//------------------------------// // Walking around and training // Story: The Adventures Begin // by Dragon Shimmer //------------------------------// Sunset Shimmer has joined the team as a special member. After the conversation is over, they stand up. "Welcome to our team, Sunset," Matt greets gleefully Sunset rolls her eyes, "Thank you so much,"  "Now let's explore the town and look for a good training location for us," Matt suggests as the team nodded to agree. A brown-haired man with brown hair approaches them as they step out of the farmhouse. He was taken by surprise. the old man asks them, "Wow, where did you guy just appear from?"  Natalie answers, "Eh... We're not sure... Where are we?". "You are in a town. It doesn't have a name because it is the only town in this forest. The entrance to this forest is straight up from here, you guys look like you'd be headed there. Feel free to wander around the shop too, but you don't look like you have much money." The old man introduces his town. "Thank?.." He points at Sunset and asks, "Can I buy that horse? It will be good for farming." "No way, she's our teammate. Goodbye." She snaps off as the team walks away from the old man. "We just know where the forest is...How about we go left?" Her teammates are dumbfounded by this but still nod in agreement. To the left of the farm, they see a farming house with cows inside. They see a girl wearing cow cloth, so they decide to ask her where the inn is. She told them they had to go forward, turn left as they passed the park, and the inn was immediately ahead. While Sunset and the team walked through the park, many people around her started staring at her, some wishing they could possess her. Sunset feels annoyed by this, but she tries to overcome the stares. The team has finally reached the inn. Matt cheers, "We're here.". "Finally, I can rest, because I feel uncomfortable when everyone stares at me." Sunset sighs. Matt grins at her, "You're gonna get stared at by the inn owner, right?" "At least this one doesn't have many people staring at me." "Okay... Let us in" The team enters the inn. As the four enter, many people turn to face them. A random band of adventures isn't anything special, but a unicorn, here, a beast of myth, is. Many people stare at Sunset Shimmer, some cautiously, some with awe, and some just seem to want to pet the mare. All the looks made Sunset feel extremely uncomfortable as she tries to hide behind Natalie. As Matt starts to walk to the innkeeper, Lance grabs his shoulder. Firmly pulling Matt away, Lance ushered Matt to a nearby table, making him sit down in an empty chair. "Lance, what are you doing?" "Sorry Matt, but I remember that we have no money on us. I am thinking about how to get some money for them or maybe we can just set up the camp outside the jungle." Lance looks at Sunset. "Eh, you won't sell me for money, right?" Sunset fears when Lance does that "Don't be ridiculous, I'm not staring at you, I'm looking at your bag." "Oh," she looks at her saddlebag, "Right," and then she sets it down. "Ok let's look inside." Natalie says to herself as she searches the bag "Ok... The package has vegetables, potatoes, paper, a ring,... I won't find anything decent there. Well, except the ring." "How about that slack there?" Matt points to a small script, opens it, and sees many gold coins inside it that make him cover his eyes. "Wow, that's a lot of gold coins," Lance says as he turns his attention to Sunset. "That'll be a lot of money for us, you know? Do you think that's a good idea to carry something so valuable in your bag?" Well... I have no idea, they are just the currency of my country." Sunset says innocently as the others deadpan. "I don't know what to say about your country but... You just solved our money problem." "Thanks, as long as you don't sell me for money, I'm fine," "Don't be ridiculous," Matt laughs out loud and makes Sunset sigh. "Fine, let's get a room and rest" Matthew threw the saddlebag away after taking the small script. Sunset is going to blast him, but Matt uses magic to place the stuff in his dimension bag, which makes her surprised. Matt smirks and pays the money, then the team goes to their room to rest since it's dark outside. After two hours, when the team is sleeping except for Sunset, she cannot sleep because of the longing for her home. As she closes her eyes, she recalls every memory of Equestria. Matt is behind Sunset and says, "Can't sleep?" Make Sunset yelps. "Don't scare me like that." "I want to check if you're alright." "I'm fine" "Lie" "Fine, I am remembering my home ok?" Sunset explains. Matt giggles and pats her back. Sunset started wondering, "well, even if you stay here, you can stay with us."  "..... It seems strange that you trust me even though we have only just met." "... Well, that's my instinct though because I feel that I can trust you and believe that you will be a good teammate." "Now? You cannot trust anyone so quickly." "Meh, our decision is final," Matt answers with a laugh "Ok if you resist, but why did you hire this inn for just one day?" Matt points at the forest, "Because tomorrow we will train in the forest though, that will be a good way to train you fast plus don't embarrass you." Sunset gulps as she looks at the forest. She tries to teleport away from Matt, but he grabs her horn and wears it as a ring. He quickly lifts Sunset as Sunset tries to escape. "Let me go!" Matt insists, "I won't let you get away with this." Sunset finally gives up on his hold "Okay, but I'll escape when you sleep." So in that case," he says, bringing Sunset to the bed and putting Natalie's hand into his, as he helps her hug Sunset. Sunset sighs as she gives upon him. Sunset asks, "You know how to handle a new teammate, right?" "Maybe," as the duo starts to sleep now, Sunset is annoyed. The next morning, the team gets up and heads to the forest immediately after breakfast. So far, there are guards and practice areas. The team considers how to set up a camp without anyone knowing. It took the Team hours to track down a suitable and hidden location; far enough from the city, but worth hiding in. "Now let's start training Sunset. Here is the pole." Natalie hands Sunset the pole. "What should I do with this pole?" "Now, you begin walking with two back hooves," Natalie says, sunset sighs, and then stand with two back hooves supported by the pole. "That's the spirit. Now start walking towards here," Natalie encourages. Sunset starts walking but gets tripped. Natalie helps her up and supports her to sit on the stump. Natalie suggests she should sit like her to support the practice and tells her to start walking around the back hoofs in four hours, but she can rest in the middle. During Sunset's practice sessions, Lance and Matt guard the area to prevent anything bad from happening, but they still taunt her to chase them. After 4 hours of practice, Sunset's hooves begin to ache and she takes a break. Lance cheers, "That's a good start." "Thank you, now I think this is not impossible. I wonder, however, why I have to practice this kind of stuff. Don't you think it's weird?" Sunset asked in between breaths. "I thought it was weird at first because you are a quadruple alien." Lance said, making Sunset glared at him "But since this party is...quite abnormal, you can be weird too." Lance says between laughs. "But anyway, firstly I just joke about this training because it is against your nature. But after Matt tries to walk like a quadruple when you sleep and see what disadvantages this state has in battle. We see that the weakness of this type of walk is your back." Sunset's eyes widened after Lance's explanation. "Honestly, when you walk on quadruple, the enemy can ride you like a horse with your back. I am afraid you will be tamed and used as a horse by someone or a monster." Matt explains. "I...I don't know, you guys care about me even if I am new to your team? By the way, I'm offended when you call me a horse, but I'll take it. I'd rather not be an animal." Sunset smiles. Lance says, "Now, break time over." and puts on the magic inhibitor rings on Sunset's horn. "Hey," Sunset tries to protest but Lance shuts her mouth again. "Give up staying here and do more. If we discover that you are lazy, the gun is always at your disposal." Sunset grumbles when he warns her. "Fine," she says and drags her hooves to training. Sunset enjoys sleep after practicing all day, but she cannot sleep that night because her back hooves are aching all the time from practicing too much. She starts to doubt if this training is effective or not, but she tries to close her eyes for sleep. Lance and Natalie stare at each other and laugh at Sunset's action. Natalie casts the sleeping spell to make Sunset sleep peacefully and she starts writing. Lance notices Natalie writing something on paper. "Natalie, what are you writing?" "Well, I'm trying to remember what about magic I learned when I was in the church. I will use this theory for her body because I plan to examine Sunset's mana system later." Lance grins, "You wanna hug her, don't you?". "Maybe... But I will explain my knowledge of magic based on my experience when we went on adventures together and when I was still a priest in that church." "I see, we will give her training so she can support and protect us," Lance says. Natalie nods enthusiastically. Besides, she is one of our teammates too, so we will protect her." "Hmm..." Lance nodded. "Man, it will be hard to say goodbye to her when she finds a way home." Nataly pats Natalie on the back and says, "Yeah, but we will always have to remember her when she is gone. So, now that the drama is over, I'll see what her magic system is. Lance, can you draw her body?" He equips the scanner and begins sketching Sunset's body from various angles. When he is finished, he hands it to Natalie, who drops the paper on the ground. Natalie kneels and places the crystal staff on Sunset's forehead. Tying her mana to Sunset's body, she starts to analyze Sunset's mana system. When it had finished, she used the staff to transfer the system into the drawing. She grew tired and sat down to rest. Lance saw that and told her to go to sleep and they would see the mana system the next day. The next day Sunset continues to practice walking by the back hooves by the time Natalie analyzes her mana system. Natalia discovered that Sunset has no mana core, while her friends do, although Matt doesn't use magic much, just for magic inventory. Sunset encounters some bush monsters, but she easily kills them with her pole even though there is no blood on them. After four hours of training with the pole and four hours of training without the pole, she has started getting used to it and can now walk on two back hooves, but still slowly. Natalie told her to relax and prepare for the lesson tomorrow . "Hey, you should rest." Natalie waves her hand at Sunset. Sunset sits down and takes a break. "How is the training," Natalie asked Sunset smiles, "Now I'm barely walking by two back hooves.". "Good for you, now" Natalie grabbed the paper, which has Sunset's mana system, which surprises Sunset. "This is your mana system, I'm kind of jealous of it because it doesn't have a mana core." "What is mana core?" Sunset asked "Mana core is the place where mana is produced and processed, whenever you rest, cast a spell, etc..., etc..., mana is regen, or lead to the specified destination for casting the spell, ... whenever this mana core is destroyed, you can only cast one and two spells in your life." "Sounds like a blood vessel in our body, right?". "The point is, you do not have one. I'm not sure if your race is like that, but this may be an advantage since you can do everything without risk. However, it is also a disadvantage that you have to train to control mana flow more than a normal one." "What about the horn? I can cast spells using it, remember?" "The horn acts as a natural wand of your body, it helps the caster cast spells faster, but it seems you unicorns depend on it too much." Natalie thinks a little quietly. "You must meditate to feel your mana system." Sunset nods. "I see, you are a great mage." "It's nothing since you can use that spell," Natalie said, making Sunset's eyes widen. Sunset asks, "Teleport?" Natalie nods in agreement. "But that--" Sunset try to reply but is cut off by Matt when he comes to them "Hey, you talk about magic right?" Matt cheers "You know how rude it is when someone talks?" Sunset is annoyed by the golden-haired man. " Oh, I'm so sorry. You can cast a high-level spell, right? " "Eh.. teleport is a common spell in Equestria though." Sunset confused " It would be great if I had that spell," Matt said, while Sunset tilted his head at him. "Don't stare at me like that, Sunset. Think about it, when you get crushed by giants, you can teleport to his weakness and counterattack." Sunset's eyes widen as Matt reexamines the situation. "Besides your brain is fast and your body can blink many times at once, it is hard for your enemies to hit you." Matt continues. Sunset countered, "Bu-but I was taught that this was a harmless spell." "When used alone, it is harmless. But when combined with a powerful attack spell, it will be lethal. I think your teacher put the spell on peacefully, and not in battle, so I don't blame her." Sunset nods, "I see... Wait, I have to train now, see you later." " She will be a great mage," Natalie hopes. "I never imagined that I would teach pony magic, although it is good to recall theory." "Well, it makes me feel better to be a mad mage," Matt teases, earning a staff on his head and knocking him out. Natalie huffs and leaves. Sunset meditates after training. In the process of meditating, she feels the mana flowing around her. As more of it happens, the more she feels the need to control the mana inside her body, but she doesn't know how to. Moreover, she can feel the mana pool was blocked to the horn due to the ring. It has puzzled her how to cast a spell without a horn. As she lifts one of her front hoofs, she feels mana flowing to it; she releases it more, and - bonk! "Ouch," she whines as get hit in the head. "What have I done?" She glares at the trio and they point out that the tent was burned and some of the arias are still burning. Sunset smiles sleepy with an "oops" as the trio facepalms and shakes their heads. Soon the new tent was built fast and they finally got to sleep except for Sunset to have to meditate. Each of the members takes a turn to guard The next day, Sunset can run with two back hooves now, so Matt and Lance give her a bag of rock. They also give her a heavy cuff to wear on her back hooves for training. The other does the same thing. Natalia shows her how to shapeshift the mana and introduces all of the Elements of magic to her. Nodding, Sunset tried to produce a fireball, but she failed and tried again, failed, and tried again until she ran out of mana. Whenever her mana is fully recovered, she tries again. There are also monsters they have to deal with like Big Bees, Big Butterflies, Leaf Turtles, Slime, and Haunted trees. Sunset and others slay them quite hard, especially the turtle, who uses leaves on its back like a dart, causing a lot of pain. However, after Natalie's healing, they are all fine now. Sunset has learned some new spells, while others recover some skills they have been unable to use due to the draining. Training continues until the session is over. "Congratulations Sunset. You've passed the training." Lance cheers as others congratulate her. "Thanks, I couldn't have done it without you three," Sunset says with a blush. Natalie steps forward, "This is a gift for completing the training without quitting, I give it to you." She gives Sunset a black magic cape with a black mage hat with many yellow stars in it, and a wooden staff. "Now wear it." Sunset puts it on and looks around. "Thank you. I like it," Sunset says, as they cheer. Sunset asked, "So... what will we do now?" Matt says angrily, "We will go to avenge that demon who messed us up.". "I'll go with you, but let's get out of here first, okay?" Sunset asks as the trio nods. Now, they will embark on a quest to defeat the mighty demon to save the world. If their mind thinks so.