//------------------------------// // Chapter 17. // Story: Pony of a Different Color // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// We didn't make it too sunrise, but it was certainly nearly dawn when we finally fell asleep. I don't have any windows in my little complex under the house, but I have clocks. I look at the clock projecting the time onto the ceiling. It's nearly noon. I would love nothing more than to fall back asleep, but I'm hungry. Rainbow made sure of that. I slide out of bed, leaving Rainbow drooling softly into the pillow. I've learned why Pegasi eat the most in Equestria. You need energy for all that flying. I've even found an establishment that usually caters to Griffons and eaten some really good grilled fish, but the stomach upsets that gave me let me know that it's not a good idea for this strictly herbivorous body to have any direct animal protein. I do miss a good cheeseburger though. I head to the fridge, grab a few apples then head out the main door. And run right into Cloud Kicker. Shouldn't trot with my eyes closed. I collide into her, I hear a clank as she falls to the ground. She's in red armor similar to the Royal Guards armor. “Oh Celestia Cloud, I'm so sorry.” I help her up. I get a good look, the lavender Pegasus is in her full battle armor, and I see the wing blades among the feathers on her wings. “Are you getting ready to spar with somepony?” I ask. “Yes, remember at the party, you said you would love to cross blades with me. See if I was as good as I boasted. Well, I am, and I'm here to show you.” “Uhhh Cloud, that was yesterday, I was thinking in a few days.” She flourishes her wings, showing the wicked blades along the leading edge of her wings. “What better time than the present, right Sparky?” “Are you sure Cloud? Not worried about getting shown up by a Pegasus that's not even from your world?” She grants me an evil smile. “You worried about getting shown up by a mare Sparky?” Them's fightin words in my book. I seize Saidin, and float my sword out from it's spot it stays by the front door to my complex. I draw the sword and drop the scabbard on the ground behind me. I rear up on two legs, I hold my sword at the ready. I smile at her. “Rules?” She smiles back. “No permanent damage.” “That's good for me.” I flap my wings to jump over her and flip to land behind her. At the start of a fight, I don't want anything behind me until I'm able to assess the skills of my opponent. I fall into an Akido stance, sword held loosely in front of me. “Any time there Cloud.” I make sure my wings are spread for balance. She comes at me amazingly quickly. I don't move, at first. She thinks she's going to meet blade to blade initially. She brings a wingblade forward and swipes it at me, but I'm not there anymore, my wings have me above her and I'm twisting in the air. I swing my blade forward, she's got good instincts, her second blade is there, catching mine and deflecting it. The blade she was going to slice me with before I flew out of the way whips quickly around, I jump to avoid it. I slide to my left to avoid two blades coming at me at the same time. I pivot my sword, blade down, and catch both her blades, then twist my sword to make an opening, I flash a kick that connects with her helm, I can see she's momentarily stunned as I slap a wingblade away. I dance back. This mare is aggressive. She flips around in a blur and her rear hooves are coming at me. I catch her hooves with the flat of my blade, but the strength of her buck knocks me back. She's driving me back, with quick, short jabs with her wingblades, they apparently aren't slicing weapons, but more for stabbing. I keep my sword moving quickly to parry two blades at once. She's really good. After several seconds I feel a sting on my barrel. I jump back and look down. I've got blood seeping from a shallow gash right on my ribcage. “Woo hoo Cloud Kicker.” I hear, I don't have time to look, but apparently Pinkie Pie was dropping by, oh great, we've got an audience now. I kick out, and connect with her wing. I'm glad hooves are hard, I know that hurts. She folds that wing to protect it from further damage, then lashes out with her other wingblade. Now I've got a cut on my left foreleg, this one isn't so shallow. I'm dripping blood and she's mostly untouched. But that doesn't last long as I get a slice down her cheek and halfway down her neck for her blood to start dripping. I sweep her legs out from underneath her, so I can get some breathing space. I hear more voices, it looks like a crowd of Royal Guard are watching as well. I chance a look around, apparently quite a few ponies from town have joined the crowd watching Cloud and I practice. I hear cheering for both sides going on. Most sword battles are decided in less than a minute, many in under ten seconds, this has been going on for nearly five minutes. And it's showing. We keep parrying, blade meeting blade. We both are nearing the end of our endurance. It's time to end this. I think she's got the same idea. She rushes at me, I bring my sword up. “Stop it you two right now.” I hear a shout. And we both recognize the voice. That voice causes both of us to stumble to a stop immediately. Fluttershy, my daughter in tow, trots up between us. “The nerve of you ponies. Using bare blades, actually hurting each other?” The yellow Pegasus apparently is really upset. She gets right in Cloud Kicker's face. “I know Sparky is not of our world, he doesn't know all our customs, but actually fighting with him. Seriously?” She then whirls around to me. “And you, mister. How dare you draw the blood of a fellow pony. I know you aren't from here, but is actually hurting somepony a normal thing where you are from?” I rub the back of my neck for a second. “Well.... no.” She smirks in triumph. “I thought not. And here are you two, dripping blood, and Cloud Kicker, the way you are holding your wing. Is anything broken?” The embarrassed lavender Pegasus is stretching out her injured wing, “No, Fluttershy, Sparky got me with a particularly lucky kick, and it's not injured, but it does hurt.” “You two should be ashamed of yourselves.” Fluttershy continues. “We have to worry about invaders to our world, and we have two ponies doing something that could really hurt each other badly.” I smile at Cloud Kicker. “We agreed no permanent damage.” Fury grows on Fluttershy's face. “And if you make one little wrong move, look at Cloud Kicker's face, if you had been off with your sword by half an inch, she would have lost an eye.” She indicates the blood flowing freely from my barrel. “And Cloud Kicker, if you had cut any deeper on Sparky, his internal organs would be on the ground, and he would be dead.” Cloud Kicker looked abashed. After several minutes of her tirade, we both were reduced to simply saying, “Yes, Fluttershy, I'm sorry Fluttershy.” My injuries hurt, and I'm still leaking blood. Then Fluttershy turns and looks at the crowd of assembled Guardsponies and the town ponies that had gathered to watch our fight. “And you all should be ashamed of yourselves. Watching ponies fight with deadly weapons and not only laughing about it, but betting on which pony is going to get hurt first and the worst.” Heads start hanging in remorse and ponies take the opportunity to find other places to be. In a few moments, the practice yard is clear, only a few Pegasus are visible as they fly away. Fluttershy turns to my daughter. “Moonshine, you told me you can heal, would you heal Sparky and Cloud Kicker, please?” My daughter takes my head in her hooves as I hear a low whistle from Cloud Kicker. “Wow Eepy, I didn't know you could be so assertive.” This earns an eep from Fluttershy as her wings clamp to her sides and she falls to the ground. “You can be a total idiot, Dad.” Moonshine says as I feel the tingle down my back as she embraces Saidar. I feel as though my entire body is immersed in nearly frozen water as she heals me. I gasp at her. “That's one of the most basic healing weaves, I've taught you better than that.” As my stomach grumbles. The weave she used uses almost no energy from the adept, and leaves the one being healed extremely hungry, and extremely tired. My daughter smirks at me. “Well, Dad, wearing you out and making you hungry will teach you a better lesson than you simply being healed to the point where it's as though you were never injured. Remember, Dad. Pain is the ultimate teacher.” I growl at her. “You shouldn't use the lesson's I've taught you against me.” She chuckles at me as she grabs Cloud Kicker in her hooves. The mare shivers and howls in my daughters grip. Moments later she's on her hooves, wiping blood off the wound on her face. Revealing unbroken skin and regrown fur. She extends her wing, and apparently it's pain free. “Thank you Moonshine.” She says. My daughter turns to me. “Dad, Storm, you had better get some food in you, I'm not healing you again.” Her and Fluttershy amble off. Apparently they are simply passing through. I look at Cloud Chaser. “Come on Cloud, I was hungry, now I'm starving.” I lead her into my workshop. As I close the door, she's only the second friend I've let into my space. I head down the corridor into the kitchen/living area. Cloud Kicker is wide eyed as she follows me. “You built all this yourself?” She asks in wonder. I smile at her as I pull out a large bale of hay. Nothing like good ole hay to start a meal. She falls to as I start pulling out some vegetables and fruits to round out the meal. “Yes, for the most part. The structure I used Earth to quarry and cut the blocks for building this. The steel was at first from the forge in Ponyville where most of you guys' horseshoes are made. Then once I got my own forge up and going, I'm fabricating that myself. It's taken a lot of effort, and days of hard channeling, but I'm getting it how I want it.” She looks up, a mouth full of hay. After a quick swallow. “And all these appliances?” She points at the fridge, the chest freezer, and the various other counter top appliances I have scattered throughout the kitchen. “Oh, I bought those.” This earns a befuddled look from her. “I don't know these brands, and I grew up in Canterlot, I've lived in Manehattan, I don't think I've seen these before.” I smile back as I'm cutting up a few apples and arranging them on a plate. “I bought them at home, they were delivered to one of my homes. And all I had to do was make a gateway, and bring them through. And install them. It would be kind of weird to have installers become ponies as soon as they stepped through the gateway. So I waited until they were gone before opening a gateway and bringing the appliances in. What can I say, I like my creature comforts.” She looks at the stainless steel appliances. The fridge is big enough for a pony to stand in, and I didn't shirk when it comes to everything else. “Are you rich?” She asks. “I guess you could say that Cloud. I've earned a lot of money in my world, in my travels I've gained not only knowledge, but the ability to earn some bits with some things I've developed. At home I'm known as an investor. I do try to stay out of the public eye there though. And nopony knows that my public persona has the abilities I have. Even those invaders haven't connected my public persona to me. Though when I got my powers back, I've been trying to get a bead on them, trying to figure out their funding, and how I can disrupt it. I'm still going to kill La Rouche for what he did here. But I'm no closer to finding their source than before I came to Equestria.” “So, you are trying to take the fight to them?” She asks. “Exactly, I don't want another pony to die because I'm here. I'll be quite happy to end the threat to Equestria without another drop of Equestrian blood being shed.” She thinks about it for a minute. “What about your teacher? Does he know anything?” Wow, I must have gotten talkative when I was drunk, I'll have to not get so drunk that often. “I went to his house in North Dakota, and apartments he keeps in Madrid and Cairo. Every one of them has the signs of being emptied in a hurry. I think he's on the run. And the trouble is, if an adept doesn't want to be found, it's almost impossible to find them, even for another adept.” “I hope he's okay.” She murmurs as she munches on an apple. “I do to Cloud. I really do.”