Collision Code

Act II: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 11: A Shining Example

Ivan couldn't remember a time where he'd slept so well after eating a lot of sugar. Well, then again, Pinkie always seemed adept at sleeping it off. However, as they'd woken up early in the morning, something felt different. For one thing, he was actually fully awake before Pinkie decided to give him the usual wake-up call. In fact, he was already almost out of bed. The mare seemed...disappointed, yet happy at the same time.

"Uh, Pinkie, mind if I work at the counter for a while this morning?" Ivan asked. "Not that I don't like baking...just feel like being up front for a little bit today."

"'Kay, Ivan!" Pinkie chirped, leaving him to his devices, "I get next shift, though!"

Ivan looked after her, blinking for a few moments. With an internal shrug, he quickly resumed standing behind the counter, waiting for a customer to come in. It was still early in the morning, so business was a little slow. It was relatively normal, despite the cataclysm that had occurred just the night before. The brown earth pony was on the verge of dozing off into a relative state of boredom when there was a bit of a ruckus just outside. It sounded like something had just landed.

Ivan snapped awake, and noticed the few ponies lingering in the corner stopping to stare. Ivan followed their gazes to the front door, and wound up looking at a colt that seemed...somehow familiar. Yet, he did not recognize the character whatsoever.

The pony's fur coat was white, his mane and tail slicked downwards with multiple tones of blue in it, and judging from his horn he was a unicorn. However, that wasn't the weirdest thing. Were it not for the purple armor with golden trimming, Ivan wouldn't have seen the reason for so many heads to turn. The pony caught sight of him, his blue eyes showing all business...for a few moments, as though he'd just studied him. Eventually, the look in his eyes shifted, and he began to speak, with no evidence of hostility.

"Good morning," he greeted, just as though he weren't decked out in fancy-looking guard armor. "Mind if I buy some donuts for the road?"

"Shiny?!" Pinkie asked, suddenly bounding up to the counter next to Ivan. Were Ivan not used to this, it might have startled him, but he was startled all the same by the fact Pinkie seemed to know this pony.

"It's Shining, Pinkie," said the colt, "Just here for some donuts."

Shining? Ivan asked himself, Who is he? I don't remember this character at all from the show, nor do I remember him from any random discussion on Skype...but there's something about him that tells me I should know him somehow.

The former human remained silent as the purchase was completed.

"I'm heading down to the library now," announced Shining as he left the shop with a sack of donuts floating in a purple glow. As he exited the store, Ivan turned to Pinkie, who had only one thing to say.

"It's almost my turn, Ivaaan..."

"How..." Ivan started, a little unsure of how to proceed with his statement. "How do you know him?"

"Oh, that's easy, silly," Pinkie responded. "You see, this one day, me and the others were in the park, having a picnic, and..."

Corey could say he'd had fun staying up half the night with Twilight as she hoofed her way through the remaining reference guides that weren't stolen. However, he didn't know if he would have been lying or not about it, considering that the purple mare was diligently working on the project as though it were a high-level assignment. He found it strangely adorable how she got so worked up over exactly how Zer wound up getting out of his head during the dimensional jump.

Overall, though, if there was one thing that he could say about the little study session, it was that it was exhausting. He knew it was fun, but the human was never known for his study habits. As a matter of fact, he'd had a habit of attempting to coast over his schoolwork whenever possible, but for him, it did work out. However, he could at least bear the boredom that a study session like that caused for two reasons: one, Twilight; two, his resolve to stop Zer.

That was why he was struggling to awake so early in the morning. He had a job to carry out, and when he had something important to do, one of two things would happen. He would either manage to get up an hour before he set his alarm, or he would wake up automatically at a certain time in the morning regardless of how late he stayed up.

It didn't help that as he tried to convince himself that Twilight would forgive him if he happened to doze off again, given that she at least appeared to be sleeping, there was a knock at the door. Three quick taps. When neither one of them budged, the knocking repeated.

"Spike, could you go get that?" Twilight yawned, shifting about in place, knocking over a book that had been opened in front of her. "All night studying, and still no explanation as to how something you imagined became real..."

"I know," Corey responded, rubbing feverishly at his dry eyes with a forehoof to try and keep himself awake. "It could-couldn't be helped...I-I didn't even think something like that was..." A yawn interrupted his statement, and he couldn't finish it for several moments.

"There has to be an explanation," Twilight leapt to her feet, with just a little stumble. "You became a unicorn during the jump, and--" She stopped, apparently spotting somepony. Her eyes stared past him, and Corey forced himself to look.

There was a colt standing behind him, holding a small sack, and seeming happy to be there.

"Twily!" greeted the pony, and instantly Corey felt a small pang of jealous rage...and wanton discomfort. There was something about this situation that just felt...oddly familiar.

"B.B.B.F.F.!" Twilight called out, immediately moving past Corey and moving to greet the new unicorn in the home. The two shared a quick embrace. The green unicorn softly grunted to himself as he got to his hooves, slipping just a little as he got up.

"Up all night studying again?" asked the pony, "You haven't changed since I last heard from you."

"Well..." Twilight started, looking back towards Corey, "I had a little help this time..."

The former human felt unbearably awkward as the white unicorn--in armor, mind you, looked up to him, and seemed to be studying him intently. He felt like he was being judged, and he felt like he needed to move or say something. However, he wasn't completely sure if doing anything other than looking back into the pony's eyes was allowed. He'd never been in this situation before, and he wasn't sure how to react other than look like a deer caught in the headlights.

Eventually, the tension broke when the pony started to laugh. Like every other time there had been tension in the room.

"S-Shining!" Twilight stuttered.

"Sorry, Twily," Shining responded. "I couldn't resist."

Neither could the Princess... thought Corey to himself, sighing in relief.

"So, Corey, this is Shining Armor, my B.B.B.F.F." There Twilight was again, using that acronym that Corey couldn't decipher for the life of him.

"...And that means..." he responded, the repeated use of the letters "B" and "F" not helping his hyperactive imagination. And jealousy. Lots of that too.

"'Big Brother Best Friend Forever'?" Twilight asked. "Why does everypony have that reaction?"

Because if I had a brother, I wouldn't-- Corey interrupted himself, Brother?! Is thatwho I was staring down just now?! Her brother?!

Corey was far too worried about the fact he might have been seen as an enemy to consider anything else straight away.

"Hey, don't worry," Shining cut in. "I'm not gonna bite you..."

Corey took one look towards the colt, and the look in his eyes went from warm to cold.

"Unless you should happen to hurt my sister..." he said. "Then we're gonna have problems!"

If Corey wasn't awake before, he was now.

"Shining!" Twilight scolded again.

"Sorry, I really couldn't help myself..."

The morning was just like any other that Leo had experienced since first coming to Equestria and having Dash let him stay with her. After the chaos of last night, the former human hadn't expected her to be so forgiving, especially with all the revelations. She eventually did express forgiveness, but in her own way.

Now they were up to their usual routine: eat breakfast and fly around town. Though the former human did not really want to do that, Dash seemed to be pretty insistent on it.

"I wanna see exactly what you did when we were all fightin' Zer," was her given reason, though Leo had a sneaking suspicion she also wanted a flying buddy. Whatever the case, the silver pegasus just couldn't turn her down as easily as he might have were the situation not so...surreal.

Now, the two pegasi were flying above Ponyville, in a very nondescript pattern. Rainbow seemed to be slowing down so that he could keep up, even if she wasn't really fond of being slow. Leo could tell from the strain in her eyes that it was a drag for her to go slow.

"It's not much farther now," she assured, looking back to him. "You know, Leo, sometimes I wish you could fly faster..."

"Hey, I wish I could too," Leo responded, "But nopony could fly near as fast as you..."

Dash turned back ahead, but the former human definitely caught her smile as she looked ahead. "Maybe, but still, beats goin' slow." After a few more seconds passed, she added. "Then again, I guess...whatever you did back there against...Zer, was awesome."

"Awesome enough to make up for my slow flight speed?"

"Hey, don't get your hopes up!" She yelled back, but Leo could have sworn he heard a "Maybe it does" under the mare's breath. The silver colt couldn't quite hold himself from smiling at this.

She tries to act like we didn't kiss last night, he thought to himself.

The two flew at their steady pace for another minute or two before Rainbow Dash touched down. The place they wound up in was a rocky mountainside not too far from Ponyville itself. In fact, it seemed pretty spacious, like a training ground straight from Dragonball or something like that. Leo himself found it hard to believe such a place could exist in a world of ponies, but he had to remind himself stranger things had happened...

As far as Equestria was concerned, anyway.

"Well, Leo, here we are!" she said. "I usually come here alone when I want to practice my stunts, away from everypony else. Only Fluttershy knows about this place, too!" She hovered in the air. "So what do you think? Think you can show me what you did against that...thing, now?"

"I guess, just as soon as I remember how I did it, Dash," Leo responded, looking around the area to find a good surface on which he could practice the attack. "I kinda did it off of instinct there."

Dash crossed her forehooves, adopting an impatient look. "Oh boy, waiting."

"Hey, you can't say you haven't done things off of instinct too!" Leo replied, looking over to the cyan mare with mock agitation in his features.

"Well, now I can perform a sonic rainboom with little trouble at all!" The mare huffed defensively, advancing toward Leo. Yet, despite this reaction, the human could tell at least part of her was acting this way because she wanted to. However, her ego was still playing somewhat of a role in her reaction. "What about that...air pressure...thing, huh?"

"I...just did it last night..." Leo responded. "But here, I'll see if I can do it again, just for you..."

As Leo closed his eyes in silent meditation, the former human had to marvel at just how much he'd changed over the course of the past week. When he'd first come here, he was doing his own thing. Granted, even then, he'd been with Rainbow Dash. However, as the days passed, he felt like he was opening up more and more to not just the mare, but the group as a collective whole. He would have never dreamed this would have happened back on Earth.

It was truly a change to behold, something that he just couldn't overlook as pure coincidence.

"Hey, hurry it up, would ya?!" Dash called out to him, sounding a little less impatient. "I want to see you get this down in no time flat! The others are probably worried about us, y'know!"

Not with a personality like that being at the helm of his change...

John never got back to Ponyville. He'd completely exhausted himself through relieving his stress the night before. Several rocks had been pounded into rubble, and the nearby mountain had a large crack at the base. Well, large compared to the average pony, anyway. The mountain wasn't going to crumble any time soon, even with the damage John had managed to do.

He woke up, and after releasing another flaming yawn, began to make his way back to Ponyville. He hadn't dreamt of anything, which the former human was grateful for. The last thing he wanted was to be plagued with nightmares of his almost dying.

Of course, after all that had happened the night prior, the set-up date, the fight with Zer, and of course his skipping town the last night, he had gotten himself hungry. However, by some luck, some of the rocks he'd pounded to dust contained gems, which he was now eating as he slowly lumbered back to civilization.

"Every single color has a different flavor," John recalled as he munched on what many back home would consider valuable. "Good thing I found these. I was so hungry I could eat--"

The words broke off in his mouth and he immediately regretted even saying that to himself out loud. He stopped dead in his tracks.

"Note to self: be more careful about what I say out loud," said the former human to himself. All the time back on Earth, he would often joke about "eating a horse", the turn of phrase humans often used to describe hunger. Here, however, "It might really offend somepony...and I'm a dragon too...so..."

Shaking that off, John continued to walk back to town.

I wonder how Corey and Leo are handling the fallout too well... The dragon thought to himself. Corey was about two seconds away from being spat at by Rainbow Dash, and Leo...

He tried to banish any thought about the silver pegasus repeating his manticore stunt. Not to mention he didn't quite know what Corey did overnight, but he at least had someone to fall back on after that unexpected event.

The sound of movement filled John's ears, and instinctively, he growled and tensed up. He turned toward the movement, prepared for anything to come out at him. Eventually, though, a flock of three birds flew out from the nearby bushes. After seeing the cause for his concern, he sighed in relief.

"And here I was getting worried..." he laughed it off, proceeding slowly back to Ponyville. "Even so...I wonder what happened while I was out?"

Corey had gone out onto one of the library balconies as per Twilight's request. Initially, he had eaten breakfast alongside the siblings and Spike, but for some reason, the purple mare had insisted he give the two some room to talk about things. After some pondering on the matter, he decided to let it go and walked out on the balcony to overlook Ponyville.

As he was alone, he had plenty of time to think to himself on quite a few things. Most prevalent along his thoughts was his own relationship with his older sister back home. She'd helped him through some pretty hard times in his life, probably the hardest time he'd ever had to deal with. His family had been close to dissolving right in front of him over a critical issue.

Yet, by some miracle, the family had stayed together and had remained together to the present day. If his sister hadn't been around to help him through that difficult time, he might not have been the same Corey. He might have been so bitter and so angry that no one would have put up with him, not even those that were usually lenient whenever his emotions spiraled slightly away from his control.

Twilight's relationship with her older brother had gotten him thinking about his family. He wasn't going to lie, he was homesick. Yet, the mare made being caught in another world tolerable. If he'd had the opportunity to make it so that Leo hadn't gotten them stuck here...Corey honestly wasn't sure if he'd take it.

However, his mind shifted to something else again, and he looked out over Ponyville, guilt and anger once more welling up inside him. He'd unleashed a beast upon this world, one that wouldn't hesitate to take a life if he knew that there was a threat to his plans out there. Zer was out there, likely plotting to do something. And, if the Dimensional Stones were indeed out there, then the world he was in was likely to be under siege before long.

He couldn't well have that. The green unicorn colt quietly snarled to himself as he recalled how much use he was during the fight, as well as Rainbow's harsh words to him on the matter. Even if she hadn't been thinking clearly out of anger, it still affected him. The only thing that he'd done was teleport away, and even then, Twilight had to intervene because he could not control that spell.

"Next time, I will be more useful," thought the boy aloud to himself. "I'm not going to stand by again and let bad things happen to those that are important to me."

The sound of the door opening behind him didn't startle him too much. The voice, however, since he had just met him today, did.

"Corey?"

Corey felt a chill go up his spine, if only because Shining Armor was still very unfamiliar. However, he knew he was addressed, so he turned to the white colt, who still had his royal armor on.

As it turned out, Twilight's brother was actually the captain of the Royal Guards. In other words, he might have already been aware of him due to his teleportation mishap the day before. The former human suddenly found himself imagining one of the lower-rank guards reporting to him about a chubby green unicorn who sucked at magic yet seemed to know the princess.

Of course, he found it both insulting and refreshing to know that as the head of the Royal Guards, Shining would have likely laughed the incident off as a blunder. Especially now that he knew the truth--

"Yeah?" Corey finally asked, realizing he was getting too caught up in his introspection over recent events. "What is it, Shining?" The pause between his first statement and the second statement, for some reason, felt disrespectful.

"Well, Twiley and me were in there, talking about things that happened recently," Shining finally said, almost all light-heartedness absent from his speech. "Anypony who blames the four of you for this 'Zer' getting out is just looking to blame somepony, I can say that right now."

The green unicorn resisted the urge to sigh in relief. For some reason, he was dreading where this was going, but why? The captain of the Royal Guards didn't blame him, the princesses didn't blame him, nopony save for an angry Rainbow Dash blamed him, so why was he suddenly so nervous?

"I...kinda gathered that," responded Corey again.

"Well..." Shining took a deep breath. "Okay, here's basically what she asked me to do: she asked me to train you..."

Corey blinked. "And...you accepted?"

"I told her she'd never forgive me if you got yourself hurt..." Shining said, slightly uneasily. "By your expression, you're guessing what you're in for..."

The green unicorn sighed, "Well, back home, every country has a military force too, and they go through some intense stuff. I guess it's the same here, too?"

"Well, I'm not going to give you the same training I received..." the white unicorn said. "She asked me to teach you any offensive spells I could..."

"Oh..." Corey responded. "So then...when does it start?"