broken board from the top of the barrel, and wedged it into the bookcase so the door couldn’t slide shut behind me.

Admittedly, that was something I knew I wouldn’t have thought of yesterday. Whatever improvements my little stunt had made, I definitely had gotten a bit smarter too. I should have through to try a flat out ‘upgrade everything plz’ years ago…

Refocusing myself, I picked up the barrel, turned it upside down, and floated it down the stairwell, making a trail of oil that went all the way down to the bottom, connecting the papers and the tapestries.

Cooking oil isn’t flammable, per say, you can’t just light it on fire directly, but it will burn. It just needs to get hot first. A small paper fire will do.

As soon as the papers were suitably soaked, and the stairs covered in oil, I gave the barrel a telekinetic shove, and threw it, sending it smashing into the room below. Immediately, a thick purple ray of light smashed into the barrel, the crack of a spellrod echoing up the stairs as the attack connected.

Ah ha! Knew it!

I focused my magic and teleported down, facing the direction the beam had come from. The room below was small. Basically a stone meditation chamber. Oddly it also contained an alter on one side which had the █̟̬͇͍ͭ̈̃ͫ█̓ͫ͛█̳̳̎͋͊█ͥ̾͂█͈̥̰̜̠̼̆ carved deep into its almost black hardwood top.

Only one pony stood in the room. And old unicorn stallion. Dark green fur, with mud colored neatly trimmed mane, graying, but still quite fit. It had been a long time since I’d seen Xii. Almost four whole years. But I still recognised him.

His eyes widened as he saw the barrel, and then me. Understanding he’d missed his shot he turned the silver spellrod my way, readying another blast. I focused again and teleported to the other side of the room, arriving closer to the altar.

I scrambled behind it, seeking cover. Hopefully he wouldn’t know where I had teleported too. Fighting a martial arts expert in a small room wouldn’t be a problem, but fighting an armed unicorn in close quarters? Not without an extra advantage.

I should have turned on my super-mode before going down here. Idiot!

“I didn’t expect you to go fetch a distraction,” Xii said, his hooves clicking on the stone floor as he moved, looking around for me. “Quite the surprise when you didn’t immediately come down here. Rojā trained you well.”

I slowly slid the kitchen knife I’d taken on the first trip through the kitchen out from my stolen uniform, and held it ready in my left hoof. Maybe if I got him monologuing…

“Funny thing is, you could have had me on your side instead,” I mocked.

“Indeed,” the old stallion agreed. “But dwelling on past mistakes isn’t productive. It’s recent mistakes which are far more important to deal with.”

“What, like, ordering your psycho granddaughter to kill my wife?” I asked with an angry growl.

No! No, don’t get angry. You’ll make a mistake.

My ears twitched as Xii moved. I wasn’t really quite able to understand the sound like a sonar. Kaz said that's what it was like I guess it took practice.

But I could hear well enough to understand that Xii was moving to the left, and closer to me. I started to shuffle towards the left side of the altar, getting ready to preemptively strike.

“No. That wasn’t me, that was an ally of mine,” Xii corrected. “Mai was a failure. Little more than an effective thug. I was done with her. My friend, however, wanted exactly what she could provide. No, my mistake, was fetching a Soul Blade for Mai when she returned.”

“And why’s that?” I asked, reaching the left most side of the altar.

“Simple, Mai failed, like failures do. It took a lot of resources to acquire that weapon from it’s former owner. It would have been better used by someone else. Mai’s successor, as it were,” Xii said casually.

Ohhh, wait a minute, he’s chatty because I’m chatty. We have the same strategy. Shit! He knows I’m here, and that I know he’s there.

“You’d think that giving her a █̦͚͉͈͙̈́̾ͨ͋█͙̭̭̩̯̠̱̍̃ͤ̿̈́̑█̖̣͓̮̹͔̞̃̽̑̒ͬ█ͧͧͪ̏̌̾̚█̞̱̺̲̿█͚̰̖̱͎͍͂͒█̝͖̘̘̏́̓█͖̟█͈̙̠̮͔ shield would be a bigger waste than a sword,” I pointed out, hoping that revealing I knew what this room was for would shake him up.

“It is… But I didn’t think you knew of the Outside,” Xii said wearily. “You’re not Orange Sherbert, are you?”

Oh ho! Is that an opportunity I sense? Yes, I think it is.

A plan quickly formed in my mind. People existed in that place, and Xii clearly thought I was one of them. Apparently they could possess people.

“No… But I know what she knows, and that means I especially hate you too,” I lied.

“Ah, I see. You must have slipped inside her when Sherbert ran headlong into Mai’s shield while casting spells, like the empty headed nobody she was. Surely you can push aside a dead mortal’s desires,” Xii said diplomatically. “I know your kind isn’t as powerful as some believe. You will need help, and I could use some help from one such as you.”

YES! Jackpot!

“Perhaps I could,” I agreed. “But killing you does sound fun. That’s my primary goal here, have a little… Fun.”

Hopefully that sounded evil enough.

“Will you at least hear my offer?” Xii asked. “And know that I am not helpless. This spellrod was enhanced by my Patron, who I assure you is more powerful than you are.”

“If you have all that power to command, then you don’t need me. I don’t buy that,” I laughed, not even needing to lie for that one.

“Ah but I do. My Lord is happy to give me a weapon here, a spell there, but I have yet to please him enough to be granted true favors. Howeaver, I assure you, this rod can kill a lesser █͐͗͌͐█̝͇͂ͪ̌ͨͧ̍́█͇̳ͧ̑́͒ͨ█̻̻͉̮͔͙̣ͫ̈█͖̺̝̳͚͕̘ͬ̊̎̇̇ͫ͊█̼ͣ͑̊̚█̩̬̞ͭ̈ͅ█͇̉̇̈́̂, such as yourself,” he insisted.

“What is it you want?” I asked, frowning slightly.

Did Discord think it went this far? Well, he did say they formed cults. So, yeah he had to have expected this.

“I want your help infusing a mortal with █̹͋̾̌█̏͌ͮ̓█̬█̺̙͚̫ͩͥͤͫ̿̎̚█̓̐ͥ̉█̤͉̼͍͇̌█̜̠̳̟͚͑̽̓█͔̮̜̳̜͈̓͗̎̍ͅ█͚͓̠̯͔,” Xii said plainly. “I want your help to create an immortal, ageless, wise, and powerful being native to this plane of existence.”

Shit… I hadn’t thought up a new plan yet. I thought I would have by now. I couldn’t use those matches Discord gave me to light the stairs on fire yet, I needed to stop Xii and break this alter first.

Maybe a TK punch to shatter the wood top? Yes, but Xii first.

How?

“Why do you not want to make yourself immortal?” I asked, to keep the time buying conversation running.

“I’m not interested in being immortal,” Xii laughed. “Neighpone has remained weak and pathetic for too long. Our ancestors were proud warriors, and now our children live simple, empty lives, never knowing the glory of conquest. I want to see a new era dawn, and then pass on.

“Of course, with Equestria being a global superpower, we can’t return to the ancient ways without a demi-god of our own. As I know your kind can create one for me, it is my duty to create, raise, and train our future Emperor, the first of a new Imperial line. It is not my destiny to be that ruler.”

Wow. Okay. So, his motivations are launching total war and committing treason apparently. I wasn’t expecting him to be that kind of evil...

“What would I get out of this deal, should I assist you?” I asked, my mind starting to work overtime on an attack plan.

“For starters, I could give you all of the failures to do with as you pleased,” Xii offered happily. “If your mind is influenced by Sherbert’s memories as you claim, I imagine you’d enjoy killing Mai again, yes? Well, since she was my first attempt at infusing a pony with the █̥̝̖̫ͩ͗̊̀ͤ██̥̮̝͙ͮ̍̚█̺̱̫̩̻̥ͯ̔, in a way each of them would be another her.

“Why don’t you come out from behind that altar and we discuss this business arrangement like civilized people?”

BUCK! Did he totally buy this lie? If yes, did he really intend to make a deal with the thing he thought I was, or did he just want me to leave cover to shoot me? After all, he already had a deal with someone else. I couldn’t imagine they were very willing to sh-

Oh sweet bucking Luna! ‘She was my first attempt’. That’s why Mai was an evil psychopath! And Xii intended to make MORE. Killing him was no longer personal. He had to die for the sake of literally everyone’s safety! Even if he failed to start a new Empire, he was going to make more and more serial killers as he tried to achieve his goals.

I had to do something. Come on brain! Use those smarts you had a minute ago!

“I would, but the odds of you blasting me when I stand are too high. Let us continue talking like this, until we establish trust,” I asked.

Something metallic thumped down onto a hard wooden surface.

“I’ve set my weapon down,” Xii said simply.

Had he though? He could have just struck the alter’s top lightly.

Screw it. There was no safe way to do this. Power up!

I closed my eyes and reached for my magic, and once more pushed it out into my whole body, just like I had before. I felt the change almost immediately. The world seemed sharper. Smells were more potent. I could hear everything far better. I felt strength flow into my muscles.

Okay, let’s go!

I turned around, tilted my head to the left, and raised up slightly, just enough to peek over the edge with one eye. Xii’s spellrod lay flat against the altar top. Aimed directly at my eye. His hoof resting on the rear end of the glowing, still very much active rod.

He fired.

The purple beam of light raced towards me.

I teleported.

His ray blasted a chunk of stone out of the wall. Another millisecond and I would have been minus a head.

Xii whirled around surprisingly fast as I appeared behind him, but not fast enough. I lashed out with the kitchen knife, burying it deep in his barrel. I followed the stab with a punch, my free hoof striking the knife’s handle and ramming the blade into him flush with the pommel.

Xii gurgled, the spellrod clattering to the stone floor as he dropped it, then wordlessly crashed to the ground in a heap.

I wasn’t falling for that.

I charged a TK punch, and smashed open the back of his skull with a burst of blue magic. Feeling my enhanced state starting to fade back to normal, I charged a second punch spun around, and punched the evil symbol atop the altar right in the dot!

The old wood splintered. I changed another punch, and hit the same spot. The wood cracked, my magic racing across the surface, ripping a large crack through the sigil.

A horrific shriek blasted out of the altar The moment that happened, black tendrils of nothingness reached up from the crack lashing out, seeking anything to grab onto.

I screamed and jumped backwards, moving out of reach before one could snag me. My rear hooves hit the barrel fragments…

Remembering my previous plan, I reached out with my telekinesis and grabbed some of the paper wads, and jammed them into the remains of the barrel. The tendrils continued to grow as I fumbled with the box of matches, getting one to light on my third try.

I dropped the match onto the paper.

“By fire be purged!” Discord’s voice shouted as the paper and barrel ignited way faster than it should have.

A small part of my mind panicked even more at the magical ignition. Another small part laughed as I remembered the box had been branded ‘Chaos Co. Realitycleanser’. The rest of me screamed in terror at the entire situation and telekinetically threw the burning barrel onto the altar, then teleported to the top of the stairwell.

“̟̟͔̭̻̳̐̿̀ͣẎ̠̖̙͎̬̙͈͗̒̾̈o̤̦͈͍̙̤̓̅ǘ̱̫̦̪͉͌͋ ̍̇ͭ̅̾̓̑t̹͓̬̼̼̔̌͋̂̍o͕̞̎̄͊ö͔̃̌͋ ̼̿s̙̰͈̝̝̉͐̾h̑ͮå͉̘̦̻̹̬̣̋͑̑ͭ̆̐l͔͙̟ͬͮ̄̄̑ͪl̺͔͙ͅ ̯̥̰͎ͦͦ̆̊͒̚ḇ͇͎̭͎̈̓ͬ͋͑ͦͅu̥̜̮̰̫̗ͪ̏ͤ͆ͣ̄̐r̯̳͙̻̤̮̩̓͆n͙̗̺̱͈͕̋̋͑̾ͅ,̞͚̳̇̾͑ͦͧ̿̊ ̜̞̹͔̞͈̏̇̍̈́͂ͩͩͅm͉͓͚̗̯͍͍̽͊̈́o̼̻̝̣͆̍͊̊̓r̯͈͈̞̎̑̈́̆̔͆t͕̤̙͉̱̮̥̆ͪ͋̃̚ȃ̗̤͚͍̣̭̌l̞!̜̦̟̩̰̜”̺ a scary-calm, genderless voice said over the crackling flames.

The trail of oil and paper I’d left on the stairs ignited all at once. The intense wave of heat slapped at me, but after feeling the heat Mai’s flamer gave out, it didn’t really phase me. What did was the wall of fire leaping away from the burning oil and setting the entire library ablaze in mere seconds!

I felt my enhanced state fade away completely. Not from it’s influence, just from the time expiring. If I made it out of here alive I was going to train in super-form endurance.

I turned and ran out the door, jumping through a wall of flames. Into another wall of flames.

Because the entire building was on fire.

████████████████ - 9th of Plantation, 29 AE

███████████ - ████████, Neighpone

Rojā pressed stop. The recording switched off, returning to the chapter menu he had created.

“There you have it, Ma’am. My entire case,” he proclaimed. “Sherbert was guilty of murder in the case of Mai, but exemporating circumstances mean she should not be punished. As for Master Xii, she did kill him, but the stallion was a traitor and guilty of conspiring against the Empire and peace itself. As for the fire, she only set a stone structure’s contents aflame, and did so under the orders of one of the gods.

“She did not intend to burn down the entire Dojo, nor would it have burned down had that, thing, not caused the fire to spread. The second murder charge is not legal, and even if she had not turned herself in, should be dismissed as she stopped a criminal in progress who was using deadly force against her. That’s self defense. As for the arson charge-”

The Emperor held up her hoof. “Rojā,” she said slowly. “What makes you think we can dismiss these charges?”

“Because she’s innocent,” he said, face scrunching in confusion.

“She is,” The Emperor agreed.

“Then what’s the problem!?” Rojā demanded.

“When I pardon someone, I am legally required to state why they are being pardoned, in as full detail as I can,” she reminded. “There’s a good reason for that. It prevents judges from misunderstanding why a criminal was pardoned, and thus, upholds the spit of the law.

“Xii was most certainly not the only member of this conspiracy. The Flying Horse has dojos in every major city. We have clean up to do, and if I pardon Sherbert, they will know that we know they exist. Sherbert must take the blame for this. Otherwise, the entire nation is at risk from Xii’s second in command deciding to strike openly before we can purge them.”

Rojā’s ears fell. “I… I thought you would be fine lying on the form,” he said sadly.

“I’m not,” the Emperor said adamantly. “Even if I was, that would likely alert the remaining cultists.”

Rojā glared at the Emperor, barely keeping control of his rage. “So an innocent pony rots in prison for however long it takes to finish this!?” He demanded angrily.

“No,” the Emperor said with a shake of her head. “It is my job to keep this nation safe, and to uphold justice. I will not keep a hero prisoner. Nor will I ruin her reputation at home. Here is what I will do.

“I will write a letter to Princess Luna explaining the situation in full, and then formerly release Sherbert to Luna’s custody. Since Sherbert is a foreign national, she is hereby to be deported from Neighpone, and barred from returning.

“The official story will not be a lie. Sherbert had been declared the subject of a blood feud, and in her grief at the death of her wife, attacked and killed the head of the household responsible for the feud. Nopony will think ill of her for that, and it’s true. As for the fire, we will say the fight started it. This is after all, true.

“These charges will be dropped later, naturally. Once the cult is gone. More of the full story may or may not be declassified one day. But for now, we must maintain the story, as there is no way in Tartarus I’m going to let the public know that there’s some alien force that’s willing to make deals for immortality.

“This entire story is hereby classified as Top Secret, no one is to speak of it except over Dark Net channels. I will devise a plan to flush out the remaining cultists soon.

“I have to go now. There’s paperwork to be done before I must get ready to deploy. Sherbert will be released to Luna in the morning.”

“Wait!” Rojā begged as the Emperor stood up to leave. “What about her education?! She missed the finals for high school, and she was set to train to master level over the next year.”

The Emperor paused, then nodded to herself. “I’ll issue her an honorary High School Diploma. As for her training, she has to leave the nation. I’m sorry.”

The holographic projection flickered and died. Leaving Rojā alone in the dark room, wondering how he could give his disciple the final gift she had earned a thousand times over when he wouldn’t be there for her anymore.

17 - Cessation/Commencement

Sherbert - 10th of Plantation, 29 AE

Kuromane Prison, Neighdo - Neighpone

This place sucked. I mean, obviously. It’s a prison. Prisons are not supposed to be super happy nice funtimes land. They are supposed to suck.

That said, this place sucked a bit more than it should have. It was the little things. The way the air conditioning only cooled the room just enough to be noticeably slightly better than miserably hot and muggy. The lumpy mattress. The incessant sounds of every other person imprisoned here.

In Equestria, when someone is awaiting trial, they hold you in a jail cell at the police station for a while. Apparently in Neighpone, they actually check you into a prison.

I wish someone had told me that before I turned myself in.

Well, that wouldn’t really have changed anything. I still would have felt I had to. I killed two people and accidently burned down a building that’s thousands of years old. They deserved it, and the building wasn’t totally my fault, but well… I wasn’t a soldier or anything.

I didn’t have the legal authority to dish out justice. I’d done a crime. So… Yeah.

The cell was tiny too. Very tiny. And lonely. And lacking a phone. Or a mage gem. Or a dragonfire candle. Anything.

I had no idea what happened since I was put in here. No idea when my trial would be. Not one hint about Kazumi’s fate.

Kaz… Did you make it? Please have made it.

The sound of hooves walking down the granite hallway distracted me from my thoughts. I turned my ears, seeking any clue as to who was coming. New prisoner? Guards delivering lunch? Book cart?

“It’s not necessary to deliver this in person, Ma’am,” a voice I recognised as Asshole Guard No 4 said loudly.

“No, but I am here, and I can, so I will,” a mare’s voice informed adamantly.

“Ma’am, what if the Kaiju-”

“The Navy reported they are retreating back into the deep ocean twenty minutes ago. A.L.I.C.O.R.N. units are on standby. It’s fine,” the mare repeated, her voice drawing quite close to the shimmering green forcefield which formed my cell’s door.

Wait, there was a Kaiju warning? Awww, I was hoping to see one before I left-

Oh. Um… Hmm. I might never leave Neighpone now. That’s a thing to think about.

A series of three loud knocks on my cell’s door frame snapped me out of that line of thought. I could see the familiar blue uniformed unicorn shape of Asshole Guard No 4 through the green haze of the force field, standing behind the mare he’d been talking to.

I’d never seen her before.

She was tall, with a very athletic build, Pinkie Pie pink fur, and a metallic gold mane and tail, each given an athletic cut. The interesting part to me was her horn.

It had been removed, and replaced with a precisely cut piece of white crystal. Combine that with the tight black catsuit uniform she wore, which had a series of other small white crystals embedded in it, and she was instantly recognisable as an A.L.I.C.O.R.N. pilot.

“Uh, hi,” I greeted with a little wave.

I REALLY didn’t want to be rude to someone tough enough to survive that horn-control-link implant process.

She nodded at the guard, who tapped the panel next to my cell’s door. The field shimmered and then dropped.

OH SHIT! She was pissed that I’d burnt down her alma mater or something! Think quickly! She doesn't have magic outside her mech anymore, so she can’t just disintegrate you, but she’s stronger than you, unless we go super, and that would kill her. Maybe if we-

The mare reached into a barrel pocket of her uniform and pulled out a folded sheet of paper, and held it out to me.

“Take this and go to the lobby,” she ordered. “You’re being sent home.”

I frowned and looked at the paper, then back at the mare. “Um… Explain?” I asked, one ear drooping back.

“You’re not a Neighponese citizen. We can’t keep you prisoner here. So you’re being deported. Equestrian forces are in the lobby and ready to take custody of you. These are your discharge papers. Don’t lose them,” the mare repeated more clearly.

I nodded and took the paper with my magic, holding it down near my left shoulder. I’d been surprised when they hadn't clamped an inhibitor ring around my horn when I arrived. And then less surprised when it turned out the cells were lined with zinc plates, and therefore basically absorbed any spell you threw at them.

“Thanks,” I said with a polite nod. “Um… But why did they send a pilot to deliver these?”

The mare smirked. “Kid, you need to watch more international news,” she chuckled, only to frown and hold a hoof over one ear for a moment. Turning to leave and glancing at the guard. “Make sure she goes the right way. Oh, and kid, you’ll want to read those papers before you turn them over.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” He said, snapping a salute as the mare jogged off.

“Thanks!” I called after her as she vanished down the hallway, moving at a speed which suggested something was wrong, but not ‘the Kaiju regrouped and are coming back’ wrong.

Man that had to be a really stressful job!

I remembered the way out so I stepped out of my cell and began to walk. Asshole Guard followed along behind me, probably just for protocall’s sake. It’s not like I could leave this part of the prison without getting through a checkpoint. Well, without using my training.

You’d think they’d have a separate prison for people trained in infiltration and escape artistry.

I unfolded the paper as I walked. It was a single straight hallway. I’d be able to read it and still walk.

I unfolded the white paper, and frowned. It was just normal white office paper, with normal government text on it, two seals, and three signatures. A standard government doc-

The ink on the page suddenly reflowed, forming new words, converting the document into a letter in the blink of an eye.

Miss Sherbert,

This is called Eyes Only Ink. I trust you are familiar with it, after all you were trained by Captain Rojā. However in case you are not, only you will see this message as containing this text. To everyone else these are normal prisoner discharge papers.

As a part of your training, a test you never passed, Rojā hacked your messenger gem. This is standard for all of his disciples. A way to teach the importance of vigilance, security sweeps, and also of subtle ways to gather information on your targets.

This particular hack also serves him as a teaching aid. The hack turns on your messenger gem’s diary function, and records everything to see, think, and experience. Because of this, he presented me with the events surrounding your imprisonment from your own eyes, and also used you as your own character witness.

Before I go on, I must state very clearly that you are being deported as a criminal. This is something you must not dispute. The story has been spun to make you sympathetic, your wife was murdered, you killed her killers in a passionate rage. Most Equestrian newspapers are on your side, calling Neighpone barbaric for not having laws in place to protect vengeful lovers on the grounds of temporary insanity.

You will be fine. Maintain this story. It is critical.

I am aware of the circumstances around the truth of the matter. I know you killed Mai in self defense. This is unambiguously self defense. The charges against you have been dismissed. The ones which at present have not been dismissed are as follows:

Murder in the First Degree of Master Hioshi Xii
Arson in the Second Degree resulting in the destruction of a cultural landmark.

I am aware that you killed Xii in self defense, and in service to me and my family line. He was a traitor and a criminal. I congratulate you.

I am aware that the fire you set would have been very minor if not for the interference of that thing. Discord censored whatever it truly was, but it’s clear you faced a being of great power.

However, I can not drop the charges against you. The House of the Flying Horse is a nationwide organization, with a dojo in most every major city. The odds of other Dojo’s leaders being members of Xii’s conspiracy is extremely high. As I am required to say why I have pardoned a pony of a crime, pardoning you would tip them off.

Until my operatives have scouted each Dojo, and a mass arrest has been made, we must pretend we have no idea of the circumstances around your heroism. I apologize for this inconvenience. There will be a formal, international press conference as soon as possible exonerating you of all charges. In the meantime, silence must be maintained.

Here is what will happen to you now.

Since she is here in Neighpone at the moment, I am releasing you into Princess Luna’s custody. She has been informed of the truth behind your actions, as have her Knights. Officially, you are being deported. You may retrieve your belongings, but must then leave Neighpone by nightfall, in the Princess’s custody.

I am sorry that you will not be able to study for your Mastery at Bat’s Academy, but there’s nothing I can do there. However, I have solved the other problem relating to the attack and your imprisonment. I have given you an honorary High School Diploma, it’s being mailed to the proper channels. Nopony will know you didn’t finish your schooling.

I wish you luck in your future endeavors, and I thank you for ending a threat to my nation. When we can openly speak of your heroism, we shall discuss a proper reward.

Her Imperial Badflankedness,

Emperor Mysuki Segata

He tapped… My… Messenger gem… SON OF A WHORE!

I grit my teeth, and did my best to keep myself from screaming in rage. How the hay could I have missed that!? He even showed me how to tap one myself! Arrrrrrrgh!

I couldn’t even be mad at him for it. This was MY fault. Though um… Good thing I didn’t notice. Also good thing that Rojā apparently knew the motherbucking Emperor! How the hay had-

Captain. She called him Captain.

Luna’s mane… The dojo was just a cover wasn’t it!? They are all active, practicing, government sanctioned special forces operatives. That explains Tami pulling rank on the cops, the frequent disappearances. They reason they all left on the day before the papers were talking about an attack on a nuclear plant…

My line of thought was interrupted yet again as the guard and I reached the security checkpoint. Getting through was a minor hassle. Show papers, guard stamps papers, writes thing down, stamps papers again, gets the box full of my stuff, hoofs it over, opens the secondary door.

I stepped out into the bland, white, sterile lobby. It was brighter out here than in the cellblock. I felt like I should be blinking, or otherwise adjusting to the light, but I didn’t have to. Everything was fine.

I used to still need to do that, even with my bionic eyes. Guess this was another perk of being a bit eldritch.

The first thing I noticed aside from the smell of disinfectant and floor cleaner, was the very awesome, yet off sight of Princess Luna and the Knights of the Rampant Moon just chilling in the shitty ‘waiting room’ chairs against one wall.

Princess Luna. Lyra Heartstrings, Octavia Melody, Vinyl Scratch, Bonbon, Meep of Amber, and Colegate. The Alicorn Princess of the Night and Dreams, four vampire knights, a sterile changeling Queen, and a friendly wendigo, just sitting there. Bored. Chilling. Literally chilling in Colgate's case.

It looked like everyone was just waiting for a doctor to come out and say ‘It’s okay, none of you have cancer’.

My brain locked up. Seeing your personal fillyhood heroes just sitting there, waiting for YOU will do that.

They all sat up right as I walked out of the cell block. I watched as Luna stood up from her way too small for her chair and walk over to me. Lyra had to reach over and hold her chair while Luna stood up so the legrests wouldn’t stick it to her flanks. I wanted to laugh at that, but I couldn’t.

Luna trotted over to me and flashed me a quick knowing smile before her face contorted into a serious expression. Her knights stood up and began walking over to me too.

“Orange Sherbert, you stand accused of murder and arson,” Princess Luna said in an extremely formal voice. “Our friend, Emperor Mysuki, has released you into our custody. We have been informed of the circumstances, and are willing to grant you mercy as you were heeding the call of justice.

“However, in light of your training as a spy, you are not subject to Civilian Justice within the court of Equestria.”

That fact hit me like a slap. “W-wait, what? Why?!” I asked, ears perking in alarm.

“Our sister long ago decided upon a threshold of combat training after which anypony, regardless of their affiliation with our military, is to be treated as a soldier or operative. You pass this threshold, and thus fall under Military Justice,” Luna explained, her formal tone remaining, though she shot me a wink which said ‘I’m doing a thing’. “As the Princess-General of Equestria, I am willing to grant you a pardon for your crimes, though with a condition.

“In exchange for your freedom, and the full dismissal of all charges, I will require you offer your services to me as a Knight in my service.”

I blinked once, laughed, and then passed out.

I came too sometime later, immediately jumping upright. I regretted that, because it turned out I was on a bed in the prison infirmary, and my head smashed painfully into the surgical light.

“OW!” I yelped loudly, reaching up to rub my head.

That had been one heck of a dream. I guess I ate some bad beans or something. The food here did taste like the cook had been taught how to prepare food by reading books on mechanical basket weaving.

“Are you okay?” A mare’s voice asked worriedly.

I turned around to find myself looking into Vinyl Scratch’s purple tinted sunglass. IT WASN'T A DREAM! WUT DO!?

My eyes widened sharply. “I um, I- er, Y-yes!” I stammered, grinning stupidly.

“Cool,” Vinyl said with a grin of her own. “That looked pretty painful.”

Vinyl turned around to yell out the open door. “Hey, Moonbutt, she’s awake!” She called.

I felt my eyes widen in pure horror. Oh, my, goodness! She did NOT just call Princess Luna-

Princess Luna trotted back into the room and gave Vinyl a smile. “Thanks for keeping an eye on her,” Luna said before turning to look back at me. “Are you okay? Feeling ill?”

Ears fully laid back in shock I pointed at Vinyl with a hoof. “Sh-she just called you-”

“Moonbutt,” Princess Luna said with a casual nod. “It’s my nickname. She’s one of my best friends. It would be more weird if she called me by name.”

“If it helps, she calls me Nomsferatu,” Vinyl snickered, her lips opening just enough for me to see the tips of her fangs..

“Took me a while to come up with a good one,” Princess luna agreed with a huge grin.

“But… But that sounds so insulting!” I said in shock, still not able to process the casual-

“That’s the point,” Lyra added from the doorway, leaning against the doorframe. “We’re all friends, we know it’s playful teasing. Sure, that’s not your average everyday ordinary friendship.”

“It’s advanced friendship,” Luna finished before clearing her throat. “At any rate, I need to finish offering you that pardon.”

“A-and a job?” I asked, nervously fumbling with my hooves.

Princess Luna nodded. “Yes. As a person with military equivalent training, who committed a crime of passion, legally you can go to jail, or join the Guard. I’m offering you a third option because I’ve been meaning to expand my Knights via adding a B-Team, and I don’t have a ninja yet.”

“Shinobi,” I corrected via reflex.

“Isn’t that just the Neighponese name for it?” Luna asked with a small frown.

I shook my head. “No. A Ninja is an assassin. A Shinobi is a spy. I trained to be a spy.”

“Ah!” Luna said with a small nod. “Regardless, while Lyra does have some espionage skill, my Knights do not have anyone formally trained in infiltration. Additionally, I saw the security camera footage of your fight with that psychopath. You’re highly skilled.”

“All of us would like you to join, actually,” Lyra said, flashing me a smile. “You can handle yourself well, you’ve got power above the pony norm, and well, too much of our group sucks.”

My ears and tail stood on end in a mixture of shock and rage.

“SUCK!?” I snapped, jumping off the bed and acrobatically landing in front of Lyra to stare into her eyes. “What are you high!? You six took down an Equestria and Zebrica wide foal trafficking ring, in just three months, using only-”

“Vampire joke,” Vinyl said with a deadpan smirk.

…

I facehooved. “Luna damn it,” I groaned.

Luna snorted. “Sure, why not? I damn thee, terrible joke!”

The Knights of the Rampant Moon were the exact opposite of what I had imagined… Which was kinda good, because they were like, normal people. But still… Why?

“But seriously, it would be nice to have a member who could feed us in a pinch,” Vinyl added. “And you’re as good at hoof to hoof as any of us, and while Lyra’s a great scout-”

“I’m not good at infiltrating,” Lyra finished.

“And what’s more, I really have been meaning to start supplementing our team for about a decade now,” Luna admitted with a light blush. “I need to not be my sister and work on normal time scales, not Alicorn time scales. So… What do you say? Will you accept?”

I took a deep breath to calm myself down. The whole reason I’d come here was to become someone worth having in my family. And I had always pictured this training as step one. Step two? Got to college and attend the Archeology class Lyra taught and use that to get in close with her and then join this exact group.

Now I could skip that. Yay! I was SO DONE with school!

But on the other hoof.

I frowned and turned around to look at Princess Luna. “I would love to, I um, I sort of wanted to join your Knights as an end goal. But can we wait for a while? I need to stay and- Oh… Right… Deported,” I said trailing off as it sunk in that this was it. “Y-you can’t come back to a place that deported you.”

These were my last moments here. In the place which frankly had become my home.

I’d thought that at the worst I’d spend a year or two in prison, and then could go back to the Academy and keep training. But no. I was being deported. With the context being ‘burned down historical site’, I wouldn’t be allowed to reenter the country for… A long time.

If the Emperor didn’t manage to flush that cult out, then I could NEVER come back, EVER. I wouldn’t get to finish training. Or even live with my friends for another year.

All I had left for me was the Princess’s job offer.

“Yes, I’ll take it,” I said before anypony else could say anything.

Luna nodded in satisfaction. “Excellent. Then I, Princess Luna, in the name of Justice, Honor, and Companionship, hereby induct you into the Order of the Rampant Moon, and dismiss all criminal charges upon your name. Welcome, Lady Sherbert.”

“Witnessed,” Vinyl said simply.

“Witnessed,” Lyra echoed. “Yay, that’s the legal crap done!”

I blinked once. “T-that’s it?” I asked with a frown.

Luna nodded. “Yes. We’ll do a formal ceremony later,” she promised. “But now, we need to go to your former home and pack your things. You have to be gone by sundown.”

I nodded once. My heart felt heavy. I wasn’t ready to leave yet…

“Y-yeah. Let’s go,” I said sadly. “Oh, um. Can I make a call first? I need to know what happened to Kazumi.”

Luna’s ears drooped sadly. “It would be best if you spoke with Nurse Tilk and your uncle about that in person. Come, let’s get packed. I’m teleporting us all home. The sooner you pack, the sooner you’ll be there.”

Sherbert - 10th of Plantation, 29 AE

Kōmoriakademī, Neighdo - Neighpone

I didn’t have many things in my room. I always knew I was going to leave, I just never knew it would be so hard to do.

Princess Luna and her knights had politely chosen to wait in the hallway for me to finish packing. I was hoping that Master Rojā would have been there, but he wasn’t. I’d gotten to say goodby to Cho and Yoshi, but Tami and Rojā were nowhere to be found.

On the upside, at least Rin was there to help me pack.

I closed my eyes to hold back a few tears. “I’m going to miss you a lot, Rin,” I said as honestly as I could.

“I’d go with you but… My family’s here,” he said sadly. “We’ll keep in touch.”

“We will,” I agreed.

“You bet your flanks you two will,” Ash said from behind me as she packed up her mage-stuff. “Or do you forget that I know how to teleport myself and others, and that your Uncle literally invented the teleport watch and you can totally just ask him for one so you can visit your friends and he won't say no?”

I paused, blinked once, and turned to look at Ash. “I’m being deported. I can’t come back here. Ever,” I said dryly.

Sure, it wasn’t true. I’d be allowed to once they finished wiping out Xii’s cult… However many years that took. I still had to keep the illusion up though.

And it really did hurt to know I couldn’t come here for years at the least.

Ash looked at me like I was an idiot. Her horn flashed white-blue, and Rin appeared between the two of us in a flash of arcane light.

“Oh look, he can teleport to you,” Ash said with a straight face before breaking out into hysterical laughter.

“Not cool, Ash!” Rin complained.

“Oh yeah, he can,” I said, blushing bright pink with embarrassment.

“That’s right, he can,” Ash said between giggles, flashing me a grin. “And I’m sure that Master Rojā will teleport or fly over to say hello when he can too. He wont like having missed saying goodbye.”

My room’s curtains billowed as the black suited batpony swooped in through the window and landed atop my bed.

“I didn’t miss a thing, what are you talking about?” Rojā asked, flashing Ash a grin before turning to look at me. “My apologies, Sherbert. I was looking for an answer where one sadly doesn't exist.”

I nodded and trotted up to the edge of the bed and reared up, giving the stallion a tight hug. “It’s okay. I’ll miss you.”

Rojā returned the hug. “It’s not okay. I failed you. You have the potential to be a master of several arts, but the path will be forever closed to you,” he sighed.

The curtains billowed again as Tamiko flew through them with a cry of “Dynamic entry!”

Rojā and I ducked, the cyborg mare flying over our heads to crash extended hoof first into the wall.

“You two set that up, didn’t you?” I asked with a grin. “‘I’ve passed situational awareness tests.”

Tami laughed. “It was for old time’s sake, Sherbert,” she said as she stood up. “Though, for drama’s sake… I hear you are interested in pursuing blade combat as your mastery. Is this true?”

I gave Rojā a deadpan stare. “I both love and hate you for tapping my gem,” I said before turning back to Tami. “Yes. I did. Why?”

Tami nodded and walked over to Rojā. “Rojā, we both know that I stayed in this outfit for the battles. Those are not things I get to do anymore. Oh, um, Sherbert… I sort of got fired for letting you go. Not that I hold it against you, just, you know, updates.”

I frowned. “Buck… I’m sorry,” I said giving her a brief hug.

“You mean from being a real ninja, right?” I whispered quietly into her ear.

Tami gave me a proud smile, clearly happy I’d worked it out, and nodded once. “Yes. I could stay here and teach but… That was never my calling. Rojā, you’re my best friend. I know how broken you are because you can’t finish her training. But it’s okay.

“I’ll do it. Sherbert, with your permission, I would like to accompany you home, and continue to teach you, as a peer.”

I blinked in surprise.

Rojā’s hoof immediately gripped my shoulder. Tightly. He was VERY upset about this.

“Please,” he said. “Let her. You have so much potential. I felt from day one that it would be a shame to waste even a drop of it.”

“Give me a few decades, and we’ll see what you can really do,” Tami promised with a smile.

How could I say no to that?

“I’d be happy if you did,” I said giving her a second hug. “T-thank you. Kazumi would have liked this. She-”

“Liked me,” Tami said with a nod. “I know. Rojā showed me the recording… I’m sad you didn’t get to say anything in happier times. I’m not exactly the biggest fan of vanilla sex, but I would have given it a shot with you two. I mean, you can kick my plot in the ring! If that’s not romantic love, then what is?”

“D-did I just hear a mare equate fighting with bucking?” Lyra called from the hallway.

“Yes,” Rojā, Rin, Ash, and I answered in unison.

“That’s weird. You’re weird,” Lyra said poking her head around the corner… Then grinning and holding out her hoof. “Hi! I’m Lyra. Big fan of weird things.”

Tami trotted over to shake Lyra’s hoof. “I’m Tamiko, rocket powered cyborg ninja. Currently Sherbert’s personal trainer. Hopefully a member of her little herd one day.”

“Rocket… Powered… Cyborg?” Lyra asked her head tilting incredulously while her eyes widened in the same way Dash’s did whenever she said ‘so awesome!’. “Luna! We’re taking her too!”

“Well, by powered I mean I have integrated rockets to help with speed. My actual power supply is a microsingularity made from a tiny bit of Neutron Star Matter,” Tami said with a happy grin, clearly delighted to find someone interested in her systems.

“You’re powered by WHAT!?” Meep yelped.

“We can hire more than one pony today, right?” Colegate asked.

“Yes,” Princess Luna decided as she trotted over to the doorway to peek inside. “Yes we can! Hello! Would you like another job as a warrior?”

Tamiko froze, blinked once, took a step back, then started for several long seconds at Princess Luna. “I- I hardly think I’m worthy of working alongside an Alicorn, Luna-kami,” she said, bowing low and spreading her wings.

Luna rolled her eyes. “I say you are,” she said simply. “In fact, I say you’re on par with any of my knights, socially speaking.”

Tami immediately stood up. “As you wish, Ma’am!” She replied, offering Luna a salute.

I smirked. That sly mare. Using the Neighponese view of Alicorns as deities to get them to stop sucking up to her.

“So,” Luna offered again. “I’ve been meaning to make a second team of knights within my order. If Sherbert qualifies, one of her teachers who is now out of work also qualifies and could use a job. Would you like a job?”

“What kind of job?” Tamiko asked with a hopeful smile. “A getting to hang out with your retenue job, or a field agent job?”

“A ‘join my knights as one of their peers’ job,” Princess Luna clarified with a smirk. “I’m offering you a knighthood. Please don't faint.”

“Yes please!” Tami squeaked with a blush, still a little star struck.

“Cool! Go pack your things. We’re leaving as soon as Sherbet ready to go,” Luna ordered. “We’ll get you inducted into the Order officially as soon as citizenship papers go through.”

“I, um, I’ll get back to packing,” I said, walking back over to my open suitcase.

Today was turning out better than expected. Of course… There was the small matter of Kazumi.

If Uncle Sky wanted to talk to me in person about her… Well, it couldn’t be good.

Sherbert - 10th of Plantation, 29 AE

Deck 13 Medical Bay, USS Phoenix - Phoenix

I’d teleported to the Pheonix many times. Uncle Sky had a teleport pad in his house to commute out to work. I’d expected Luna to take us to the central receiving pad inside the Phoenix. The place anyone teleporting to the changeling city would go for security reasons.

Nope. She took us all directly to her apartment.

Yes. Apartment.

Princess Luna, rented an apartment, in a changeling city, made out of the hull of an ancient wrecked starship.

Because ‘Changelings treat me like a normal pony and this place is far away from the horse apples that is Equestrian politics.’

Sure, a good reason, but… An apartment! For a PRINCESS! Whatever, if she liked it I guess that’s all that really mattered.

Whatever. It wasn’t really important. What was important was this conversation.

I’d walked down the familiar route to the Deck 13 Medical Bay, knocked on the door, and Immediately been told ‘You and Kazumi were in a herd with Ash, right? You’ll want to collect her as well. We’ll wait.’ by Tilk.

When a doctor tells you something like that… It’s never good.

So I’d gone back to Luna’s room, where Tami and Ash were waiting, and getting to know Luna’s wife Lightstep (Who is way bigger than you think she’d be, even though it’s common knowledge that she’s a giant.). I figured if they thought Ash should hear whatever Tilk and Sky had to say, that I should have Tami come too.

After all, she was going to be added to our herd. Kaz had asked me to. So Tami obviously meant a lot to her. I was going to respect Kaz’s wish. Tami would be a part of my family, to honor Kaz’s memory.

The three of us had just gotten back and sat down in the medical bay. Sky had set some chairs up next to Tilk’s office. For once, besides the five of us, the bay was empty. Must have been an extra safe week.

“So um… What happened to her?” I asked at last, looking at Tilk, hoping that she would at least say Kaz didn’t suffer.

The changeling nurse shifted in her chair, making the red cross cutiemark she spray painted onto her flanks shine in the light. “We did the best we could,” Tilk began. “She arrived already clinically dead. I’m afraid that I wasted about ten minutes trying to ressessatate her before I found the dart.

“Kazumi’s fur is oddly fluffy and deep. The dart got buried in it as I maneuvered her onto her back to try and restart her heart. If it weren't for the poison, I could have revived her. I have no idea what exactly it was, but I was able to analyze the effects it had on her body.

“That’s when I called your Uncle for help.”

Sky nodded. “Yeah, she asked me to whip up some medical nanobots to counteract the poison. That stuff is NASTY. Rips the body apart on the cellular level. Turns out it does it faster than my bots could repair her and also resisted being neutralized by the same bots.”

I sighed. “Yeah… It will do that. I know what it was. Rojā taught me how to make it.”

Tilk gave me a frightened look.

I shook my head. “I’m never using it. It’s beyond inequine. It’s genuinely evil. I- I should have called. Told you she was poisoned. This is my fault.”

Luna… I’d killed her I’d bucking killed her!

I started to cry. Ash leaned over to hold me close.

“It’s okay, Sherbert… It’s okay,” she said as soothingly as she could.

Tilk stood up and gently placed a hoof on my shoulder and then looked me in the eyes. “Sherbert, it’s not your fault. And the situation isn’t as bad as you think it is,” the changeling informed. “You see, Kazumi was cybernetically augmented by me before. Remember?”

I frowned. “Explain.”

Tilk sat back down. “Well, we were able to save her brain. The poison doesn't attack it very quickly, and between my surgical skills, and your Uncle’s nanites, we were able to keep her brain intact long enough for me to open up her skull and access the interface for her artificial joints.”

Sky nodded. “We were able to successfully accomplish a consciousness transfer into a spare positronic brain we keep for the androids who live here. You know, like Lyra’s sister’s wife, Amber? We figured we could store her inside one of those, and fix her body up, then put her back in. But um…”

“That didn’t happen,” Tilk admitted with an embarrassed ear droop. “I was going to call your father and ask if he could clone her a new body, in which case we could bring her back in a few months. But Sky remembered that Kaz hinted at wanting to go full cyborg a few years ago so instead we-”

“Built an android body to go with the brain?” I asked my heart soaring with hope. “Is she okay?! Where is she?”

Oh please, please please please be fine!

Sky scratched the back of his head nervously. “Well… It’s not all good. We got her a body. We even got her to my friend who was able to get her appearance correct. Problem was well… Her mind and the positronic brain didn’t mix.”

The hope exploded into a ball of pus.

“O-oh…” I said staring off into the abyss.

Tilk sighed. “It was the spells she had placed on herself to deal with a past trauma,” she elaborated. “They threw the entire meld out of whack. Her soul wasn’t sticking to the hardware, so she’d be fine for a few minutes, then die again, and then the soul anchor would pull her back, and she’d live for a few painful moments again. It was tartarus.”

Sky nodded twice. “So, we did the only thing we could do. We had my sister dispel the mind controls.”

“That was a… Mistake,” Tilk admitted. “Sherbert, Kazumi is alive, but um, we should REALLY have looked at her mental health records a bit more because those spells were put on her on her own request after eight years of her therapist failing to make a dent in dealing with her trauma.

“Even worse, turns out we can’t take her mind back out of the android body we built for her because of the way those spells damaged her and her new body. She’s fused to it. Digitally and physically. So we can’t clone a body for her and then mind control that body so she wont remember the incident.

“She’s alive, but she’s regressed to how she was immediately following that… Evil. She remembers you. There’s no amnesia or anything, but well… Um… Turns out that as an android we can’t put those same spells back on her. I’m sorry for mentally crippling your wife. She’s in isolation room two.

“You should- She needs help. She should be fine with enough time, since she remembers getting over things before but… It’s going to be a rough few years. She’s too afraid to be in the same room as anyone else right now. But-”

“But I’m an exception,” I said standing up and looking for the room’s doors. “Which door is it?”

Tilk turned and pointed to a door to my left. “That one. She actually asked to see all of you. Well, you and Ash. I’m not sure that Tami should go.”

“She wanted me to join their herd,” Tami said respectfully. “It might be a good idea if I joined them.”

“Oh, then yes. Go ahead,” Tilk said as she trotted over to the door and pressed a button near it to turn on an intercom. “Kazumi? Sherbert’s here. She’s coming in.”

Tilk opened the door slowly. The room inside was nice. Brightly decorated. Lots of soft things. A big comfy bed.

And Kazumi. She looked just how I remembered her. You couldn’t tell she wasn’t organic anymore. But even if you could, I wouldn’t have cared.

My mare was sitting in a scrunched ball in the corner of the room, as far as she could get from the door. Shaking. Shielding as much of her body with her wings as she could.

I walked over to her. She looked up, one eye opening. She saw me. She didn’t shrink away in fear, or make a sound, she just kept watching. Her eye twitches back and forth as Ash and Tami followed me in. She didn’t react to them either.

But that was a bad thing. Because she was still balled up in the corner, terrified out of her mind.

I finished walking over to her and wrapped my forelegs around her in a tight hug.

“I’m so sorry, Kaz,” I whispered, holding her close.

Ash walked up on my left and gave Kazumi a hug as well. “We’ll do everything we can to help you get better, okay?” Ash said as lovingly as she could.

Tami slowly approached. Kaz turned to look at her as she did, and squirmed slightly.

Tami gently wrapped one foreleg around Kaz as well. “It’s okay. It’s me. Remember? You wanted me to join you three? I promise I’ll help you too.”

Kazumi hesitated for a moment, then finally moved, pulling us all as close to her as she could with a super tight, extra strong android strength hug.

I didn’t care that it hurt. Kazumi needed me. She needed all of us.

“Girls,” I began. “From this day on, we’re family. We’re finding a nice house in Ponyville, on the outskirts, then were taking her there, and were doing everything our power to fix our little bat.”

“You didn’t have to say that,” Ash said firmly. “Of course we will, that’s obvious.”

“Right! You don’t leave family in this state. Do you think you can leave with us today, Kaz? We’ll protect you,” Tami said soothingly.

Kazumi paused for a while. A long while. Then she nodded once, and squeezed us all in a group hug again before letting go.

It was bittersweet to see poor Kazumi like this. Almost an animal, but clearly still a person. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for Tilk to be near her. The poor changeling must have been vomiting every few minutes from tasting her fear and distress.

But, she was alive. Disabled, yes, but alive. And there was nothing wrong with her that our love couldn’t repair with time. I had a good job now. I’d make plenty of money, so would Tami. Ash would always be available to stay home and help care for Kaz whenever the other two of us were working. No matter what Kazumi needed to feel safe, we would get it for her, and at least one of us would always be there.

The four of us would all be happy and healthy one day. I could feel it.

I bent down and gave Kazumi a kiss on her lips. “Come on love. Let’s go home,” I said gently.

The End

1 - The Place Promised

Sherbert - 4th of Solar Dusk, 25 AE

Uneigh Ward, Neighdo - Neighpone

I loved this spot. A little patch of concrete sidewalk just in front of the airfield in Uneigh. I’d stood here yesterday too when I’d first gotten off the airship. I hadn’t gotten time to appreciate the view here. There’s a lot to do right after you arrive in a foreign country and you’re staying there for the rest of High School.

Particularly when you’re not staying with a host family, or at a boarding school, but you know, at a dojo.

Mom held a manila office folder stuffed full of papers, out to me with her left hoof. “From what I can tell,” she began, “everything you need to have is in here. The top sheet of paper is your checklist, everything else is permits, identification papers, medical records, certificates, everything. Don’t lose any of it. Buy a safe the moment you can go to a store.”

“I won’t lose it. And I’ll get one,” I promised as I opened the folder to look at the checklist. “Okay… Get off the airship, immediately find Exchange Program Agent, whatever their name is, give them the top form, they take me to a hotel. Then there’s the orientation meeting thing for… Hours, ugh… And it just explains everything on this list again. Then I have to get this bank to set up an overseas account so you and dad can send me my monthly budget…”

I frowned and looked up. “I won’t get to the dojo until the second day at this rate. Why isn't someone from Hikō-ba meeting me there?” I asked with a worried frown.

Mom sighed and brushed a lock of her purple mane out of her eyes with a wingtip. “Tradition. While I did get to arrange for you to attend the fall and winter semester there, and they do allow students to live at the dojo, you have to go to them. It’s part of the martial arts tradition. The Disciple must come to the Dojo in search of a Master. They were very adamant on that,” she explained giving me an apologetic frown. “You’ll have to find it yourself, give them your ID, and then you’ll be shown to your room.

“Oh! Because you’re not staying with a family or in a state owned dormitory you’ll have a special agent you’ll need to check in with occasionally. You’ll get to meet them at the airfield.”

I snickered, and shook my head. Yep. I did meet my supervisor at the airport. The stallion didn’t give a damn what I did.

I’d been so worried that I’d have somepony always keeping tabs on me. Nope. Rei made it clear that as long as I didn’t die or get in legal trouble, all he wanted me to do was come to his office once a week and fill out some paperwork so he could prove I was alive and well. Pretty ironic that a guy whose name means ‘my shepherd’ in Equish and works as a special agent who makes sure young ponies are safe and sound, doesn't give a buck about his job minding young ponies.

But that was good for me! It meant I got to come back here and look out at Uneigh again.

From this spot on the sidewalk, I could turn my head to the left and see the whole of Neighdo stretching out down below me. Some of the gleaming glass skyscrapers reached as high up as the mountainside this district was built on, most didn’t.

Neighdo was built on the eastern side of the mountain, and shaped in a really cool way so that the skyscrapers and other buildings formed an artificial extension of the mountainside. While the airship was landing, I’d gotten to see the skyline silhouetted against the evening sun. I’d thought they had carved the towers out of the mountain itself for a few minutes. Everything formed a seemingly natural slope down to the beach.

If I were a pegasus instead of a unicorn, I would totally be flying just for the view right now.

But a pegasi caught up in how pretty the gleaming modern city to the left was would have missed out on what made this spot special. I could turn my head to the right and see old Neighdo.

Ancient temples with curved tiled roofs, held aloft by thick pillars painted bright red and decorated with gold. All scattered through a heavily forested area which had tunnels cut through the trees for streets, and only enough space for buildings cleared from the ancient forest. It looked like something out of an Oubliette’s and Ogar’s setting; a place where only the most mystical and powerful of arcane people's lived.

Except for some hints of more modern things, that is. The occasional brick building poking through the wall-like trees. Power lines for both electricity and thaumaturgic current running overhead. Each modern device cleverly decorated to give it the same charm as the ancient structures.

This was an ancient place people still lived in. You could see where new things were added to the old as new things had been invented. Unlike in Equestria, the Neighponese had not locked themselves to traditional ways, they’d embraced change while still respecting their past.

You’d have never seen anything like this in Equestria a mere thirty years ago. Heck, we were barely here now! Not that we really needed to be. Equestrian magic had been more than enough to do everything tech could… At least until the beginning of the Era of Harmony.

The ancient buildings and elegantly designed additions were like a painting of what Equestria could have been like if the Cultural Preservation movement hadn’t happened at the beginning of the Solar Era.

And it was right here! Right beside a super-modern glass and steel extension of this very city! I could turn my head and see the beloved past, then the promise of a glorious future, all from one spot.

So cool! Like a poster for some fantasy novel.

I couldn’t help but smile and look at the divide between the old and the new for a few minutes. It was like somepony had picked up Ponyville and stuck it next to Manehatten.

I could see lots of local ponies giving me dirty looks as I just stood there like an idiot, but I didn’t care. I’d never got to see this before. It was cool. They could deal with one Equestrian tourist for a few minutes.

Sadly it could only be a few minutes. I had a lot to do today.

School started on the twelfth, it was the fourth. The program gave everypony eight days to get used to the district their home and school was in, learn how to get around, where the places to shop, eat, and everything was, and then boom! School. Hard school.

Probably harder school than I ever wanted to attend. But that’s fine. I’m a poor student but I can maintain a B average without too much effort. That’s all I needed to stay in the country.

The real hard work would be training. I was here for martial arts, not school. Five years of long hard training and I’d get to go back home to Equestria as a real mare. A pony who could kick flank if needed, protect everypony she cared about, and hopefully not stay single forever.

I frowned, ears drooping slightly. That would take a LOT of work… I wasn't exactly the most confident pony. I’d been psyching myself up to be able to go through with this for the last five years. That’s why I had to remake myself.

Thank Luna mom and dad agreed to let me come here and do it. I don’t think I could change while they watched me. Too much pressure to be great like them.

Not from them. From me.

At least I could admit that I was the problem… Time to fix that.

I turned around and reached into my left saddlebag, taking out the paperwork folder mom had given me the day before I left. I took the map out of the folder, and carefully put the folder back into my bag.

I’d only got to stay at the hotel for one night. Everything I had in the world was in my saddlebags right now. Not an ideal situation… I had to find Hikō-ba no jimu super quick. Buying a safe would have to come after I knew where I was sleeping tonight. Even if the rumors about pickpockets here weren't true, it’s dumb to carry everything you own around on you in a city so big that you could fit three Manehattens or two Trottinghams inside it.

I unfolded the map, assuming it wouldn’t be much bigger than two standard sheets of paper. I was wrong. There was more to unfold. And then more… And yet more.

“Okay…” I mumbled to myself, only a little worried.

I mean, sure, the map itself was big. But it was a big city, right? They definitely just needed space to make sure all the writing was clear.

My eyes widened in horror as I looked at the incomprehensible tangle of squiggly lines, orderly grids, and little rectangles which formed the map itself. Map nothing, this was more of a fancy modern art painting. The kind that looks like some foal randomly spilled paint!

Thank Luna I’d learned to read and write Neighponese three years ago, otherwise, I doubt I could read the itty bitty print!

I squinted at the kanji, turning the map this way and that as I tried to find anything I recognized at all. Forget the dojo! I couldn’t even figure out where this district was, or the airport. The entire freaking metropolis was squeezed into this one meter by half meter map. That was NOT enough space!

Why didn’t I think to ask Uncle Sky to put a digital map on my watch?

I blinked, then snorted in amusement as I realized I could just call him and ask him to do it now. I folded up the map, put it back into the folder, stored the folder away, and then brought my watch up to my face, flipping back the leather cover.

Uncle Sky made special versions for family members. With extra hardware and better software. I didn’t have one of those. I just had the basic version sold in stores. I’d always figured I’d get a good one on my thirtieth birthday as a ‘congrats on adulting’ present.

I tapped the pink crystal screen with my left hoof’s frog, the soft touch waking the device. Which immediately flashed a warning.

Error 22: Network Access Unavailable at this Location

“Crap,” I grumbled, flipping the cover back into place.

They’d told me that radio networks were spotty in Uneigh, but I figured the airfield of all places had to get a good signal! Unless that’s why their tower was extra tall? To get above the interference caused by whatever that mineral most of the mountain was made of was called?

That would make sense. Unfortunately, it meant I had to ask a random stranger for directions.

Not that I was worried about being attacked for asking directions or anything. This was Neighdo, safest city in all of Neighpone. In like two years there was going to be a big party to celebrate a hundred years without a single kaiju making it to shore here.

Can you imagine? A hundred years disaster free. That’s just crazy safe! I wonder what their disaster forecast channel talked about? Cake shortages? That's probably what Ponyville’s would talk about if the weekly shenanigans stopped happening.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, and looked around for a pony who looked like a local. That was harder than one might think. I was at an airfield after all. Plenty of non-Neighponese ponies, griffons, zebras, a few changelings, and even a smaller diamond dog were over here loading and unloading in the white zone.

I spotted a taller, kinda thickly built, light yellow and bright red pegasi mare, standing by a little kiosk under a well groomed spruce tree. Judging by the logo and text woodburned into the front of the kiosk, and the way she was politely offering cheap looking small sized scrolls to passers by, she was employed by a local hotel to hand out pamphlets.

Okay, Sherbert, you can do this. Your first conversation with a native Neighponese speaker without a translation spell’s help. You got this.

I trotted up to the stand and smiled, opening my mouth to say hello only for the mare to beat me to the punch.

“Ohayō!” She greeted enthusiastically before switching to Equish immediately. “Welcome to Neighdo. May I interest you in a tour guide? Every stop is within a five minute walk from luxurious accommodations at one of our many Soaring Goose Hotels.”

I shook my head, deciding to speak in Neighponese anyways. “No thank you, miss. Could you please give me directions to Hikō-ba no jimu?” I asked doing my best to look lost but not touristy.

“Not bad!” She mare praised, still speaking Equish. “Your accent is a bit thick, but that should go away with practice. That dojo is very easy to find. Do you have a pen? I will write you some directions.”

I nodded and reached into my left saddlebag with my magic to levitate a pen over to the helpful mare. “Yes, I do. And thank you. Your Equish is very good,” I said, continuing to speak in Neighponese.

After all, I had to get into the practice of always paying attention in and speaking in that language. I wasn’t going to be lazy and just buy a translation charm.

“I should hope so! I’m required to speak to everypony in their own language,” the mare said as she plucked my pen from my arcane grip with one hoof. “I get quite a bit of practice in all seven of the world’s major languages.”

She finished writing the directions down, and then quickly and expertly took one of the scrolls she was handing out, slid my pen in the middle of it, and wrapped the directions around the scroll-pamphlet, then held it back out to me.

“Have a great day, Miss. Remember, if you’re near a historic site you’re near a Soaring Goose! Mata ashita,” she said with a smile.

I blinked in surprise at the super friendly ‘goodbye’ she’d given me, and took the pamphlet and directions, only to realize in the same instant that her friendly goodbye was definitely corporately mandated. And possibly their slogan.

After all ‘See you tomorrow’ would work well for a hotel chain.

“Thanks,” I said as politely as I could before walking away and stuffing the pen and pamphlet into my saddlebags while slipping the directions off the scroll to read.

The first thing I noticed is that cutie had really good hoof-writing! Especially since kanji were normally written with the mouth, not the hoof. The second thing is that she was a total pro at giving directions. That had to be a part of her job or something, because a more dirt simple checklist of directions could not be made.

She hadn’t given me directions via the streets. No no, she’d given me something completely foolproof.

Starting from me, face the center point of blue building across the street. Walk 12 meters forward. Turn right 93 degrees. Walk 40 meters forward. Turn left 22 degrees. Walk forwards 8 meters. Turn right 90 degrees. Walk forwards 33 meters. You have arrived. The dojo is in front of you.

I had no idea how you memorized a city down to that level of detail, but I was super grateful for it! Because I seriously couldn’t see any street signs as I looked around the forest-tunnels cut through the trees.

Quickly estimating how far from the mare I’d already gone, I got myself oriented and began to follow the directions.

Uneigh was even cooler as you walked through it. There were sidewalks, but they were really wide. Wide enough to be a road back in Equestria. They were made of concrete but had little patterns pressed into them to look like stone pathways so that rainwater would flow between the ‘rocks’ and enter the gutters.

The streets themselves were paved asphalt, similar to Manehatten’s streets, but obviously angled with a ‘peak’ in the middle of the road. Again, so water would roll off the road and into the gutters. The streets were twice as wide as the sidewalks, and had three lanes. A pony-powered vehicle lane in the middle for carts, bikes, and other personal transports, and one on either side for motorized vehicles. All traffic carefully controlled using traffic lights in cylindrical housings disguised as paper lanterns.

It was super surreal to see electrically powered trucks moving quietly down a road with mana burning autocarts between them. That’s something I probably wouldn’t see in Equestria in my lifetime. Excluding SkyTech delivery trucks.

Eh, well, truck is a bad word for them… Hovercraft? I mean, he calls them trucks in casual conversation but-

“Oh crap!” I yelped as I realized my thoughts were distracting me from counting my steps.

I quickly looked at the directions again, mentally backtracking how far I had gone until I realized something.

It was just a turn by turn list. The actual distances didn’t matter. Because so far I had turned down the first road left or right that I had come across. But in that case, why had she given me the distances? Was she blind or something?

No, she couldn’t be, she recognized me as Equestrian before I spoke. Tradition maybe? Possibly, I hadn’t heard of that one myself but well, there was no way I knew ALL Neighponese traditions.

Shaking my head slowly I looked for a left hoof turn at an odd angle to the road, found it, and trotted down the street. That’s when everything changed.

Before this turn, you could see elements of a proper city through the dense forest walls. Not on this road. This road had some modern features, the sidewalks, the paved road, the power lines down the middle of the arched tree branches, but that was it. The buildings on either side were all ancient in design, but extremely well cared for. This was definitely a historical district.

I spent a couple minutes walking through the lovingly preserved buildings. I did see the occasional sign. There were some old temples, a few shrines, an old palace turned museum, and eventually, Hikō-ba no jimu, the Flying Horse Gym.

That didn’t mean like, pegasi gym. I’d checked. The name was meant to imply the strength of a horse and the grace of a bird could be obtained within. It definitely looked like that was true.

The dojo had a huge outer wall. It stood maybe six ponies high, the bottom half was carved jade featuring a geometric grid of ‘cubes’ removed from the jade with little stars embossed into the left over grid, and a sphere of polished marble stuck into each ‘cubby’ left over where jade had been removed. The upper half of the wall was made from something which looked so shiny, smooth, and red I could have sworn it was plastic but was probably some resin coated wood.

All of that beauty was capped off with a bronze roof. The bronze had gone green with age, but that seemed to be intentional as it looked a lot like jade. Each tile was curved to allow the roof to form that traditional scalloped shape of Neighponese architecture, and easily a centimeter thick. The wall had to enclose an area which would be at least twelve thousand square meters, was four meters wide, and the roof peeked one meter high.

That was important because that was a bucking Princess’s Ransom of bronze! Easily two or three thousand tons of bronze. Used as a wall roof!

Forget the jade, this place was supposed to be THOUSANDS of years old and jade was Neighpone’s version of granite. But bronze? One of the most useful metals of that era, and also one of the most annoying to find? That much of it? From that long ago?

“Who the heck paid for that roof!?” I demanded to myself, trying to keep quiet in case I was being watched and judged by the teachers already.

It couldn’t be solid bronze, could it? No! No that had to be like bronze plates hammered over wooden forms. I could check…

I frowned worriedly and looked around. I knew it was probably best to not let my curiosity get me into trouble but well, I had to know.

“Screw it,” I muttered to myself as I mentally mapped out the quickest way to the roof.

I ran forwards, jumping up at the wall, forehooves spread out to catch myself on the wall, rear hooves angled to land atop the ledge formed by the jade section. I focused my magic into my hooves, amplifying their natural arcane grip’s strength, and lunged forwards, pushing myself up the wall in three short hops.

I couldn’t stay on the wall forever, heck, I couldn't’ stay on long enough to check out the roof tiles. I had to get over the overhang and onto the roof itself.

I twisted around, jumping off the wall at the same time I grabbed the edge with my forehooves, pulling myself into a sort of flip to land atop the wall, facing away from it. My hooves clanged as they touched down, answering my question about the roof. It was solid, it had to be.

I smiled, content to have learned what I’d wanted to know, only for my ears to fall flat with shock as I saw a somewhat short and lithe, warm beige furred, black maned bat pony stallion wearing a suit staring back up at me.

The suit… White collared shirt, narrow black silk tie, black double breasted jacket, black pants, black hoof polish and trimmed fetlocks. No way that wasn’t a uniform. I’d seen Uncle Sky go to a party in a similar suit once. So it had to be expensive, definitely designer at the very least.

He also was in his prime, no older than one thirty, the right edge for a seasoned security guard.

Buck! I’ve been caught! Of course, they would have external secur-

The stallion waved a hoof in a friendly manner, but I could see a deep seated irritation and dislike behind his polite smile. “Hello!” He called in Neighponese which sounded too flawless for him to not be a local. “You have some nice moves there, Miss. Your training here is paying off. Do you know if Master Xii is in today?”

I blinked, then smiled. Realizing that my simple freerunning moves would likely come in handy during training, maybe I could adapt some of what I already knew to get more done more quickly!

“Uh, actually, I don’t train here yet,” I answered politely. “I only wanted to see if this was a solid bronze roof or bronze plates on something less expensive.”

The stallion cocked his head to one side, his short cut mane remaining perfectly still, indicating he used gel or mousse.

“You’re not a student here, yet? As in you will be attending this semester?” He asked as that irritated look he was hiding slid just a bit more to the foreground. “Well, at least you seem to have talent in acrobatics. It would be a shame to waste that.

“Would you like to be shown to the front desk? The campus is quite large, and they have not chosen their front desk logically. I’m here rather frequently on business, I know the way well.”

That’s when it clicked. The well groomed look, the suit, the polite way he tried to hide his distaste for this place and the students here. This guy was an insurance agent.

I nodded and turned, lowering myself down from the roof before dropping down, and turning back around to face him.

“I would appreciate that. Thank you, mister… ?” I asked, giving him a polite frown and pause combination to prompt him to tell me his name.

He raised an eyebrow in response. “You seem to be very polite, miss…?”

Heh. Touche.

“Orange Sherbert,” I answered. “But I go by Sherbert.”

“My name is Rojā Sumisu,” Rojā greeted with a polite dip of his head, which I returned. “I recommend you don’t climb anything as we walk inside. The masters here are quite strict… At least as far as the facilities are concerned.”

I gulped nervously and waited for him to walk towards the large dark hardwood gate before following along just behind him.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, hoping to sound like I wasn’t nervous. “Do many ponies here wear clothes? I’ve noticed a lot more ponies dressed than there are in Ponyville.”

Rojā nodded. “Yes, generally speaking, most ponies here will dress in a particular outfit. The same one every day. It’s a way of looking more unique. This is Neighdo after all."

I tilted my head to the side. "Um, why does that matter?" I asked, quite confused.

"With forty two million people living in the city and the suburbs, you will find many look-alikes. A cutiemark simply isn’t enough to tell ponies apart at a glance, but knowing the pony you are looking for always wears sunglasses can be a great help to you," he replied with a smile. “What about Equestria? Do you normally wear that jumpsuit?”

I looked down at the front left leg of the dark blue cotton coverall I was wearing. I did wear something all the time, actually. To hide my flanks… Because they were still blank. Even though I was twenty five and almost a legal adult as well as a biological one.

“Um, yes. I do but it’s not normal,” I said to continue the conversation. “Nopony will make fun of you for it or anything, but most of us are nudists. Me? I like having pockets and not having to shower every time I get a bit dusty running.”

That was also true. Secondary reasons are not lies. And besides, he was covering up his cutiemark, so he wouldn’t exactly care about me showing mine. So he didn’t need to know I didn’t have one.

Rojā nodded. “Yes, your taste in clothing is definitely utilitarian. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. You live an active lifestyle and dress accordingly,” he said with a slight smirk.

I raised an eyebrow. Was that an insult hidden as a complement?

“Totally,” I agreed with a wink. “It also has the perk of greatly annoying my Aunt, Rarity Belle. Personally, I think the whole high society thing could stand a bit of fabric softener.”

Okay, sure she wasn’t actually my aunt but hey, she did often say that the Bearers were close enough to be called family.

Rojā snickered, his polite mask slipping for long enough to flash me a genuinely amused smile.

“Sherbert, are you certain you want to study here?” He asked shaking his head before passing through the gate.

I frowned. What did he mean by that?

“Yes! Completely sure,” I answered immediately. “I need to learn martial arts, I’d like to study ninjutsu since that covers a whole bunch of things, not just fighting, and my aunt recommended this place. She lived in Neighpone for a decade or so.”

Rojā hummed. “You do sound like you’re committed to learning ninjitsu. That’s a fairly popular art, though there isn’t exactly a tournament system for it. You are in luck, they do teach it here. Though frankly, I don’t know why anyone would recommend this place. It’s exceptionally expensive.”

Ah, I get it. I looked poor to him, huh?

“Well, I’m still in highschool, and my parents are paying for it. Dad said he could pay the tuition and fees without much difficulty. He’s a doctor,” I said casually, hoping to come across as an eccentric mare from a wealthy family.

At least to shut him up with his elitism.

“That isn’t quite what I meant, Miss,” Rojā said politely. “I meant to imply that this particular dojo normally caters to wealthy clients, and you don’t fit into their… Clique? I’m not quite sure if I got that expression correct. It doesn't translate very well.

“Ah! I mean to say you likely will have a hard time making friends here.”

Oh, he was warning me about their elitism. Thanks, but that’s fine.

“I see,” I acknowledged politely. “Thank you, but I didn’t exactly have many friends back home anyways. I’ll be fine.”

We passed through the gate and into the courtyard. The only way to describe entering Hikō-ba no jimu was ‘I walked through a portal into a Kung-Fu movie universe’.

There were seven buildings, each one an example of the grandiose pagoda style unique to Neighpone. They were arranged in a u shaped line around a large granite tile training ground which had gravel lines forming a grid pattern around it. All of this surrounded by a thick strip of zen garden and the outer wall, with every last building, decoration, and even plant practically oozing wealth.

You could see it in the gold trim, the jade veneers, the bronze statues, the extra fine silk gi each of the several hundred students wore…

Luna! Dad could afford THIS!? Just how much did he make from Princess Cadence’s staff cosmetic and practical modification deal!?

Rojā pointed to the third building back on the right side. “Those are the offices, Miss Sherbert. Would you mind if I went before you? You’ll have an entire orientation to go through while I only need to deliver a message to Master Xii,” he asked extremely politely.

“Oh, sure,” I agreed as he led me around the edge of the training yard.

“Thank you,” Rojā said with a hint of honest gratitude. “I have several other things I need to finish before noon today.”

I nodded, and we finished our walk in silence. Well, relative silence.

There was a lot of noise in the courtyard in general. Grunts, kiai, thuds, the sound of hoof hitting flesh. The occasional pop or crack as somepony got hurt. Yet no cries of pain. Whatever else they taught here, they definitely put a lot of focus on dealing with pain.

I saw a mare just a little older than me try to throw a larger stallion while using a bipedal stance. Her rear left leg bent under his weight. In a way legs are not meant to bend. She fell instantly but didn’t make a sound other than to call, “Isha!”

Medic. Not ‘help’, or ‘mom!’, or ‘Sweet bucking Luna’s tits, my leg!’ Just ‘Medic’.

Gods, I wish I was that tough!

I smiled. If she had been trained to be that tough, then I would be too!

Rojā saw it too, and frowned, extreme disapproval flashing in his black eyes. “She’s too young for this kind of free sparring…” He muttered. “Joints are still soft. No body hardening at all, straight to the techniques…”

I nodded to myself. Yep. Insurance agent.

We walked up the worn smooth wooden steps and through the bright red wooden archway into the pagoda’s interior. It was spacious and had a feeling similar to that of a hotel lobby. Lots of comfortable looking couches, one small desk (albeit a fancy as heck one), a few hallways leading off deeper into the interior, and a lot of light earth tone colors to the relaxingly decorated entryway.

A pegasus mare dressed in a purple silk kimono which was color matched to her long flowy mane gave us a polite bow as we entered, and yet gave Rojā an extremely dirty look.

“Rojā-sama, welcome,” the receptionist greeted icily. “Are you here to see Master Xii, again?”

I blinked. Sama? Wasn’t that a positive suffix? No, no wait, she was using it sarcastically. Lots of history here… Maybe I shouldn’t have walked in with him.

“Yes,” Rojā replied politely. “This young mare is not with me, I merely showed her the way here. She has an appointment with the Master. If you would kindly show us both to him, I can be gone in but a few moments.”

The receptionist nodded and stood up from her desk, beckoning us to follow with a hoof gesture and leading us down a wood paneled hallway to our left. We only went a short ways down the hallway when she knocked on the wall next to a rice paper screen door and waited politely.

“Yes?” An older stallion’s voice asked from within after a few moments.

“Xii-sensei,” the receptionist said as politely as she could. “You have a visitor, and Rojā-sensei is here to speak to you as well.”

I flinched.

Rojā-sensei.

I felt my heart start to hammer in my chest.

I’d shown up with a rival school’s instructor! Oh hay no! This was going to look SO BAD.

Master Xii was silent for a moment. “Send Rojā-sensei in, please,” he instructed.

The receptionist nodded and gently slid the door open, revealing the room inside to be a meditation chamber filled with candles, soft mats for kneeling on, and bowls of burning incense hanging from the ceiling.

The unicorn stallion inside was old enough for his dark green fur to start turning gray at the tips, same with his mud colored mane. But he still looked pretty good. Not many wrinkles, plenty of energy left in his movements, and a fire in his eyes. The stallion was definitely rocking the benefits of a lifetime of staying in excellent shape.

“What slander do you come to throw upon my students today, Rojā?” Master Xii asked icily.

Rojā didn’t bother to walk into the room. He simply glared at the older stallion. “You know what your thugs did to my associate’s disciple. This is your last warning, Xii. One more incident, no matter how slight, and my fellow masters and I will no longer stay out of our disciple's battles,” Rojā informed adamantly.

The glare Xii and Rojā shared sent a chill down my spine. I’d heard of school rivalries between dojos here. They were actually quite common. But this? This was something deeper. This was some kind of personal grudge, or there was something more important than school pride at stake…

Worse yet, I’d walked into the dojo with my soon-to-be-master’s worst enemy. CRAPBASKETS!

The master’s stare-off continued for several eternities, with each passing second raising the tension until the air felt like it was boiling.

Master Xii’s laser-gaze snapped onto me! “You!” He demanded. “Are you Orange Sherbert, daughter of Scootaloo Dash and Azur Lily-Trigger?”

I gulped, nodded and then bowed low. “Yes, sensei!” I yelped fearfully. “I um, he was just showing me where the front desk was, and-”

The old stallion’s death glare returned to Rojā’s eyes. “I do not train thugs! Stand there and see the sort of people I teach!” Xii demanded.

“She’s not like the people you teach,” Rojā said eerily calmly.

“Nonsense!” Xii retorted, turning back to me. “Miss Sherbert, you have come a very long way seeking a Master to teach you an ancient discipline. Not as an adult, but as a young mare. This is a very formative time of your youth, and you have chosen to spend it here. Your determination and willingness to see your training through to the end are unquestionable.

“We will skip the first test of character. May I see your entry form?”

I nodded, relieved that I was going to be used as an example instead of arbitrarily punished. I guess I was too used to being bullied at school.

“Of course,” I said as I opened my bag with a hoof, slipped my documents folder out with my magic, and then passed the entry papers to Master Xii.

He accepted them in his own magic’s grip and flipped through them, nodding in satisfaction. “Everything seems in order… Your parent's signatures match the independent ones mailed in, the banking information is all here. All that remains is to learn what you wish to become and why. Please, be honest. Even though my unwanted guest will not believe you, it is important to only speak the truth within these walls.”

I winced. The way he’s said unwanted guest… He may as well have said ‘plague rats’.

Luna’s mane, this meditation room was about to be trashed in a fight to the death, wasn’t it?

I bowed again, making sure to go very low and let my forehead touch the floor.

“I want to learn Ninjitsu, sensei, and all of its associated arts,” I said as honestly as I could. “I believe it will give me the most well rounded skillset of any martial art. I want to follow in my family’s hoofsteps and be a hero one day. Learning how to survive the wilderness, sneak into enemy strongholds, blend into crowds, and mastering hoof to hoof combat will give me the skills I need, and the martial training should help me get over a few… Personal issues.”

Like my inferiority complex… Assuming that’s a thing I can even get over.

Master Xii nodded. “I see. So, you seek to use the knowledge you gain here outside of the world of martial arts?” He asked.

I nodded. “Yes, sensei. I think I would wash out of military training because it’s not one on one and I do not learn well in groups,” I explained, hoping that someone would finally understand.

I mean, a martial arts master totally had to understand that sometimes being in a group was really distracting and you just needed things to come at your own pace from a person who understood you well.

Xii closed his eyes, and threw my entry papers onto one of the candles.

I felt my heart stop beating.

“Get out!” He ordered. “We do not teach those who seek to use the arts. This is a place meant only for their preservation as historic knowledge. Leave immediately! You are not welcome here.”

“B-b-but-” I stammered, my whole body trembling despair as the papers caught fire.

My whole future… Gone, up in smoke. Literally.

I felt my eyes start to tear up, and did my best to hide my face. The last thing I wanted to do was break down into a crying fit and look like a fifteen year old. I had a little self worth left-

Oh gods, my present! I was supposed to LIVE here, what would I do!?

“BAKA NE!” Rojā snapped, teeth clenched in rage. “You’re turning away a promising young disciple just to keep up an illusion I’ve pierced! Can you not see her passion?!”

“LIES!” Xii roared. “I will not have Hikō-ba no jimu’s name insulted any further. Leave now, or I will call for those willing to make you leave and have them throw you out!”

I’d have to call dad. I’d have to tell him I failed… We’d find some other way to house me. Or maybe cancel the whole exchange. Fly me back to Equestria. Ash was going to make this a living hell… A worse one anyways. I could hear her now.

”Well well, look who washed out? Big surprise. Trying to become a ninja? Please, like that would have made you cooler. You're far too much of a loser to ever be anything more than that, freak,” Ash laughed while glaring at me in that odd hungry way, like she fed off my pain.

“I- I don't have anywhere to stay!” I exclaimed, falling to my belly to beg. “I-I was supposed to live h-here. P-please! Let me just stay here for one night so I can c-call home and… Make arrangements.”

“Kid,” Rojā snapped, turning to look at me. “Did this kuso yarō seriously agree to house you as an exchange student?”

I nodded twice. “Y-yeah…” I said in Equish, grateful I even understood his neighponese as my tears started to flow.

“How dare you refer to me in such a crass manner!” Master Xii snapped, jumping to his hooves with terrifying power and grace. “You have ten seconds to leave or I will ensure you never do!”

“How dare you turn away a young mare who flew thousands of kilometers just to learn the real version of a martial art just to try and play the part of an innocent old sage!” Rojā roared. “I’ve always thought you had no respect for the ancient ways, and now I know that is absolutely true!”

Rojā turned to face me and nodded towards the door. “Get up, we’re leaving,” he ordered.

He said it so forcefully and matter of factually that I couldn’t do otherwise. I was standing up before I even thought about whether or not I should follow him. I just did, right out of the door, down the hall, and out into the training yard before I even realized what I was doing.

But when I did. “W-wait. What are we doing?” I asked with a worried frown, my despair making way for fear as I realized I had no idea who this stallion was or who was telling the truth back there.

For all I knew Rojā could be a gang member, or a criminal and about to sell me into slavery or worse!

“Do you want to master ninjitsu?” Rojā asked me, his voice still strained with rage.

I nodded. “Y-yes, but I can’t now… I’ll have to think of another way to be-”

“WRONG!” Rojā snapped, turning to look me dead in the eyes with the single most serious expression I had ever seen in my life. “You can! I am Sensei Rojā Sumisu of Kōmoriakademī. I am not only a master of Bōryaku, Naginatajutsu, Seishinteki kyōyō, Shinobi-iri, Hensōjutsu, and Intonjutsu, but my ancestors were all Shinobi going back fifteen generations!

“I am a teacher at one of the original ninja academies, and should you wish to be my disciple I will train you to the best of my abilities, not only out of respect for your dedication to learning the arts, but also out of spite!

“And if you don’t, Bat’s Academy is open to you as a home for as long as you need it. Because that asshole just shamed our entire nation, and I feel it’s my duty to heal that wound. Well? What do you say? And fair warning, as a rule, none of the masters at the Academy offer to train a person more than once. If you say no, that’s it.”

I took a few steps back. “Y-you mean you’re an actual ninja?” I stammered, eyes wide.

“Shinobi,” Rojā corrected. “A ninja is primarily an assassin. A shinobi is primarily a spy. Each does both, but the training focuses more on some areas than others. But yes, I actually am a master of the arts you wish to learn. Master Xii is a master of Kung-Fu, he would have pushed you off onto lesser masters who only know one or two of the shadow arts. But between one or two of my friends, and I, you can have true masters teach you, and I’ll even focus on real world applications.

“Well? What’s your decision? I’m mostly offering this to you out of spite. If you wait too long to make up your mind…”

Rojā gave me a sympathetic look and shrugged. His message was clear.

I had to think fast! What were the most important things to know?

Right!

“Just two questions first!” I exclaimed with a worried frown. “First, how come you just told me you’re a shinobi? Shouldn’t that like, be against the rules or something? Second, what will training be like?”

Those seemed like the most important-

Rojā laughed and rolled his eyes. “Miss Sherbert, everyone in Uneigh knows I’m a Shinobi. I’m respected for it. Kōmoriakademī, or Bat’s Academy in your language, has been a living history museum since the unification two hundred years ago. It’s my job to keep the ancient traditions alive exactly how they were in ancient times. That includes training disciples.

“If you accept me as your master, your training will be in the traditional ways. You will learn the arts exactly as the historical ninja and shinobi did. It will be hard, but you will have help from me and the other masters there. Keep in mind that you will be training at a living history museum, and as such during your training you will likely be watched by strangers as you will be a part of the exhibit. You will fail many times, but so long as you do not leave the Academy, you will never be judged for failing. Failure is the best teacher.

“But if you ever did leave your training, you would never be welcome back. Bat’s is living history… Though we will just bar you from returning rather than have you killed for leaving. There are a few small changes to tradition like that one.

“Well? I’m waiting. What’s your answer? This is the last time I’ll ask.”

I nodded to myself. Everything made sense now. Kōmoriakademī and Hikō-ba no jimu were more than just simple rivals because the former was purely traditional, while the latter was a business selling a part of history. Rojā was willing to train me because he was very traditional, thanks to that being his job, and also seemed to genuinely believe in upholding the old ways and was extremely offended when Xii rejected me just to send a message.

Yes. This was safe to do and I would never have a better or even similar opportunity given to me ever again.

“Rojā-sensei, please let me be your disciple,” I asked, bowing as low as I could.

“I accept your request and will train you in the arts of the ninja, Orange Sherbert,” Rojā replied, to me bowing slightly. “We will work out the details of your stay with us later this afternoon. Right now, you will accompany me on an important trip. It will not take long, but it is not optional.”

I nodded and stood up. “What is it?” I asked before flinching. “Oh! Uh, do I have to call you Master and end every question too?”

Rojā shook his head. “No. Not yet. Aside from our agreement, I have done nothing to earn that respect from you. The other masters will insist you use their title. I prefer to use titles only once respect has been mutually earned.”

“And where are we going?” I asked as Rojā began to walk towards the gate to leave the dojo behind.

“We are going to Kazumi’s Clinic on Orchard Lane,” Rojā replied simply.

“Why?” I asked, ears flattening at his evasiveness.

Rojā cleared his throat. “To visit my fellow Master, Cho, and make sure her disciple is okay after the street fight Xii’s thugs forced her into last night.”

“Oh…” I said with a wince.

Well, at least I seemed to have joined the good side of this conflict…

“Wait, did you say street fight?” I squeaked, tail raising in alarm.

I was SO not ready for things to get all Rumble in the Bronc on my plot! SISTERS! I WAS NEGATIVE AMOUNTS OF READY FOR THAT!

“Don’t worry, Xii knows if they try to push us around again it’s war. He’ll avoid that. He’s an old fool who only cares about lining his pockets, but he knows half his students ending up in the hospital would ruin him. You’ll be fine,” Rojā promised. “Come on, Nahrina is one of our six current disciples and the only one in your class. Meaning the only other first year student. You’ll be training with her. She’ll be happy to have a friend. Spirits know she needs one right now.”

Sisters above… What the hay did I just get myself into!?