Chapter 7

Things have been going well for me these past couple of weeks, or at least as well as it can be. Ever since I got a job at Sweet Apple Acres, I felt like I was a little more comfortable with my surroundings and new neighbors. I sometimes deliver apples whenever Applejack asked me to, I helped kick apples off of apple trees with Big Mac, and I even had the pleasure to meet their grandmother, Granny Smith. She was an elderly mare with lime green fur and wore a summer shawl and apron with an apple pie embroidered on it. I still chuckle a little to myself sometimes when I showed her how I kicked the trees. Poor old mare nearly fell back on the ground from the surprise, but seeing how I was able to kick all the apples off the tree seemed to have won her over almost immediately.

As I was helping Mac out on the farm, I overheard Applejack trying to get on Twilight’s good side since she had received a letter from Princess Celestia that had these gold tickets inside. Something about a fancy party in the capital? I didn’t really pay attention since I was too busy focusing on work and my training.

Speaking of my training, the work on the farm seemed to have paid off fruitfully. My meditation sessions by the lake and constant heavy lifting on the farm have allowed me to utilize my Ki manipulation. I can now hover a few meters in the air for a couple hours before taking a break on the ground and I can form a decent sized Ki sphere in my hand without having to focus too hard. I once tried this training technique. I remembered Ivan telling me about when I was still a blue belt: Mental Image Training. It’s when I closed my eyes and imagined myself fighting against someone in my head for my hand-to-hand combat.

During my days climbing the belts of karate, I was pitted up against a number of talented karate fighters. The local tournaments I had signed up for proved to be a challenge each time. Some fights I won, others I lost, but I never gave up to strive forward and push myself harder. Now it feels different whenever I train to improve myself. Before, I didn’t have these special powers to literally manipulate Ki and what not, but now I’m able to freaking fly because of it.

I suppose my motivation would be because of the letter from F I still kept with me and my fight with Nightmare Moon. I still painfully remember how she was toying with me and I couldn’t land a single blow on her. The way she moved and avoided my attacks, like she was dancing and could read my every move. My attempts to land even one decent blow on her were laughable at best, but I guess I shouldn’t beat myself up too much since I basically was going up against a literal goddess. Still though, she has been my mental image training partner lately, and I’ve still yet to land a single blow on my imaginary foe.

As for F’s letter, the words spoken on that piece of paper still echo in my mind, and how she chose me. I mean, of all the people on planet Earth, why me? I was no one special in any way, shape, or form. I honestly considered myself to be quite average, among other people, yet I was still chosen, as she put it, and sent to this colorful world of walking, talking ponies. All I could do at the moment was play a guessing game with myself as to why all this was happening to me in the first place, which was a little perplexing, but I couldn’t really do anything else for the time being.

Today was another training session for me as I was throwing punches and kicks in the air. I had my jacket, shirt, and shoes off, and my mind was sharp and focused. I threw blocks, elbow strikes, palm heel strikes, and even jumped in the air to do split kicks. I unleashed a series of straight punches and followed it up with some ridge hand strikes. I spun my body around and delivered a fierce double roundhouse kick that swung my leg down for an axe kick. I finished my open spar with a double palm heel strike and wide crescent kick. I took a long deep breath and exhaled before relaxing my stance, slowly raising my arms in a circular motion and bringing them down in front of me. I wiped my brow from the sweat on my face, walked to the edge of the lake, and kneeled down to splash my face with water.

“Whew. Well, that was a good session,” I said aloud.

I splashed water over my body to try and wash some of the sweat off and put my shirt and shoes back on after waiting for the water to dry off my body. I glanced over at the town and thought about the ponies for a little bit. Some of them were still indifferent about me and preferred to keep their distance whenever I tried to say hello. I was a little bummed that they still didn’t trust me, but I had to remind myself that I was an alien to them and I was viewed as unpredictable. Can’t say that I blame them either, since I’d probably do the same thing in their position. Earning their trust was going to take time and I had to be patient and wait for the opportune moment to do so.

“Hi, William!”

I turned my head to see an unexpected visitor walk up to me. It was the mint colored unicorn mare, Lyra, and she had a wide smile across her face.

“Well hey there, Lyra. What brings you here?” I said to the mare.

“Oh you know, just gloating to the town how I was right about humans existing,” Lyra said proudly.

“You knew about humans?” I asked, curiously.

“Of course! Humans were one of the many wonders of the world until you showed up!” Lyra chriped. “I’ve always been interested in old pony tales, and humans were at the top of my list. Seeing you here in the flesh and not fur makes all the years of me being teased worth it!”

“Wait, you were teased?” I caught on, making her gasp and cover her muzzle.

“Oh…uh, yeah, maybe a little,” Lyra soon admitted.

“Wanna talk about it?” I offered.

“Why do you care, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I may not look like it, but I know what it’s like to be teased,” I said. “Point is, I’m also a good listener when it comes down to it.”

Lyra seemed hesitant, but nodded as she sat down next to me. “Y’know, the only other pony I’ve ever spoken about this was Bon Bon.”

“So you were teased with this human conspiracy of yours?”

“Yeah. Like I said, I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of there being other life forms from other worlds like humans; like you. Whenever I tried talking to somepony about it, I’d get made fun of and be called names.”

“Must’ve been rough.”

“Not exactly. I mean, it did sting sometimes when they called me crazy or a conspiracy nut, but I still kept my head up high. So I one day vowed to prove humans exist and wished every day that one would show up. Guess all my wishes paid off, right?”

“Heh, I guess they did,” I chuckled.

“You must think I’m also crazy, considering how we met and how I always wanna talk to you.”

“You know you can just ask,” I said. “I love talking and meeting new people, or in this case, ponies.”

“You don’t think I’m weird?”

“Lyra, I’m the very definition of weird,” I retorted. “I’m practically a living alien around here. So the fact that you want to go out of your way to talk to me while others prefer to keep their distance, it’s honestly comforting considering I’m still very new to this world.” I offered my hand to her for a shake. “So what do you say, new friends?”

Her wide smile returned and she immediately grabbed my hand with both hers and shook it. “Yes! Yes of course I’ll be your friend!”

“I’m glad.” I smiled as I stood back up and she followed suit. “We should hang out sometime, Lyra.”

“I’d love to! Hey! Maybe you can show off some of that cool karate stuff I saw you do!”

“Of course I’d be happy to-”

My sentence was cut short when I noticed something in the corner of my eye. I looked to see a black cloud of smoke billowing out from the edge of town. The way the black smoke was rising in the air made me narrow my eyes at the ominous-looking cloud, and Lyra seemed to notice too.

“What’s that?” Lyra wondered.

“I think I know,” I frowned as I picked up my jacket. “I just hope I’m wrong. Lyra, if there’s some kind of local fire department in town, do it now.”

“Fire department? Why?” Lyra asked, now sounding worried.

“Because there might be a house on fire.” I wasted no more time and began running toward the plume of black smoke. I don’t know what compelled me to run toward the smoke. Call it a gut feeling. All I knew is that I needed to get to where the smoke was coming from as soon as possible.

I ran through the town with my sights dead set on the black smoke that was continuing to billow into the sky. The closer I got to it, the more my fears of what it was became more prominent. As I ran, some of the ponies also started to notice the smoke in the air and others even started walking toward the direction.

“Will!”

I looked up to see Rainbow Dash fly from the sky and beside me as I kept running.

“What’s going on? What’s that smoke?”

“I’m about to find out!” I said as I picked up the pace.

We soon made it to the edge of town to see a disastrous sight. It was a two story house and half the building was completely coated with flames. The fire was slowly spreading to the rest of the house as Rainbow and I were in complete shock.

“Holy buck! How the hay did this happen?!” Rainbow yelped.

“I have no idea! But it’s getting dangerous!” I said as the flames roared.

“Maybe I can try and blow some of it out with my wings?” Rainbow suggested as she was about to fan open her wings. I immediately grabbed her arm and pulled her down to stand next to me.

“Are you crazy?! That’ll only make them burn even more!”

“Then what are we supposed to do?! Let it burn?!” Rainbow snapped.

“I already told Lyra to call the local fire department! They should be here any minute!”

“But what if they’re too late?!”

“Well, we can’t exactly do much ourselves!”

“Help me!”

Our arguing was cut short when we heard a sound from the house. My heart dropped as I looked to the second floor of the house and saw the window open a little.

“Oh no…don’t tell me.”

“Help! Please! Mommy!”

“Oh jeezus! Someone’s still in there!”

“We gotta do something, Will, we can’t wait!”

I tried thinking of a solution, any solution on how to get whoever was stuck in the house. Help was on the way, but they probably wouldn’t get here in time. Rainbow wanted to use her wings, but that would only worsen the situation. I then got an idea. An incredibly stupid idea, but it was the only one I had at the moment.

“Rainbow,” I said, taking off my jacket and handing it to her. “Make sure no one else gets anywhere near the house.”

“What’re you-HEY WAIT!”

I took off running toward the house, ignoring her pleas, and straight toward a window. I raised my arms and jumped forward, crashing into the window and into the house.

3rd POV

“That idiot! What’s he thinking?!” Rainbow snapped.

As Rainbow was cursing William out to herself, more ponies arrived and were shocked to see the burning building before them. The rest of Rainbow’s friends also arrived and joined their speedster friend.

“Rainbow Dash! What happened?!” Twilight asked. “The house is completely on fire!”

“Somepony call the fire department!” Applejack said.

“I already did!” Lyra said, joining them. She looked around the crowd as if she was looking for someone. “Wait a sec, where’s William?”

“That crazy human just jumped straight into the fire!” Rainbow said, holding up his jacket.

“He what?!” Spike shouted.

“What on Eques was he thinking?!” Rarity screeched.

Meanwhile, a grey pegasus pony mare with a short blonde mane and tail tried to run towards the burning building. She wore what looked to be a mail delivery outfit with a white colored shirt and brown work pants. Rainbow Dash reacted quickly and grabbed her by her arms while she tried to escape from her grip.

“Let me go! Please let me go!” She cried.

“No way Derpy, are you nuts?! You’ll get burned alive in there!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

The mare named Derpy turns around with tears staining her face and looks at Rainbow Dash and the others, along with the other ponies who had gathered at the sight.

“PLEASE LET ME GO! I HAVE TO GET IN THERE! MY DAUGHTER IS STILL INSIDE!” Derpy pleaded.

All the ponies gasp in horror.

“WHAT?!”

William 1st POV

I rolled on the ground onto my feet. I looked up and saw the inside of the house was filled with smoke, making it difficult to breathe. The side that was covered in flames had bits of fire seeping through the walls and floor while continuing to spread. It looked like I was in the living room and there was furniture all around me. I had to get whoever was still in the house fast or we’ll both be burned alive. I winced when I felt a stinging pain in my arm and looked to see some glass poking out of my skin. Probably not the best option to jump through a window, but I didn’t exactly have time to dwell on such precautions. I carefully pulled out the shards of glass in my skin and covered my mouth and nose with my shirt.

“Hey! Are you here?! Where are you?!” I called out. The smoke was already making it a little difficult to breathe as I tried to listen for anything in the house.

“H-Help me!”

I heard the voice again and it sounded like it came from up the stairs. I quickly, but carefully made my way toward the stairs leading to the second floor. The fire is starting to rage and smoke is filling the area at a quick pace, making me cough every so often. I kept my shirt up over my face to mask my breathing, if only slightly. I made it to the top of the stairs and looked down the hall, finding three rooms; two on each side and one at the end.

“Kid! Speak to me!” I called out.

“I-I’m here! Please help!”

It sounded like a little girl was crying out, and it was coming from the room to the right. I quickly walked toward the door, when suddenly, a floorboard gave way, causing my leg to fall through.

“Oh shit!” I managed to catch myself just in time by grabbing onto the doorknob. I looked down and saw the 1st floor was flooded with flames. I reclaimed my breath, pulled myself out from the hole, and faced the door. I tried to turn the knob, but I wouldn’t budge. I look down and see it’s bent downwards and broken, due to me catching it during my fall.

“Of all the shitty things to happen at such a shitty time…” I cursed myself.

I started banging on the door to get whoever was in the room’s attention. “Hey kid! Are you still there?!”

“Y-yes, please help!” she cried.

“I’m right here, don’t worry! I need you to stay away from the door, ok?! Stay as far away from it as you possibly can!”

“O-ok!”

I wait about a minute before stepping back slightly. I slowly took a breath and closed my eyes. After gaining my focus, I opened my eyes and raised my left leg and kicked the door as hard as I could. The door bursts off the hinges and flies toward the other side of the room. I heard a small scream coming from the right side. I walked in the slightly smoke-filled room and looked around. To my right is what looked to be a closet, so I stepped over to it and opened the door. Inside is a unicorn filly with a pale violet coat and a light grayish gold mane and tail. She’s wearing a little light teal dress with a floral pattern on the side and had a burn mark on it. The poor girl had her arms covering her face in total fear and was trembling up a storm while whimpering.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok. You’re safe now,” I told her calmly.

The filly brought her arms down and looked at me. She’s still a bit fearful, but seems to calm down a little bit after seeing me.

“Wh-wh-who are you, mister? Where’s my mama?” she asked fearfully.

I knelt down while pulling down my shirt and holding out my arms, “I’m here to save you kid. Your mom’s probably outside waiting for you. So let’s get you out of here so you can see her again.”

She nods and gets up and moves towards me. I pick her up in my arms and cradle her in my grasp. I looked down at her and smiled at her reassuringly. “Hold on tight and don’t let go, ok?”

She nods and wraps her little arms around my neck, squeezing as tight as she can, but is still trembling.

I make my way out of the room and down the hall. The house is now almost filled to the brim with smoke, which causes the filly to cough. I have to duck down out of the smoke so that we’re not breathing in the cloud of death. I made it to the stairs, but frowned in anger as most of the steps had now been burned to a crisp and a single step would probably cause the whole thing to collapse.

I had few options at this point and looked back down at the filly, who looked like she’s on the verge of tears again. I nudged her slightly, getting her attention and she looked up at me.

“I’m gonna try and jump down to the bottom of the stairs ok? You just keep holding on as tight as you can and don’t let go.”

She nods in understanding and again squeezes around my neck as hard as she possibly can.

I looked back down the stairs and took a few steps back. I took one last breath and ran towards the stairs and planted both my feet on the top step and jumped all the way down the stairs. I managed to clear all the steps and land on the bottom with a loud thud that seemed to vibrate the house slightly, causing it to groan again. Seeing how I’ve probably just sped up the process of its collapse, I proceed to run towards the door and body-check it open.

Suddenly, the house lets out a loud groan and I look up to see the support beam start to splinter. It breaks and comes crashing down on us, and the filly starts to scream in terror. I quickly raise my right hand as the beam falls on it, catching it and halting the collapse midway.

“GAH! SHIT!” I yelled.

This fucking thing was heavy as hell. It feels like I’m carrying the whole damn house. I’m grunting and panting in exhaustion, if I don’t think of something right now, I’m a goner along with the filly. I had to drop the filly on the floor so that I could carry the beam with both hands. I then felt something wet trickling down the side of my head. Soon after, I felt a throbbing pain in my head and deduced that the beam hit my head, and I was now bleeding. The fire was spreading all around us, the filly was crying hysterically, and I was forced down on my knee. She grabbed my shirt while sweat was dripping off my body and I was coughing every so often.

“Mister! What are we gonna do?!” the filly cried.

“I’m…thinking!” I grunted as I tried to keep holding the beam.

Damnit, Will, think! There’s got to be a way out of here!

I glanced down at the weeping filly and my body started to feel weak. The fire was creeping closer and closer to us and blood was dripping from my head and off my chin. I was delirious, tired, in pain, and coughing more often due to lack of oxygen. The beam began weighing me down and I couldn’t hold it any longer.

“Kid…you gotta get…out of here!” I grunted.

“B-But what about you?!”

“Don’t worry about me! You need to leave!”

I grit my teeth in anger and cursed myself again for being so damn reckless. Maybe I should’ve waited for the fire department to get here, but if I did that, it would’ve been too late to save the filly. Was this gonna happen to me again? Was I just gonna die again like before? Only this time, I doubt I’d get a second chance.

No…hell no! I REFUSE TO DIE AGAIN! NOT WHEN THIS FILLY NEEDS ME!

I felt something inside me, like a burst of energy swelling up within me and was about to burst. I grunted from the strain and glared at the floor before shouting in anger. Suddenly, a burst of energy erupted from within me and a flash of white aura surrounded me like a flickering flame. The energy allowed me to gain the strength I needed to lift myself up little by little as my power continued to grow.

“I WON’T…GIVE UP!!” I shouted defiantly.

“I already died once, and once was enough!” I sneered. “You think I’m gonna let something like this take me down?!” My hands began to glow as I felt energy build up more and more. “I was ripped from my world without any warning! I was sent to this one for a reason I still don’t know! And I’ll be damned if I mess up this second chance so soon!” I felt something within my soul and the white aura flared more violently around my body. “So until I figure out why I of all people was sent here and what my purpose is, I make this solemn oath right here, right now!” At this point, my hands are shining as bright as possible to the point where the energy is close to erupt. “As long as there is even a shred of strength left in my soul…I REFUSE TO DIE AGAIN!!” The light from my hands seemed almost blinding and the aura was flickering nonstop. The huge amount of energy reached a breaking point and I couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Get down, kid!” The filly, who was in complete shock during the whole display, quickly nodded, sat down, and covered her head.

“BUSTER CANNON!!!”

The energy in my hands erupts and a brilliant blue sphere of energy forms, becoming bigger and bigger each passing second. The sphere then shined brightly and shot upwards in a huge explosion, causing the beam to be blasted away and enveloping our vision with light. The blast lasts for a few minutes until it starts to dissipate and the light dies down. I can no longer keep standing as I fell down on both my hands and knees. My vision is blurry and there’s a ringing in my head. I looked to my side to see the filly was safe and sound as she uncovered her head from her arms and looked at me.

“Hey…kid,” I wheezed with a smile. “You okay?”

“Y…yes,” she nodded slowly.

“Good…” I nodded as my body leaned to the side and I fell over on the ground on my back. “That’s good…I’m glad you’re…safe.”

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine…” I nodded weakly. “Just…exhausted.”

“DINKY!!”

I glanced to the other side to see a pegasus mare running toward us. She had grey fur, a pale blonde mane, and goldish yellow eyes that were looking in different directions.

“MOMMA!!” the filly cried as she stood up and ran toward the mare, the two hugging each other close.

“Oh my precious little muffin, thank sweet Celestia you’re ok!!” the mare cried through her tears.

“I was so scared, Momma!” the filly whimpered.

I smiled a little through my exhaustion at the happy reunion. I then noticed more ponies showing up from behind, including ponies who wore similar clothing to what normal firefighters wear as they all had a stupefied look on their faces. I then saw Rainbow Dash and the others to boot, which made me lift my hand to them a little.

“Hey…everyone.”

“William! Holy Celestia! What in the hay was that explosion?!” Twilight demanded.

“It’s a long story…” I said. “Long story short…I was in a difficult situation and had to get this one to safety.” I gestured to the filly.

“You saved my daughter?” the mare asked me.

“He did, momma! This brave stallion burst through my room and saved me!” the filly chirped.

“At a price, unfortunately,” I added, glancing around the charred remains of the house. “If this was your house, ma’am, I’m sorry I blew it all to hell.”

The mare looked at the burned remains, then back to me and smiled while shaking her head. “That’s alright,” she reassures me, “My daughter and I were actually planning to move out anyway. It’s a good thing we managed to get all of our personal belongings out before the fire.” The mare then tears up again as she looks down at me. “All I care about right now is my daughter is safe, and you saved her. That’s all that matters to me.” She knelt down and placed her hand on my chest. “Thank you…th-thank you so much for saving my little girl.”

“No problem, miss…”

“Derpy. You can call me Derpy Hooves.”

“And I’m Dinky Hooves!” the filly squeaked.

“Glad to meet you both. I’m William Saber, but you can both call me Will for short.”

“Can you get up, Will?” Spike asked me.

“Not at the moment. My body is all stiff and my head hurts. That blast pretty much took all the stored up energy I had. I’m using what little strength I have left to stay awake,” I said with a slight groan.

“I’LL SAY! WHAT IN THE HAY WAS THAT BEAM OF LIGHT?! DID YOU REALLY DO THAT?! I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS AND I NEED ANSWERS NOW!” Twilight shrieked in my ear. The others nod furiously, wanting to know what happened and how I did what I did.

God, why the bloody hell do they gotta be so damn loud all the time…

As her friends tried to calm her down, I soon began to overhear some of the ponies from the crowd talking amongst themselves.

“Did you hear that? He’s the one who saved Dinky!”

“Oh my goodness! It’s the human!”

“Did he seriously jump into that burning building all by himself? That was too reckless of him!”

“Who cares about that?! He managed to save Dinky before it was too late! He’s a hero!”

Soon, all the ponies are starting to comment and praise me about my heroics. They all then start to applaud and cheer for my deed, despite my extreme actions. I felt a warm sense of pride as they cheered for me. It felt pretty damn good to have saved a life and they’re so welcoming of it.

“We should get you to the hospital, William. Those injuries look bad,” Rainbow said.

“Yeah, that’s probably the best course to take right about now,” I agreed. “Do you have anywhere else to stay in the meantime?” I asked Derpy.

Derpy nods and says, “Yes, Dinky and I were actually going to stay with my sister until my husband returns from his travels.”

I nodded in agreement and looked back at Dinky. She’s still staring at me with that cute smile, making me smile back. “You take care of yourself, ok?”

“Thank you again for saving me, Mr. Will!” Dinky said with a happy chirp in her voice. She and her mother walk away, along with the rest of the crowd until it’s just me, the girls, and Spike.

“Well…I gotta admit that I was not expecting to pull something like that off,” I sighed as I continued to lay on the ground.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.

“That huge blast, that was not on purpose.”

“You didn’t do it on your own?” Rarity questioned.

“Well, I did, but I didn’t mean to,” I explained. “I’ve just been learning the basics of Ki manipulation lately and all I could do was fly a few meters in the air and hold small orbs of Ki in my hands. That may have been in the spur of the moment, but it’s still a little baffling to me how I was able to pull it off.”

“Maybe you were in desperate need of power in a desperate situation?” Spike guessed.

“Maybe. Who knows? I still can’t move my body at the moment.”

“Well, I for one am glad you’re okay, Willy!” Pinkie said with a wide smile. “You’re a real hero today! I should throw you a party!”

“Thanks for the offer, Pinkie, but for now, I’d rather just rest,” I said.

“Aw, well alright, since you insist!”

I chuckled a little as I stared up at the sky. Today was not a day I was expecting to happen, yet it did anyway. I managed to save a kid from a burning building. The feeling I felt before I blasted the house away, all that energy released at once. Was that really me doing it? How was I able to do such a powerful attack? More importantly…I called it Buster Cannon, just like in the show I used to watch. I mean, it looked similar to the original, so it was the only thing that came to mind. Well, besides all that, I’m just glad it’s all over. My eyes started to grow heavy as my consciousness faded away. I may not know what’ll happen tomorrow, or the day after that, but I do know one thing. That experience was something I don’t plan on forgetting, it’ll serve as a reminder if and when I ever find myself in a situation like that. No matter what, I’ll stay alive, even if it kills me.

Author's Note

His first heroic act of many.

Hope you enjoyed!

~WurkyWilk has left the building…