//------------------------------// // Chapter 45: Mmm, Much to Learn Young One // Story: Balance of the Mind and Body // by Swift Blaze //------------------------------// "Girls, I can explain," Blaze quickly said. "You’re going to explain why you have been lying to us?" Apple Bloom asked. Scootaloo asked, "Or how you decided to be a colt?" "What about messing with our feelings and pretending to be our friends?" Sweetie Belle asked. All three looked very upset about finding out that Blaze had been lying to them. He knew they deserved to know the truth after what they had been through. The green Earth pony told them and the others about how he got turned into a colt and how he can't change back until he gets a cure from Zecora. Blaze explained why he kept what happened to him a secret, as Cancer clearly showed why when he found out. When the colt finished, the Crusaders had a couple of tears come from their eyes. "I hope you forgive me for lying to you,” said Blaze. “I do want to be your friend, and will gladly still join the Cutie Mark Crusaders. If you still accept me that is." The fillies got into a huddle and discussed. When they came out of it, they nodded to each other. All of a sudden, all three jumped at the green Earth pony and tackled him to the ground. "Of course we forgive you," said the yellow filly. The white filly said, "We do want you to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders." "And we do want to be friends," the orange filly said. "As long as you come with us sometimes when we go crusading," Apple Bloom said. "Deal,” replied Blaze. “Maybe I will discover a third special talent and get another cutie mark." "Wait! Third? How did you get a second one? I still don't have one for me," Al said with an angry tone. "I was just as surprised as you are. I don't know if it will only appear on this form, or will I also have it on my others." "Now I need to work extra hard to get mine." The colt grabbed the side of his head as the headache returned after the adrenaline wore off. "Ugh, now if I can just get rid of this stupid headache, everything will be peachy. For some reason, I can’t heal it myself.” “Let me take a look,” Colorful Sparks said. His horn lit up and touched Blaze’s head. The blue stallion was then sent flying back. “I didn’t expect that. That isn’t a normal headache you’re feeling.” “Then what the hell is it!” “You are experiencing what Unicorns get when they don’t use magic for a long time. You have magical buildup, and it’s massive. I’d never felt that much magical energy in a pony before.” “How do I make it stop.” “You have to use magic.” Blaze just face hoof myself. He thought, ”Great, I have magical energy and I don’t know how to release it. Guess I’ll have to go see the only Unicorn that can possibly help.”  “Seeing I need to use magic, yet I don’t know-how. Guess I have to go see Twilight help me. I’m going on ahead, Al. You can lead the others to where she lives.” Before anyone could object, the colt teleported out of there and arrived in the library. Once there, the green Earth pony quickly looked for Twilight. He found her organizing a bookshelf. Before he could say anything, the purple Unicorn spoke first. “I know you’re there, Blaze. You are not going to scare me this time,” she said. “I see you’re becoming aware of your surroundings,” the colt replied. “No, I have a spell active that informs me when someone doesn’t use the front door as they should.” “Well, this is sorta an emergency. I need your help.” Twilight stopped what she was doing and walked over to where he was standing. “What’s wrong?” Blaze placed a hoof against his head as another wave of pain hit. “I thought I was just having a normal headache throughout the day. I just found out it is actually a magical buildup. I need your help in getting rid of it.” “It can’t be that bad. You’re still new to the magic. So, your magical font can’t be dangerous to you.” “My friend that determined I had this was sent flying from the recoil of it. I think it is bigger than you think.” “Let me take a look at myself. This will only take a sec.” “Just be careful so you don’t get sent flying back too.” The purple Unicorn activated her horn. She touched the colt’s head with it. The mare quickly pulled away. “That was close! How are you still standing? Any other Unicorn would be screaming out in pain or be knocked out by it.” “Don’t ask me. I just want the pain to go away.” “The only safe way is to teach you how to use magic. I’m going to have to give you a crash course in it. Spike, if anyone comes in, we are not to be disturbed.” “Will do!” said the little dragon. “Alright Blaze, the first step to use magic is to know where it is in your body. We’re going to dive into your mind to find your magical font. Are you ready?” “Come on in.” Twilight activated her horn and dove into Blaze’s head. Inside, he was in his human form in the empty white space. “Alright, we need to find where in your body your magic is being stored. I need you to close your eyes and look inside yourself for a small spark.” “Ok” He closed his eyes and began to search. The space around them was showing various things at hyper speed. The Unicorn couldn’t make out what she was seeing. It soon landed in an area where they were on a cliff looking over three bodies of water. The human opened his eyes to look at them. “Blaze, you sure this is where your magic spark is at? This nothing like us Unicorns have.” “I believe so. What does your font look like to you?” “It’s a beach next to a very large lake. I think the Princesses are about the size of a sea.” “Well, I felt for the spark, or something different, in my body and that led us here. If I have to take a guess, one of them is my ki source and the other is my chakra source.” "How come we’re looking at them from here?" "I wanted to verify which one is which. Don't want to go to one and have nothing happen. Give me a minute." Blaze started to build up his ki first. In the center of a lake, a vortex formed and began to draw the water up to the sky. When he stopped, the vortex went away too. He moved to build up chakra energy. This time, a vortex appeared on another lake. Then, one appeared in the clouds above, heading higher into the sky. The human released the energy and they disappeared. He looked at Twilight and she looked confused at what she saw. "Blaze, how come one lake showed a vortex, the other had one on it and on the clouds above?" "The first one is my ki source. I only need that for my ki abilities. The other one is my chakra source. It requires that and some of my spiritual energy to use them.  Too much of one or the other will affect how the jutsu reacts. It has to be the proper balance to make them work." "So I assume that the third body of water is your magic font." He nodded. Suddenly, Blaze got another wave of headache pain. The area around shook like an earthquake. They quickly back away from the edge as it started to fall apart. Once the pain subsided, so did the shaking. "Let's hurry before they get even worse." He said. The human moved them so they were now next to the magic source. Twilight quickly looked around and was impressed at what she saw. The body of water was bigger than she realized, she couldn’t see the other side of it. The mare turned to Blaze and asked, "I was expecting yours to be the size of an average Unicorn, which is a small lake. It now looks like you might have a bigger source. It isn’t as big as mine, but still very big for being new in the magical world. We need to work fast before another shakes this place up." The human nodded in agreement. "So what’s the next step, oh The Great, Wise, Twilight Sparkle?" he asked while bowing to her, stroking her ego. "Time for you to take a dip." The Unicorn then quickly shoved Blaze into the water. He jumped up and shouted. "BURRR! The water is icy cold!" "That’s because you haven’t found how to handle it. Magic is more of a feeling. If you’re nice to it and not force it, it will help you with what you are trying to do. By forcing it, you can create a backlash and it could lead to dire consequences." "So, I need to treat magic as a friend and ask for it to aid me when I need it. Was it necessary to push me in the water then?" "No, that was for all the times you scared or tricked me. Now, take in the magic into your heart and let it flow. Let it embrace your feelings. Magic like happy type feelings like joy, compassion, and love. The best emotion to use with magic is serenity. Do you feel it?" Blaze closed his eyes and started to focus on this. He had his hands down to his side in the water. The human soon felt the water was slowly traveling up the arms and headed to his chest where the heart is. The magical water started to warm up to him. He let it feel his emotions that Blaze has for this world. He could actually feel the magic embracing them. Twilight was watching this take place. She readies herself in case something went wrong. The world in the human’s mind was changing. The nearby trees and bushes sprouted beautiful flowers of every color and style. Some of them were even the colors of the rainbow. Twilight was happy that he was taking this well. --------Out in the Real World-------- "Come on Spike. We want to check on Blaze to see how he is doing," Al said. "Twilight told me to not let any creature in while she is helping him get his magic under control,” replied the little dragon. “I’m sorry, but you have to wait out here." There was then a loud crash within the Library. Everyone outside feared the worst. The human grabbed Spike and picked him up. The purple dragon thrashed out a bit and blew some fire at him.  "I’m sorry for this Spike, but we cannot wait any longer," said Al. Lightning Trails went to the door and quickly opened it. When he stepped inside, the Pegasus got hit by several books. He jumped back outside to avoid any more hits. "What happened?" Colorful Sparks asked. "I got bombarded by several books. I think they were thick ones," the black stallion replied as he rubbed the side of his head where he got hit. The others looked through the opened doorway and saw what’s going on. Twilight's horn was still glowing it’s a light purple color. The odd thing now was Blaze’s whole body was glowing yellow. The objects around the room had the same color around them. Both of them were in the center of the room, so none of the objects were getting near them. Spike free himself and quickly closed the door. “Now you see why Twilight said she didn’t want to be disturb here,” he said. “She was worried they would get hurt while she tried to get Blaze’s magic under control.” “We’re sorry for trying to barge in,” replied Colorful Sparks. “It was just the amount of pain I felt when I scanned him was nothing I never experienced. We’re all hoping he is doing fine.” “He’s with Twilight Sparkle. Her special talent is magic,” Sweetie Belle said. “We don’t know another pony, besides the princesses, that knows so much,” Apple Bloom said. “If anyone can help Blaze, it is her,” Scootaloo said. “That’s right.” the dragon said. “One thing I’m wondering though, who are these other ponies? I know Al, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom. I don’t know the rest of you, nor how you know Blaze?” “They are the other ponies Blaze and I trained with while in Canterlot,” Al said. “Let me introduce you to Star Dust, Lightning Trails, Colorful Sparks, Cancer, Fang, and Dragon.” He pointed to each one as he said their name. “Nice to meet you all. Though, I have one question, why’s your name after my species?” Spike asked Dragon. “My brother and I were named after the constellations. They were glowing the brightest when we were born. So, our parents decided to name us after them,” Dragon replied. “Plus, when they called for him, the townsfolk thought an actual dragon was coming into our village for a while,” Cancer said. “I recently met another Zebra recently. Although, she doesn’t talk the same way you do. She talks in rhymes” said the purple dragon. “You must have met a Shaman,” replied Fang. “They are priests who practice in magic and other things. They talk that way as most of the spells they use rhyme too.” “Yeah, she’s currently working on gathering the ingredients to cure Blaze of the Poison Joke. It’s very funny what that plant does to those who get infected.” “Would you mind telling us her name and where she lives?” asked the white Zebra with red stripes. “We just would like to know as there are not many Zebras in Equestria.” “Her name is Zecora. She lives in a hut in the EverFree Forest. I still don’t know why she wants to live in that dangerous place.” The Zebra siblings were shocked when they heard that name. They recognized it from their hometown. They don’t know if she would recognize them after all these years. -----Back in Blaze’s Mind------- “You’re doing good, Blaze,” said Twilight. “Now I need you to slowly let go of the magic. Let it flow back into your font. That’s it.” The human followed her instructions and let the magical energy leave on its own free will back out of his body. Once it was all gone, he opened his eyes and saw what his mind created. “Did I imagine all this from my emotions?” he asked. “You did, Blaze. You really do have a big heart and care about everything around you. I think this is more beautiful than Canterlot Gardens.” “It’s very close, depending on the pony’s perspective. I think the headaches have stopped.” “That’s good. Now let’s head back and see what you did to my library,” the mare said with a sigh. “Sure thing. Wait, what do you mean?” “You’ll see.” They left Blaze’s mind and returned to the real world. The colt looked around and saw all the books and everything else was scattered out on the floor. “What happened here? This isn’t how I saw it when I arrived.” “You happened. When you tapped into your magic, it was not focused on a task. So you pretty much picked everything up and it was spinning around us. That’s why I asked Spike for no disruptions as they would have been hit by them.” Just then, the front door opened slowly. “Is it safe to come in now? We heard all the books dropping to the floor,” Spike said from behind the door. “We? Who else is out there with you?” Twilight asked. The little dragon finished opening the door and let everyone standing out there to come inside. They all carefully walked in, making sure not to step on anything, besides the floor. “Hey Blaze, you feeling better now?” Star Dust asked. “Al, who are all these ponies and how do they Blaze?” the purple Unicorn asked, looking more confused. “These are the other ponies we trained within Canterlot. They arrived this morning to temporarily be placed at the Royal Guard post here,” Al said. He went down the line again and introduced them. Once introductions were done, Twilight said, “Well, it’s nice to meet the other ponies and Zebras that trained with Blaze and Al. I’m sorry you had to wait outside while I helped Blaze.” “We saw the reason why,” Fang said. “And felt it,” Lightning Trails said as he rubbed the sore spot on his head. Twilight looked at all the books lying on the ground with a sad face. “Well, the good news is Blaze doesn’t have a magic build-up anymore. Bad news for me is I’m going to be up all night organizing all these books, again.” The green Earth pony placed a hoof onto Twilight’s shoulder. “Allow me to help you, seeing I caused this mess,” he said. “I know in your human form, you were able to quickly put back some of the books that gathered on the floor. This is the ENTIRE library. There’s no reference to where everything was next to. I’ve been meaning to label the shelves, it’s just some projects that have been keeping me busy. How are you going to put them back while stuck as a colt?” “With magic.” “You can’t use magic! You haven’t gotten any training in the incantations and focusing your magic. You can really hurt yourself!” “She’s right Blaze. You need proper training in the basics before you try something like this.” Colorful Sparks said. The colt replied, “I had lifted all of this with no focus while I was discovering my magical font. I think I have a way. Please trust me and stand back.” “I’ll be at the ready to stop you if it becomes too much for you,” Twilight said. Blaze nodded. As he moved to the center of the room, the purple mare joined him while the others back into the entryway. The colt stood on his hind legs and closed his eyes. He raised his forehooves in front of him. The green Earth pony repeated the process of how to access his magic.  Blaze opened his eyes and saw the hooves were glowing the same yellow as before. He focused on the books and asked the magic to help him guide them back to where they belong in the library. It started slowly. About a minute later, a book glowed the same color as his hooves. It slowly floated into the air and moved around the space. But it soon found its place on the shelves. Soon, more books follow, increasing in numbers. Twilight whispered into his ear, “Blaze, how are you able to do this so soon and know exactly where these books are to go?” “The control part is similar to chakra. When I use it to hold myself to walls and ceilings or be able to walk on top of the water,” replied the colt, while staying focused. “With magic though, it feels like actual arms are extending out and picking up the books. As to how I know where they’re to go, I don’t know. I’m actually letting the books guide my magic back to where they are supposed to be. “You are very skillful and creative in some of the things you do. Not thinking the normal way to solve a problem, but to find a way with what you have access to.” “It’s the Macgyver principle, to think out of the box and use what you have access to complete your objective.” Al started to laugh. While laughing, he said, “So true!” “Who’s this Macgyver?” asked Twilight, while sounding very interested in this character. “I never heard of that pony. Can you show me some of his work? I would like to understand more of his principle to see if I can apply it to some of my research.” Blaze had to keep his focus as I placed the last book on the shelf. He wanted to laugh so hard right now. The colt’s face was hurting from trying to hold it in. Once his magic was done with placing the books, he fell onto his back and laughed out loud. Al was banging on the wall the entire time while laughing. The other ponies and the little dragon in the room were all wondering why they were the only ones laughing. “What’s so funny, Blaze? Did you make up that name?” Lightning Trails asked. The green Earth pony pulled himself together so he can do my best to answer. While laughing a bit, he replied, “I didn’t make him up, but he’s a fictional character from our world. Oh, you should hear about some of the things he did with everyday items he used to get himself out of a jam.” “Seeing you got levitation down, somewhat, we can get on to the next part of magic, barriers,” Twilight said. “Would love to Twi, but I’m still a colt and I have homework from Miss. Cheerilee.” “Oh no you don’t!” The purple Unicorn quickly placed him in a magic bubble barrier. “You have been dodging me all week. How am I supposed to teach you magic, like Princess Celestia requested if you’re not here?” The colt replied, “One, she didn’t set a deadline for you. Two, that was before I got poisoned and turned into an Earth pony colt. While I’m stuck like this, I plan to have fun. Crusaders, I’ll see you at Sweet Apple Acres. For the rest of you, I’ll be home later tonight so we can catch up.” “I don’t see how you’re going anywhere while you’re in there. I got this from my brother last year. It’s his most powerful barrier.” “Really, guess he hasn’t told you I already busted out of one of these already. But, I’m not going to do that here. Don’t want to destroy your place. So I’m going to do this, Ninja Art! Teleport!” Blaze filled the bubble space with smoke. Once it dissipated, the colt was no longer there. Twilight quickly looks over the barrier for any signs of stress. “How in Equestria can he do that, no pony should be able to escape from this,” she said. “Remember,” said Al, “he’s actually a human that is currently stuck in a colt body,” Al said. The purple Unicorn was getting very furious by now. “I’m going to Sweet Apple Acres and see if Applejack can help me tie him up so I can teach him. Spike, you’re in charge of the Library!” Twilight stopped the magic to the bubble barrier Blaze was last seen in. The mare left and slammed the door behind her. “I don’t want to be Blaze right now. It’s never good when Twilight is determined to complete an assignment from Princess Celestia, and he’s delaying it,” said the little dragon.