//------------------------------// // C.A.M.A: Day Forty Five // Story: Land of Equines // by Daddy Joe //------------------------------// C.A.M.A: Day Forty Five January 20th, 2013 There I was, in the Everfree Forest. I had just taken out one Timberwolf with the Iggy and was smashing the statue into tiny pieces with the sledgehammer. Suddenly, I was brought back to the real world from the ringing of a wind up alarm clock. I scanned my surroundings and Night Hunter was just getting up as well. "Morning, Night Hunter." I mumbled, groggily. "Morning, Caleb. Ready for the new unit?" Night Hunter asked. "You 'betcha. Last one, right?" I asked. "Indeed it is. You're nearly done with your training." he replied. "What day am I getting out again?" I asked. "If you pass this unit and the final exam, you'll be free to go on March 8th." Night Hunter replied. "Huh. I have to admit I'm actually going to miss spending time with you." I said. "Same with you too." Night Hunter agreed. "But all the studying, that I'd say sayonara to." I said. "Ha-ha. I guess doing nothing but studying can be a bit, uh, repetitive. I remember doing all that horseapple when I was doing the training program back in the day." Night Hunter related. "Pretty sucky, huh?" I said. "Definitely." Night Hunter said. "Welp, let's get up and get this over with." I said, raising upwards on my bed. After I got up headed into the bathroom, I tried to squeeze out some info on my final exam. Like before, Night Hunter was very secretive, but did reveal that the two-parter would be a dream sequence. I than headed downstairs for a quick breakfast and headed back up to the classroom with Night Hunter to begin the next unit. "Alright! Let's do this!" I said. "Like the enthusiasm. Okay, so today we'll be learning about the routes of the Everfree Forest. Mark that in your notebook." Night Hunter said. "Go on." I said once I finished writing. "Now that we're done with the introduction, let's pull these tables together. Three tables long and three tables wide." Night Hunter instructed. Night Hunter used his magic to drag the long, brown tables into a perfect row while I lifted them up like baby weights. "Dang, Caleb! Those table tops are one hundred pounds of pure marble." Night Hunter exclaimed. "These are? They feel like they weigh nothing." I said as I wriggled the table by curling my wrist. "Alright then, Able-body. You mind giving the old stallion a hoof and move the rest while I go get something you'll need?" Night Hunter asked. "Sure. Go ahead." I replied. Night Hunter proceeded to the side closet to get whatever he needed while I placed the tables in a neat, orderly fashion. Night Hunter came back with a large piece of paper that was rolled up like a scroll. "Now you'll see why we needed this much space." Night Hunter said, unfolding the large scroll into a flat map. The map spanned for about fifteen feet wide and eight feet long and depicted a large land mass with trees everywhere, labels and other markings I didn't recognize. "What is this?" I asked. "This is a map of the Everfree Forest. The reason why the map is so big is because it's meant to fit the real-time size." Night Hunter said. "How did you manage to get an accurate size and scale of the Everfree Forest like this?" I asked. "We had a pegasus fly up to about fifteen-thousand feet and snap an aerial picture of the forest." Night Hunter answered. "Fifteen-thousand? Isn't the oxygen or air pressure more thin up there?" I asked. "It is, but it doesn't affect the pegasi race." Night Hunter said. "I can see why, since they fly all the time." I said. "Right, right." Night Hunter said. "So what's the map for?" I asked, nudging my head towards it. "This is your fourth unit!" Night Hunter revealed. "Six weeks and four days for a map.... Isn't that a little excessive?" I asked, calmly. "Well, Caleb, if you would let me continue, the Everfree Forest is ten miles long and eight miles wide and you're not going to have time to look at a map while you're possibly being chased down by Timberwolves to figure out where the tartarus you're going. You see, this unit is meant to train the brain into memorizing the Everfree's path network until it has a clear mental image of it." Night Hunter explained. "I'm going to be studying this map for that long?" I asked in slightly louder tone. "Why are you raising your voice?" Night Hunter asked. "I- I just don't know if I can handle staring at a map for the rest of my time here as a form of studying." I said. "Well maybe this will change your point of view: You'll be studying this map and the other three units for your final exam. This map depends on whether you'll pass or not." Night Hunter said. "So until the twenty seventh of February?" I asked. "Yes. You see, part one of the final exam will be on the twenty seventh while part two will come the week after." Night Hunter said. "Ohhh, I see now." I said. "Good. However, I'm gonna help you and give some pointers on this map." Night Hunter said. "Alright, I'm ready." I said. "So just as a reminder, the Everfree Forest is approximately ten miles in length and eight miles in width." Night Hunter recapped. "Got it." I said. "See this long semi circle line at the bottom of the Everfree?" Night Hunter asked while tracing his hoof on the surface. I nodded in response. "This is the border that separates Ponyville from the Dovere territories. And the left one at the top of Dovere separates Dovere from the Hueyu territories while the one on the right is the Batchu territories. Remember that the Hueyu and the Batchu are off limits, but that might change for you later in the future." Night Hunter explained. "Okay." I said. "Now do you see these paths that intersect in between the center of the Dovere territories?" Night Hunter asked. "Yeah." I replied. "These are shortcuts created by C.A.M.A to get from one side of the forest to the to the other without going through the thick forestry. As you can see, there is only five that run through the Dovere, but none in the Hueyu and Batchu territories. Each path are two miles apart and one mile in length." Night Hunter said. "What about the paths in the Hueyu and the Batchu territories?" I asked. "Those I'd like you to study as well. You never know.... You could be granted access in those territories." Night Hunter said. "Oh, okay." I said. "And that's pretty much all you need to know." Night Hunter said. "That's it?" I asked, forgetting about the other units. "Have you forgotten already? You have other three units to study for the first part of your exam." Night Hunter reminded. "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. My mind slipped for a second." I said. "Ah, don't worry about it. Now all you have to do is organize your notes, flashcards and study for your first part of your exam." Night Hunter said. Night Hunter rolled the map back up into a cylinder shape and gave it to me to study. After I came back to the bunks, I organized my notes in chronological order and began to study for a little while. Later on that night, while me and Night Hunter were chillin out in the bunks, we heard the sound of the entrance door opening. Me and Night Hunter looked at each other. I poked my head out of the doorway while Night Hunter poked his head out from under my legs to see out into the hallway. Turns out it was just one the guards. "What are you doing in here?" Night Hunter asked the guard. "You guys should see this. Some sort of light show going on out in the distance." the guard responded at the end of the hallway. Me and Night Hunter raised our eyebrows in suspicion. "Let's go check it out." I said. Once we stepped outside of the wall, both me and Night Hunter heard a low humming sound, but it was very faint. Since the C.A.M.A training facility is not far from the edge of where the cliff drops off to the ground, we headed there to get a better look. We were baffled to discover that the light show was actually light blue flashes that could be barely seen in the southeast. When I saw those light blue flashes, I knew that this was the portal, the portal that brought me to Equestria. I didn't mention it to Night Hunter or the guards because I didn't want them questioning me and that kind of stuff. "Those flashes are coming from the volcanic regions. Dragon territory." Night Hunter said. "You think the dragons are up to something?" one guard asked. "I doubt it. It could be that Twilight Sparkle and her friends doing some experiment or whatever they usually do." another guard replied. "Maybe." I said. About ten minutes had gone by and the flashes had finally stopped. My guess was that the portal was dumping stuff from my world into this world, but that's just a guess. "Hey, guards, we're heading to bed. If those flashes appear again, let us know in the morning." Night Hunter said. "We will." one guard replied. With that, we headed off to bed for the night. If I ever find out if the portal dumped stuff from my world to here, than I think I might go check it out.