Parry and Riposte

by armid

Rating: teen
Tags: Equestria Girls, Sunset Shimmer, Main 7 (EqG), Adventure, Slice of Life, Drama, Original Character, Other
Length: 14639

Sunset Shimmer has to go through a fencing match to get Flaming Star to listen.

Sunset must keep her promise to Steely Armor and try her best to talk to Flaming Star. But he doesn't want to listen. It may take a fencing battle to break through him.

Published 2021-09-07 20:10:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-09-07 20:10:00 UTC

Music and Blades

Dear Princess Twilight,

Things have been getting more and more complicated with the newbies. Flaming Star specially. Not on the fact that it’s hard to get through him again. But rather the fact it’s getting more difficult to get him to listen.

It was Monday. The day I promised Steely Armor I would be telling him everything that had happened in the school. Was I ready? Not quite. But I had to.

Monday is also the day that we have a rehearsal. This time however, we were going to be practicing one of Flaming Star’s songs. Rainbow Dash was not fond of us doing that at first but it seemed she was fine with it too. At least she said that she was.

The song that gave us was “A road to Brightness”

According to him, he had made some changes to the lyrics so that it would be fitting for a group. We had the sheets and the lyrics for a while for ourselves. But this was the first time we were going to attend playing it with one another. I liked the song myself. I asked Flaming Star to let us play it after all! It felt nice and meaningful to me. And I was looking for something a bit different to play in our band.

Twilight wanted to start and after a few minutes we started the first run.

"1.2.3....1.2.3 let's go!" Rainbow Dash shouted
And we started .

[Twilight ]:"we....we are driving on a road."

[Fluttershy /Rarity /Twilight ]: "Wind...is blasting through our souls! "

[Me/Rainbow /Applejack ]:" clouds....filled the sky with shadows! "

[All] :" We are driving on a road...to Brightness. Where the light grows and the sun is shining."

[Twilight]: "How much to go. How much to stay. (Me and Fluttershy joined) Nothing matters anymore , since we are together WE - ARE - TO -GE - THER."

reply from the start once more

[Fluttershy]: “no matter where." (She said softly)

[Rarity]: "No matter when." (softly)

[All]: “we will alway be together Till WE REACH OUR GOOOOOAL!"

[All]: "We are driving on a road, to brightness. Where everything is fine and the sun is shining." (repeated in forte once more)

*************

Our first attempt wasn’t so bad. But it was quite rough around the ages. We needed more time to get synced with one another.

"So," Rainbow Dash said as she was rubbing her head, "We’re gonna work on this for now?"

"Yes, is there a problem, Rainbow?" I said.

"Nothing, just uh, I liked Fluttershy's lyrics more." She crossed her arms and looked down.

"you do?" Fluttershy’s eyes widened in shock.

"After my own!" Rainbow Dash replied with a grin.

"Oh darling, don't be so arrogant!" Rarity stood near Fluttershy and gave Rainbow Dash a galre.

"I-I think the song is good" Fluttershy added after Rarity.

"Come on Rainbow," I said, "It’s not like that we are forgetting about our own songs! We are just having a change!" I put my hand on her shoulder.

"She's right!” Twilight came closer and joined me, “we will still play our own songs!"

"If you say so, I guess it's fine then." Rainbow Dash shrugged.

We had to head to our classes afterwards. But before doing so, I had to talk to Twilight.

I held her shoulder, “Hey, before we go, make sure you and Steely Armor are in the library after school today. OK?”

She raised an eyebrow, “Um, sure, are we still going to confront him?”

I sighed, “No, I’ve already had my confrontation with him. We’re going to be explaining what happened in the school before they got transferred.”

“Wait!” her eyes widened, “You are?” She then pointed at herself, “WE are?”

“It’s a long story, I’ll explain later, we have a class to catch.”

I wanted to talk to twilight after the first class but I simply couldn’t. I had to attend my fencing club session. I don't want to brag but I've actually beaten every single person in the club and stayed unbeaten. quite an achievement I should say but then again, I don't want to brag. Though this time, I met a familiar face.

I was putting on my fencing dress when I saw Flaming Star walk in. He had a sabre in his hand and a gym bag hanging from his left shoulder.

The school doesn't let us use sabers and do fencing with those. Instead they make us either foil or epée. But we took out the sabers here and there. Let's face it, it is very fast and more fun to use and Flaming Star didn't seem to know about that rule either. Honestly we weren’t in the mood to follow the rules anyway.

I wanted to go and talk to him. We even caught each other's sight. But I didn’t think it was the right moment to do so. I haven’t known him nor Steely Armor for a long time, but I could sense that they were still insecure. But after he got dressed, he walked into the middle of the gym and challenged us all!

We were all looking at one another for a few minutes. Was he trying to show off? Probably! I thought to myself that it would be wise to go last. That way I could see how he competed and put him in his place when It was my turn. So I stood back and watched everyone face him one by one. Or should I say, get defeated one by one.

He was helding himself pretty well. He didn’t even get hit once! His technique was more defensive than aggressive. He usually didn't attack first but rather parried the attacks and riposte. And when he did attack they were light and fast or he would dodge an attack which I must add, is quite hard to pull off in fencing considering that attacks in fencing are almost as fast as a bullet! I was baffled by how he was pulling that constantly. Not to mention they were fencing with sabres.

He sidestepped, he ducked and half the time I couldn’t tell whether he was going to attack or not. The first guy was no match.

The second member went to take him. Right from the get go, she was attacking left and right. Constantly trying to overwhelm Flaming Star but he blocked every below successfully as if it was nothing! The attacks went on for a while, but eventually she grew tired and allowed there to be a clear opening for Flaming Star to thrust his sword to the chest with ease. She was just burned out after that. The fate of the match was sealed after Flaming Star had gotten the first point. He was untouchable!

“Really? That was all you got?” he shouted. Mocking his defeated opponents. “C’mon, give me a challenge!”

The third and the fourth member’s fate was not any different. None have been able to land a single below on Flaming Star yet. His dexterity and speed was unlike anything I’d seen before. But now it was time to face it!

I had watched him beat everybody without taking a single hit! Everybody had tried to beat him and the only one left was me. I have to say, I was a little scared but that was usual. At least I thought. I wasn’t like any other match. And it wasn’t just about teaching him a lesson in his cockyness. I had to defend my title too! The title of the unbeaten fencer! Not only that, I was the members last chance to possibly put Flaming Star in his place.

I didn't have a sabre that day but I borrowed one from one of the members. didn't know who since they had their mask on. Flaming Star seemed determined. Standing tall and letting his guard down. something about him just gave the sensation that he was certain he would win.

“Lets see if there is more to you than tryin’ to invades other’s privacy.” Flaming Star said and the duel began.

Author's Note

Make sure to check other chapters too.

Untouchable!

Dear diary,

Steely and I got approved for attending the clubs we signed up for. The girls though, I’ve learned that letting my guard down is not something I should be doing with them. Specially with Ms. Baconhead! She came off as kind and friendly, but she has no respect for other people's privacy. She has no respect for others' boundaries!

I was planning on showing off a little in the clubs now that I’ve been accepted. But, things got more complicated than that. As I stepped into the fencing club, AKA the gym. I could tell the state of the members. Amateurs! But among them, was her. AGAIN!

Just looking at her made me annoyed. Thankfully, we keep our masks on most of the time. But still, I shouldn’t have let her presence ruin the fun I was going to have. So I began walking into the middle of the gym to challenge them all.

“Hey! I’m sorta new here so I don’t know who you all consider your most skilled member, but have to say they no longer are. Cuz I’m here. Now if any of you would like to put me in my place, they're welcome to try!” I said out loud and caught their attention. It didn’t take long before the first member decided to step forward and hold his blade up against me.

I didn’t go too hard on him. But even then, I didn’t let him get a lucky hit. I could see his attacks from a mile away. His hand always got drawn back before he wanted to attack, telegraphing his move. And not even an attempt to at least be a little sneaky and do a bait cut. His thrusts were easy to counter too. His whole body would get twisted back as if he was pushing on a spring to let go. But little did he know, before he could even start his attack, I'd already landed two swings.

The second one though, had a nice start. She started thrusting and swinging left and right as fast as she could. It was quite hard to find an opening at first, though, she was putting a lot of energy into that which in the end, she couldn’t keep it up. For the rest of the match, she was significantly slow and tired. She was both desperate and bold, but unfortunately, it takes more than that to get through me.

“C’mon, was that all you guys had? Embarrassing!” I shouted. “C’mon, Give me a challenge!”

The third guy grunted as he put his mask on and walked up to face me. I held my guard down. And it didn’t take long for him to fall for the fools guard. The moment he decided to attack, I just raised my sword and got a point with ease. Next time, he tried his best to beat me to the sword dance. But his wrist wasn’t capable of keeping up with mine. After a couple of successful circling around his sword, I thrusted it to his shoulder. He was really keen on winning a sword circling and thrust at me, but every time he failed miserably.

And should I even talk about the fourth one? That guy literally dropped his sword in the middle of the match. And it’s not like I did anything. He just dropped it.

However there was still one more fencer I had to face. HER! I watched her, as she put her mask on and took a sabre from another member and walked to me as the other members cheered her. So, SHE was their champion.

She held her guard up. But I resorted to the fools guard once again to see what she would do. But even after the match started, she held her guard and didn’t try to attack and take advantage of my weak guard. She knew. But if she wasn’t making the first move, I wasn’t minding it. I changed my guard and held my sword in front of me, pointing towards her. The tip of our swords were almost touching however we both circled around each other's swords quite often. She wasn’t going to be the one attacking first and I was sure of it. So I charged. I made a circle and then pushed my sword up to catch her’s with the guard of it. After that I pushed her sword aside and before she could maintain her guard again, I had landed a hit but thrusting my sabre into her chest. One to zero in my favor.

After taking our stances again, I didn’t have to worry about attacking anymore. If she wasn’t going to do anything, she was guaranteed to lose. And the time was flying for her quite fast. I resorted to the fools guard and waited for her to fall into my trap. She was hesitant still and tried to keep her distance and have a quick thrust at me. Though that was not going to cut it.

Flaming Star took a moment to smile at his unintentional pun.

I easily pushed her blow aside. She tried once more only for her thrust to be pushed aside once again. She was playing clever, I have to give her that. She tried to be a bit more aggressive and tried attacking faster. After blocking them, she was left quite open. Even though she tried to back-step her way to safety, I landed a quick hit to her shoulder. Two to zero. Not much time was left for her. She might have been smarter but she was still losing.

She was getting desperate in the last moments. She was thrusting and swinging left and right. It was getting quite hard to hold all of her attacks. I had to finish it. I ducked one of her swings and thrusted my sword to her chest from underneath. The time was up after that.

In the next free time I headed to the Archery Club! They had a very fun task there. We had to shoot three targets that were next to each other one after another as fast as possible. But the distance and the space between the targets was just enough for me to perform three in one! And I did it when it was my turn. I even got the fastest time of the bunch! A new record for me I guess. I have to say, It was quite some time since I practiced archery but thankfully I still knew how to do it.

I met up with Steely in the cafeteria. He was sitting by himself, eating a sandwich. As Always!

I took a hot dog and an Apple cider from there and sat next to him.

“Hey, buddy!”

“Hep!” he said with a full mouth and gave me a wave. After he swallowed the bite he took he continued. “Sorry. How was today?”

“Well, I uh, showed all the amateurs in the fencing club how to really fence and pulled a shenanigan in the archery club that made everyone's jaw drop down to the floor so yeah, It was quite fun.”

He took another bite before answering, “Huh, Reaby?”

“Yeah. So how was your day?”

He held his hand to tell me to wait and once he finished chewing and swallowing the bite he took, he answered. “Well, now I am in every club I wanted to be in. Chess, Chemistry and most importantly the workshop but…”

“But?”

I could understand that something was bothering him just by looking at his face. Steely put down the half eaten sandwich and sighed. “It’s about Sunset Shimmer.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course it’s her!”

He sat straight and raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“It’s always her Steely! Always! She guided us around the school. She was the one who found my song's notebook. The one who tutored me! The one who can see memories! And even though she was coming off as friendly at first, she showed that she has no respect for privacy!” I crossed my arms.

Steely looked away for a second, “yeah, about that…”

I looked in his eyes, “Hey, is there something you want to spill out? I imagine it has to do with your experiments cuz, Ms. Memory Reader wanted to get to the bottom of your...stuff a few days ago.”

Steely played with his fingers and after letting another sigh out, he started. “She broke into my garage!”

“Wait, WHAT?” I slammed the table and caught the attention of a few students. “Your not telling me that she actually was that desperate to know what you were doing that she invaded your property!”

“Actually, it’s not my property, even though I have my stuff there but,” He raised his finger and pointed at me. “Yes, she did.”

I held my head in my hands. “Oh man. She really crossed the line this time.” I leaned forward to Steely. “So, did she steal anything?”

“No. I checked everything and there didn’t seem to be anything missing. She did say that was just looking. I guess she told the truth.”

“Huh.” I leaned back. “So what now?”

Steely dropped his head on his hands. “Twilight Sparkle told me that Sunset Shimmer wants to be in our session today after school. That night I caught her breaking into my garage, she said that she will explain everything on Monday! And here we are, Monday!”

“Explain what? Why did she break into your garage? Is there anything left to be explained at all?” I shook my head and raised my tune a little bit.

“She wants to explain what happened in the school before we came. When they had to deal with magic.”

I calmed down a little after he said that. I stayed silent and let Steely continue.

“I’ve been hearing some rumors. But none gave me a clear picture. Twilight Sparkle didn’t want to talk about it either. There is something that they were holding from us but now they want to tell us.”

“Wait, so you aren’t mad that she broke into your garage snooping around?”

“I am very frustrated and mad but…” He paused for a moment and let another sigh out. “...This can make a lot of things clear. I will listen to what she has to say and then I will decide whether I should hold a grudge or not.”

Even though Steely was trying to be more forgiving upon Sunset Shimmers acts. I was not going to do the same. She can’t just invade others' personal life. Whatever the reason may be. She can’t just do it!

“So, are we practicing in the Cars Graveyard after school or not?” I asked. Changing the subject.

“The session may take a while, but if you can wait, we sure can.”

“I’m free. I'll just wait outside.”

Author's Note

Make sure to read other chapters too.

A challenge for me

I knew that aggressive fighting wasn't going to help me beat him. So I decided to let him attack first. That wasn't very smart, because after he saw me not attacking he rushed me with two strikes from right and left and beat against my sword. That broke my defense and he thrust his sword into my chest.

He took one point from me and then he held his defense. Or should I say laid his trap and waited like a predator for me to just fall into it. He didn’t hold a guard. Though I had seen why he did that. It lures his opponent to attack but then he counters and steals the point. Sadly, I was behind a point. I couldn't wait around. I had to attack. I tried my best to keep my distance and find the right moment to thrust. We both circled around each other’s sword constantly to threaten one another. I managed to find an opening twice but he blocked my blows both times. He then attacked and forced me to back up. However before I could get out of his range he landed a quick strike to my shoulder.

Now the score was 2_0. Nothing seemed to work. I shouldn't have let him take the first point in the first place. I could only use fast attacks and look for a great time to rush at him. I thrust my sword at him twice but he just stepped back and ignored both attacks.

I was running out of time and he was ahead. It was all or nothing now! I stepped forward with a series of fast attacks. He was holding his defense solid. But I knew I could overwhelm him and find the right opening to grant me a point. But the moment I thrusted my sword in hopes of gaining the point. I was hit in the chest with his sword!

He ducked my thrust completely and hit me from underneath! How could he duck that low so fast?

The match was over after that. I really thought I could be the one who at least lands a hit on him but no. I failed.

"The sun is going down too soon today!" he said.

That just made me more irritated. But I have to admit that he is an expert fencer.

In the next free time I met up with Twilight. Even though I was having a lot going in my head after my match against Flaming Star, I had to tell her what happened. To which she did not react as calmly as I hoped.

“YOU DID WHAT!?” Twilight shouted. Her eyes were wider than two giant oranges.

“I broke into Steely Armors garage late at night.”

“NO!” She face palmed herself, “ I mean WHY?”

I rubbed my face away from her gaze. “Because I had a lot going in my head and I needed answers.”

Twilight’s hand got tense. “But that doesn’t mean you can break into other people's property!”

“I mean…” I moved my hands around in the air, “You said that that place is restricted and only the authorities are allowed to access it so, it’s not his property!”

Twilight raised her finger but then put it down. “OK. You're right on that part. But you can’t just break into places!”

I pulled my hair, “look! I didn’t walk there and thought that, hey! Instead of asking Steely Armor what he is doing I’m goanna break into his place. No. We went through everything with him!” I realized I was raising my tune again so I held myself there and took a few deep breaths. “But that doesn’t matter. Today I’ll be explaining what happened. And hopefully, he will end up opening up later on.”

“Let’s hope so.” Twilight added.

Now that it was settled, I thought of changing the subject. “So, how is the new schedule going? Are you familiar with it yet?” I gave her a nudge.

Twilight smiled. “Well, not yet. I’m still checking my notepad at the end of every class to make sure I'm not mixing up stuff.”

“I’m sure you'll get around.” I put my hand on her shoulder to make her feel comfortable.

“Thanks. That means a lot.”

I was still having the thought of Flaming Star in my head. And the fact that I no longer was the undefeated champion of the fencing club. But he was. Or better say, untouched! The way he fenced was so foreign to me. Fast reflexes and a remarkable agility are something that only skilled fencers have. And I doubted he had years of experience. Or had he?

I have not faced him in the couple of years I have attended the Canterlot City’s fencing competition. Every school sends their best fencer for the competition every year. I doubt FalconStone wouldn’t send him if he was that good. They are very competitive in such stuff. Something wasn’t adding up.

But that train of thought had to wait since It was lunchtime!

I gathered with the girls again. I knew it was quite the day for me and Twilight already. But I wanted to know how other’s day went.

Pinkie Started first. Waving her hands in the air and saying “ME! ME!” rapidly to get us to listen. “So, today I saw that vice principal Luna was very tired. I thought of doing something to rub the sleep away from her eyes so-”

“Hold on a second.” Applejack interrupted her as she raised her hands in sign of stop. “Does this has somethin’ to do with you moppin the bathrooms this mornin’?”

Pinkie gave us one of her nervous laughs and continued, “We-e-ell, I sorta...gave her a surprise by setting up a good morning card in her drawer.” She was sweating unusually.

“And it was with an explosion!” I added.

“Yeah!”

“Now that explains why I didn’t see her around today.” Rainbow Dash rubbed her chin.

Fluttershy leaned forward from and showed herself from behind Pinkie. “Uh, I wanted to ask you a question.” She said softly.

“What is it?” Twilight asked as we all looked at Fluttershy.

“Well,” Fluttershy brought her hands close to her face. “For my next drawing project I need a model. And I was thinking, maybe one of you wanted to be the model?” She was trying her best not to make eye contact with us.

“OH! Me!” Rainbow Dash leaned forward and pointed towards herself. “You can draw me in one of the poses Daring Do takes in her movie posters!” She held Fluttershy’s head in her arm, “THAT. WILL. BE. AWESOME”

“Now hold on darling.” Rarity said. “I know you are excited but, maybe Fluttershy needs something a bit more….classy!”

“What do you mean?’ Rainbow Dash let go of Fluttershy.

“I’m just saying that, maybe you should let me be the model for Fluttershy’s drawing.” Rarity added, putting her hand on her chest.

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Nah. Fluttershy needs to draw something different and new. Not another one of those stupid paintings that they put in meuseums!” Rainbow Dash frowned at Rarity.

Rarity rubbed her face away and closed her eyes. “Hmpf! Maybe you are too into your boring action movies that you are failing to understand the main concept of art, dear!”

Rainbow Dash let out a big gasp. “What. did you. Just say?” She frowned and leaned closer to Rarity.

“Why? Didn’t you hear it the first time I said it?” Rarity narrowed her eyes and frowned back at Rainbow Dash.”

The situation was getting heated up. And We needed to do something. But thankfully Applejack sorted it out by stepping in. She pushed them aside and sat between them to make sure they didn't start fighting. “A’ight, you two cut it out right’ now!”

“The drawing project is sort of important. It’s...my appointment to Ms. Colorful Brush.” Fluttershy added. But it didn't seem like Rarity and Rainbow Dash cared.

I decided to change the subject, so I asked applejack how her day was. She looked at me, and I saw the excitement in her eyes glow. As if she was waiting for someone to ask her that.

“Oh, right. I wanted to tell ya’ll about what happened in the archery club this mornin’” She gave herself a little tap on the forehead. “Today we were supposed to shoot at three targets as fast as possible.” And then she pointed towards her back with her thumb. “And then that newbie kid showed up.”

“Who?” We all asked.

“Flamin’ Star.” She leaned in. “And when it was his turn, he shot three arrows at once and hit all three targets!”

“WHAT!?” We all shouted.

I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t fandom how someone could pull that off. Like, this isn’t a video game or an action movie!

“You have no idea how much I wished you were lying right now applejack.” I said, shaking my head.

Applejack just shrugged. “I still can’t believe it ma’self.” And drank her apple cider.

All the girls went deep in thought for a few seconds about what Applejack said. That was until Rainbow Dash broke the silence.

“So he just did a flashy thing. Why should we care?” She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes over.

“What’s the matter?” Rarity leaned towards Rainbow Dash again and put her hand under her own chin. “Are you jealous?”

“What? No!” Rainbow Dash turned her face away. “It’s just, dumb.”

Thankfully the lunchtime was over before they could continue picking on one another.

After the last class, I was heading towards the library. I didn’t know how I was going to start. Should I have started from the very beginning? From Equestria itself? Or is that too much for Steely Armor to handle? Maybe I had to spill it all? No. It would be very confusing that way.

As I was walking towards the library, I saw Flaming Star walk by. The moment he saw me, he frowned and rubbed his eyes away. I was reminded once again, that I needed to explain what happened that day to him. But It was then that I thought of something. What if I ask him to join the session and after that I have explained everything for both Steely Armor and Flaming Star, I try talking things out with him. Maybe that way he would understand my concerns and why I had to go beyond my limits.

I walked to him and called his name in the hallway. However, he continued walking as he hadn’t heard me. I called him a second time. But he ignored it again. By that time, I had caught up with him.

“Flaming Star, I nee-” I put my hand on his shoulder to pull him back but the moment I did, he turned back and pushed me back.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!” he said, glaring at me. “What is it? You want to catch another sight of my memories so that you can piece stuff together?”

“No, I-”

“Or you want to presumably help? But even then you need to leech into my head, huh?”

“Listen, I know I shouldn’t have-”

“Wasn’t breaking into Steely’s garage enough? Haven’t you got what you wanted already?”

I stood in silence. Ashamed.

“Leave me...alone!” He looked away and started walking.

I kept up with him. “Look, I know I messed up but I’m going to explain everything rig-”

“Not interested.”

There was no getting through him. He was not gonna listen. And I doubted I could get him to join us for the session. But I still needed to make him listen. Somehow!

“I CHALLENGE YOU TO A FENCING MATCH!” I shouted.

Flaming Star stopped and looked at me from the corner of his eye. “What?”

“If I win, you must hear me out.”

He turned back completely and walked back towards me. “What are you talking about?”

“Was I not clear?” I tilted my head. I realized if I was going to convince him I needed to not go soft about it.

Flaming Star narrowed his eyes. “What do you have in mind this time?” he said sarcastically.

I wanted to tell him that I wanted to say sorry and why I did what I did. But he probably would have walked away again. “Well, first of all, you defeated me and that hadn’t happened before. I can’t let you just walk away after that defeat can I?” I raised an eyebrow.

He looked at me with suspicion in his eyes. “Well sorry but it’ll have to wait till next week.”

“Oh, are you scared that I will defeat you?” I smirked.

“No, I jus-”

“No, no. I get it.” I gestured with my hand. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone that you are scared of facing me a second time.”

He frowned and clenched his teeth. “Fine! You want a rematch? You’ll get a rematch!” He raised his finger and brought it close to my face. “But we are not doing one of those stupid fencings we did today. We’ll be having something more practical.”

I wasn’t sure where he was getting at so I stayed silent and raised an eyebrow.

“Come to the slaughter alley tonight. And I’ll settle this once and for all.”

He left quickly afterwards. I could sense his anger with every step he took.

I continued heading towards the library. Twilight and Steely Armor were already there, waiting for me. They were sitting around a table when I joined them. Steely Armor didn’t make eye contact and stuck his gaze to the notepad he had brought. I sat next to Twilight, and with a deep breath, I started.

Author's Note

Please check out other chapters too.

Race and Practice

Steely and I agreed to head to the Cars Graveyard after he finished his magic researching session. I was on my way outside of the school when SHE showed up again. At first she passed by and I assumed she would leave me alone. But no. She called me and started walking back.

I was not in the mood to deal with her. At all! Just looking at her made me irritated and reminded me of what Steely told me.

As Flaming Star was writing those words, his hand felt tense and his grasp on his pencil got harder. It wasn’t until he let out a breath that he calmed down.

I tried to shake her off. I tried to ignore her. Otherwise I might have punched her in the face.

But what happened gave me a shock. She challenged me to a fencing duel! Well, more of a fencing rematch to compensate for her miserable defeat earlier that day but, that came out of nowhere! Because she was trying to get me to listen to her at…

The point of the pencil was lifted from the paper and Flaming Star soon realized the intent of Sunset Shimmer’s actions. “Of course!” he thought to himself as he face palmed himself. “That cunning girl!”

I denied at first, but she managed to manipulate me into it. Though, I didn’t dislike the idea either. At least that way I could let my anger out a little. So I told her to come to the slaughter alley and I left the school. The fresh air calmed me down quite a bit. I climbed the statue in front of the school and sat beneath the horse.

Sometimes, just taking in the fresh air and watching the sun slowly go down soothes my mind. There is something about it that makes me relaxed. It is far away but you can feel its warmth. Not literally but, from inside? Or maybe it’s just beautiful to look at?

The sun goes down, only for it to come around.
Watch it. As a lullaby it calms you down. However, there is no sound.

I took my time and watched it. And slowly closed my eyes and slept for a little while. That was until Steely called me and woke me up!

“Hey! Flame! Wake up!” Steely shouted.

I got startled at first but after rubbing my eyes a couple of times I was up. “Hey! You’re done?” I asked as I hopped down.

Steely stayed quiet for a couple of seconds before answering. “...Yes…”

I yawned and stretched a little. “So, anything important or just a nonsense excuse?”

Steely didn’t answer. Not as if he didn’t want to but rather that he didn’t pay attention to what I just asked. He walked forward and looked down.

“Um Steely? Hello?” I jumped in front of him and waved my hand. “You there buddie?”

Steely shook his head and rubbed his forehead. ”yeah, it’s...there’s just, a lot going on in my head right now.”

“Does...this have to do anything with the session you just had?”

Steely looked away. “Maybe.”

“Do you...wanna talk about it?” I tilted my head.

Steely rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe later…”

It seemed that he was out of the zone. But I knew exactly the thing that could give him some refreshment.

I gave him a friendly punch. “Hey, what do you say we race to the Car’s Graveyard?”

Steely looked at me with his golden eyes. Took a moment and rubbed his chin. “You’re not goanna do crazy stuff again are you?” He raised an eyebrow and pointed his finger at me.

“No promises.” I winked at him.

Steely sighed and took out his skateboard. He adjusted his hat and put on his goggles. And I stretched a little before getting in position. We both had our hands touching the ground. And I counted to three.

“1”

“2”

“3!” And as I said that, we both started racing.

Steely got an early lead very fast and tried to keep his distance from me. Still it's no surprise that he got the lead from someone who's running! I tried to close my distance a little and keep up until we got to town. So I could start my own game from then on. Tiring myself to surpass him was pointless. I just had to make sure I had him in my sight.

Steely was keeping his speed. Boosting himself every now and then and looking back at me to make sure I was not catching up. His blue shirt was being blown and shaking in his body as he skateboarded.

I, on the other hand, was maximizing my speed by using my whole body against the wind. Keeping my upper body a little closer to the ground and running as fast as I could. The wind was blowing my jacket back and giving my eyes a hard time to keep track of Steely. But, that’s what I liked about it. Steely could keep his goggles for his own. The wind might have been a little problematic, but it also made me feel alive.

We were getting close to the main part of Canterlot City. And I had managed to keep up so far. Now, it was my time to shine. As steely anchored himself to the stop sign and used it to do a hard turn, I went through the alleyway and climbed the pipe of the building up till I reached the rooftop. My path from there on was straight where Steely’s was filled with twists and turns and old grumpy grannies with grocery bags. The worst thing I had to worry about was jumping from one rooftop to another. Which wasn’t hard. Not anymore, after the many times I fell.

I took a deep breath, looked at the horizon to see my destination. And after I spotted the tiny glimpse of it in the distance, I started running.

The first few apartments were always quite close to one another so you didn’t need to jump that far to reach them. In fact, with some of them you could just drop down and you’ll be there. But then I got to the bigger gaps. I had quite the momentum to make the first one. Thankfully it was a shorter building with red bricks. Just keeping the momentum and jumping with all the force I had, I landed safely on it’s rooftop. I nailed the landing.

The next one though, was a taller building. With these, I had two options. Either I climbed down and climbed them up. Or I hopped to the other buildings and basically went around it. I chose the latter. The other building behind the one was on, was rather close, but stopping to find my route had cost me my momentum. I walked near the edge of the rooftop and hanged from it. I had my legs on the back wall of the building. I let go of one of my hands and let the right one hold me up. I turned and looked at the building across. I locked my eyes on the ledge of the other rooftop. I put the energy into my legs and launched myself to the other side. The moment I thought I had it, my hand slipped. The air was leaving my lungs and I felt as if I was falling once again. My eyes went black, and my muscles were going numb. But I caught myself with the ledge of the window.

It took me a few seconds to recover from what just happened but after catching my breath, I climbed my way back up. I looked down for a second and it was quite a fall. But I didn’t have much time to waste. I had to keep going.

After a little bit more jumping around. I could see Steely Skateboarding his way through the streets. He was keeping up! I could see him blazing in between other pedestrians and finding his way. Before I knew it, I had lost him.

I put my attention towards continuing my own path. If I don’t get a head start when I’m on the other side of the city, he would have definitely won. Between my jumps I could catch a glimpse of Steely here and there. However, I was not able to follow him.

Once I reached far enough, I dropped on the firescape and walked my way down to the bottom. Steely wasn't around yet so there was a chance that I could reach Car’s Graveyard before he showed up. Not much was left from the path but I could only run. No short-cuts. I didn’t mess around and kept going. I kept running towards my destination non-stop. I was just speeding when I heard the sound of a skateboard from behind. And I saw exactly what I expected when I turned my head back. Steely Armor! He was leaning onward and using all of his weight to boost his speed. There was still a distance he needed to catch and I was rather close to the finish line. I ignored him and kept my eyes onward. Putting all the might I had in my legs and dashed as fast as I could. The closer I got to the finish-line, the louder and more vivid the sound of skateboards could be heard. I could see Steely from the corner of my eyes though, I managed to get past the wrecked green truck before him, making me the winner.

I wanted to celebrate my victory but I needed to catch my breath after that much non-stop running. “You did better this time.” I told Steely as I was still trying to steady my breathing.

Steely smiled. “I’ve found a better and much faster route this time. Still, it wasn't enough to beat you and your craziness.”

“Yeah, but maybe I will compete with full potential next time.” I gave him a wink.

Steely gave out a half chuckle. “Alright, you catch your breath and I go wear the safety gear.” he said as he walked away.

I might have agreed to let Steely and I practice on our magic but there was no way I was letting it start before he wore the fireproof suit he got.

Flaming Star stopped writing as the thought of how his friend got a firefighter suit crossed his mind. It wasn’t like he could buy those? Could he? But it didn’t matter. It wasn’t the first he had found or done something no one else could. After giving his head a little shake, Flaming Star continued to write down in his diary.

After a few minutes, Steely came back dressed in his suit and pulled his black board too. He picked up a chalk and started drawing on the black board as he spoke.

"OK, today we're going to see how far you can shoot your fireballs! Your first target is that bottle over there." He pointed at the bottle that was about 8 meters away from me. Not that far. I’ve hit targets way further than that with a bow and arrow.

“Now listen,” Steely continued, “According to my calculations, you must be generating…something something, to that amount and that something will start getting weaker because of something else so if you do it like that you should hit the bottle.”

It didn’t take Flaming Star so far to realise he doesn’t recall anything of what Steely said then. Nor did he understand it back then anyway. It sounded so complex for him to wrap his head around that he probably didn’t pay attention.

Steely was drawing various arrows and formulas on the board that I didn’t really understand the meaning of. Probably something related to what he was saying.

I got ready by taking off my gloves. I’ve gotten used to them so much that whenever they're not on my hands, I feel off. I prepared to shoot at that bottle. My hands ignited, still don’t know how doing that doesn’t burn my hand but it did make it feel warm. I closed my eyes and threw my hands forward. After a few seconds I opened my eyes just to see that nothing happened.

“Wait, did anything come out?” I asked Steely who was standing back, observing.

“A small burst did come out but that was about it.”

I was surprised. I realised that I wasn’t quite sure how to make a fireball come out.

I threw my hands forward again but still nothing. Once again I tried it, I tried another motion in my hands but nothing came out. I didn’t know what I was doing.

“Are you sure you’re doing it right?” Steely chimed in.

“Not really.”

“Maybe...you know, you should...channel it?”

I turned back and looked at him. “Channel it?” And raised an eyebrow. “Like that anime you watch?”

“It’s called DragonClaw, Flame!” Steely put his hands on his waist.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I got it!”

So I held my hands close to one another and focused. But nothing was formed.

“Welp, that doesn’t work!” I said. I wasn’t sure how to use my powers. Every time it just came out on it’s own or I just felt it. But now, there was nothing!

“How do you use yours?” I asked Steely.

He stepped forward, his suit rubbing off to itself and making plastically noises. “I just...close my eyes and...focus for a second. When I open them, I see things differently for a few seconds.” he rubbed his chin.

I sighed, “I don’t think that’s going to work for me.” and looked at my ignited hands.

“From what I’ve realized so far, magic can be provoked by many means. Like, emotions.”

“What are you suggesting?” I tilted my head towards him.

“First of all, think about what you want to do. Don’t just wave your hands around.” He raised his finger. “Second of all, try putting some of your emotions to it?” he shrugged.

I looked at my hands once again before looking back at him. “Alright, stand back.”

After that steely took a few steps back I stood tall to give it another go. I closed my eyes. Took a deep breath and thought of what I was going to do. Shooting fire! I drew my hands back and threw them forwards. My eyes were closed but I could feel something had happened.

“Did anything happen?” I opened my eyes.

“DEFINITELY!” Steely shouted and walked to me with haste. “YOU JUST THREW FIRE! FOR REAL!”

Even though I couldn’t see his face, I was sure his eyes were glowing in excitement. Though apart from that, I did it!

“Really?” I asked.

“YEAH!” He held my arms and gave me a little shake. “C’mon, do it again!”

So I stood once again. This time my eyes open. I took a deep breath and thought of what I wanted to do. “Shoot….fire.” I pulled my hands back and threw them forward. And with that, a burst of fire came out and traveled a bit but vanished before it reached the bottle. It was an improvement, sure, but I still wasn’t hitting the bottle.

“You see? It’s amazing!” Steely said.

“Yeah, but I’m not hitting the bottle.”

Steely stayed silent for a while. “You know, I just...explained how...you should...”

“Yeah, right! Got it.”

And so we spent a full hour there. I tried non-stop to hit the bottle but each time my fire didn’t even make it halfway. And Steely who was taking notes of everything. No matter how many times, how much force or how much focus I put into it, It just didn’t work. It was starting to get late, and we had to go.

“Hey, I’m going to take the suit off, you better get ready to leave too.” Steely stood up from the dusty broken car he was sitting on top of and walked back.

“Yeah, just...let me try something else real quick.”

Steely nodded and left to change his clothes.

It was only me, and the bottle. The whole day I couldn’t hit it. For one whole hour, I tried but nothing. I wasn’t going to let a stupid bottle beat me. I wasn’t doing something properly. But I couldn’t put my finger on what. But I had to figure it out soon since I had to deal with Sunset Shimmer. My mind started to think of what she had done again. It started to fill with anger and irritation. One more glare was given to the bottle by me. I just didn’t have the time to practice more because of her and the stupid challenge she proposed. I took a deep breath and shot another fireball at the bottle. This time, the fire felt more warm and bright. It seemed bigger too. And most importantly, it hit the bottle!

Reviewing the Past

I knew It wouldn’t make much sense if I didn’t tell him about Equestria and how it is. So I started from there. Telling him about the existence of another realm filled with ponies and many other magical creatures. And I added that I came from there too.

Steely Armor’s eyes were widened. He was not looking at us but it seemed he was deep in thoughts. After a long and awkward silence, he spoke up. “You...are a...pony?”

I sighed, “yes. Upon stepping into this world, I...transformed into a human.” I took a deep breath and continued, “I know this may sound very odd and stupid but I swear that I’m telling the truth.”

Steely Armor nodded silently. The shock and confusion was still visible in his eyes.

I continued. “When I first came here, I was...lost. I didn’t know how I should have acted or how anything worked. But soon, I figured it out. I wanted...honestly I don't know what exactly I wanted back then.” I chewed on my lower lip and continued. “I wanted to show Princess Celestia that she was wrong. I wanted to prove that I was strong and ready for anything. I...wanted to prove...it wasn’t my fault that others didn’t want to be my friends.” I lowered my head in shame and rubbed my own hand. I felt really embarrassed. I hated who I was and I wanted to just let go of it for good. But it seemed it was not the time yet. Twilight put her hand on my shoulder and gave me a sweet smile to comfort me.

“Wait,” Steely Armor interrupted our wholesome moment. “So you’re saying the principal Celestia’s counterpart is in fact a “princess pony” and instead of a school she has a big castle and she rules all of Equestria?”

“Well, the whole “all of Equestria” thing is not exactly true since there are other kingdoms that have their own rulers. She is the ruler of the ponies basically.” I responded.

Steely scratched the back of his head a little and signalled me to continue. And so did I. I continued by telling him how I ended up acting and my whole plan for getting the crown from Equestria for power and my “Evil” plan for mind-controlling all the people to conquer Equestria. I told him about princess Twilight coming to take the crown and how it all ended up with me turning into a monster. I could tell that he was taking it more seriously when I said that.

“A monster…” Steely Armor muttered to himself but I heard it. He took notes from what I told him and asked me to continue.

Up next were the sirens. They were easier to go through. I think it was mainly because the hard part of dealing with my past was over. The sirens got Steely Armor interested. To him, they were the only other people that had magic other than him, Flaming Star and us. I stated that it was around that time that our magic was starting to get provoked by music.

“There ARE others?” Steely Armor cut me in the middle of explanation. “And they all three could sorta...manipulate others with singing?” His eyes got narrowed.

“Yes. But, for some reason, we were immune.”

Steely Armor just took more notes and continued. “You did say that you were able to take their magic away from them?” He raised an eyebrow.

“I...guess?” I rubbed my chin. “We honestly didn't really know what would happen. We just knew it was how I got stopped...last time.” Maybe I spoke too soon about it all being over?

Steely took more notes. “What happened after they lost their magic?”

“They ran away. But I did see them again at a music festival. Performing, but no magic. They even said that they don’t want anything to do with magic anymore. However, I doubt that.” I recalled the time loop I experienced very vividly. I mean, I was living it for five weeks straight. Of course I do. Anyway, there was something in Adagio’s eyes that spelled trouble. Or maybe it was just her makeup?

I wanted to move on but Twilight stopped me. “Hold on Sunset,” she said. And put her hand on my back. “You’ve...done your part. Leave the rest to me.” She gave me another smile.

I couldn’t bring myself to say anything so I simply nodded and let her tell the rest of the events. Now that I had just gone through my past and confronted everything I’ve done once again, I could sympathize deeply with Twilight. She went through her past and what led up to the Friendship games and her transferring here. Steely Armor was getting more and more interested in our stories as we went on. I have to say, I was quite surprised he didn’t just freak and leave when I told him I was a pony. I mean, he didn’t take me seriously at first, but now he was invested.

“Do you still have the blueprint for your magic necklace?” Steely Armor asked.

Twilight looked away for a second before answering. “No. I think I left it in my old room back at CrystalPrep. They probably tossed whatever that was left into the trash can.” She tilted her head. “Maybe it’s for the better it happened.”

Steely Armor took more notes. The sound of his pencil scratching on the paper could be heard. After a few seconds, he asked Twilight to continue.

She then spoke of her nightmares, how things got weird in camp Everfree and us getting our magical abilities. The last part caught his attention once again.

“H-ho-old on a second.” he bright his hands up in the gesture of stop. “You...didn’t have these powers before then?”

“No.” I answered. “Up until then it was either holding hands or playing music together that made it all happen. You know, rainbow lasers and all.” I moved my hands in the air. “But I think around the time that Friendship games took place we were starting to “pony up” here and there for some reason.” I rubbed my chin. “The best thought I could come up with was that our magic has grown stronger somehow.”

Steely Armor put down his notepad and held his head in his hands and shook it a little. It seemed even he had too much of it. “So you’re telling me, there is another realm that is filled with ponies and other mythical creatures and is somehow a parallel realm to here meaning we all have a counterpart there. Principal Celestia is a princess? Let me guess, vice principal Luna is also the younger princess who turns evil?”

I bit my lip before answering. “Actually...yes. That is right on the spot. Though she has been reformed.” I played with my fingers.

Steely Armor stood up. The chair made a clink sound as he did. “I...I don’t…” He let out a sigh. “So, you are actually a pony, who came from another realm through a mirror and ended up in front of the school! People turn into demonic versions of themselves! Rainbow lasers! Mind manipulation and more rainbow lasers! More demonic transformation! And after all of that you got your powers?! THAT is more far fetched than an episode of DragonClaw,” Steely Armor rambled that with a confused tone.

I took a deep breath before answering. “Look, I know it sounds...dumb and...complicated. And that was one of the reasons I didn’t want to tell you yet. But, it’s true.” I stood up and looked him in the eyes.

Twilight too stood up, letting out a clincking noise with her chair.

Steely Armor was just looking at us. His eyes switched from one of us to another. Until he looked down on his notepad and picked it up. “I-I need some...time.”

I nodded as he took his belongings and walked off, heading out of the library.

I let out all the air I had in me. And dropped my upper body down. “Uuuugh!”

Twilight helped me hold myself back up. “Well...that was...tough.”

I just nodded. We both picked our bags off the chairs and headed out together.

Author's Note

Please check out other chapters too.

Inflicting pain

Steely and I headed back to the city and set our paths apart from one another. Both heading home.

Dad came home late again so he was not notified of me sticking around outside for a bit longer. As much as Alferedo is dad’s loyal caretaker, he is also my amazing secret keeper too. Though that said, he was rather suspicious of the smell of burning paper that had filled my room the other day.

Grandma Butter was busy again in the kitchen. You could just tell that the moment you step into the house. The smell of the flavorful chicken stew could not be ignored.

Flaming Star took his pencil off the paper and wondered how many times has it been that he has talked about the chicken stew of grandma Butter in his diary. Though the urge to go back and seek the answer was quite strong, he decided to finish writing down today’s events first.

Alfredo notified others of my entrance and started setting up the dinner table. Meanwhile I was heading to my room to change. After attempting to shoot fire for one hour straight, my body was feeling a bit tired. Which is interesting to note.

I could hear Grandma Rose’s snoring again. As always! Sometimes I wonder whether mine are as loud as hers or not.

I headed downstairs after I changed. I sat next to Grandpa Ace to help him eat his food as always. Alfredo had awakened Grandma Rose too. She was still grumpy though. She sat down on her seat, top of the table. Grandma Butter joined us as well. As always, she made sure that she had saved a portion for my father and then proceeded to fill others plates and hand them to us.

Do I even need to go into detail about how delicious the meal was? I don’t think so. But sadly I had to rush it a bit because I had to show someone that they don’t know a thing about fencing.

I headed to my room after dinner and took out my custom from under the bed. But I knew when I’m out, dad will be home and he might want to check up on me. I had to make sure he didn’t do that.

I asked Alfredo to talk to dad about how long it's been since he's gotten in touch with uncle Fancy Cash. And dad welcomed that idea way better than I thought since when I came back, he was still talking to him on the phone.

Flaming Star took his mind off writing in the diary and focused his ears to listen and see whether his father was still on the phone. And to no surprise, he was.

I wore my clothes and snuck out from my window. To be officiant, I decided to go with my motorcycle. Had to make sure I didn't make much sound upon leaving or coming back though, or else I would have been busted. I couldn’t expect Alfredo to make up for everything I do.

I silently pulled my motorcycle out of the garage and out the yard. Once I was on the streets, I hopped on it and headed straight towards Slaughter Alley. However I parked my motorcycle a few streets away from there. I don't trust that place. I put on my mask and waited around for HER to show up. I had some time to think a little while I was waiting. I managed to hit the bottle today but, was it my hard trying or my anger? Steely did say that from what he has gathered our abilities can be provoked by our emotions. What if I can’t control my emotions? Why if I end up hurting others when I'm angry? I wasn’t even reaching the halfway point of the distance between me and the bottle but, when I let frustration of Sunset Shimmer’s actions come to my mind, I blasted the bottle with ease. It wasn’t normal.

Flaming Star dropped the pencil and looked at the palm of his hand. The hand that has been covered with the gloves Steely Armor made for him. Staring at it, deeply. What could have happened already if he wasn’t having those gloves on? He couldn’t have them on his hand forever. Especially at home. What if he burned Grandpa Ace accidentally while he was feeding him? What if he set a big fire onto his family house and put everyone in great danger? What if his nightmares came true?

He closed his eyes and shook his head. Hoping the thoughts would go away. His breath had gotten faster. After taking some deep breaths, he took his pencil in hand and continued from where he had stopped.

After a while, I heard some footsteps. It was her. When she got close enough I stepped out of the corner. She almost jumped a little but refused to admit it. Perhaps my mask made her sturttle a little bit. Though, to be honest I was surprised that she actually showed up. Slaughter Alley is not somewhere everyone walks with ease. I thought that she either had the guts to show up or was just that desperate. Both of which sounded suitable for her then.

I told her about the rules of the place. And explained each as far as I could care. I warned her too. But she didn’t care. She still wanted to have a match. Then, I thought she was desperate again and was having another plan to touch me and see my memories. Just like what she wanted to do that other day. I was eyeing her from the corner of my eye the whole time.

Once we reached the door I knocked in the pattern so they would let us in. One normal, two quick and another normal. The peephole opened and two eyes gazed at us. They recognised me but weren't sure of Sunset’s identity.

“Who’s her?”

“A rookie who wishes to be humiliated.”

“AH! Come in!” The door opened.

Before we headed inside, I had to warn her one more time. “Be careful in there.” And I headed in.

It seemed she was surprised about the place when we got inside. I told her to get ready since it would be our turn soon.

“Hey,...where can I...change?” She asked, holding onto her gym bag.

I pointed towards the backside of the ring. As she was heading there, I went and talked with the announcer to prepare a duel for me and her. After I got the confirmation, I walked to the changing room and waited outside for her to come out. She was taking her time for sure. Once she stepped out in her fencing costume, I told her that it’s time. “You ready to lose?”

“I’m here to get you to listen. And if that means I must beat you, I will!” She sounded determined.

“Come. It’s time,” I said and started heading back to the ring. I walked up the stairs and waited for the announcer to say my name and once he did I popped out on the ring. The lights were focused on me for a while. I recall the first time they were quite annoying but now I’m used to them. The other fighters were cheering my name. GHOST!

I waited in my corner for her to enter the ring. And she stepped in with her new fighter name being announced. The Phoenix! The crowd did cheer for her, but not as much as they did for me. I could easily tell the lights were giving her a hard time. I recall how I reacted similarly in my first time.

I took a deep breath and stood tall. She, too, brought her sword up and held her guard. I didn’t want to make the match last long. I wanted to finish it quickly and go home.

“Now Now. Please calm down and let the duel BEGIN!” The announcer said and after the bell, I rushed at her. Surprising her with a series of slashes from every direction. She was stumbling back as she struggled to block my blows.

Once our swords binded, I pushed it down and tackled her. Off to a great start on showing her dominance.

Once we were back to neutral and I saw another opening, I took it and went full agro once more. Made a bind with the blade and controlled the sword to kick her in the stomach. After that I kept attacking and managed to get myself some points. However, she managed to threaten me and get back on her feet sooner than I had imagined.

I had the upper hand but I didn’t want to play keep away. Suddenly out of nowhere, she stepped forward with a swing that was poorly calculated in distance and let me just dodge it with ease. And she just made my job easier by giving me an opening to thrust her in the chest. Easy ten points. I was going to go for the second one and bring myself closer to winning and being done dealing with her. But all of a sudden, she pushed my thrust aside and kicked me in the knee. It hurt a lotThat did hurt, but not that much.

Sadly she did manage to land a hit on my head, but I stopped her from going for the second one and gifted her a punch for the kick she gifted me. She went stumbling back and gave me enough time to shake up my leg a little.

After that, I stepped forward and tried to overpower her block. Swing after swing I bashed her sword and yet she wasn’t giving in. “WHAT DO YOU WANT” I shouted, “WASN’T EVERYTHING YOU’VE DONE ALREADY NOT ENOUGH? DIDN’T YOU GET WHAT YOU WANTED?” I kept on bashing.

In the end she pushed me back and bought herself some space. “I just wanted to talk to you!” she said.

I was not going to deal with her again. I just wanted to be done with all of this. To be done dealing with HER! I pushed forward and overwhelmed her with thrusts. If I could get just two, she would have lost. But she kept up. Not even that, but she also spin kicked me in the belly! I have to say I was surprised, but also pissed that I couldn’t finish it already. I had to wait and catch my breath before attacking again. This time though, I was going to perform the dragon strike.

“Why should I listen to you?” I asked her as I was catching my breath.

“I just wanted to help!” She said in between breaths.

I couldn’t keep up. I had to say something. It was just too irritating to keep silent before finishing it. “You can’t just invade others' lives on the excuse of helping them!”

And as I had suspected, she didn't have a response. And I was not waiting around to see if she came up with one. I threw the sword and started running to her. It worked! She got distracted and I tackle-kicked her in the legs. And as she was crying in pain and trying to get up, I put my foot on her wrist and caught my sabre from falling.

I asked her to give up. I asked her to let go of her sword, but she refused. So I pushed harder and harder.

Flaming Star hesitated to write any further. For some reason he was feeling bad. Feeling bad for going so hard when he didn’t have to. He could have simply finished the match and moved on. He was wondering what was wrong with him?

After taking a deep breath, he continued writing.

until she suddenly confessed. “YOU WERE RIGHT!”

I stopped implying more pressure and let her continue.

“I-I shouldn’t have tried to invade your memories nor should I have broken into Steely Armor’s garage...I’m...sorry.” The pain was noticeable in her voice, but so was her shame. She accepted that she was wrong. She didn’t try to reason it out.

I realised I was going too far. I brought my sword and thrusted her chest once more. I won. I gave her a hand to stand up. And after that I left without looking back.

Flaming Star closed his diary and stood up to open his window to have some fresh air. He looked at his hands once more. It didn’t take him long to realise he is already hurting others without his magic. Who knew what would happen when his magic was added into the equation?

Author's Note

Stay patient for future works.

Talk of blades

Even though I would have loved to stick around and chat with Twilight more, I had to be somewhere else tonight and I simply didn’t have much time to waste. Probably. Because Flaming Star didn’t necessarily specify when I should be there.

I waved goodbye to Twilight and picked my motorcycle and drove home. I was so tired! I just had to sleep! You may think sitting down and discussing what has happened in the past may not be really tiring. And you’ll be right. It’s exhausting.

Sadly I was not going to have the luxury of sleep since I still needed something to eat! After I changed my clothes, I walked up to the fridge, begging for there to be something in there. Just something I could eat and call it a day. After opening the fridge, I was left with disappointment. Nothing. It felt as if something punched me in the face. I picked up my phone and ordered a pizza. I should remind myself that no matter how much stuff is going on in my head I should not forget my groceries on Saturdays!

I dropped on the couch to take a nap until the delivery arrived. My mind was flooded. Even though I was relieved that I spit out whatever I was holding, I couldn’t help how Steely Armor would digest it. I couldn’t possibly expect everyone to forgive what I’ve done like Princess Twilight and the rest of the girls. I wouldn’t blame him for not doing so but, I just couldn’t get over it either. Maybe I just had to be patient and hope for the best.

My eyes closed slowly and the last thing I recall was the doorbell ringing. It felt as if I only closed them for a second but after looking at the clock, half an hour had already passed. I tried to get up as fast as I could to answer the door but I ended up dropping face first onto the floor. After that, I sucked up the pain and walked to the door.

I apologized for keeping the delivery guy waiting and gave him the payment. Even though I was still sleepy, the smell of hot meal gave me energy. Chicken and pepper paired with mushrooms and beef all together with cheese just smelled so delicious. I didn’t even bother to move on to the couch and eat it. I sat down in front of the door and enjoyed my dinner. I don’t usually eat pizza. Or any outdoor food for that matter. I simply can’t afford to constantly keep paying. I have to keep up with the rent and save up a little. Speaking of which, I had to work again tomorrow and make sure I had enough money for the rent.

But I didn’t want to let the worries of life take away the joy of eating the delicious pizza I currently had in my disposal. So I brushed those thoughts away and took joy in every bite of pizza.

I stretched a little bit after the pizza and got ready to head out. I made sure I was not wearing something very flashy. Slaughter alley was considered downtown and the last thing I wanted was getting picked up by muggers and harassers. I stuffed my fencing outfit in my gym bag and put a hat on top of my head for good measures.

I had to break through Flaming Star. He wasn’t listening. I had to win. No matter how tired or exhausted I was, nor how good he is, I had to beat him to get him to listen.

I hopped on my motorcycle and drove there. But I left it a couple of streets behind. It was safer that way. I walked the rest of the way making sure I wasn't gathering attention to myself. The problem was that I didn’t know where I should have gone. I was just standing alone in the streets. Alone, at night. I decided to look around a bit more. Watching my back constantly to make sure no one was stalking me. And then, all of a sudden someone just appeared in front of me.

“So you actually showed up.” The figure said. They were wearing fencing gears and had a fencing mask that had white coloring to indicate the eyes. But the voices sounded familiar.

I soon realized it was in fact Flaming Star. “Oh, uhm...well of course I showed up.”

He just started walking and I followed.

“Now listen,” he said as we walked. “This is not like one of those “fencing matches” you’ve had before. It's serious sparring. Meaning there are punches, kicks, grappling and all that. We don’t use actual weapons but the replicas are as heavy so be mindful of that too.”

So that’s what he meant by a more serious match. But little did he know that I had gone through karate training. And that might have given me an advantage.

“there are only two way of winning” Flaming Star continued and showed the number two with his fingers, “get 25 points or disarm your opponent"

"25 points?" I asked.

"Yeah, here we don't stop the duel after each point, the judges will keep the count so don't worry.” He looked at me from over his shoulder and continued. “And about how the points are distributed: you will only gain a point if your blade hits the opponent not by any other means, hitting the lower parts of limbs will get you 1 point, the upper part of limbs 2, face and head 5 and chest is 10 for thrust and 5 for slashes."

"so the fight doesn’t stop!"

"Nope.”

I never had a match like that. Ever. But Flaming Star on the other hand, sounded like he has been doing this quite often.

“Now, let me settle this here and now.” Flaming Star turned back, “Injuries are a norm there. Ankles twist. Joins get dislocated. And sometimes bones break. So if you think you can’t take it, here is your chance to leave.” he pointed towards where we just came from.

I couldn’t tell whether he was trying to scare me away or he was serious. However, I couldn’t back out now. I had to get Flaming Star to listen. He was still new to magic and I didn’t want him to stay away from us and didn't ask for help when he needed it because he doesn’t trust me or anyone else.

“I’ll be fine.”

He didn’t respond and instead walked up to the door at the end of the alley. A big blue door with a peephole on it. He knocked on it in a certain pattern. Moments later someone opened the small peephole door and after taking a look at us he opened the door to let us in.

Before going in, he stopped me one more time. “Last warning. Are you sure about where you’re stepping?”

I pushed his hand away. “Yes.” And walked in.

“Be careful in there.”

There was a large ring in the middle of a bare room with many people around it. Walls filled with graffiti and stains. Those who were inside all were wearing protective gear. Some were normal puffy and some looked like steel. I believe someone was wearing a gambeson but I wasn’t sure. I thought that I should change too so I asked Flaming Star where I could do so bad he pointed me to the place.

As I was walking towards the changing room I could sense that people were eying me. Was it because I was new or was it because of something else. Either way, I get there. The state of the walls and floor was as bad if not worse than the walls in the main room. But no one was there and I could change my clothes with ease.

I took off my street jacket and pulled my jacket and gloves out of my gym bag. Then I dropped my sweat pants and wore my knickers. After putting on the gloves and helmet I was ready. I had dropped my jacket and jeans in the gym bag. But I didn’t know where I should have put it. I was going to have a match in a ring, spectated by many in a few moments. I needed to put my clothes somewhere secure.

After looking around I found that the best place would be in the corner of the changing room. My best bet would have been making sure no one notices it and hopefully no one steals it from the dark corner. I left the changing room and headed back into the fighting room.

“You ready to lose?” Flaming Star said. He was leaning on the wall next to the door of the changing room.

He almost made me jump. I did let out a gasp but that was it. “I’m here to get you to listen. And if that means I must beat you, I will!”

He stopped leaning and walked off. Heading towards the ring. “Come. It’s time.”

I walked to the ring. I walked up separate stairs to get to the ring. After a few minutes the speaker said "Attention all fighters! We are having a fencing duel!"

The crowd started cheering.

"On my right side, we've got the sneakiest fencer of all time. The shadow of the night. THE GHOST!"

The crowd started cheering and the Flaming Star stepped into the ring from his side. He was wielding a sabre replica.

"And on my left side, we've got a new Fencer. A determined fencer….the...uh..."

Someone walked up to me and handed me a sabre replica. “Hey, what's your fighting name?”

“My what?”

“You’re fighting name! What is it!?”

I took a moment to think. There really wasn’t much time to think it all through so I just went with the first thing that came into my mind. “Phoenix”

The person left after that.

“...As I was saying...our other contester...THE PHOENIX!”

The lights focused on me. They were blinding me a bit so I brought my hand in front of my face to block the lights.

The crowd also cheered me as I stepped in. Flaming Star was standing on the other corner. The match was about to start so I held my guard.

“Now Now. Please calm down and let the duel BEGIN!” the announcer said and after I heard the ding of the bell, I knew the match was on.

Right from the get go, Flaming Star rushed forward and swung his sabre at me rapidly. I was not expecting such an aggressive start from him but I tried my best to block them all. I noticed that what he said about the replicas were true. They held roughly the same weight as an actual sword.

After a series of strikes, our swords binded and he controlled mine and brought my guard down. And then he shoulder tackled me back. After I took a few steps back I remembered that everything was allowed.

We were back in neutral ground. Both holding our guards up and looking for an opening. He charged again. Once again, our swords binded, this time however, he kicked me in the stomach. That hurt a lot. But I couldn’t stop, he was thrusting and I needed to hold him off. As I was groaning in pain, he managed to get a couple of hits on my arm and shoulder.

I swung my sword around to make him back off.

“Wanna give up?” He said as he stepped back.

I had to think smart. He was being way more aggressive this time around and he was giving his all for sure.

I stepped forward and swung my sword from down-left to up-right and followed it by turning the sword around and came back the way I just swung. Flaming Star stepped back and ignored my blows. He landed another thrust on my chest and wanted to go for the second one. I hit his sword and redirected his sword to the side. I took the chance I had and kicked him in his knee.

He growled in pain and kneeled for a second. I used the opportunity and landed a hit on his head. I brought my hand up to land another attack but Flaming Star brought his replica sword up and caught my replicate blade. It was then that I noticed he had switched hands and his right hand was coming right into my face in the form of a fist.

That punch really hurt. I stumbled back and took a moment to get back on my feet. Flaming Star on the other hand, was still groaning. The crowd was cheering for us both. They were enjoying what they were seeing.

“You filthy rat!” Flaming Star shouted in pain. He growled once more and then shook his leg and walked to me with aggression.

He raised his sword and started striking furiously. I bright my guard up and blocked them. Each hit was stronger than the last and made it harder to hold my guard still.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT?” He said as he kept striking furiously. “WASN’T EVERYTHING YOU’VE DONE ALREADY NOT ENOUGH? DIDN’T YOU GET WHAT YOU WANTED?”

I couldn’t keep up anymore. I let our swords bind and then I pushed him back.

“I just wanted to talk to you!” I said.

He came back with a series of thrust and kept it up. I believe he hit me one more time in the belly but wasn’t sure. I swung at his sword and spin kicked him in the chest.

He stopped rushing in and waited for his breath to catch up. I did too but I held my guard up just in case.

“Why should I listen to you?” Flaming Star asked as he was still continuously breathing.

“I just wanted to help!” I said in between breaths.

“You can’t just invade others' lives on the excuse of helping them!”

I stayed silent. I didn’t know what to say. On one hand he was right. I got desperate and carried away and ended up abusing my magic. But it was for a good reason. I wanted to make sure Steely Armor wasn’t going through what Twilight did.

Once I looked at him again, he threw his sword up. I was both confused as to why he did that and distracted by it. My eyes were following the sword and I didn’t notice him running at me full speed. Before I knew it, he tackled me on the foot. I dropped face first onto the floor. I turned back and rubbed where he tackled me. It really hurt a lot. But then, I was kicked back down. Flaming Star stood on top of me, stretched his hand and caught his falling sword. I realized I was still holding onto my sabre so I tried to bring it up and force him to back off. But suddenly, he put his foot on my wrist and kept pressuring it.

“Let...go,” he said.

I couldn’t let go of my sword. If I did in this state, I would have lost by being disarmed. I had to get him to listen. I had to talk things out.

“I said…” He put more pressure on my wrist, “...let...go!”

I growled in pain. Him putting more pressure was making it harder to keep holding on the sword. I wasn’t going to make it. I had to give it another try and hope for the best.

“YOU WERE RIGHT!” I said, growling in pain. “I-I shouldn’t have tried to invade your memories nor should I have broken into Steely Armor’s garage...I’m...sorry.” I continued growling in pain.

After a pause, Flaming Star took his foot off my wrist. Instead, he brought his sword up and thrusted on my chest. “25,” he said and brought his hand forward.

I took it and with his help I got up. The crowd was cheering for him. However after I got up he let go and walked away. I tried to go after him but I had to pick up my gym bag first. To which once I did and came back to find him, he was already gone.

I changed my clothes and walked back to where I had parked my motorcycle. Whatever happened, was definitely progress in making things right but, it was but the beginning. I came to the realization that even though I may have had proper reasons as to why I did certain actions, it may not be proper for others.

I will be keeping you updated on how everything is going on here.

Your faithful student and friend, Sunset Shimmer

Author's Note

Make sure to read the last chapter.